Last week we looked at Chapters 7-25, the Oracles, or sayings of Jeremiah from the second period of his ministry mainly in the reign of King Jehoicim.
Parallel to those Oracles is a second section, mainly narrative, which tells us what happened to Jeremiah during the final period of Judah’s existence as a nation. Unlike the maze of oracles we encountered last week, it is a thrilling narrative. Today, at last, we have a story!
We spent a lot of time last week on chapter 7—Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon. Chapter 26 introduces this narrative section, and is a parallel to Chapter 7, which gave us the words which Jeremiah spoke. Chapter 26 gives a prose account of the occasion, and from it we learn something of the reaction of the Jerusalem elite to this event.
As we can imagine from the words we heard last week, the sermon had an immediate effect. This was not a hole in the corner event that could be conveniently ignored. After a précis of the first part of the sermon, we are told
The priests, the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD[1].
When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went up from the royal palace to the house of the LORD and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s house[2].
The news spread fast, and the officials of the Royal Court came rushing to the Temple. Gathering in the Gate of the Temple implies a formal, judgemental occasion. The reaction from the Temple officials is not surprising.
Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears![3]
Jeremiah continues his sermon, but now his words are addressed to ‘the officials and all the people”. In the second part he urges repentance. It concludes with words which are not recorded in Chapter 7:
Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you.[4]
The reaction of the Royal officials and the people is not what we might expect. Contrary to the demands of the priests and prophets they say
There follows a reflection by ‘the officials and all the people’ on the nature of prophecy and its fulfilment. There is a direct reference to the Biblical prophet Micah, and his part in the events of 120 years earlier when the Assyrian forces were camped against the walls of Jerusalem in the reign of good King Hezekiah. This, incidentally, is the first time one Biblical prophet is quoted by another. Interestingly enough there is no reference to Micah’s great contemporary, Isaiah of Jerusalem.
The final part of Chapter 26 relates the fate of another prophet, Uriah son of Shemaiah, who prophesied in the same manner as Jeremiah, but who fled to Egypt, and was brought back by the officials of Jehoiacim, and killed. His fate is contrasted with that of Jeremiah, who comes under the protection of one of the royal officials, Ahikam son of Shaphan. (A hint here of what happens to those who flee to Egypt.)
Shaphan the Secretary—a key official in the King’s household—first appears in the reign of Josiah as a key figure in the Josianic Reformation[6]. Now his son Ahikam takes Jeremiah under his protection, presumably in an attempt to continue the policies of obedience to yhwh initiated under Josiah, and now under threat in the reign of Jehoiacim. Later Ahikam’s son, Gedaliah, plays a very prominent part in the story.
After this account of the Temple sermon, which took place early in the reign of Jehoiacim, the story skips forward twelve years or so. Jerusalem has fallen for the first time, the young King Coniah has been taken off under house arrest to Babylon. He has been accompanied in that exile by the bulk of the royal officials, priests and prophets. The King’s Uncle Zedekiah has been made King, under the oversight of Babylon, the gold and silver have been looted from the Temple, and a skeleton staff has been left behind.
Chapter 27 follows immediately on this first Fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE.
Next week we will look at some at Jeremiah’s prophetic signs. In this Chapter we encounter one of them. He is told to put on wooden yoke bars, as a symbol of the yoke of the King of Babylon. The yoke, placed on the neck of an animal for ploughing or for load bearing, is a symbol of oppression and servitude.
The message from yhwh is not simply to King Zedekiah, but is sent by the ambassadors who are present at his court to the Kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon—in other words to all those small powers who have thus far managed to keep their independence in the face of the Babylonian onslaught. The point is made that Nebuchadnezzar’s authority—given to him by yhwh—is supreme, and extends even to the beasts of the field[7]. This is an interesting counterpoint to the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, where, because of his pride, he is reduced to the status of an animal.
Jeremiah’s prophecy is directed specifically against the ‘prophets, diviners, dreamers, soothsayers and sorcerers’ who say to the king ‘You shall not serve the King of Babylon.’[8] The scope of the methods by which these Kings obtain advice is interesting! All of them, however seem to be united in their positive message, but Jeremiah repeats his uncompromising message to Zedekiah himself.
Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and you will live.[9]
Unlike Jeremiah’s quasi-treasonable activities during the first siege of Jerusalem this does not seem unreasonable advice to a Babylonian puppet-King, and yet the ‘magic’ of Jerusalem seems to reassert itself, and those who are left look forward to the days when the gold and silver vessels which were carried off to Babylon will be returned to the Temple.
Jeremiah, by contrast, prophesies the complete stripping of the Temple, and the completion of what has already begun by the carrying off also of the bronze accoutrements.
And there (in Babylon) they will remain until the day I come for them,’ declares the LORD[10]
Chapter 28 introduces a specific prophet, Hananiah, who proclaims on behalf of the Lord that ‘I will break the yoke of the King of Babylon’ and signifies this by breaking Jeremiah’s yoke bars. This takes place, very publicly in the Temple.
Jeremiah ends this very public dispute between two prophets with the words
The prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true.[11]
Yhwh commands Jeremiah to replace the broken wooden yoke bars with iron ones, and so his message is reinforced.
I will put an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him[12].
Jeremiah says a further word individually to Hananiah.
Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this is what the LORD says: I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.[13]
The result of this episode is the death of Hananiah three months later. Jeremiah’s prophecy is vindicated by the fact that it comes true.
In Chapter 29 Zedekiah sends two envoys to Babylon, Elasah son of Shaphan, and Gemaraiah, son of Hilikiah. As we have heard, Shaphan was the King’s Secretary who was central to Josiah’s reformation. Hilkiah was the High Priest who worked closely alongside him. Their two sons are still in Jerusalem, and are now sent with letters to Babylon. One of these is from Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon.
Altogether four of Shaphan’s sons play a central part in this story of the last ten years of the Judean Kingdom.
The contents of the letter are not entirely what we might expect. They do not predict an early return, but exhort the exiles:
Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.[14]
Note, once again, the repetition of the words to build and to plant in the story of Jeremiah’s call.
The people are warned, even in Babylon, not to listen to the prophets who have gone there with them, and are preaching lies. Two of them, Ahab and Zedekiah, are named.
Ezekiel, prophesying in Babylon at the same time, also had to struggle with the need to recall the exiles to obedience and not simply to keep up their spirits at a time of national disaster.
Another false prophet in Babylon is Shemaiah the Nehelhamite. He must have been a man of authority, since he wrote a letter back to Jerusalem deposing Jehoiada as High Priest and replacing him with Zephaniah. Zephaniah is the priest mentioned in Chapter 21, one of the two messengers sent by King Zedekiah to Jeremiah. Shemaiah, in Babylon, says to Zephaniah
The LORD has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada to be in charge of the house of the LORD; you should put any maniac who acts like a prophet into the stocks and neck-irons.So why have you not reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you?[15]
This gives us an interesting insight into the continuing influence of the Babylonian exiles on the affairs of Jerusalem. Zephaniah tells Jeremiah about this, and Jeremiah retorts with a condemnation of Shemaiah, and a prophecy that his descendants will be wiped out completely.[16].
In Chapters 30-31 there is a further section of Oracles, this time not of doom but of hope for the future. These chapters are often called ‘the Book of Hope’ and we will look at them in the final week.
Chapter 32 moves to the final year of Zedekiah’s reign. Though we may not yet know it, the final destruction of Jerusalem, and the whole Kingdom of Judah is imminent.
Jeremiah is told to buy a field in Anathoth from his cousin, in exercise of his redemption rights. These rights were established under the Law to ensure that property originally gifted by God remained in the same family.
Though he is by now under arrest in the court of the guard, and Jerusalem is under siege, Jeremiah goes to extraordinary lengths to see that this business is legally transacted, and that the record of it will be preserved.
In their presence I gave Baruch these instructions: This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’[17]
This is the first time we encounter Baruch son of Neraiah, who becomes a central figure in Jeremiah’s ministry in the last days.
This passage is followed by a Prayer[18] which is well worth reading. As in some of the wonderful passages in the Oracles last week, it reflects the majesty of the One God, the creator of heaven and earth, and disposer of all human kingdoms.
