The teaching of national retribution in chapter 16 and other passages seems to have raised doubts as to the justice of God’s dealings with individuals (18:2, 29). This is the subject of chapter 18. Chapter 19 is a lament.

1. Two fundamental principal are stated in 18:4 in answer to the people’s
   Complaint in 18:2. How would you express these in your own words?
   What Verses in the New Testament can you think of which emphasize the same ideas?

2. In the remainder of chapter 18 two questions are answered:
   (a) Is each man Responsible to God for his own acts, and for these alone (see verses 5-20)?
   (b) If a man turns form his past way of life, will that past affect God’s judgment upon him (see verses 21-29)? How does this teaching reveal not only God’s justice, but also his mercy?
   Why dose it lead on immediately to the call to repentance of verses 30-32?
3. Chapter 19 is a lament over three of the kings of Judah. Try to identify these by comparing verses 3 and 4 with 2 Kgs. 23:31-34; verses 5-9 with 2Kgs. 24:8-15; and verses 10-14 with 2 Kgs. 25:4-11. What did they all have in common?

Notes

1. 18:6, 11, 15. ‘East at the mountain shrines’: i.e., join in idolatrous forms of worship. Cf. 6:1-4.
2. 19:14. The fire which brought destruction sprang from the ruler himself, i.e., Zedekiah. See 17:19-21.