We have already commented on Subsections 1). in Jeremiah 4 and subsection 2). in Jeremiah 5. We must now therefore consider subsection 3). This subsection deals with various experiences of Jeremiah (although not in chronological order) in the days of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah.

Section 2 Subsection 3. YHWH’s Continuing Word of Judgment Is Given Through Jeremiah, The Continuing Disobedience Of The People Is Brought Out, And Jeremiah’s Resulting Experiences Leading Up To The Fall Of Jerusalem Are Revealed (34.1-38.28).

The promise of future restoration having been laid out Jeremiah now returns to the current situation with Jerusalem under threat. He demonstrates the different ways in which YHWH has been rejected, and treated with contempt by 1). a hypocritical pretence of obedience to the covenant, which is reneged on, 2). a treating of YHWH’s Fatherhood with contempt by the people, something which is in stark contrast with the obedience and reverence shown by the Rechabites to their father, 3). a burning of YHWH’s very word in a brazier, and 4). a continuing misuse of YHWH’s prophet. All this but confirms YHWH’s prophecies of judgment against Jerusalem,

The subsection divides up easily into five parts, each of which is opened by a crucial phrase, thus:

• 1). 34.1-7 ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH when Nebuchadnezzar --- fought against Jerusalem and all its cities.’ This was a word declaring that Jerusalem would be destroyed and Zedekiah would be carried off to Babylon and meet Nebuchadnezzar face to face. There he will die ‘in peace’ and be lamented by his nobles.
• 2). 34.8-22 ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people at Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them.’ Zedekiah having persuaded the more wealthy in Jerusalem to enter into a covenant before YHWH to set free their Hebrew slaves, thus fulfilling the Sinai covenant, the more wealthy do so, but once the danger appears to be past, change their minds and re-enslave them, bringing down on themselves the renewed wrath of YHWH and the certainty of Babylonian subjection.
• 3). 35.1-19 ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH in the days of Jehoiakim.’ YHWH uses the example of the Rechabites as an illustration of a filial obedience to their father, which is the very opposite of Judah’s disobedience to their Father, something which will result in judgment coming on Judah and Jerusalem.
• 4). 36.1-32 ‘And it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim --- this word came to Jeremiah from YHWH.’ Jeremiah records his prophecies in a book in the days of Jehoiakim, prophecies which impress the nobles, but which are treated with disdain by Jehoiakim and his associates, resulting in Jehoiakim cutting up the ‘leaves’ of the book and burning them, thereby bringing judgment on himself.
• 5). 37.1-38.28 ‘And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah -- but did not listen to the words YHWH which He spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.’ YHWH’s prophet is rejected. Jeremiah warns the king not to expect deliverance through the approaching Egyptian army, and on seeking to visit his hometown during a lull in the siege is accused of attempted desertion and is shut up in prison, although there he is surreptitiously consulted by Zedekiah. His various sufferings, resulting from his prophesying, including a near death experience, are described, and he ends up in the royal prison where he is comparatively well treated.

It will be noted from this that after the initial warning of the success of the Babylonians there is a continuing emphasis on the growing disobedience towards, and rejection of, YHWH and His covenant. This is illustrated firstly by the breaking of a solemn covenant made by the people, a covenant in which they guaranteed to free their Hebrew slaves as required by the Sinaitic covenant, something which they subsequently reneged on; secondly by a disobedience which is shown to be the direct opposite of the obedience of the Rechabites (who sought to be faithful to the principles of wilderness days) to their father; thirdly by the disrespect shown to YHWH’s prophecies as written down by Jeremiah when Jehoiakim contemptuously burned them in a brazier; and fourthly by the continual disrespect shown to Jeremiah himself in his various imprisonments. The growth in intensity of the disobedience as each chapter progresses (breach of the ancient covenant, falling short of a righteous example presented before their very eyes, burning the currently received word of YHWH, and finally misusing the prophet of YHWH because of his up to date prophecies), helps to explain why the prophecies have been put in this order.

We may also see here a deliberate attempt to sandwich between two references to the approaching end and to Zedekiah’s reign, reasons as to why that end is necessary from earlier days. This follows a similar pattern to chapters 21-24 which also sandwiched earlier situations between two examples of the days of Zedekiah.

Subsection 3 Part 1. Jerusalem Is Surrounded And Jeremiah Declares that There Is no Point In Holding Out Because Jerusalem Is About To Be Destroyed And Zedekiah Will Be Carried Off To Babylon To Meet Nebuchadrezzar Face To Face Where He Will Die ‘In Peace’ And Be Lamented By His Nobles (34.1-7).

Jerusalem was in dire straits. Surrounded by the Babylonians and by armies from ‘all the kingdoms of the earth which were under his dominion’ it knew that only two other cities of Judah were still holding out, the fortified cities of Lachish and Azekah. Otherwise the whole of Judah was being ravaged and was in Nebuchadnezzar’s hands. But it still thought that it had one hope. It was depending on Pharaoh Hophra to arrive with an Egyptian army and drive off the Babylonians. Jeremiah, however, warns them against such a vain hope. Let them be in no doubt. Jerusalem would be taken and burned with fire and Zedekiah its king would be carried off to Babylon never again to participate in political intrigue (he would die ‘in peace’, excluded from political activity), and there he would meet Nebuchadnezzar face to face to receive his punishment. That was on the word of YHWH. It is noteworthy that there is no reference at this stage to his being blinded, confirmation that this is a prophecy before the event.

34.1 ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth which were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all its cities, saying,’

This is clearly describing a time prior to Jeremiah’s imprisonment. The impossible position of Jerusalem is underlined. They were surrounded by the armies of ‘all the kingdoms of the world’ which were under Nebuchadnezzar’s control. (Note the use of ‘world’ to indicate the local ‘known world’). ‘All the peoples’ were fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah. The idea is that there really was no hope. Of course, as vassals of Nebuchadnezzar the other kingdoms had little choice in the matter. It was part of their commitment as vassals to provide Nebuchadnezzar with regiments to bolster up his army.

The change in description from Nebuchadrezzar (used earlier in chapters 21-25, and in 29.31; 32.1, 28; 35.11; 37.1; 39.1, 11, but not in 27.1-29.3) to Nebuchadnezzar indicates very little, for such a change could easily be made by the same author writing at a different time, especially as the use of the ‘n’ in place of the ‘r’ could simply have been in order to introduce a derogatory element into the name in view of the increasing intensity of the situation.

In Jeremiah the use of Nebuchadnezzar is mainly restricted to the passage 27.1-29.3 (Nebuchadrezzar appears in 29.21), whilst also occurring here in 34.1, with this last appearance having no obvious explanation. Nebuchadrezzar is used in 32.1, 28; 35.11; 37.1; 39.1, 11. In the end we may think what we like about the significance of the change for we have little to go on. The pattern is not wholly consistent.

34.2 ‘Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, “Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus says YHWH, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire,”

YHWH here underlines their lack of hope. As ‘YHWH, the God of Israel’ He calls on Jeremiah to go to Zedekiah the king of Judah and tell him that YHWH Himself intends to deliver Jerusalem into the hand of the king of Babylon. This reveals Israel’s hopelessness in that if Israel’s own God was not supporting them, what possible hope could they have? Furthermore, He declares that the city will be burned with fire, something which was the regular treatment for a rebellious and obstinate city.

34.3 “And you will not escape out of his hand, but will surely be taken, and delivered into his hand, and your eyes will behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon.”

Nor should Zedekiah think that somehow he himself might escape from Nebuchadnezzar’s hand. He was to recognise that he would certainly be taken and handed over to Nebuchadnezzar, and would have to see him face to face, and speak to him mouth to mouth (he would of course do it grovelling before him with his face to the ground), for ‘he would go to Babylon’ whether he liked it or not.

34.4 ‘Surely hear the word of YHWH, O Zedekiah king of Judah, “Thus says YHWH concerning you, You will not die by the sword,”

Furthermore he would not die nobly by the sword, neither in actively fighting for his country (no such noble death was to be his), nor by execution. This too was the word of YHWH. His only future lay in prison. (It should be noted that no mention is made of the fact that he would be blinded, something which demonstrates that the prophecies were not tampered with after the event. It would have been all too easy for a dishonest or over-enthusiastic copyist to introduce the idea. The fact that it did not happen reminds us how carefully copyists refrained from such activities).

34.5 “You will die in peace; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so will they make a burning for you, and they will lament you, saying, ‘Ah Lord!’ for I have spoken the word, the word of YHWH.”

Indeed he would die ‘in peace’ (i.e. in a non-belligerent situation, languishing in prison) and would have a normal royal funeral, with the burning of perfumes and spices (compare 2 Chronicles 16.14; 21.19) and the lamentations of his nobles. That at least would be permitted to him and was all that he had to look forward to. The emphasis is more on the fact that his usefulness was at an end and that he would not accomplish anything more in his life, rather than being intended as being an indication that he would have a pleasant life. He would, in fact, probably die in prison.

34.6-7 ‘And Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, when the king of Babylon’s army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah which were left, against Lachish and against Azekah, for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.’

It is then emphasised that these words were spoken when Judah was on its last legs, with only two other fortified cities, apart from Jerusalem still holding out. Lachish and Azekah were in the low foothills of Judah and were two strong cities. Lachish was 40 kilometres (23 miles) south west of Jerusalem and surrounded on three sides by the River Lachish which meandered around it. It was important enough for Sennacherib of Assyria in c. 701 BC, having failed to capture Jerusalem, to celebrate its subjection by a relief sculpture in his palace at Nineveh. It was eventually to be taken again by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Azekah was seemingly almost as strong and held out bravely, although succumbing to the Babylonians some time earlier than Lachish. It was about 26 kilometres (18 miles) south west of Jerusalem. Interestingly we have possible contemporary evidence of its fall, for letters were discovered in the ruins of Lachish in which a guard commander, presumably writing from an outpost, informs his governor that ‘we are watching for the signal fires of Lachish for we cannot see those of Azekah’, which may indicate that the latter had ceased burning because the city was taken.

Having Set Free Their Hebrew Slaves In Accordance With The Sinai Covenant The Inhabitants Of Jerusalem Renege On Their Commitment, Bringing Down On Themselves The Wrath Of YHWH And The Certainty Of Babylonian Subjection (34.8-22).

In the face of the Babylonian threat King Zedekiah managed to persuade the people of Jerusalem that it was in their interests to ‘proclaim freedom’ to their Hebrew slaves, in accordance with the requirements of the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 21.2 ff.; see also Deuteronomy 15.12-18). The idea of ‘proclaiming freedom’ en masse is usually connected with the year of Yubile where both Israelite bondmen and property were freed (Leviticus 25.10; Isaiah 61.1). This may thus have been a year of Yubile, or it may have had the aim of fulfilling such a year which had previously been ignored. This proclamation of ‘freedom’ may have had a number of purposes in Zedekiah’s eyes:

• 1). In order to impress YHWH with their obedience to His covenant in the hope that He would then unbend towards them (this would explain the solemnity of the covenant into which they entered before YHWH).
• 2). In order to give the ex-slaves a greater reason to defend Jerusalem as freemen.
• 3). In order to enable the ex-slaves to fend for themselves in the siege, rather than their being the responsibility of their owners who would have problems enough fending for themselves.