Chapter 33 again presents prophecies of hope, which we look at in the final week.
Chapter 34 begins with a prophecy that Zedekiah will die in exile, but continues with a condemnation of those left in the land because of their intention to free Israelite slaves, according to the law, which was never carried out. Here again the issue is social justice, and obedience to the Torah, not the worship of other gods.
Chapter35 contrasts the obedience of the Rechabites with the disobedience of the people as a whole. Even though this puritanical group have had to give up their nomadic lifestyle and move, for protection, into the city, Jeremiah tempts them to go further by drinking wine. They refuse, and receive a blessing, and are exempted from the coming slaughter.
In Chapter 36 we have a flashback to the fourth year of King Jehoicim. In this year, eight years before the first fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah is commanded to write all YHWH‘s words to him, right from the beginning. That is twenty-one years of prophecy! He dictates to Baruch, who writes them on a scroll. In the following year, once the scroll is finished, since Jeremiah has been barred from the Temple, Baruch is told to go there on a day of fasting, and to read the scroll ‘to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns’[19]. The reading takes place
From the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple.[20]
In the events which follow the family of Shaphan again play a central role, another son, Gemaraiah and grandson Micaiah. It is a wonderfully dramatic story, worth reading in full. To summarise it, the officials who are told of this public reading demand that Baruch come and read to the scroll to them. After hearing it they feel they must tell the King, but warn Baruch to hide himself and Jeremiah. Then they take the scroll to the King. It is winter, and as it is read to him by Jehudi, he slices off each portion and throws it into the brazier until the whole scroll is destroyed. Then he sends men to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch, but the Lord had hidden them.[21] Jeremiah dictates the scroll again, at the Lord’s command—presumably another year’s work—and a further prophecy is given to Jehoiacim
This is what the LORD says: You burned that scroll and said, “Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it both man and beast?” Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them, because they have not listened.[22]
The account of the rewriting of the scroll indicates that it was amplified when it says, and many similar words were added.[23]
There are two important points to note from this chapter. First it illustrates the growing enmity between Jeremiah and the Jerusalem establishment. As we learned in Chapter 26 the Temple sermon set the priests and prophets against him, though the officials and nobility were less keen to dismiss his words. Now, despite the protection of a very influential group of civil servants, the King himself is against him. The noose is beginning to tighten!
Secondly this is the first explicit evidence for the writing down of prophecy. In the scroll of Baruch we see the beginning of the Book of Jeremiah as something separate from the words uttered by the prophet. The mechanisms by which the prophetic books came to be collected together are still far from clear, but this gives us an interesting insight.
In Chapters 37-38 we jump back again to the final siege of Jerusalem, which came to its devastating conclusion in 586 BCE, after ten years of Zedekiah’s rule. Pharaoh’s army has come out of Egypt and Babylon has temporarily withdrawn from Jerusalem to respond to this much more urgent situation. Looking back to the withdrawal of the Assyrians from Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah the triumphalist response of the remaining court prophets can well be imagined.
Security was apparently relaxed when the Babylonian army withdrew, and it is at this point that Jeremiah sets off to Anathoth to take possession of the field he bought earlier in Chapter 32. As he leaves the city he is arrested on the suspicion of defecting to the Babylonians—not an unreasonable charge in the circumstances. He is imprisoned in the House of Jonathan the Secretary, which has been made into a prison—an interesting necessity in the days of siege, and remains there many days “in a vaulted cell in the dungeon[24]” until Zedekiah sends for him. Things are getting desperate, and Zedekiah asks “Is there a word from the Lord?”[25] Of course there is, but not one which the King wishes to hear.
“Yes,” Jeremiah replied, “you will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.”[26]
Despite this succinct word, Jeremiah’s urgent plea is heard.
What crime have I committed against you or your attendants or this people, that you have put me in prison? Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, ‘The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land’? But now, my lord the king, please listen. Let me bring my petition before you: Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, or I will die there.
He is kept in the Court of the Guard, and fed until the food supplies finally fail as a result of the siege.
