“To pluck up and to pull down; to build and to plant”

Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah

BRIAN R. GUMM1

In the opening to the Book of Jeremiah we find what is commonly referred to as the prophet's

“call narrative,” or the story which describes the prophet's initiation into that new vocation or office of

prophet. This is a motif across Scripture for the commissioning of prophetic figures, from Moses to

Jesus, and perhaps even Paul. In the case of Jeremiah, we are given right away that he is a priest (1:1)

and that the word of the Lord came to him starting “in the days of King Josiah” and kept coming to him

until the forced end of Zedekiah's reign in 587 BCE at the hands of the Babylonians. But in this call

narrative we hear Jeremiah himself 2 recounting how the word of the Lord initially came to him. Among

the details of this story which Jeremiah is recounting, in v. 10 we find the following word from the

Lord to his prophet: “See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull

down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” 3

This appointment of Jeremiah to be “over nations and kingdoms” is striking. While it doesn't

constitute the focus of this paper, it is worth noting that in a sense, this first bit of 1:10 is seen to be true

as the narrative unfolds across Jeremiah. So while Jeremiah himself is in no temporal sense “over

nations and kingdoms” before or after his calling to the prophetic office, he is the spokesperson for

Yahweh, who most certainly is over nations and kingdoms. This perhaps becomes clearer if we proceed

to vv. 11 & 12, when Jeremiah is told to notice what he's looking at, an almond tree. In a bit of Hebrew

word play on “tree” and “watching over”, God says “You have seen well, for I am watching over my

word to perform it.” So Jeremiah will be the faithful messenger and interpreter for the events that

1 Brian R. Gumm is a dual-degree student at Eastern Mennonite University's Seminary (Mdiv) and Center for Justice and
Peacebuilding (MA, Conflict Transformation), and a licensed minister in the Church of the Brethren. This paper was
originally submitted for the class, “Jeremiah,” with James Engle, professor of Old Testament, Eastern Mennonite
Seminary, May 27, 2011.
2 This section is often attributed to later editorializing by redactors, by whom Brueggemann often refers to as the
“Jeremiah tradition.” Duly (foot)noted but for clarity's sake in the main paper I'll continue to speak of “Jeremiah.” Cf.
Walter Brueggemann. A Commentary on Jeremiah : Exile and Homecoming. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998, 12.
3 All Scripture references are from NRSV unless otherwise noted.
Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 2

Yahweh has a hand in, unfolding over the course of Jeremiah's career. But this is not to suggest that

Jeremiah himself had no influence on those in power around him. Indeed, the Judean kings consult him

and insult him, ask for his advice and then promptly ignore it. Conversely, at least one of

Nebuchadnezzar's captains is reported to have had knowledge and high regard for the prophet and the

message he was speaking, allowing him to stay in fallen Judah (cf. 40:2-5).

The verbs under the microscope

Turning now to the six verbs in 1:10 – “to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to

build and to plant” – which will be the focus of this paper, it's important to note the tone and number of

these six verbs. In terms of positive and negative connotation, they are not evenly distributed; four are

negative, two are positive. Numerous commentators point out that this distribution is no accident.

Brueggemann says that “(i)t may be suggested that this range of six verbs provides the essential shape

of the book of Jeremiah in its present form.” 4 The second set of negative verbs – “to destroy and to

overthrow” – are not used in quite the same way as the other four throughout the rest of the Jeremiah,

so I won't have much more to say about them other than that destruction and overthrow are highly

resonant narrative themes. The other four are used in a more metaphorical sense and so we'll follow

those on past 1:10.

In a literary sense, the four verbs from 1:10 most commonly employed throughout the rest of

the book – “to pluck up and pull down”/”to build and to plant” – are making use of rhetorical devices in

Hebrew. The former, negative set in Hebrew – natash/nathats – contain elements of alliteration

(repeating “na”) and consonance (repeating “t”/“th”). The NRSV should be commended for its use of

4 Brueggemann, 25. Cf. also Peter C. Craigie, Page H. Kelley, and Joel F. Drinkard Jr. Jeremiah 1-25. Edited by David A.
Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker, Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas, Tex.: Word Books, 1991, 11; and Patrick D. Miller.
“The Book of Jeremiah: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections.” The New Interpreter's Bible : General Articles &
Introduction, Commentary, & Reflections for Each Book of the Bible, Including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical
Books. Vol. VI. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001, 583; and J. A. Thompson. The Book of Jeremiah, New International
Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980, 151.
Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 3

alliteration in their translation, something the NIV misses when it uses “to uproot and to tear down.”