The seriousness of the covenant into which they entered, which was by ‘cutting’ a covenant, that is by binding themselves through the slaughter of a sacrifice, and stepping between the divided parts (compare Genesis 15.9-17), suggests that an appeal for YHWH’s clemency was very much in mind. It suggests that it was He Who had to be impressed with their genuineness.

Note on Bondage in Israel.

There were different ways and different reasons why men and women should become bondmen and bondwomen in Israel. The Law in fact distinguished at least two different types of bondage. The first was of ‘Hebrews’. ‘Hebrews’ were originally landless people who had no other way to live. They lived at the time that the Law was given by entering into seven year contracts of ‘bondage’ (they were called Habiru elsewhere, such as at Nuzi), but in Israel were to be released at the end of the sixth year, and sent away fully provisioned for the seventh year (Deuteronomy 15.12-18; Exodus 21.2 ff). They could thus have one year’s ‘rest’. The second was of Israelite debtors who had to sell themselves into bondage to pay their debts. They were to be treated as servants and not as bondservants, and they automatically received their freedom in the year of Yubile, which came after each forty nine year period (Leviticus 25.39-42). Thus in Israel, theoretically at least, no Israelite could become a permanent slave. However, over the centuries the practise had no doubt altered, and it would appear that Hebrew bondpersons were at this time being kept in bondage beyond the stipulated six year, perhaps permanently. Furthermore at this time most of these Hebrews, if not all, would be Israelites/Jews. It is possible also that the year of Yubile was being ignored for debtors who had become bondpersons. This would explain why a general ‘proclamation of freedom’ (Leviticus 25.10) could be made. The idea would be that it was to be a time of setting right the failure to do what should have been done in the past, the effects of which still continued. The aim would be to gain YHWH’s favour and to demonstrate that they were observing the covenant. Had the Law been properly observed in the past it would not have been necessary.

End of note.

The fact that Jeremiah speaks of ‘Hebrews’ only here and nowhere else, and clearly relates it to Deuteronomy 15.12-18, suggests that these distinctions between different classes of bondmen had been to some extent maintained. A certain class called ‘Hebrews’ (landless persons) was still recognised, which as a result of land takeovers, and the ignoring of the redemption at the year of Yubile, had become quite large. They had seemingly lost all rights. If the year of Yubile had ceased to apply to debtors they also would be seen as ‘Hebrews’ as they would then have had no family land.

34.8-9 ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH, after the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim freedom to them, that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free, that none should make bondmen of them, that is, of a Jew his brother.’

With the Babylonians at the gates it would appear that Zedekiah sought to win YHWH’s favour by calling on the people to ‘declare freedom’ for all their bondpersons who would, if the Law had not been observed, at this stage all have been ‘Hebrews’. The people had seemingly agreed, partly because it would relieve them of the responsibility of feeding the bondpersons, partly because it would mean that there were more free persons available to defend the city, and partly because they did hope that it might sway YHWH in their favour.

34.10 ‘And all the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant that every one should let his man-servant, and every one his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondmen of them any more. They obeyed, and let them go,’

So all the princes and all the people entered into solemn covenant to release their bondpersons, both men and women, and let them go permanently. They did it by means of the ancient custom of dividing an animal and stepping between its parts, probably as an indication that if they went back on their covenant they were to be treated like the slaughtered animal (compare Genesis 15.9-17). And having made the covenant they had done precisely what they had agreed, and had let their bondpersons go. So far, so good.

34.11 ‘But afterwards they turned, and made the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, return, and brought them into subjection as servants and as handmaids.’

However, when the Babylonians withdrew from outside the city wall because of the approach of Pharaoh Hophra’s Egyptian army they changed their minds, presumably because they felt that it was no longer necessary. With the siege lifted they felt that they could carry on as before. They had got their way and so obedience was no longer necessary. And so they once again enslaved their bondmen and bondwomen, totally disregarding their covenant.

34.12 ‘Therefore the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying,’

Not surprisingly YHWH was not pleased at this, and He sent His word to Jeremiah to make clear His thoughts.

34.13-14 “Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel. I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, “At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you. But your fathers did not listen to me, nor inclined their ear.”

Through Jeremiah He pointed out the law that He had previously made at Sinai about freeing Hebrew bondpersons at the end of seven years, once they had served for six years, and had had a year’s sabbatical, which was to be in the light of the fact that He had delivered His people as a whole from slavery in Egypt. He then pointed out that their fathers had not listened or taken notice, and thus had not observed the law.

34.15 “And you were now turned, and had done what is right in my eyes, in proclaiming freedom every man to his neighbour, and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name,”

However, He had noted with pleasure that they themselves had changed their minds and had done what was right in YHWH’s eyes. They had ‘proclaimed freedom’ and had freed their bondpersons without obligation, and they had done it by a solemn covenant made before YHWH in the House that was called by His Name. It was the beginning of an attempt to return to observation of the full covenant. And YHWH had taken them seriously!

34.16 “But you turned and profaned my name, and made every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, return, and you brought them into subjection, to be servants and for handmaids to you.”

But now they had treated His Name lightly by assuming that they could just ignore what they had covenanted. Having released those of their bondservants who had desired freedom, they had once again brought those bondservants into bondage, so that they would have to serve them as bondservants once again. By this they were indicating to YHWH that they had not taken seriously the promises that they had made to Him. They were assuming that they could just ignore the significance of the covenant that they had made simply because circumstances had altered.

How easy it is for us also to make promises to God when we face times of difficulty, only to renege on them when the difficulty is passed. Do we think that we will escape similar condemnation?

34.17 “Therefore thus says YHWH, you have not listened to me, to proclaim freedom, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbour. Behold, I proclaim to you a freedom, the word of YHWH, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I will cause you to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth.”

As a result their disobedience was even greater than that of their fathers. For they had pretended to ‘declare freedom’ every man to his brother under the most solemn oath, but had in fact prevented that freedom from taking effect. In effect they had insulted YHWH by treating Him in the most casual fashion.

Let them therefore take note that in response YHWH was going to ‘declare freedom’ for them. But this would be the freedom to suffer under the sword, and pestilence and famine, and the freedom to be tossed about among the nations. And ironically this was because He had ‘set them free’ so that they were no longer His servants and under His protection.

34.18-20 “And I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts, the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the high official (or eunuchs), and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf. I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and their dead bodies will be for food to the birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth.”

We learn here for the first time the depths of their iniquity and folly. Their iniquity because they had made such a solemn oath and had broken it, and their folly because they had ignored the fact that by doing so they had called for retribution on themselves. By their actions they had actually called on YHWH to slaughter them. Well, He would grant them their request. They would be given into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who sought their lives. And they would suffer the further ignominy of having their bodies left unburied to be available to the scavengers who gathered around dead bodies, both birds and beasts. In those days that was seen as the most ignominious of ways to die.

This type of covenant in which an animal was slain and the parties to the covenant passed between the parts, was a common one practised throughout history. We have an example of it as early as Genesis 15.9-17. It was a most solemn covenant ceremony and was probably declaring them as worthy of death if they broke it, in the same way as the animal had died to seal the covenant. Compare the similar idea in 1 Samuel 11.7. In other circumstances it may also have included the thought that both parties to a covenant were being united by joint-participation in the released life of the victim, which they would lose in death if they broke it, but this would hardly have been seen as applying to YHWH Himself. Alternately it may have been seen as uniting the parties to the covenant in a sacrificial meal, although Genesis 15.9-17 would appear to be against that interpretation as there is no thought there of such a meal.

We can compare here the prayer offered by the priest to Jupiter in Livy 1.24. His prayer was, ‘O Jupiter, do you on that day (that they break the covenant) so smite the Roman people, as I this day smite this pig, yes so much the more smite them as you are mightier and more prevailing’. This would confirm the idea that the main significance was the death of those who broke the covenant.

The word often translated ‘eunuchs’ probably simply refers to high officials regardless of whether they were eunuchs or not (compare Genesis 39.1 where it was used of Potiphar, who was married; 1 Samuel 8.15; etc.).

34.21 “And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which has gone away from you.”

And disaster was also to happen to King Zedekiah and his princes. They would be given into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who sought their lives, namely into the hands of the King of Babylon’s army whom they had thought that they had seen the backs of. It was true that those armies had gone away to face the Egyptian threat, but they would return. The foolish people of Jerusalem had acted too precipitately.

34.22 “Behold, I will command, the word of YHWH, and cause them to return to this city, and they will fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

For YHWH Himself would command their army to return (this was the sure word of YHWH), and they would fight against the city and burn it and make all the cities of Judah desolate and without inhabitant. (And could anyone deny in view of what had happened here, that they deserved it? They would actually be receiving what they had called down on themselves).

The Rechabites Are Held Up As An Example Of Obedience To Their Father (35.1-19).

Commencing with the words, ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH in the days of Jehoiakim,’ the passage demonstrates that YHWH was using the example of the Rechabites as an illustration of the obedience which was the very opposite of Judah’s disobedience, a disobedience which would result in judgment coming on Judah and Jerusalem. The fact that the Rechabites had continually from generation to generation, for over two hundred and fifty years, faithfully followed the requirements of their father concerning their way of life, is contrasted with the way in which God’s supposed people had treated their Father and His requirements for their way of life (see 31.9, 20). As in the last passage the idea is once again to bring out their overall disobedience.

The Rechabites were related to the Kenites (1 Chronicles 2.55), a wilderness tribe who had joined up with Israel while they were making their journey from Egypt to Canaan (Judges 1.16; 4.11; Numbers 10.29-32), and in obedience to their tribal father’s requirements they had refused to settle in cities, but had lived in tents and had abstained from all forms of wine and strong liqueur. Nor had they engaged in settled agriculture. Their aim had been to maintain their wilderness traditions and not to become contaminated by ‘civilisation’ and idolatry. Indeed the only reason that they were in Jerusalem at all was because they were seeking refuge there from the invading Babylonians and Aramaeans (Syrians).

As the invasion described here was in the days of Jehoiakim, it could not have been the one occurring during the final days of Judah. It was thus referring to a previous invasion by Nebuchadnezzar when he had specifically called on Aramaean forces. It could have been the invasion of 606/605 BC after Nebuchadnezzar had defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and Hamath, but more likely it is the one later in the days of Jehoiakim when Jehoiakim had withheld tribute (2 Kings 24.1-2).