In Chapter 38 Jeremiah continues to preach a message of appeasement to the Babylonians, actually urging people to leave the city and join them.
This is what the LORD says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live.[27]
As a result of this message a group of officials go the King to demand his death. The King hands him over, and they throw him down into a mud filled cistern, to die there. Ebed-Melek the Cushite, however, intercedes for him and the King gives permission for him to be rescued, and the dramatic account of his rescue with rags made from old clothes is recorded.
A final, secret, interview with Zedekiah is recorded in which Jeremiah repeats his word. Zedekiah’s terror at the prospect of his officials learning what Jeremiah has said on the one hand, or of being handed over to the Judeans who have already defected on the other is a sign not merely of his weakness, but of his impossible predicament. True to his promise, when he is interrogated by the officials Jeremiah gives nothing away, simply repeating the King’s suggestion that he had come to plead not to be sent back to the prison.
The Chapter ends with the words “And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day Jerusalem was taken.[28]”
Chapter 39 gives a compressed account of the final fall of Jerusalem in July 586, focussing on its consequences. Nebuchadrezzar gives specific instructions concerning Jeremiah’s welfare, and the high Babylonian officials look after him personally. Not surprisingly, considering his message, the Babylonians looked upon him as one of their supporters. After the devastation of Jerusalem they released him from captivity under the protection of Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan and the son of Ahikam who had defended Jeremiah on the day of the Temple Sermon. In the midst of the confusion and turmoil Jeremiah prophesies a message of personal salvation to Ebed-melech, at whose hands he was rescued from death in the cistern.
Chapters 40-44 record Jeremiah’s life after the Fall of Jerusalem. Initially he was offered the chance to go to Babylon. Nebuzaradan, the commander of the Babylonian guard said to him
Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.
But before Jeremiah had chance to decide, Nebuzaradan decided for him. Before Jeremiah turned to go, Nebuzaradan added,
“Go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the towns of Judah, and live with him among the people, or go anywhere else you please.[29]
Gedaliah, Shaphan‘s grandson, has been made Governor of Judah, under very close Babylonian control, and Jeremiah stays with him at Mizpah, one of the old fortified cities of Judah just eight miles north of Jerusalem. Like Anathoth it is in the territory of Benjamin. It seems that, almost alone among the people of Judah, Jeremiah has come home.
The political situation for those who remain in the land is a very complex one, with a variety of factions. To cut a long story short Gedaliah is assassinated, and Johanan son of Kareah, one of the officers of the Judean army, takes charge. Since Gedaliah is Nebuchadnezzar’s direct appointee the situation is clearly serious.
In Chapter 42 Johanan and the other officers ask Jeremiah to pray for the remnant and seek the Lord’s guidance for them.
Please hear our petition and pray to the LORD your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do[30].
Despite the reference to ‘your God’, their faithfulness to yhwh appears to be heartfelt:
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.[31]
Jeremiah’s anti-Egyptian stance is as fierce as his pro-Babylonian one. “Stay in the Land” is the Lord’s advice. Once again, however, their faithfulness is only skin deep. In sharp contrast to their exaggerated words in Chapter 42 the officers are angry and accuse Jeremiah of lying to them. They go off to Egypt—as they intended to do all along, taking all the survivors, including Jeremiah and Baruch with them.
So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the LORD and went as far as Tahpanhes.[32]
The final Chapters see Jeremiah in exile, not in Babylon, but in Egypt. The place he had cursed is where he ends up, and he is one of the exiles upon whom yhwh has pronounced his judgement. This is the final irony in the tragic story of Jeremiah. Yet even here, in Tahpanhes, Jeremiah does not cease to utter the word of the Lord. He still cannot be shut up!
We see him engaging in one final symbolic act—presumably rather a dangerous one.
In Tahpanhes the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: While the Jews are watching, take some large stones with you and bury them in clay in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes. Then say to them, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones I have buried here; he will spread his royal canopy above them. He will come and attack Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword. He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn their temples and take their gods captive. As a shepherd picks his garment clean of lice, so he will pick Egypt clean and depart. There in the temple of the sun in Egypt he will demolish the sacred pillars and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.[33]’”
This prophecy gives a final opportunity for invective against idolatry and the worship of false gods—by Israelites as well as Egyptians!
