Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Religious Tolerance
In the contemporary United State of America, people usually accept that there will be a wide variety of different religions. In the U.S., you're allowed to worship one God, many gods, no god, or just not care. But occasionally, people will "bring da ruckus," like when protesters disrupted a Hindu priest's invocation in Congress in 2007. So questions of tolerance and religious pluralism (the acceptance of many religions) still come up a lot.
In Jeremiah, pluralism isn't really an issue. The Judeans need to either worship God or take a hike… all the way to Babylon. In the oracles "against the nations," God really enjoys defeating the gods of other countries, like the Egyptian bull-god Apis, and the Moabite god Chemosh. He pretty much asks them to bring it on.
The Book of Jeremiah is still relevant to contemporary religious debate in America since many people believe in the literal truth of the whole Bible, including Jeremiah. So when Jeremiah compares worshipping other gods to prostitution and adultery, it's bound to inspire some believers to take a skeptical position towards pluralism. Harlot of Babylon, for example.
The Role of Women
The Book of Jeremiah is full of controversial depictions of women, particularly when God compares Judah to an unfaithful wife in Chapter 3, condemning her cheating on him with different gods. Judah's also compared to a sexually aroused female camel or wild-ass, running around looking for her latest lover (2:23-24). Are women really that controlled by lust?
The text is probably most offensive when God says to Judah in verse 13:22, "And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these things come upon me?' it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up, and you are violated." Quite clearly, God is saying that he is punishing Judah for its sins by letting Babylon sexually assault her—an awful metaphor in the eyes of a contemporary readers. In a way, the passage acknowledges that this is something horrible, but it still says that God gave it permission to happen. It's tough language for the modern ear to hear.
So what's up with all this? Jeremiah, as a character, doesn't exactly have very sympathetic views towards women, and that's probably an understatement. This is definitely one of those moments where the Bible starts to pose serious difficulties for today's readers. How does this kind of metaphor or image relate to modern-day morality and a belief in male and female equality? Is the Bible a book of love, a book of wrath and vengeance, or a strange mixture of both of those things? Regardless, Judah in the 6th century BCE wasn't an easy place to be a woman, especially during wartime.