The ancestor of the Rechabites, Jonadab, had in the past demonstrated their fierce loyalty to YHWH when he had supported Jehu in destroying all the worshippers of Baal (2 Kings 10.15-27).

As previously in chapters 21-24 events which took place in the reign of Jehoiakim and other kings are here sandwiched between two passages referring to the reign of Zedekiah, the aim being to bring out that the final invasion was the result of, a long period of disobedience which preceded it. Here it brings out that their disobedience, previously reflected, was of a long standing nature.

Jeremiah Call The Rechabites To A Gathering And Offers Them Wine (35.1-11).

35.1 ‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,’

Here YHWH had sent His word through Jeremiah ‘in the days of Jehoiakim’. The time note is deliberately general and not specific. It is emphasising that the disobedience being described was common throughout the reign of Jehoiakim.

35.2 “Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of YHWH, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.”

‘The house of the Rechabites’ may here be the equivalent of ‘the family of’ as it is in verse 3. Or it may refer to the house in which they were living as paralleled with ‘the house of YHWH’, emphasising that the Rechabites were now living in ‘a house’, contrary to their principles. It may have been for this last reason that YHWH put them to a further test so as to demonstrate that they were being loyal to their father’s requirements, in spite of living in a house, for Jeremiah was called on to invite them into the house of YHWH, ‘into one of the chambers’, and there to give them wine to drink. There were many side chambers in the court of the Temple where important people resided.

35.3 ‘Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites,’

It is noteworthy in the description of those whom he invited to the house of YHWH that both they and their fathers all have ‘Yah’ in their names. (The mention of a Jeremiah is purely coincidental). We know nothing further about these people, only that they appear to be dedicated to YHWH. ‘Brothers’ and ‘sons’ may be intended literally, or may refer to wider relationships (he would not for example exclude the sons of his brothers) like e.g. ‘sons of the prophets’. The name Jaazaniah was found on a seal discovered at Tel en-Nasbeh from c. 600 AD

35.4 ‘And I brought them into the house of YHWH, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold.’

Jeremiah here clearly had the use of a chamber in the Temple which was in the possession of a fellow-prophet (a ‘man of God’) called Hanan, demonstrating that not all prophets were to be seen as false at this stage. Hanan was distinguished enough to have his chamber ‘by the chamber of the princes’ (used by the princes when visiting the Temple) and above that of the ‘keeper of the threshold’. The keeper of the threshold was an important post in the Temple. He was not just a doorkeeper but one of three high officials whose responsibility it was to ensure that no unauthorised or unclean persons entered the Temple area (52.24; 2 Kings 25.18). He thus had high authority. ‘The sons of Hanan’ were probably Hanan’s trainee prophets.

It appears that Jeremiah was trying to give the appearance of bringing together two groups of religious zealots who were in sympathy with him, thus disarming the Rechabites who might otherwise have wondered what he was about.

35.5 ‘And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink you wine.”

Once they were gathered he brought out drinking cups and wine bowls and invited the Rechabites to partake (along presumably with the ‘sons of Hanan’). Note the wider use of ‘sons’ here to signify all the Rechabites. It was a typical prophetic acted out parable for Jeremiah no doubt knew what to expect.

35.6-7 ‘But they said, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons, for ever, nor shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any, but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land in which you sojourn.’ ”

The Rechabites stood firm by their convictions. They refused to drink wine on the grounds that their ancestor Jonadab, the son of Rechab, had commanded them to avoid the drinking of wine in perpetuity, along with the avoidance of all the other trappings of civilisation mentioned. They were not to live in houses or involve themselves in the kind of settled life which allowed time for grain to grow and vineyards to flourish. Rather they were to live a healthy life in tents, moving from one place to another, thus living healthy and long lives and surviving for many days. The aim would appear to have been to avoid the temptations of civilisation so that they might remain true to YHWH, copying the life of Israel when they were in the wilderness, and of course following the nomadic life of their own ancestors. The covenant that Jonadab had made may well have been a reaction to the ‘civilisation’ introduced by Jezebel, for they were probably already living in this way in accordance with their own lifestyle. Jonadab seemingly turned it into a ‘virtue’. The fact that Jehu had sought an alliance with Jonadab suggests that in his day the Rechabites were admired by the common people because of their simple way of living which was a reminder of ‘the great days in the wilderness’. (Note how these Kenites were now seen as native-born Israelites)

In fact by living the kind of lifestyle that they did wine would not be as important for them as it would be for people in cities, for they could move camp regularly and could always ensure that they encamped by a pure spring. In contrast those who lived in cities often had to depend on water from cisterns which as it became staler and more fouled was unpleasant to drink to say the least. In such circumstances wine was a more pleasant, and often even a more necessary, alternative. (Compare Paul’s advice to Timothy in Ephesus where the water was notorious for giving people sickness - 1 Timothy 5.23).

35.8-10 “And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, nor to build houses for us to dwell in, nor have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed, but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.”

They stressed their loyalty to the requirements laid down by their ‘father’ in everything that he had required of them, a loyalty which was carried on in the family tradition. There was no loose living among the Rechabites. They lived disciplined lives and were obedient to the covenant by which they had been bound.

35.11 “But it came about, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians,’ so we dwell at Jerusalem.”

They were aware, however, that their claim appeared a little incongruous in the light of the fact that they were actually dwelling in houses in Jerusalem, so they pointed out that the only reason why they were living in Jerusalem was because they had sought refuge there from invaders. They wanted Jeremiah to know that the single reason for their presence was their fear of the armies of the Chaldeans and the Aramaeans who were harassing the land of Judah and would simply have gobbled up the Rechabites. Once they had gone the Rechabites would return to their previous way of living.

YHWH Uses The Loyalty Of The Rechabites To Their ‘Father’ As A Contrast With The Behaviour Of Judah Towards Their ‘Father’ (35.12-19).

The Rechabites had proved their loyalty to their ‘father’ (their forefather) by their maintenance of the requirements that he had laid down, and they had done it over a long period of time. This was in total contrast to Judah’s attitude towards YHWH’s requirements. They had rather ignored YHWH’s requirements for a very long time.

35.12 ‘Then the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah, saying,’

Once again the direct word of YHWH came to Jeremiah. YHWH was very much involved in the situation

35.13 “Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, Go, and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ‘Will you not receive instruction to listen to my words? The word of YHWH,’ ”

YHWH’s challenge (under His full title) towards the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem was that they had not been willing to receive instruction or to listen to His words, a fact which was to be seen as solemnly declared by the prophetic word of YHWH. In other words they had totally and blatantly ignored His requirements.

35.14 “The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are carried out, and to this day they drink none, for they obey their father’s commandment, but I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, and you have not listened to me.”

And He wanted them to note that this was in total contrast with the Rechabites who had obeyed their father’s commandments to abstain from wine, something which they had observed ‘to this day’. And this in spite of the effort that YHWH had put in to bringing home His word to the men of Judah. They had simply refused to listen. Note the Jeremaic ‘I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking’.

35.15 “I have also sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, ‘Return you now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and you will dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers, but you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to me.”

Not only so, but He had also put great effort into sending the prophets to them, calling on them to return from their evil ways, to set right their behaviour, and not to go after other gods to worship and serve them. And He had promised that if they would do so He would ensure that they continued to dwell in their own land which He had given to them and their fathers. But they had refused to listen. (Thus annulling their rights in the promises given to the fathers).

35.16 “Forasmuch as the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have carried out the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people have not listened to me.”

So because the sons of Jonadab had obeyed the commandments of their father, whilst the men of Judah had refused to listen to the commands of their Father, He would reward the one and punish the other.

35.17 “Therefore thus says YHWH, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil which I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard, and I have called to them, but they have not answered.”

On Judah and Jerusalem, He, ‘YHWH the God of hosts, the God of Israel’, would bring ‘all the evil which He had pronounced against them’. He would make them desolate through the activities of the Babylonians, by sword and famine and pestilence, (the usual large-scale disasters that they often faced) and would carry them into exile far away. And He would do this because when He had spoken to them they had not heard, and when He had called on them they had not answered.

35.18-19 ‘And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done in accordance with all that he commanded you, therefore thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.”

In contrast to the misery coming on Jerusalem and Judah His promise to the Rechabites was that He would preserve their name and their inheritance. Because they had proved their worth by their obedience to their father’s commandments and precepts, He would ensure their survival so that their group did not die out. There would ever be a ‘son of Jonadab’ to stand before Him. The group would never be wholly wiped out.

See for example in this regard Nehemiah 3.14 where ‘a son of Rechab’ was ruler of a district. Hegesippus also speaks of Rechabites who were priests in the Apostolic age, who stood by sympathising with James our Lord’s brother in his martyrdom. And according to the Mishnah 'the children of Jonadab son of Rechab' had a fixed day in each year for bringing wood for the altar of the temple. Even as late as the 12th century AD Benjamin of Tudela could speak of a group of Jews who were named Rechabites and who were governed by a prince of the house of David.

‘To stand before me’ was a technical term indicating that they would in some way serve YHWH in connection with the Sanctuary. They were to have special privileges.

Jeremiah Writes Out His Prophecies In Written Form And Commits Them To Baruch Who Reads Them Out In The Temple. The Scroll Eventually Reaches Jehoiakim Who Demonstrates His Contempt For The Prophet By Slowly Burning It Once It Has Been Read Out, Something That Causes YHWH To Pronounce Judgment On Him. Jeremiah Then Rewrites His Prophecies With Further Additions (36.1-32).

We have here the third example of the disobedience which was so prevalent in Judah. The first was revealed in their hypocritical attitude to the freeing of their bondmen and bondwomen. The second was revealed in the contrast between the people and the Rechabites. This third brings out the attitude of the leadership towards YHWH.

One great importance of this chapter is that it demonstrates conclusively that it was not unusual for prophets to record their prophecies in writing with a view to them being read out. Jeremiah was at this time in some way under restraint and he therefore calls on his faithful amanuensis Baruch to record his prophecies, and then to read them out in the Temple. His concern was to avert the wrath of YHWH from the people by constraining them to respond to His covenant.

When the leading men of Judah, ‘the princes’, learned of this reading out of Jeremiah’s prophecies in the Temple they called on Baruch to come and read the scroll to them, and stirred by the words determined to bring them to the king, as was their duty. But meanwhile, knowing the evil propensities of the king and what might happen once he knew of Jeremiah’s prophecies, some of them advised Baruch and Jeremiah to go into hiding.

When the king learned of the scroll he had it brought to him and read before him, but after every three or four sections, with the approval of most of his nearest courtiers and despite the protests of some, he, or the reader at his command, would take a ‘knife’ and slice off the portion that had been read and throw it into the fire in order to indicate what he thought of it, thereby no doubt hoping to annul the prophecy (compare how Hananiah had broken the symbolic yoke - 28.10). This went on until the whole scroll had been burned. It was indeed an open declaration that he was not willing to listen to the voice of YHWH. But it was a foolish action for by it he brought YHWH’s greater judgment on himself.