(Although that translation and others maintain the “up”/“down” nature of the two, another rhetorical

device.) The latter, positive set in Hebrew – banah/nata' – makes use of assonance, repeating the “ah”

sound at the end of the words, something most English translations miss except Peterson's The

Message, which gets away with assonance by using the present participle tense, “building”/“planting.”

Another way to distinguish the four verbs that are most commonly employed throughout the

rest of the book is to see that one positive/negative set is a metaphor from the building trade, whereas

the other is horticultural in nature. 5 They would then be paired in this way: “to pull down”/”to build”

and “to pluck up (uproot)”/”to plant.” This is a distinction we will return to below while analyzing uses

of these verbs later in Jeremiah.

The verbs in context

In this section I will focus on a few chronological instances from across Jeremiah in which the four

thematic verbs are used. Now that we know their literary and metaphorical basis, we can see more

clearly how they are put to use in the narrative flow of Jeremiah. We will see that, like the oracles from

the Lord, their use is highly contingent upon intended audience and historical, geographical, and

sociopolitical context. The theological import of their use also flows with these factors.

“I am the potter, you are the...” (ch. 18). This chapter falls in the section of Jeremiah where there are a

series of general oracles against Judah, its capital city, and its leaders. Though there are no obvious

historical cues around or in this chapter, the tone of the oracles and the consequences for unfaithfulness

they predict seem to indicate a pre-598 date, prior to the first wave of exiles being carried off to

5 Gunther H. Wittenberg. "'...To Build and to Plant' (Jer. 1:10): The Message of Jeremiah as a Source of Hope for the
Exilic Community and Its Relevance for Community Building in South Africa." Journal of Theology for Southern
Africa, no. 112 (2002): 58.
Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 4

Babylon along with Jehoiachin. If that's right, we may be in the latter days of Josiah's reign (641-609

BCE) or that of Jehoahaz (609). If we are in the days of the former, then this oracle of judgment in ch.

18 would perhaps nuance our understanding of just how far Josiah's religious reforms went in the land,

even in the city of Jerusalem (cf. 2 Kgs 22). Apparently there is enough unfaithfulness in these days

that the Lord speaks to Jeremiah.

The prophet is told in v. 1 to go to the potter's house and watch the craftsman at work, which

Jeremiah does. In v. 4 the piece the potter is working becomes spoiled and he immediately starts

reshaping it into another, new piece of work. God asks, “Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just

as this potter has done?” (v. 6). The Lord then moves into careful reflection on just how this covenantal

relationship works, making use of our verbs in question. Verses 7-10 may be outline like so:

• At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom,

◦ that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,
◦ but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil,
▪ I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.
• And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom
◦ that I will build and plant it,6
◦ but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice,
▪ then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.

While this oracle uses the general “a nation or a kingdom,” and while God does indeed care about what

any and all nations are up to, it is clear from v. 6 and the entire OT that Israel is “that nation” with

whom God is primarily concerned. The point of this oracle, though, is to show the two-way street of

God's declarations of both condemnation and restoration upon the nation. Contrary to any wooden

predeterminism in God's heart, this text shows that if a condemned people turn from evil, then God will

relent in bringing about disaster. 7 But the reverse is also true. If the blessed-for-blessing people turn

obstinate, or as Thompson states, “assumed that Yahweh would bless Israel automatically,” 8 then the
6 Craigie et al note the assonance in this line, which we discussed in a more general sense in section one.Peter C. Craigie,
Page H. Kelley, and Joel F. Drinkard Jr. Jeremiah 1-25. Edited by David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker, Word
Biblical Commentary. Dallas, Tex.: Word Books, 1991, 244.
7 For a non-Israel example of this, cf. Job and Assyrian Nineveh.
8 Thompson, Jeremiah, 435.
Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 5

blessing will be removed, and that seems to be where the weight of this oracle to Judah is falling.

At this point in Judah's history, they seem to be in the shaky ground between those conditions,

although leaning more toward the obstinate/unfaithful end of the spectrum. Yes, Josiah's reforms

restored right worship in the temple but there is clearly more work to do to restore faithfulness in

Judah. To import a phrase from Jeremiah's rough contemporary, Isaiah, “(God's) hand is outstretched

still.” Three of the four negative verbs from 1:10 appear here in v. 7, perhaps gauging the dire nature of

Judah's circumstances. These metaphors are given more concrete expression later in v. 21 in the oft-

uttered sentence of the people to “sword, famine, and pestilence” (SFP). 9

“But seek the welfare of the city...” (ch. 29). The circumstances for Judah in ch. 29 have shifted

significantly from our last passage. In 598 BCE, king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon carried off the upper

crust citizenry of Jerusalem into exile, including Judah's king, Jehoiachin. Still in Jerusalem, Jeremiah

writes a letter to the exiles telling them that, contrary to popular opinion, their stay in Babylon would

be long, more than a single generation. Therefore, the word of the Lord that Jeremiah offers to them...

