Today we're going to study a pasuk in Yirmiyah. But in order to understand the context of this pasuk, we need a little background. Yirmiyah was prophesying against the goyim, telling them what would happen in the future. It’s a general lesson of what we call Middah k’neged Middah/measure for measure. God does not sit back and just let things happen. There is reward and punishment. There is responsibility for one's actions. Throughout the generations, there have been oppressors that have oppressed the Jewish people but eventually they get their just dessert.
In this prophecy, Yirmiyah is prophesizing the doom of Moav. Moav was involved in the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash, and they were neighbors of the Jewish people at the time. The Gemara says in Masechet Yevamot 16B at the beginning of Midrash Echa Rabba, that when the nations of the world went to destroy the Bet Hamikdash, many of them came along as mercenaries looking for gold and silver, as any soldier or warrior would do.
But the people of Amon and Moav were not interested in that. They went along to get the Sifreh Torah, the Torah scrolls, to disgrace the Torah scrolls and to tear out the line where it says, “Someone from Amon and Moav is not allowed into the Jewish people.” As we know, Rut, a female Moavi, was allowed, but the people of Moav were not, because of what they did to the Jewish people, because of their lack of Hakarat HaTov for what Avraham did for Lot, and also for other things that they did against the Jewish people by sending the harlots in, by trying to curse them...
They were upset at this punishment of God, and they decided to take it in their own hands. And since their attack was against the Sefer Torah, and against Kavod Shamayim, the Chida explains the following about their punishment, “So says God, Because you disgraced Me, and because you didn't care about the golden silver, obviously…Why did you do this?
And here we start the pasuk from Yirmiyah, 48,7
כִּי יַעַן בִּטְחֵךְ בְּמַעֲשַׂיִךְ וּבְאֹוצְרוֹתַיִךְ גַּם אַתְּ תִּלָּכֵדִי וְיָצָא כְמֹישׁ \{כְמוֹשׁ\} בַּגּוֹלָה כֹּהֲנָיו וְשָׂרָיו יַחְדָּ \{יַחְדָּיו\}
In other words…
First of all, obviously you were pretty confident in your deeds that you thought you could take on God. You didn't seem to worry about the sin involved.
Furthermore, you didn't seem to care about gold and silver. So you relied on Otzrota’ich, your treasure houses. So not only are you going lose your treasure houses, but you're also going to be taken captive.
And your god (Chamush was the god of the, of the Moav) will go into exile along with its priests and its minsters together..
And it goes on to describe all the destruction that's going to happen to them. No city would be spared.
It’s an important lesson, and it’s one of the reasons that Yitro became a Jew- when he saw the Middah K’Neged Middah, and, how as it says, “What they planned to do against the Jews happen to them.”
Not only were they punished for what they actually did, but also for what they planned to do.
As we know, Yitro was on the panel of advisors to Paroah and he knew what they had planned- And then everyone got punished, not only for what they actually did, but God read their minds, and saw what they planned to do
Yitro knew all those plans, and that's what impressed him. How Gos is sitting and watching, how God is quiet.
Mi Kamocha B’Elim Hashem is often read as Who is like God, i.e. Who is strong, but it can also be read as Who is silent like God? (Elim is a mute) Until the splitting of the seas, the people thought God couldn’t do anything. Then they saw the sea split and they said, “Wow, look what God can do, but He’s been holding back!”
And that's what we have to believe- that all the nations that have been persecuting us and continue to persecute us, will eventually get their just dessert.
This pasuk is just one example of the many that Rabbi Zundel of Salant brings down, to strengthen our bitachon, by showing what happens to those that rely on the wrong things… those rely on their deeds, those that rely on their treasure houses, those that ignore God and are, so to say, overly confident that nothing will happen to them.
Things will happen to them in the end, and we're waiting for the day when God finally seeks vengeance against all those that oppress us.