YHWH Tells Jeremiah To Write Down His Prophecies (36.1-3).

36.1 ‘And it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying,’

This event is fairly precisely dated, occurring in 605 BC. It may possibly have been just prior to Jerusalem’s enforced submission to Nebuchadnezzar after he had defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and Hamath, and had sacked Ashkelon (this would explain the calling of a fast day as they may have been deciding what they would do next in the face of the sacking of Ashkelon).

Alternatively others see it as a fast declared after their subjection to Babylon, with it being intended as a sad memorial of it, with a view to stirring up antagonism against the Babylonians. We could then see in this an attempt by Jeremiah to quell that sense of rebellion.

36.2 “Take you a roll of a written record, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.”

Jeremiah was commanded to take ‘a roll of a written record’, a phrase also occurring in Psalm 40.7; Ezekiel 2.9; 3.1; Zechariah 5.1, 2. This would probably be made up of papyrus strips glued together to form a scroll of up to ten metres (thirty feet) long and thirty centimetres (ten inches) wide. The scroll would be wound round two ‘rollers’, two suitable pieces of wood, which could be held one in each hand so that the scroll could be unrolled from one piece of wood on to the other while it was being read. The writing would be in columns parallel to the two rods and following one after the other. Thus one or two columns, or even more, could be seen at a time as the scroll was being read.

On it he was to write ‘all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day that I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.’ It probably contained a good deal of chapters 1-20 and possibly some of what followed later (prophesied prior to this date).

It is difficult to believe that YHWH only ever suggested this need to write down his prophecies to Jeremiah, and we may therefore see it as probable that most of the prophets followed this tactic (compare Hosea 8.12; Isaiah 30.8; 2 Chronicles 21.12; 26.22; Job 19.23). Indeed it is quite probable that Jesus called Matthew (Levi), the public servant and experienced keeper of records, for that very purpose.

36.3 “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

The expressed hope was that Judah would hear of the evils which YHWH purposed to bring on them because of their disobedience, and would repent, ‘returning every man from his evil way’, so that their inward sin and their outward acts of transgression might be forgiven, thus enabling YHWH to alter course. God was still concerned to bring all men to repentance and into a knowledge of the truth.

Jeremiah Calls On Baruch To Act As His Amanuensis And Having Dictated His Prophecies Sends Him To The Temple To Read Them Out To The Crowds Who Are Gathered There On A Special Fast Day (36.4-8).

One of the purposes of the writing out of the prophecies at this time would appear to be that a special fast day was to be called some months later to which all the people of Judah were to be summoned. The purpose of that fast day was probably in order to persuade the gods who were being worshipped in the Temple along with YHWH to intervene and help Judah in their dealings with the Babylonians. It may well have been part of the build up towards the negotiations which would necessarily follow the defeat of Egypt at Carchemish and Hamath and the sacking of Ashkelon. They may well have thought that Jerusalem would be next. It was an apposite time to bring home to the people the prophecies of Jeremiah which had previously been given (see e.g. chapters 1-20).

Jeremiah thus dictated his prophecies to Baruch who wrote them down on a scroll. In Baruch’s own words, “He proclaimed all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the scroll” (verse 18). This would, of course, have taken some considerable time. He then even later (on the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim) sent him to the Temple to read them out to the gathered crowds, in the hope that they would repent and turn from their sin and disobedience. The delay in doing this probably had in mind awaiting the fast day when the prophecies would be especially telling. Jeremiah would be aware of events on the political front and would no doubt have expected such a day to be called.

36.4 ‘Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of YHWH, which he had spoken to him, on a roll of a written record.’

Jeremiah then called on the services of Baruch the son of Neriah who wrote down all the words of Jeremiah’s prophecies, as they were dictated to him, on a scroll. Baruch was apparently a professional scribe and a supporter of Jeremiah. Scribes had an important status and he seemingly came from an important family. His father Neriah was probably also a scribe. His grandfather Maasaiah (32.12) was apparently the governor of Jerusalem during the reign of Josiah (2 Chronicles 34.8). His brother Seraiah was clearly an important courtier (51.59). Both Seraiah, and especially Baruch, were loyal to Jeremiah and Baruch regularly suffered along with Jeremiah, even sharing his exile in Egypt.

36.5 ‘And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, ‘I am restricted (or ‘locked up’), I cannot go into the house of YHWH,”

For some reason Jeremiah was unable to go to the Temple at the time of the fast. It may have been because he was going through a period of uncleanness which debarred him from entering the Temple, or he may have been ill or have suffered an accident, or he may have been temporarily detained in order to prevent him going and inciting the people (if so it could only have been temporary for the period of the fast, for he was later able to go into hiding), or it may simply have been that the Temple authorities had barred him from going there to speak.

36.6 “You therefore go, and read in the roll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of YHWH in the ears of the people in YHWH’s house on the fast-day, and also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities.”

His instruction to Baruch was that he should read his prophecies, the words of YHWH, to the people gathered in the Temple on the fast day, and also to people of ‘all Judah’ who would be gathered out of the cities of Judah for the fast. He wanted his prophecies to be heard as widely as possible.

36.7 “It may be they will present their supplication before YHWH, and will return every one from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that YHWH has pronounced against this people.”

For his longing was to bring the people to repentance. He longed that the people might listen to what was said, take note of it, and turn from their evil ways, and begin to obey YHWH and worship Him alone, for he was very much aware of the antipathy of YHWH towards their sins, that is, of ‘the great anger and wrath that that He had pronounced against His people’ because of His holiness.

36.8 ‘And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the written record the words of YHWH in YHWH’s house.’

So Baruch did what Jeremiah had required of him, and read out from the scroll the words of YHWH, reading them out in YHWH’s house before all the people. It was a courageous act for there was a very good possibility of a hostile reaction from the authorities, and even from the gathered crowds.

Baruch’s Reading Of The Words Of Jeremiah In The Temple Comes To The Ears Of The Princes Of Judah Who Summon Him To Read It Before Them (36.9-15).

Baruch’s (or Jeremiah’s) influence comes out in that he was able to make use of ‘the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe’ from which to proclaim his message, no doubt through a window or balcony. As fellow-scribes connected with the inner circles in Jerusalem they were clearly on friendly terms, and Gemariah was seemingly sympathetic towards Jeremiah. A piece of clay inscribed ‘Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe’ has been discovered in investigations around Jerusalem. His father may have been the Shaphan who held an important position under King Josiah (2 Kings 22.3, 8-10), and was involved in the repairs to the Temple and the reading of the Book of the Law to Josiah (2 Kings 22.10), and Gemariah must have been important in order to have a room allocated to him in the Temple area. We do in fact discover later that he was one of the king’s circle of scribes and counsellors (verse 12), which would be why he was not present when the scroll was read out. What follows may well have been a carefully thought out strategy for bringing Jeremiah’s words to the king, or it may simply have been YHWH Whose purpose brought it about. Initially, however, his words reached some of the king’s advisers.

36.9 ‘Now it came about in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before YHWH.’

The date was around November/December 604 BC, and the people of Judah had been called to come to Jerusalem for a special fast ‘before YHWH’. With all their idolatry they recognised that in such a situation it was YHWH of Hosts Who was needed.

This was not one of the regular Jewish feasts. It was presumably called because of the dire political situation as they saw that Nebuchadnezzar was about to exert his authority over Judah after his rout of the Egyptians at Carchemish and Hamath and his sacking of the Philistine city of Ashkelon.

36.10 ‘Then Baruch read in the scroll (written record) the words of Jeremiah in the house of YHWH, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of YHWH’s house, in the ears of all the people.’

Taking advantage of the crowds massing into the Temple Baruch read out the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, making use of a window or balcony in the room of Gemariah the Scribe, which was in the upper court (elsewhere called ‘the inner court’) by the New Gate of YHWH’s house, to the waiting crowds below.

We do not know how much of the scroll was read to the people. If we say that someone, ‘read the Bible to the congregation’ we do not thereby indicate that the whole Bible was read to them. It may be that what was read would be selected passages.

36.11 ‘And when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the scroll (written record) all the words of YHWH,’

One of those who heard the words, and may have been in the room with Baruch, was Micaiah, who was Gemariah’s son. He listened carefully to all the words which Baruch spoke from the scroll containing all the words of YHWH.

36.12 ‘He went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes were sitting there, to wit, Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.’

He then went down from the Temple to the palace-complex where there was a gathering of many of the leading men of Judah in the Scribes’ Room. It was an important gathering made up of many of Jehoiakim’s top advisers. They may well have been sitting there awaiting the king’s summons to a council meeting (a cabinet meeting). If they were all involved in the advice to Jeremiah and Baruch to hide themselves (verse 19), they appear to have been a group sympathetic to Jeremiah. It is noteworthy that Jehoiakim did not send any of them to oversee the arrest of Jeremiah (verse 26).

Elishama is called ‘the Scribe’ and may have been the king’s official scribe, a leading cabinet post (Gemariah was also a Scribe and this was in the Scribes’ Room, thus the title here must be significant). If he can be identified with the Elishama in 41.1; 2 Kings 25.25 he was of royal birth, and his grandson Ishmael would assassinate Gedaliah, Nebuchadnezzar’s appointed Governor of Judah after the destruction of Jerusalem (no doubt seeing him as a traitor). Elnathan was leader of the deputation which, at the king’s command, extradited Uriah the prophet from Egypt (26.22). His father had been involved in the discovery of the Book of the Law in the Temple (2 Kings 22.12). His family were therefore important courtiers, close to the king. Apart from Gemariah we know nothing about the others. But they were all leading men (princes). Elnathan and Delaiah, along with Gemariah, later pleaded with Jehoiakim not to destroy the scroll.

36.13 ‘Then Micaiah declared to them all the words which he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.’

Micaiah then told the gathering in the Scribes’ Room all he could recall of the words that Baruch had read out in the Temple.

36.14 ‘Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the roll in which you have read in the ears of the people, and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came to them.’

This was enough to make them realise how important Baruch’s scroll was, so they sent a man named Jehudi to Baruch, calling on him to come and read the scroll before them. Baruch accordingly came (they were not the kind of men to be trifled with).

Jehudi may well have been a Sudanese (Ethiopian, Cushite) proselyte. His great-grandfather was named Cushi, and the naming of three generations would indicate that Jehudi (‘the Jew’) was now qualified as a full Israelite. The Cushites may well have been linked with the Egyptians as requiring three generations before this could be so (Deuteronomy 23.7-8). His name (the Jew) probably celebrated that fact. Compare 2 Samuel 18.21 where Cushi was the name of a man who was then called the Cushite. It would appear that Cushi was a name often taken by proselytes from Cush (Northern Sudan).

36.15 ‘And they said to him, “Sit down now, and read it in our ears.” So Baruch read it in their ears.’

