My father claimed to suffer from “selective deafness.” He only heard what he chose to hear. Judah had a similar problem, with catastrophic results. Listening to the wrong counselors resulted in a wound that Jeremiah says was “as deep as the sea” (v. 13). The opening statement of verse 13, sounds like the supporting testimony of a sympathetic witness. It seems to answer an earlier question raised by Daughter Zion in Lamentations 1:12 when she asked: “Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the LORD brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?”

In verse 15, Jeremiah describes the shock, dismay, and even contempt that the suffering of Jerusalem had elicited from her neighbors. They shook their heads, some in pity and others in scorn, while quoting what was once said about her. Jerusalem had once been called “the perfection of beauty” and “the joy of the whole earth” (see Ps. 48:2; 50:2; Ezek. 16:14). Now she was in ruins. Jeremiah compares Jerusalem’s enemies to a predatory beast (vv. 16–17). God’s people had listened to the wrong voices. Instead of paying attention to the Lord’s messengers who had warned of the consequences of disobedience, they chose to believe prophets whose visions were worthless: “They did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The prophecies they gave you were false and misleading” (v. 14).

Jerusalem listened to what she wanted to hear, rather than paying attention to the uncomfortable truth that exposed her sin. God’s people preferred false messengers who put a positive spin on their circumstances, those who promised that God would not allow the city to fall (Jeremiah 28).