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and
have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage,
that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the
welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf,
for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (vv. 5-7)

Notice here that the explicit positive verbs from 1:10 are now put into “operative” concrete service. 10

They no longer express God's restorative intent for a faithful people at some future time, but rather

represent a realistic commandment to embody the work-a-day life here and now in a way these exiles

probably were not expecting to hear, much less wanting to hear. Their heart's desire would be

immediate return to Judah. Our positive architectural and horticultural metaphors become literal as the

exiled Judeans are called to imagine and practice an earthy faithfulness off of the piece of earth they
9 I'm indebted to my professor, Jim Engle, for this gem.
10 Brueggemann, Jeremiah, 218.
Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 6

had known in Judah, in the land that is not their land.

It is also important to note here the audience hearing this letter. No longer are Judeans self-

contained on the land within Judah. There are now two communities, one in Judah and this group of

exiles to whom Jeremiah is writing. There are also theological differences between these two groups, as

v. 17 later makes clear when referring to those still in Judah – including the new king Zedekiah – as

“bad figs,” a metaphor set up in to ch. 24. This charge of “bad fig” is uttered with a double shot of the

SFP sentence for Judah, emphasizing that those in the exile community are, as Brueggemann states,

“the ones who count for the future.”11

“Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey...” (ch. 42 & 43). In these final chapters which

we'll examine, circumstances for Judah have shifted yet more dramatically. Jerusalem has fallen, being

plundered and burned by Nebuchadnezzar's forces in 587 BCE. Zedekiah has been deposed and

monarchy in all of the house of Israel has ended. The king's sons have been murdered before his eyes,

which are then put out before being marched off to Babylon where he would die. As previously

mentioned, Jeremiah is spared exile and is entrusted into the care of the Babylonian-appointed

governor, Gedaliah. Amidst the post-kingdom political chaos and intrigue, Gedeliah is killed, and what

few remain in Judah are scrambling for leadership and direction. Johanan emerges as their leader.

At the outset of ch. 42 we see the entire remnant in Judah, “from the least to the greatest” (v. 1),

approach Jeremiah for direction from the Lord on “where we should go and what we should do” (v. 3).

The prophet agrees to pray for counsel and report back. What follows is an uncharacteristically heart-

felt commitment from the remnant to obey, regardless if the word from the Lord is “favorable or

unfavorable” to their ears (v. 6). After ten days, the word of the Lord does indeed come to the prophet,

which he then reports to the remnant:

11 Brueggemann, Jeremiah, 256.

Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 7

If you will only remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I
will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I am sorry for the disaster that I have brought
upon you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, as you have been; do not be afraid of
him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to rescue you from his hand. I
will grant you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and restore you to your native soil.
(vv. 10-12)

Four metaphors from 1:10 are now being employed in an entirely positive sense for this remnant, and

this offer is being given on the very promised land itself. In spite of the recent collapse of the

governmental order that held it together for over four-hundred years, God is again commanding

faithfulness in earthy, immediate ways.

Keep in mind that this remnant is all that is left in Judah, who had previously been referred to as

“bad figs” in chs. 24 & 29. Now all of a sudden they're being offered the same kind of restoration that

the “good figs” had been promised at various points. Is God split-minded? No, rather this is completely

consistent with the first text we examined from ch. 18, where God is attentive to the attitude and

response of those bound by the covenantal relationship. As Thompson notes, “(t)his remnant, like the

one in Babylon, was being offered the same promise of renewal and restoration.” 12 True, those

remaining in Judah had remained obstinate and were subjected to SFP. But now God's heart is grieved

by the pain inflicted on these rebellious people and is offering them grace, if they would only obey this

command to stay in the land of Judah and be not afraid of Babylon. Of course the other side of this

offer, should they refuse: continued SFP (emphasized three times in vv. 16-22).

Note then the swift response of the people in the opening verses of ch. 43. “You are telling a

lie!” (v. 2). How quickly these people have gone back on their word from ten days earlier, to obey

whether favorable or not! From here, the narrative goes south (so to speak). The remnant continues

their rebellion against the Lord, goes to Egypt dragging Jeremiah and Baruch along the way, there they

engage in further idolatry. In Egypt, Jeremiah enacts a few prophecies to the Judeans that amount to the

message of “You can run, but you can't hide from Yahweh,” and that is the last we hear from him. The
12 Thompson, Jeremiah, 665.
Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 8

closing verses of the book of Jeremiah in ch. 52 shifts our focus back to the exiles in Babylon, and

we're told that after Nebuchadnezzar's reign, former Judean king, Jehoiachin, is released from prison

and sits in the new Babylonian king's presence for the remainder of his life. This seems to put on an

“up” note on the end of Jeremiah's story in this book, a story that will be carried on in other books.