Then they called on him to read out the prophecies so that they could hear them. And while they listened carefully, he read it out to them. The fact that they asked him to ‘sit down’ indicated respect for his position. These men were used to other standing in their presence, or even prostrating themselves.

The Princes Having Listened To What Was Written In The Scroll Ascertain The Facts About It And Feel It Necessary To Inform The King About Its Contents Meanwhile Advising Baruch and Jeremiah To Go Into Hiding (36.16-19).

The whole gathering were stirred by the words, for they were clearly a section of the king’s council who in general supported Jeremiah’s outlook, and filled with apprehension by the words enquired further into their exact source, being determined to bring them to the king’s notice. Baruch explained that they had been dictated to him by Jeremiah, while he recorded them. Then in preparation for what they were about to do they recommended to Baruch that he and Jeremiah should go into hiding.

36.16 ‘Now it came about, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one towards another, and said to Baruch, “We will surely tell the king of all these words.”

Having listened carefully to the words that Baruch read out the whole gathering looked at one another, stirred by the words and apprehensive at what the words had prophesied was coming on Judah. Then they turned to Baruch and assured him that they would bring them to the attention of the king. This was not an unfriendly act, but an indication of how seriously they took them. They knew that in the end they were intended for the king, and would have been aware of some of the events mentioned in them (such as the Temple sermon in chapter 7). Furthermore their reading out in the Temple had made them public knowledge and it would not have been safe to withhold them from the king.

36.17 ‘And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, How did you write all these words at his mouth?”

But before doing so they wanted to be sure of the exact source of the words, and so they asked Baruch to describe the process and the circumstances which had resulted in them being written. It was important to know how far Baruch himself ought to accept responsibility for the words, especially as he had read them out in the Temple, which was not necessarily a scribe’s duty. (Besides so-called prophets had many different ways of obtaining their ‘prophetic words’ and they wanted to know how far these could be relied on).

36.18 ‘Then Baruch answered them, “He proclaimed all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the scroll (written record).”

Baruch explained that Jeremiah had proclaimed the words to him while he wrote them down on the scroll. Had he simply been acting as a paid scribe he could have argued that he was ‘only doing his job’. But by proclaiming them in the Temple he had undoubtedly implicated himself.

This is the only mention of ‘ink’ in the Old Testament. It was a black carbon (charcoal) mixed with gum or oil and would be brushed on by the stylus which would often be a reed split at the end to form a kind of brush. It would be solidified and kept in the scribe’s palette, being moistened by the reed when required.

36.19 ‘Then the princes said to Baruch, “Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and let no man know where you are.”

The princes (leading men), who knew only too well what Jehoiakim’s reaction might be, then advised Baruch that he and Jeremiah should hide themselves away and leave no trace of their whereabouts. The implication was that the king would otherwise have them arrested, and even put to death. If this was not long after the death of the prophet Uriah who had also proclaimed Jeremiah’s words (26.20) we can understand the danger that Baruch was in. Having given this advice the princes then put the scroll in the room of Elishama the Scribe for safe-keeping. It was stored in the Cabinet office.

The Scroll Is Brought To The King And Is Read Before Him And On Hearing Each Section He Cuts It Up With A Knife And Burns It After Which He Calls For The Arrest Of Jeremiah And Baruch Who Are, However, In Hiding And Cannot Be Found (36.20-25).

When the king learned about the scroll he commanded that it be brought to him, and called on Jehudi to read it out before him and his courtiers, many of whom had little sympathy with Jeremiah for on the whole they made no protest when Jehoiakim burned the scroll. And while the reading was in process, every time Jehudi had read four columns Jehoiakim cut them off and burned them. His intention may well have been in order to nullify the prophecy. He then called for the arrest of Jeremiah and Baruch, but they could not be found because ‘YHWH hid them’.

36.20 ‘And they went in to the king into the court, but they had laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and they told all the words in the ears of the king.’

Having safely deposited the scroll in the room of Elishama the Scribe, a room which would contain many official documents, they went before the king and informed him about the scroll and what it contained.

36.21 ‘So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king.’

The king was impressed enough to send Jehudi for the scroll, and called on him to read it out before himself and the courtiers, which, of course, he did. Again we are not told how much he read of it.

36.22 Now the king was sitting in the winter-accommodation (house) in the ninth month, and there was a brazier burning before him.’

An explanation is then given of how he had a fire available. It was because he was sitting in his winter accommodation where there was a brazier (a vessel containing burning charcoal, or a hearth containing the same) alight in the room in which there would be a charcoal fire which was there in order to provide warmth (compare John 18.18). Whilst the climate was mild, it was cool in contrast to the hot summers (and there was, of course, no glass in the windows).

36.23 ‘And it came about, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves (or ‘columns’, literally ‘doors’), that he (the king?) cut it with the penknife, and threw it into the fire which was in the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire which was in the brazier.’

This can be taken in one of two ways.

• 1). It may indicate that the whole scroll was burned once Jehudi had read three or four columns, with that being enough to antagonise Jehoiakim who would know what was coming.
• 2). It may indicate that he read the whole scroll with a portion of it being destroyed piece by piece as it was read.

The former would indicate acting in a fit of rage, the latter, which may be suggested by the ‘until’, would indicate a slow and calculated insult to Jeremiah, and of course to YHWH.

The scroll may well, when opened, have revealed three or four columns which the reader could read before twisting the rollers to reveal the next three or four columns. This might serve to explain why the king acted after every three or four columns. The word for columns is literally ‘doors’ indicating its oblong nature. And, if this is how we read it, then after the reading of the columns the king (or Jehudi at his command) cut the columns off from the scroll with a ‘pen-knife’ (a sharp instrument normally used for sharpening or splitting the stylus or reed used in writing) and threw them into the charcoal fire where they were burned up. And this continued until the whole scroll had been consumed by the fire.

The aim would be to nullify the prophecy in the same way as Hananiah had broken the symbolic yoke around Jeremiah’s shoulders. But it was not to be nullified so easily. On the other hand, to have left it in written form would have seemed to the king and his courtiers, and to all who heard of it, to be an acceptance of the prophecy. It would also have meant that others could have read it and been influenced by it. Thus the king acted in order to rid himself of the hated Jeremiah’s influence.

36.24 ‘And they were not afraid, nor tore their robes, neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words.’

Meanwhile neither the king nor the courtiers reacted in their hearts to the prophecy. They neither ‘feared’ (unlike those who had been gathered in the scribes’ room who had more confidence in Jeremiah) nor indicated a reaction by tearing their clothes. In other words they did not respond to the prophecy, but mainly (at least outwardly) treated it with contempt, many partly, no doubt, being influenced by the king’s presence.

36.25 ‘Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll, but he would not hear them.’

There were, however, three present, who had also been present in the scribes’ room, who pleaded with the king not to destroy the scroll. These were Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah. It was a brave act, and indicated their high standing in that they dared to do it, but the king refused to listen to their pleadings.

36.26 ‘And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but YHWH hid them.’

Then the king sent three of his trusted servants to arrest Baruch and Jeremiah. Arresting important people may well have been one of their duties. ‘The king’s son’ would probably not have literally been the king’s son for Jehoiakim was about twenty nine and any son would therefore have been fairly young, (although in those days it is always possible that such a young person acted). It may rather indicate a member of the royal house, a relative of the king. A slab of clay bearing the name ‘Jerahmeel son of the king’, who was presumably the same man, has in fact been excavated. Shelamiah’s son later called for the arrest of Jeremiah under Zedekiah (38.1-6).

YHWH Commands Jeremiah To Rewrite The Scroll And Declares The Punishment That He Will Bring On King Jehoiakim Because Of What He Has Done (36.27-32).

Jeremiah is consequently told to prepare a second scroll containing details of his prophecies, to replace the one that had been burned, and he took the opportunity that this presented to expand on the previous scroll. Meanwhile YHWH assured Jehoiakim that His wrath was coming on him in that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy the land, and in that the succession would not be maintained by his descendants. Furthermore, because of his action in rejecting the scroll and treating it ignominiously, his body too would be treated ignominiously on death. He had cast YHWH’s words on the fire. His own body would be cast on the ground outside the walls of Jerusalem, open to the fiery heat of the sun by day and to the frost by night.

36.27 ‘Then the word of YHWH came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,’

As a result of Jehoiakim burning the scroll YHWH sent a further word to Jeremiah about him. Note the emphasis on Jehoiakim’s actually having burned the words. This was his crime, that he had burned the words of YHWH.

36.28 “Take yourself again another roll, and write in it all the former words which were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.”

Jeremiah was then told to take another roll of papyri and write on it all the words that had been written on the earlier scroll which Jehoiakim had burned.

36.29 ‘And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, “Thus says YHWH, You have burned this roll, saying, ‘Why have you written in it, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cause to cease from within it man and beast?’ ”

‘You have burned this roll’ does not necessarily mean that Jehoiakim had burned it himself. It simply suggests that he was responsible for its burning, although it may in fact be that he did actually burn it himself in order to demonstrate his contempt for Jeremiah’s prophecies. The reason for his actions is given. It was because he took objection to the suggestion that the king of Babylon would come and destroy the land to such an extent that man and beast would cease from it.

36.30 ‘Therefore thus says YHWH concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, “He will have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.”

Jehoiakim himself would receive a twofold punishment. Firstly he would have no one to sit on the throne of David once he was gone, and secondly his dead body would be humiliated by being cast out to face the ravages of the weather. He had cast YHWH’s words into the heat, he himself would be cast to both heat and cold.

The first was fulfilled in that Jehoiachin, while ruling for king for three months, was possibly never crowned, (certainly not in the time honoured way for the resources necessary were partly in Babylonian hands), and definitely never ruled over the land. For the whole three months he was shut up in Jerusalem under siege. He was then followed by his uncle. We do not have details of how the second was fulfilled (the ignominious treatment of his body) but it is clear elsewhere that he suffered ignominiously on his death (compare 22.18-19), and unusually nothing is said about his burial in 2 Kings.

36.31 “And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on them, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil which I have pronounced against them, but they did not listen.”

Furthermore YHWH’s judgments on Judah as written about in the scroll would be fulfilled. He, his family and his ruling men would all be punished for their iniquity, and all the evil that YHWH had declared would be brought on them. And it was all because they would not listen.

36.32 ‘Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides to them many similar words.’

So Jeremiah did what YHWH had commanded, took another scroll and handed it to Baruch, who wrote down in it all that had been written in the previous book, together with a number of additions along the same lines.

The Disobedience Of Judah And Its King Is Highlighted By Their Treatment Of The Prophet Of YHWH (37.1-38.28).

These events once again took place during the reign of Zedekiah, the final king of Judah before the exile. Along with 34.1-7 this passage forms an inclusio for this subsection on disobedience, paralleling the similar inclusio in chapters 21-24, which brings out that the final intention of the prophecy at this stage is to concentrate on the destruction of Jerusalem and its aftermath in the light of the sin that has gone before.

