Jeremiah uses this rhetorical question to compel acknowledgment of God’s universal kingship and inherent worthiness of reverence. By framing it as a question rather than a declaration, he invites his audience to recognize the self-evident truth that no rational person could withhold fear and honor from the King of nations. The question form makes refusal to fear God appear absurd and indefensible.

The text provides no verbal response from Judah. The rhetorical question stands unanswered, allowing its force to rest upon the audience as self-evident truth requiring no rebuttal.

Jeremiah’s question exposes the irrationality of idolatry by establishing God’s unique claim to fear and honor. The Hebrew verb translated ‘fear’ (yare) carries both reverence and awe, not merely terror. When Jeremiah asks ‘who would not fear thee,’ he employs a rhetorical device that assumes universal consent, the question’s form presumes only one reasonable answer. The phrase ‘to thee doth it appertain’ translates a Hebrew expression meaning ‘it befits you’ or ‘it is your due,’ grounding the call to fear not in arbitrary power but in God’s intrinsic nature. Unlike the carved idols just described, God’s kingship over nations is self-evident in His incomparability. Jeremiah asks rather than declares to make the audience participants in acknowledging this truth, transforming passive hearers into active confessors of God’s supremacy.