Synthesis & Conclusion

Through our literary, metaphorical, and narrative exploration of what it means in Jeremiah “to pluck up

and to pull down...to build and to plant,” we have seen that God's declarations of judgment and

restoration, and calls to repentance and faithfulness, are first of all contextual and relational. History

matters as well as the attitudes and responses of the people with whom God is working at those

moments in history. Next, we also see that both judgment and restoration are enacted in very concrete

and sometimes immediate ways. In Jeremiah, SFP is the natural consequence of brazen rebellion and

unfaithfulness to the Lord, just as building and planting – expressions of shalom – are the natural

“consequences” to repentance and faithfulness to the covenant with the Lord. God lays out plans in

advance, plans for goodness, but is always with us to guide and correct in our flawed freedom to

respond.

For Christians today, this means that we must not interiorize/individualize and cast out into

some far-off abstract future notion of either judgment or salvation. Western Christians have a

propensity to do just that, to our peril. Such a move waters down our discipleship and faithfulness in

the work-a-day life of a Christian. If we ignore present judgment, we resist correction and become

brazen and arrogant as Judah was. If we ignore present salvation, we resist being realistic about serving

our neighbors and loving our enemies, and “peace” becomes a cute word or symbol you can print on t-

shirts to sell. Cries of injustice fall on deaf Christian ears as they fell on deaf Judean kings' ears. This

must not be so, and the word of the Lord to Jeremiah shows us this in vivid narrative-theological detail.
Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 9

To close on a note of “building and planting,” I commend Wittenberg's article on this theme and

how he relates it to post-Apartheid South Africa. His interlocutors in biblical studies go the all-too-

common route of Western Christianity and cast these earthy metaphors into an abstract eschatological

future, and he's resisting that move for good reason. Though Apartheid ended in 1994 and the work of

the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded in the late 90s, a nation cannot heal in a few short

years. When assessing the problem of “informal settlements around our cities,” Wittenberg observed a

fundamental, present-day disconnect between what the Lord's prophetic metaphors hold together:

building and planting, saying that "(i)n all projects dealing with the essential need for housing the close

link between building and planting, which was an essential element of the future hope of the exilic

community, is seldom considered." 13

Wittenberg then goes on to describe a community building project that started out as a Bible

study group for women that also offered organic gardening classes, but took off from there to address

the more systemic problems that were creating the conditions for the poverty, homelessness, and

substance abuse that were rife in the community they were serving. I have similar dreams for

congregation-centered community peacebuilding initiatives that flow theologically from engagement

with Scripture such as we find in Jeremiah, especially ch. 29. For a Christian, this is no far-off dream to

savor in the imagination while your neighbor starves and is crushed by a system fundamentally geared

toward something other than God's glory. Our exploration here of building and planting, plucking up

and pulling down, is a call to repentance and faithfulness in earthy, concrete ways that build up the

body of Christ and actively seek the peace of the cities (or countrysides) to which we've been sent as

disciples. Seeds planted in faithfulness are nourished by that “spring of living water” (2:13), the Lord

of life abundant. May we have ears to hear and eyes to see such discipleship enacted.

13 Wittenberg, "'...To Build and to Plant' (Jer. 1:10): The Message of Jeremiah as a Source of Hope for the Exilic
Community and Its Relevance for Community Building in South Africa,” 64.
Gumm : Earthy discipleship and peacebuilding in Jeremiah 10

Bibliography
Brueggemann, Walter. A Commentary on Jeremiah : Exile and Homecoming. Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 1998.
Craigie, Peter C., Page H. Kelley, and Joel F. Drinkard Jr. Jeremiah 1-25. Edited by David A. Hubbard
and Glenn W. Barker, Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas, Tex.: Word Books, 1991.
Keown, Gerald D., Pamela J. Scalise, and Thomas G. Smothers. Jeremiah 26-52. Edited by David A.
Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker, Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas, Tex.: Word Books, 1991.
Martens, Elmer A. Jeremiah, Believers Church Bible Commentary. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1986.
Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections.” The New
Interpreter's Bible : General Articles & Introduction, Commentary, & Reflections for Each
Book of the Bible, Including the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books. Vol. VI. Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 2001.
Thompson, J. A. The Book of Jeremiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980.
Wittenberg, Gunther H. "'...To Build and to Plant' (Jer. 1:10): The Message of Jeremiah as a Source of
Hope for the Exilic Community and Its Relevance for Community Building in South Africa."
Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, no. 112 (2002): 57-67.