“Therefore, this is what the Lord says: “I will put obstacles in my people’s path. Fathers and sons will both fall over them. Neighbors and friends will die together.” Jeremiah 6:21
God would deal with His people directly. The coming judgment was not an accident of the expansion of the Babylonian Empire or geopolitics between Babylon and Egypt. The Lord set this stumbling block. The stumbling blocks were the Babylonians, and instruments of God’s judgment and correction against Judah.
Jeremiah’s context is different, but we naturally connect this with the idea that Messiah is the cornerstone and those who reject Him stumble over it. “Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.” (1 Peter 2:7-8) Jesus is our foundation stone or our stumbling stone. We must make the choice.
The fathers and sons together shall fall on them: God again tells of the universal character of this judgment coming against Judah. None would escape it; the fathers and sons together, the neighbor and his friends shall perish. All one day will face the judgment of God.