Egypt or Bust In the previous chapter, the people promised they would follow God’s instructions regarding staying in Israel or going to Egypt. Jeremiah passed on his revelation from the Lord, which unambiguously stated to stay. In this chapter, the people respond by going to Egypt. Why? Their excuse is that Jeremiah wasn’t delivering God’s message. Rather, he’d been pressured to give the answer by his scribe. They hadn’t believed Jeremiah when he said Jerusalem would be destroyed. He was proved to be right. Therefore, they come up with a new excuse to not obey. “My Servant” They settle in […]
Tag Archives: Jeremiah
Jeremiah 42
Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God.” Jeremiah 42:5-6 The people come to Jeremiah with a question to bring before the Lord: should we flee to Egypt or stay in Israel? It’s a reasonable question. The Babylonian-installed governor […]
Jeremiah 41
Getting No Where Fast In the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood and had been one of the king’s officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. While they were eating together there, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, killing the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land. Jeremiah 41:1-2 Just two months after the Temple fell, Gedaliah is […]
Jeremiah 40
The Watchtower Jeremiah is released. Jerusalem is destroyed. Now what? The Babylonians appointed Gedaliah over the land (Jeremiah 40:7). Translations generally add the word “governor” as his title, but this doesn’t appear in the text. We aren’t given a title. He appears to be the representative between the people remaining in Judah and the Babylonians. Jeremiah was given the option of where he wanted to go, and he opted to remain with Gedaliah in the land. Gedaliah set up shop from the city of Mizpah (מִצְפָּה), located at the northern border of the territory of Benjamin. The name means “watchtower, […]
Jeremiah 39
Exiled The Babylonians set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him, and the rest of the people. Jeremiah 39:8-9 What Jeremiah had been predicting all along finally comes to pass. The wall is breached and the city falls. Flames engulf the buildings. The temple is destroyed. The people are led away in exile. Thus it ends. The fall of Jerusalem is duplicated […]
Jeremiah 38
In the Mud It wasn’t enough for Jeremiah to be off the streets. The king’s officials wanted him dead. Because of how he discouraged the people, they convinced the king to have him put into a pit/cistern (בּוֹר, bor). Cisterns typically hold water, but “it had no water in it, only mud” (Jeremiah 38:6). This hints back to Joseph. Rather than outright killing him, his brothers threw him into a pit (bor) which had no water in it (Genesis 37:24). The imagery of being in a muddy pit is used metaphorically for death or being in a difficult situation. For […]
Jeremiah 37
Confined While the Babylonians are besieging Jerusalem, the army of Egypt marches out to confront them. The Babylonians break their siege to meet them. Is the country being delivered from destruction? Has the Lord saved them? No, Jeremiah says, it is only temporary. They will return to finish the job. This chapter helps shed some light on other passages we’ve already seen. In chapter 34, the people temporarily released their fellow Israelites from slavery, only to enslave them again. This probably coincided with the Egyptian army coming in (see Jeremiah 34:22 where the Lord says he will bring the Babylonian […]
Jeremiah 36
Write this Down There are not a lot of places in the Bible where it talks about actually writing it. This chapter is an exception. The Lord commands Jeremiah to write down what he has prophesied so far. Presumably, this would be part of what we have in the book today. There are two responses to the scroll he writes: the first group is very concerned (responding like the previous generation in 2 Kings 22:11 of King Josiah and his officials) while the second blows it off. There’s a bit of word repetition where the king cuts the scroll (Jeremiah […]
Jeremiah 35
The Recabites The book jumps back over ten years to the reign of King Jehoiakim. The Lord sends Jeremiah to meet with the Recabites. Their ancestor Jonadab son of Recab commanded his sons and their descendants to not drink wine and to not live in houses or plant vineyards. Essentially they were to always live as nomads. Jonadab also shows up in 2 Kings 10:15-23 where he encounters Jehu as he becomes king and works to root out Baal worship from Israel. This means that his descendants have been following his commands for over 250 years! God rewards the Recabites. […]
Jeremiah 34
Burning This is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. Jeremiah 34:2b In the first part of this chapter, the Lord declares that Jerusalem will be “burned with fire” (see also verse 22; the NIV quoted above drops the “with fire” part as redundant – how else will the city be burned?). The Hebrew verb used here to burn is saraph (שׂרף), meaning “to burn completely”. While that doesn’t change the meaning of this passage, it’s interesting how else it’s used. For […]