With this in view the different imprisonments of Jeremiah at the hands of both king and people are emphasised in what follows. The passage commences by underlining the fact that he had not been imprisoned at first (37.4), and then goes on to deal with a number of imprisonments (37.15, 21; 38.6, 13, 28), something which is emphasised in the concluding verse (38.28). Thus there is a continual emphasis throughout on his imprisonment. In this we have the fourth and greatest example of the disobedience of both king and people in that they sought to restrain the prophet of YHWH, something in the main unknown in previous generations.

A Summary Of The Political Situation At This Stage (37.1-5).

The political situation at this stage can be summed up in a few words. Jerusalem was under siege because Zedekiah, Jehoiakim’s uncle, who was now king and had previously been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, had rebelled against him and withheld tribute. And he had done this contrary to YHWH’s words through Jeremiah. Neither he nor his people had been willing to listen to the voice of YHWH. Nevertheless they asked for Jeremiah to pray for them and allowed him his freedom, but were meanwhile looking for deliverance by Egyptian forces.

We can therefore imagine their exuberance when, as a consequence of the advance of an Egyptian army, the siege appeared to have been lifted. They began to think that it was they who had made the right choice after all. With the defeat of the Babylonians by the Egyptians they would have peace with honour and no more be subjected to the Babylonian yoke. And surely Pharaoh Hophra with his chariots and horsemen would be too powerful for the Babylonians.

37.1 ‘And Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king, instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.’

In fulfilment of 36.30 Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin was displaced by his uncle Zedekiah when Jerusalem surrendered to the Babylonians in 597 BC. Coniah was short for Jeconiah, which was another name for Jehoiachin. He was carried off to Babylon with all the leading politicians and artisans, including Ezekiel, leaving a depleted Jerusalem to carry on as best they could, bereft of their finest leaders.

It should be noted that Zedekiah was not the popular choice. He was the choice of Nebuchadnezzar. To the people Jehoiachin was still king, and we know that this was later even recognised in Babylon. But he never ‘sat on the throne of David’ as ruler over Judah. He would die in exile, even though in his latter days he would be released from prison and be treated with honour.

37.2 ‘ But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, listened to the words of YHWH, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.’

But neither Zedekiah nor his people listened to the voice of YHWH. This is Jeremiah’s equivalent of the phrase used in Kings, ‘he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH’. Jeremiah’s emphasis is on their disobedience. Neither the king, nor his aristocracy, nor the people, listened to the words of YHWH spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. They were too taken up in their own ideas, and in their own way of living and worship.

37.3 ‘And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Pray now to YHWH our God for us.”

Yet even in his disobedience Zedekiah hoped that YHWH would look on the needs of His people, for he asked Jeremiah to pray to ‘YHWH OUR God for us’. It was a case of ‘any port in a storm’. It has always been man’s vain hope that when it comes down to the wire God will not take his sin too seriously. But as Jeremiah had already made clear, and will continue to make clear, God takes sin very seriously. That is why such a prayer would have been in vain. The time had come for final judgment. It had been long in coming, but now it was here.

It is clear that Zedekiah was putting feelers out to Jeremiah because in his own heart he had great respect for him and his message. Note indeed how he sent high officials to consult with him rather than simply summoning him to court. But his problem was that the majority of his advisers were pressing him to rebellion, and had no time for Jeremiah whom they saw as a traitor, and he did not feel strong enough to resist them. He was overall a weak king. Both the men sent by the king to Jeremiah had elsewhere had dealings with him, Jehucal in 38.1 and Zephaniah (not the prophet) in 21.1; 29.25. Jehucal was his enemy, but Zephaniah appears to have been more neutral, and possibly even sympathetic.

37.4 ‘Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people, for they had not put him in prison.’

Meanwhile it is emphasised that at this stage Jeremiah was not in prison. He was still free to go about among the people. In fact it is his imprisonments that will be the theme of this passage. For the king and the people still pinned their hopes in the power of Egypt and in the promises of the Pharaoh. Thus they were willing for a time to tolerate what they saw as Jeremiah’s pessimism.

But Jeremiah would not have been alone in supporting the idea of yielding to Babylon. Even among the nobility there were many who sympathised with his message as we have already seen. The Lachish letters also tell us of ‘nobles who weaken the hands of the people’, presumably by calling for surrender to Babylon. The king’s advisers were thus torn between those who advised submission to Babylon, and those who called for resistance and trust in Egypt. But it was the Egyptian party who were winning. And after all, Egypt was local.

37.5 ‘And Pharaoh’s army had come forth out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they decamped from Jerusalem.’

And for a while the Egyptian party appeared to have been right. News came that Pharaoh Hophra had come out of Egypt at the head of a large army, in order to relieve Jerusalem, in response to Zedekiah’s previous negotiations with him (Ezekiel 17.15-18). It must have appeared to them as though Jerusalem had been saved. Who could stand against the might of the Egyptians with their powerful chariots and horsemen?

Indeed to all outward appearances that was the case, for on hearing the news of the Egyptian advance the Chaldean army raised the siege, departed from Jerusalem and went out to face the Egyptians. The people were jubilant. Once more Jerusalem had been delivered! It was, however, to prove a false dawn.

Jeremiah Prophesies The Failure Of The Egyptians, The Reviving Of The Siege And The Destruction Of Jerusalem Because It Was YHWH’s Fixed Purpose (37.6-10).

Jeremiah dismissed the good news. He pointed out that it was so much YHWH’s purpose that Jerusalem be destroyed that even if the Babylonians were left few in number, and ailing at that, they would still succeed in their purpose.

37.6 ‘Then came the word of YHWH to the prophet Jeremiah, saying,’

Once again Jeremiah is in receipt of ‘the word of YHWH’. Even though they were not listening, YHWH had not ceased from speaking to His people.

37.7 “Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, Thus shall you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to enquire of me, ‘Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, will return to Egypt into their own land.’ ”

YHWH’s reply to Zedekiah was forthright, and it was that the Egyptians would fail as deliverers. They would turn tail and return to their own land.

37.8 “And the Chaldeans will come again, and fight against this city, and they will take it, and burn it with fire.”

And the result would be that the Chaldeans would again come and besiege the city, and would eventually take it and burn it with fire. It had rebelled once too often.

37.9 “Thus says YHWH, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, ‘The Chaldeans will surely depart from us,’ for they will not depart.”.

So they were not to be deceived into thinking that the Chaldeans would depart (which was the general position held in Jerusalem). For the fact was that the Chaldeans would not depart. They had come to fulfil a purpose, and fulfil that purpose they would.

37.10 “For though you had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet would they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.”

And that purpose was to burn Jerusalem with fire. And so great was their zeal, and so firmly was YHWH on their side, that even if the whole army had been smitten, leaving only a small band of wounded men, yet they would still rise up against Jerusalem and take it and burn it with fire, because it was the determined will of YHWH.

When Seeking To Take Possession Of His Land In Benjamin During The Lull In The Siege Jeremiah Is Falsely Accused Of Treachery And Thrown Into Prison (37.11-15).

Jeremiah’s family appears to have had much land in Anathoth, and with the siege of Jerusalem temporarily lifted it gave him the opportunity to once again take possession of it and its produce. This lifting of the siege would also give an opportunity to all the people of Jerusalem to resupply themselves with food, and Jeremiah may well also have had this in mind. But on going out through the Benjamin gate he was seized by the officer in charge of the gate whose duty it was to watch who went in and out. Being one of those who were antagonistic towards Jeremiah (whom he no doubt saw as undermining the morale of the people) he convinced himself that Jeremiah was slipping out in order to join the Babylonians, as others had previously done (38.19; 39.9; 52.15). So he handed him over to the authorities, no doubt making clear to them his opinion of what the situation was, and they in turn threw him into prison. These were the new authorities who had replaced the previous ones when the latter were exiled to Babylon in 597 BC. (It was now around 587 BC).

37.11 ‘And it came about that, when the army of the Chaldeans was decamped from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,’

The decamping of the Chaldeans as they went off to meet the Egyptian threat opened up the opportunity for people to take advantage of the situation in order to see to their possessions outside Jerusalem, and in order to reprovision themselves. The opportunity would especially be taken by those who believed Jeremiah’s words that the enemy would be returning to renew the siege.

37.12 ‘Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the midst of the people.’

In the course of this Jeremiah decided to go to his lands at Anathoth to ‘receive his share there’ among the people. This may indicate his taking over the family lands from those who were watching over it, or indeed his claiming his ‘rents’ in the form of provisions. It was a matter of sorting out his affairs while the opportunity offered. No doubt many others were leaving for the same reason. ‘In the midst of the people’ stresses his good intentions. There was nothing surreptitious about his actions.

37.13 ‘And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, and he laid hold on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are falling away to the Chaldeans.” ’

But when he reached ‘the gate of Benjamin’, which was the gate that led out onto ‘the way to Benjamin’, he was spotted by Irijah, the officer of the gate. It was his responsibility to observe who sought to use the gate and to deal with any irregularities. His view on seeing Jeremiah was stated to be that he was sneaking out in order to join the Chaldeans, although as the city as a whole probably thought that they had seen the last of the Chaldeans that may well simply have been a means of getting his own back on the prophet for being ‘a troublemaker’ who had constantly weakened the morale of the troops.

37.14 ‘Then Jeremiah said, “It is false. I am not falling away to the Chaldeans.” But he did not listen to him. So Irijah laid hold on Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.’

Jeremiah immediately stressed that he was wrong, and that he was not ‘falling away’ to the Chaldeans, but the officer refused to listen to him, and arrested him and brought him before the authorities.

37.15 ‘And the princes were furious with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.’

These authorities were not the ones mentioned in the previous chapter, who would have been carried off to Babylon ten years previously, but were their replacements from among the lower levels of society who were left in Jerusalem once the cream of the inhabitants had been taken away. They were small-minded men who were filled with hatred at Jeremiah because of his prophesying, and they took the word of the officer and had him beaten and placed in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which had seemingly been made into a prison. Such prisons were unpleasant places, and this one probably had subterranean dungeons into which prisoners would be lowered. It would appear from what follows that there he was badly treated.

After Having Spent Some Time In Prison Jeremiah Was Summoned To Appear Before King Zedekiah Who Secretly Sought His Counsel, Giving Jeremiah The Opportunity To Appeal Against His Situation. As A Result He Was Transferred To The Prison In The Palace-Complex Which Was For Important State Prisoners Where He Was Better Treated (37.16-21).

Having been put in prison under unpleasant circumstances it appears that Jeremiah was badly treated, for he would later speak to the king of the possibility that he might have died under his ill-treatment. Common prisons were at their best very unpleasant and unwholesome places, and as an enemy of the state he was probably put in the part where conditions were at their worst and the warders least sympathetic. Furthermore one of YHWH’s charges against the people had been the way in which they treated each others and their tendency to violence. Thus we may assume that Jeremiah discovered this aspect of their behaviour to the full.