In Chapter 44 the worship of ‘The Queen of Heaven’ re-emerges. The women amongst the exiles have made a vow to Ashtaroth and intend to carry it out
We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”[34]
Here is an ironic harking back to the complaints of the Israelites after the exodus.
We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite. We never see anything but this Manna[35].
They are back in Egypt again, where they came from. Once again, it seems, they are well fed, safe and secure.
But apparent security of the exiles in Egypt may be shortlived
This is what the LORD says: I am going to deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who want to kill him, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who wanted to kill him.[36]
This leads in to the beginning of the Oracles against the Nations (Chapters 46-51), which we will study in the last lecture. The first of the nations to come under God’s condemnation is Egypt.
There is a final postscript. Chapter 45 is a word of comfort and a personal prophecy addressed to Baruch, the writer of the scroll.
Jeremiah began as an outsider. In the reign of Jehoicim there were many court prophets who prophesied what the King and the people wanted to hear. After the first fall of Jerusalem, they continued to prophesy false promises in Babylon, and sent word of them back to Jerusalem. Faced with a considerable lack of prophets and priests King Zedekiah turns to Jeremiah, but even then refuses to hear God’s word properly. Finally, in Egypt, Jeremiah is the only prophet left, and his word never changes—even though he himself falls under the scope of this punishment of God. Those who go to Babylon will live; those who go to Egypt will die. Only Baruch escapes this judgement.
Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the LORD, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.[37]
Remember that God swore that, because of their disobedience, none of the Israelites who came out of Egypt were to enter the promised land. Only Caleb the son of Jappuneh and Joshua the son of Nun were exempted from this.[38] Not even Moses entered, but looked longingly from the top of Mount Nebo. . Now the remnant go from the smoking ruins of the Promised land back to what they consider the security and prosperity of Egypt. Only two individuals escape the curse on those making the reverse journey—Ebed-Melek and Baruch. Not even Jeremiah is spared.
The Exodus has been reversed, but even now there is hope for the future—hope in those two men, and hope from Babylon.
In his earlier, very public dispute with the prophet Hananiah, Jeremiah said
The prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true[39].
In hindsight Jeremiah’s prophecies were fulfilled. We don’t know what happened to him in the end, and we never will. The man himself disappears into the mists of Egypt. But through Baruch his words lived on. How the scroll was preserved and brought back to Judah after the Restoration we will never know.
But he was right. It was from Babylon that the faithfulness of a remnant restored the land of Israel, forged the foundations of modern Judaism [1] Jeremiah 26.9
[2] Jeremiah 26.10
[3] Jeremiah 26.11
[4] Jeremiah 26.13
[5] Jeremiah 26.16b
[6] 2 Kings 22
[7] Jeremiah 27.5
[8] Jeremiah 27.9
[9] Jeremiah 27.12b
[10] Jeremiah 27.22b
[11] Jeremiah 28.9
[12] Jeremiah 28.14b
[13] Jeremiah 28.15-16
[14] Jeremiah 29.5-7
[15] Jeremiah 29.26-27
[16] Jeremiah 29.32
[17] Jeremiah 32.13-15
[18] 32.16-25
[19] Jeremiah 36.6
[20] Jeremiah 36.10
[21] Jeremiah 36.26
[22] Jeremiah 36.29-31
[23] Jeremiah 36.32
[24] Jeremiah 37.16
[25] Jeremiah 37.17
[26] Jeremiah 37.17
[27] Jeremiah 38.2
[28] Jeremiah 38.28
[29] Jeremiah 40.4-5
[30] Jeremiah 42.2-3
[31] Jeremiah 42.5-6
[32] Jeremiah 43.7
[33] Jeremiah 43.8-13
[34] Jeremiah 44.17-18
[35] Numbers 11.5-6
[36] Jeremiah 44.30
[37] Jeremiah 45.5
[38] Numbers 14.30
[39] Jeremiah 28.9
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