Fortunately for his wellbeing, however, Zedekiah eventually decided to consult him secretly, and called for him, no doubt under the pretence of examining his case. By this time the siege had probably been renewed, and it is probable that Zedekiah was desperately seeking a way out, and wanted to know if YHWH had any word for him. YHWH had, and it was simple. ‘You will be delivered into the hands of the Babylonians’.

Jeremiah then appealed against the conditions under which he was being held and Zedekiah had him moved to the prison for important state prisoners, where he was treated as befitted such prisoners.

37.16-17 ‘When Jeremiah had come into the dungeon-house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days, then Zedekiah the king sent, and fetched him. And the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, “Is there any word from YHWH?” And Jeremiah said, “There is.” He also said, “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

Jeremiah was placed in a dungeon (house of a pit) which was seemingly separated into separate pits or cells (the word is used only here). The aim was both to prevent him being able to speak to the people, and in order to vent their spite on him for his pro-Babylonian views. And he was held there for some weeks. It would appear that he received little food (prisoners were rarely fed, it was left to relatives to bring them food) but much rough treatment. Eventually he was summoned before the king, purportedly in order to be examined. But the real reason was because Zedekiah wanted to consult him privately. He therefore got him alone in his palace and asked him whether there was any word from YHWH. The siege may well by now have been recommenced, and he possibly hoped that he would hear something comforting.

Jeremiah assured him that not only had he received a word from YHWH, but that that word had not changed. It was that ‘you’ (the king and his people) would be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon. We should not that even his desire to escape from the awful conditions under which he was being held did not dissuade Jeremiah from proclaiming the true word of YHWH.

37.18 ‘Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, “In what way have I sinned against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?”

But recognising the king’s sympathy he then asked him why he was being kept under such awful conditions. How, he asked, had he sinned against the king and his council, or indeed against the people, in telling them the truth? Had not what he said come about?

37.19 “Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you, nor against this land?’ ”

Why, he was asking, are you consulting me when you have your own prophets? Was it not clear from Zedekiah’s own words that he had little confidence that they had any word from YHWH. And no wonder, for their prophecies had proved false. Surely it was the prophets who had misinformed them by declaring that the king of Babylon would never come against the city who should have been being punished, rather than him. Why then was he suffering because he had prophesied what had actually happened?

37.20 “And now hear, I pray you, O my lord the king, let my supplication, I pray you, be presented before you, that you do not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.’

So he asked Zedekiah to prevent him from being sent back to the prison in the house of Jonathan the Scribe lest he die there. The conditions in that prison were clearly very bad.

37.21 ‘Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard, and they gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.’

Zedekiah responded to his plea and commanded that he be committed to the court of the guard, which was adjacent to the palace (32.12; Nehemiah 3.25) and was where the high level prisoners would be kept, watched over by elite troops. And there, while rations held out, he received a daily allowance of food, a loaf of bread from the court bakers. The city had been able to renew its resources somewhat, but it was still on strict rations. Note the ominous ‘until all the bread in the city was spent’. Things would by then be getting to starvation level.

‘The baker’s street.’ Like many large cities, in Jerusalem different occupations had their own streets and local markets (compare Nehemiah 3.8, 32). This was the street of the bakers.

‘Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.’ Note the repetition of this idea in 38.6, 13, 28. What follows therefore is a description of what occurred to him in the court of the guard once rations had run out.

Jeremiah’s Experiences In The Court Of The Guard (38.1-28).

But even the fact that Jeremiah was in the court of the guard did not prevent him from further maltreatment by those who saw him as a traitor. This chapter divides into two sections each ending with a reference to his being in ‘the court of the guard’. The first describes how he was seen as a traitor and thrust into a muddy well or cistern where he would have died had he not been rescued by the intervention of Ebedmelech, and the second describes how he was again consulted by the king with strict injunctions to keep the fact a secret from the king’s counsellors.

Jeremiah Is Seen As A Traitor And Is Thrust Into A Well Filled With Deep Mud Which Was In The Court Of The Guard, Where He Would Have Died Had He Not Been Rescued By Ebedmelech, A Sudanese (38.1-13).

Even though he was in the court of the guard Jeremiah had access to the people who would gather there to hear what he had to say (compare 32.12). And nothing could prevent him from proclaiming the word of YHWH which announced the forthcoming surrender of the city. This displeased many of the king’s advisers who felt that he was weakening the city’s resistance and demanded that he be silenced. In consequence the king weakly acceded to their demands, allowing them to put Jeremiah into a deep well which rendered him inaccessible to the people and which would shortly, had he not been rescued, have resulted in his demise through starvation.

38.1 ‘And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah, heard the words that Jeremiah spoke to all the people, saying,’

In verse 4 these men are described as ‘princes. They were probably prominent among the king’s advisers. As such they would often pass through the court of the guard, and it was while doing so that they became aware of what Jeremiah was declaring to the people. Chronologically chapter 21 also occurred around this time.

Neither Shephatiah nor Gedaliah are mentioned elsewhere. Gedaliah must not be confused with the later Gedaliah, son of Ahikam (39.14) who would later be governor. Jucal the son of Shelemiah is mentioned in 37.3 where he was sent by the king along with Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah to seek for Jeremiah’s intercession on behalf of the nation, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah is mentioned in 21.1, where he also accompanied Zephaniah with a request to Jeremiah for intercession, when they received the same uncompromising message as the one found here. However the names of both Gedalyahu (Gedaliah) ben Pashhur and Yehu-kual (Yucal) ben Shelemyahu (Shelemiah) have been discovered on seals dug up in the City of David in Jerusalem.

38.2 “Thus says YHWH, He who abides in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, but he who goes forth to the Chaldeans will live, and his life shall be to him for a prey, and he will live.”

In spite of the danger that he was in Jeremiah continued to proclaim YHWH’s word faithfully without regard for the consequences. Counselling surrender to the enemy was hardly the best way of ingratiating himself with the authorities. Indeed it is indicative of the awe in which he was held as a prophet of YHWH that he was allowed for a while to get away with it.

His message was that death awaited those who remained in the city, either through starvation and disease due to siege conditions, or through the sword when the city was taken, whilst those who surrendered to the Babylonians prior to the taking of the city would live (compare 21.9).

‘His life will be to him for a prey.’ In other words he will seize it like a hunter would a prey and carry it off safely.

38.3 “Thus says YHWH, This city will surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will take it.”

An his message in verse 2 was based on the fact that the city would unquestionably be give into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar’s army because that was YHWH’s express word. It was not a message likely to endear him to those who were trying to bolster the resistance of the defenders. It just happened to be the truth.

38.4 ‘Then the princes said to the king, “Let this man, we pray you, be put to death, because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them. For this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but the hurt.”

Understandably from a human point of view these princes were angry at what Jeremiah was saying, because it weakened the will of the defenders at a time when it was important that their morale be maintained. It was suggesting that resistance was pointless. Thus in their view, far from considering the welfare of the city, Jeremiah was seeking to cause it considerable harm.

38.5 ‘And Zedekiah the king said, “Behold, he is in your hand, for the king is not he who can do anything against you.”

Zedekiah was reluctant to act against Jeremiah himself because he recognised that he was a genuine prophet of YHWH. On the other hand he did not feel able to support him, because to do so might add to the weakening of morale. Thus while making clear that he was not in agreement with the situation he gave them permission to act against Jeremiah in any way that they thought best. As Pilate would later with Jesus, he washed his hands with regard to Jeremiah, thereby no doubt hoping to escape YHWH’s condemnation in respect of what would happen.

38.6 ‘Then they took Jeremiah, and cast him into the pit of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the pit there was no water, but mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire.’

For Jeremiah it was a case of ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’. Having previously escaped from the pit in the house of Jonathan (37.15), he found himself in an even worse situation in being lowered down by means of ropes into a pit which had previously been filled with water, and whose bottom was now covered with a thick layer of mud. It was probably in fact a cistern. It would have a narrow entrance at the top and widen out below the point of entry. The fact that it was empty drew attention to the water shortage in the city, whilst the fact that the mud was still soft indicates that it had not been empty very long.

Jeremiah’s predicament is emphasised by the fact that he sank into the mud. It was not a very happy position to be in.

Malchijah may have been the father of the Pashhur mentioned in verses 1. His description as ‘the king’s son’ (compare 36.26) indicates royal connections, although not necessarily strictly as a son. It is, however, sufficient to demonstrate the high level of the opposition which was against Jeremiah. His cistern would not have been available had he not been in agreement with the princes involved.

It may be asked why they did not immediately put him to death? One possible answer is that that was the one restriction that the king had put on them. This could be seen as supported by his immediate response when he learned that Jeremiah was in danger of death (verse 9). But the answer may well lie in his prophetic status. To have slain a prophet of YHWH directly could have been seen by the people as automatically bringing doom on the city, and could have worsened the very situation that they were trying to alleviate (loss of morale). And they may well themselves have been equally superstitious. On the other hand leaving him in the pit to die could well have been seen as an easy way out. Then they could be seen as throwing the onus on YHWH, in the same way as with Joseph long before (Genesis 37.22-24). Their argument could have been that it would then be up to YHWH to determine whether he survived or not (which they were sure he would not).

38.7 ‘Now when Ebed-melech the Sudanese, a high official (eunuch), who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin,)’

News of what had happened did not immediately reach the king because he had temporarily housed himself at the Gate of Benjamin, one of the key defence points for the city, and the gate by which deserters would normally leave if they wished to submit themselves to the Babylonians. It may well have been with the intention of maintaining the morale of the defenders, or he may have been hearing the complaints of disgruntled inhabitants. He may even have been determining who should be allowed to desert to the enemy (leaving less mouths to feed in the city). Whichever it was he was taking his duties seriously.

One whom the news did reach, however, was Ebed-melech (‘servant of the king’), who was a high official in the king’s house. He may indeed have genuinely been a eunuch as superintendent of the king’s harem, but the noun does not necessarily indicate it, and we would not expect such an official to have great influence over the king. On the other hand it would explain his presence at the palace at such a time. It is, however, more likely that Ebed-melech (a Cushite from the Upper Nile region e.g. Northern Sudan) was of higher status, with sufficient influence to stand up to the princes. Why he thus supported Jeremiah we do not know, but he may well have feared that Jeremiah’s death would bring calamity on Jerusalem. As a foreigner or a proselyte he may well have been in greater awe of YHWH than the natives were.

38.8 ‘Ebed-melech went forth out of the king’s house, and spoke to the king, saying,’

So Ebed-melech left the palace and made his way to the Gate of Benjamin in order to seek an audience with the king.

38.9 “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit, and he is likely to die in the place where he is, because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.’

Once there he explained what had happened. He pointed out the evil that there was in all that the princes had done to the prophet of YHWH, in that they had cast him into the pit where, in view of the famine, he was likely to die of starvation, for who would bother to feed such a prisoner when the whole city was starving and without bread?

‘He is likely to die.’ Literally ‘he is dying’. In other words he was as good as dead.

38.10 ‘Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite (Ethiopian/Sudanese), saying, “Take from where you are thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the pit, before he die.”

The king responded immediately, something which suggests that it had never been his intention that Jeremiah should die. He commanded Ebed-melech to take a platoon of soldiers (‘ a thirty’) with a view to bringing Jeremiah out of the pit before he should die. The number of soldiers supplied suggests that the king recognised that there might be violent opposition to Jeremiah’s release. Feelings were running high. But he clearly felt the situation important enough to take men away from their defence duties. There was still within him a certain awe of YHWH.

38.11 ‘So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took there rags and worn-out garments, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.’

Ebed-melech promptly did as he was commanded, and his genuine humanity was demonstrated in that he took steps to make Jeremiah’s release as painless as possible. He went directly to the store-houses under the king’s treasury and obtained from there patches of cloth and linen which could be used by Jeremiah with his emaciated body to protect his armpits when the cords went under his arms. These he let down to Jeremiah in the pit.

38.12 ‘And Ebed-melech the Cushite (Ethiopian) said to Jeremiah, “Put now these rags and worn-out garments under your armholes under the cords.” And Jeremiah did so.’

He then advised Jeremiah to put the pieces of cloth and linen under his armpits so that they would be protected from the harshness of the ropes, and Jeremiah did as he suggested.

38.13 ‘So they drew up Jeremiah with the cords, and took him up out of the pit, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.’

Then they drew Jeremiah out of the pit by means of the ropes, and he was reinstated in the prison in the court of the guards. There does not appear to have been any reaction to his release. Perhaps the princes realised that they had exceeded their remit and kept silent.

Zedekiah Once Again Consults Jeremiah And Keeps Him Safely In The Court Of The Guard Until Jerusalem Is Taken (38.14-28).

This was to be Zedekiah’s last consultation with Jeremiah. During it he was offered a lifeline if he was willing to obey YHWH and surrender to the Babylonians. But there were huge pressures on him not to do so from his band of ‘princes’ who were firmly against such a surrender. We must presume that they still hoped that Egypt would come to their aid. And the consequence was that he refused to obey YHWH, with the result that in the end Jerusalem suffered for his disobedience. It was taken, and burned and turned into a ruin. Such is often the case if we listen to the voice of men rather than responding to the voice of God.

38.14 ‘Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet to him into the third entry that is in the house of YHWH, and the king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you something. Do not hide anything from me.”

Zedekiah was clearly torn in his mind about what he should do, and he wanted assurance from YHWH that at least YHWH was on his side. Thus he hoped that perhaps YHWH’s message though Jeremiah may have changed. That is presumably why he had him brought to him to a private place in the Temple where he may well have been praying. But prayer is of little value if we are walking in disobedience towards God..

‘The third entry that is in the house of YHWH’ was presumably an easily recognisable spot and may well have been restricted to the king and the royal family, for it would appear that he chose it so that he could meet Jeremiah privately. There was probably a private room in the gateway, suitable for Zedekiah’s purpose. There the king informed Jeremiah that he had something to ask him, and that he wanted him to be totally honest when giving him an answer. We are never in fact told what he wanted to ask him, but in all probability it was as to the options open to him from YHWH’s point of view.

38.15 ‘Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”

But Jeremiah pointed out that this put him in an invidious position, for if he told him the truth he would have him put to death, and if he gave him advice it would not be listened to. What then was the point of his speaking?

38.16 ‘So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, “As YHWH lives, who made us this soul, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”

The king then swore to Jeremiah secretly man to man that no matter what he said to him he would not have him put to death, nor would he again hand him over to the princes who were seeking Jeremiah’s life.

38.17-18 ‘Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah,

As a consequence of Zedekiah’s promise Jeremiah reiterated what had previously been said. The choice for Zedekiah was clear. If he surrendered to the Babylonians all would be well. If he did not, then disaster awaited both Zedekiah and Jerusalem.

It would seem quite possible that this interview was a consequence of an offer having come from Nebuchadnezzar offering surrender terms, for only such an offer would explain why options were still open. Normally a city that had resisted this long would be automatically doomed. It may therefore be that Nebuchadnezzar was aware of pressures elsewhere and, wanting to bring the siege to a rapid end, had offered favourable terms. And it may have been partly this that was encouraging the princes to hope for his withdrawal without having taken the city.

Looking at the carefully constructed parallels ‘your soul’ may well be referring to Jerusalem as being the king’s very soul. Thus it is stressing that YHWH’s offer would result in life both for Jerusalem and for the royal house.

38.19 ‘And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who are fallen away to the Chaldeans, in case they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.”

That Zedekiah may have been contemplating surrender comes out in these fears. One thing that was preventing him was his fears lest when he surrendered he might be handed over to ‘the Jews who had fallen over to the Chaldeans’ who would then mock him, and worse. These would themselves have suffered mockery and hatred from Zedekiah and his princes. He thus feared reciprocation.

38.20 ‘But Jeremiah said, “They will not deliver you. Obey, I beg you, the voice of YHWH in what I speak to you. So it will be well with you, and your soul will live.”

Jeremiah then assured him that his fears were groundless. If only he would obey YHWH all would be well. Furthermore he himself would prosper. It is very possible that Jeremiah, as one who was recognised as an influential Babylonian supporter, had received assurances through a secret emissary that if only he could persuade the king to surrender the king would be treated reasonably.

38.21 “But if you refuse to go forth, this is the word that YHWH has shown me,”

On the other hand if he refused to go forth and surrender, then he would have to bear the full weight of the word of YHWH, in the way now described, and paradoxically this WOULD result in him being mocked, for he would be mocked by the women of his own harem.

38.22 “Behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah’s house will be brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women will say,

The women who remained in the king’s house would, because of Jerusalem’s demise, become members of the harems of Nebuchadnezzar’s princes. And they themselves would mock Zedekiah and point out to him that he had allowed himself to be over-persuaded and to be led into the mire by his ‘friends’.

‘Your friends who suggested you would have peace’ is literally ‘the men of your peace’, but in context the meaning is clear. It is referring to the men who set Zedekiah on his false course (or ‘deceived’ him), and persuaded him to make the wrong decision, by declaring that by following their advice he would achieve peace and wellbeing. But the only consequence would be that his feet would be as though stuck in the mud (just as Jeremiah had been left in the mud in the cistern - 38.6), while his friends would turn round and desert him leaving him starkly alone. The first two lines of the women’s words reflect Obadiah 7.

38.23 “And they will bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans; and you will not escape out of their hand, but will be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon, and you will cause this city to be burned with fire.”

And not only the royal harem (which would always be taken over by the conqueror in order to demonstrate his superiority, compare 2 Samuel 16.22), but also all the wives and children of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, would be handed over to the Chaldeans, and the city itself would be burned with fire as one that was continually rebellious. Furthermore Zedekiah himself, and his household, would also not escape out of his hand. All would be doomed. (The lack of mention of his being blinded confirms that here we have a prophecy before the event, for an inventor would hardly have failed to mention it).

‘And you will cause this city to be burned with fire.’ Literally ‘and you will burn this city with fire’. Zedekiah would be directly responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem because of his failure to obey YHWH.

Once again we get the feeling that special terms must have been offered in one way or another, for otherwise this would already be the natural consequence of having resisted for so long.

38.24 ‘Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know of these words, and you will not die.”

Zedekiah then swore Jeremiah to silence about their conversation and promised him that in return he would ensure Jeremiah’s safety. This brings out the huge pressure that was being exerted by the princes who were against surrender at any price. The king did not dare to let them know that he had even contemplated it.

The warning about death may be an additional assurance of the king’s protection as long as he remained silent, or a warning of what the princes would seek to bring about if they learned that Jeremiah had again exhorted the king to surrender to the Babylonians, or indeed both.

38.25-26 “But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you, and say to you, ‘Declare to us now what you have said to the king. Do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death, also what the king said to you,’ then you shall say to them, ‘I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there.’ ”

The uneasy relationships between the king and his chief advisers is brought out here. He was even afraid that his princes would seek to undermine him, and that to such an extent that he considered that they would give Jeremiah immunity instead if only they could get cause against the king. That is why he now enjoined total silence on Jeremiah concerning their conversation. As the conversation was from the start private, and was between the king and his subject, that was a perfectly reasonable request. A firm promise to remain silent must be observed. But in view of the fact that the princes might question Jeremiah about what had been discussed, Zedekiah said that he could release the fact of his request that he not be sent back to the prison in Jonathan’s house where he had been treated so badly. That that idea came up may well indicate that both were aware of pressures for such a move being made, which would serve to confirm that that matter was discussed. Furthermore we should note that in these circumstances Jeremiah would be acting on the king’s command which was sacred. To release a state secret would be a great sin.

The duty of a godly man to tell the truth must certainly take into account a guarantee of privacy for matters which are essentially and specifically private, especially when they concerned someone like the king. It was perfectly reasonable not to reveal the whole of such a conversation, and it was therefore by no means deceitful not to do so. It was no business of the princes what Zedekiah had spoken to Jeremiah about, so they had no right to the information. They only wanted it so as to stir up trouble. Thus Jeremiah cannot be faulted for doing what the king asked as long as the matter that he did speak of was also discussed. And this was especially so as disobedience to the kings command might have resulted in a revolution. After all, a prophet of YHWH had to be able to be trusted with secrets, otherwise no one would have consulted him.

38.27 ‘Then all the princes came to Jeremiah, and asked him, and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him, for the matter was not perceived.’

Sure enough the princes did come to Jeremiah and question him about his meeting with the king, and it was no doubt in not too pleasant a way. Jeremiah responded to them in the way that the king had commanded. Eventually they appear to have been satisfied that there was no more to be discovered from Jeremiah for they let him be. Consequently, whatever their suspicions, they never discovered what had been the main item in the conversation. The uneasy truce between the king and the princes continued.

38.28 ‘So Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.’

And in consequence of all this Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard right up to the taking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. He was no longer subjected to vile conditions and was no doubt given such scraps of food as were available, for all would by this time be living on starvation rations.

The treatment of the prophet of YHWH who had brought the word of YHWH that is described in these last two chapters was final proof of the attitude of Jerusalem towards Him. They had broken His covenant (as regards slavery) after having renewed it (chapter 34), they had disobeyed their ‘Father’s’ commands in contrast with the obedience of the Rechabites (chapter 35), they had burned the word that came from YHWH as a deliberate act of rejection (chapter 36), and now finally they had continually mistreated Jeremiah, the very prophet of YHWH (chapters 37-38).