
                                JEREMIAH

	Copyright (c) 1994 by Wm. G. Most

	To the reader: Now that you have gone through much of the 
commentary on Isaiah, you probably have gained some skill in 
understanding the way such prophets speak. So now probably you will 
be able to understand Jeremiah with rather little help. So please 
try your wings:

	Jeremiah naturally follows after Isaiah. Isaiah before 700 BC 
predicted the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah was there for it. Then 
Ezekiel was actually in the exile. 

	There is a difference between the Hebrew text of Jeremiah and 
that of the Greek Septuagint. We follow here the Hebrew text. 

1. God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet. He has planned that before 
Jeremiah was born. Jeremiah objects. God insists. 

	Jeremiah sees a watching tree, i.e, an almond (first to bud in 
spring), to signify God will watch over His word, and it will come 
true. He also sees a boiling cauldron appearing from the north: 
standing for a coming invasion from the north. Israel has forsaken 
God, her husband, hence the sin is called harlotry or adultery. 

	God assures Jeremiah He will make him strong and protect him. 

2. He must tell unfaithful Israel: Once she was like a new bride, 
but now she goes after other lovers, idols. God tells Jeremiah: 
look to the east (Kedar) or to the west (Kittim) -- no other people 
has changed its gods. They cling even to false Gods. But Israel has 
turned away from the true God. They want to get help from Egypt or 
Assyria: but the Egyptians will despoil them and shave their heads. 
Assyria will shame them. 

	Under every tree Israel became a harlot, i.e., went in for 
idol worship, which often involved sexual immorality. You cannot 
scour this sin away with strong soap or lye. Israel has acted like 
a camel or donkey in heat (wanting sex) which sniffs the air, 
hunting for a male. Israel has said to the idols: "You are my 
Father". Your gods are as numerous as your cities. But they cannot 
help you. On your clothing is the lifeblood of the innocent, whom 
you oppress. 

3. When a man divorces a wife and she marries another, he cannot 
take her back. Yet God is willing to take Israel back in spite of 
her infidelities. The rains have failed because of your harlotry. 
Judah saw all the adulteries of Israel, the northern kingdom and 
what happened to it. But Judah has not reformed. Yet God pleads: 
Reform, for I am merciful. He will appoint good shepherds over her. 
The days will come when they will not need to depend on the ark of 
the covenant, but all nations will come to Jerusalem. Now, however, 
the Shame-god (Baal) has devoured your father's toil. 

4. If you want to return, Israel, put away the detestable things, 
your idols, and your immorality. But God is bringing in evil from 
the north, the lion of Babylon, the destroyer of nations. It comes 
like a storm cloud. His horses are swifter than eagles. Ruin after 
ruin is reported: the whole earth is laid waste. The gardenland has 
become a desert before the blazing wrath of the Lord. 

5. Roam the streets of Jerusalem to find even one upright man 
[semitic exaggeration]. They have made their faces harder than 
stone. God will bring a nation whose tongue they do not understand. 
Yet even then God will not completely destroy them -He will leave a 
remnant. So now prophets prophesy falsely, and priests teach as 
they wish, because people want it so. 

6. He tells them to flee from Jerusalem for safety, for shepherds, 
that is foreign rulers will come, and start a siege, for the city 
must be punished. As a well keeps water fresh, so does this city 
keep its wickedness fresh. Their ears are closed, they cannot hear. 

	So Jeremiah is weary of holding in the wrath of the Lord -- by 
prayer and penance, to rebalance the objective order on their 
behalf. Everyone is greedy. They say: Peace, peace, but there is no 
peace. 

	Jeremiah advises them to look for the ancient paths, and walk 
on them. God has set up watchmen, prophets, to warn them, but they 
do not heed. So a people is coming from the north, cruel and 
merciless. There is terror on every side. When a worker tries to 
refine silver, his refining is in vain with this people. 

7. God orders Jeremiah to stand in the temple and tell them that if 
they do not mend their ways, He will destroy this temple as He did 
the one at Shiloh (place of worship from Joshua to Samuel). In vain 
do they keep on repeating: It is the temple of the Lord, the temple 
of the Lord. - It is all externalism. They think if they go to the 
temple, without reforming, all will be well. Jeremiah tells them 
NO. 

	God has finally told Jeremiah: do not pray for this people, 
for I will not listen. In the city, the fathers make a fire, the 
women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, Ishtar, 
the Assyro-Babylonian goddess of fertility. The cakes were shaped 
like stars, for Ishtar was identified with the planet Venus. 
(Cutting off hair was a sign of great mourning). God said He did 
not really want the externals of sacrifice, but the interior 
attitude of obedience to Him (cf. Hosea 6. 6). They even sacrifice 
their children by fire, to appease the fire god Molech. They were 
actually burned up. This was in the valley of Ben-hinnom (from 
which name we get Gehenna). 

	(In chapters 20 and 26 Jeremiah is almost killed for speaking 
as God had ordered in the temple, foretelling the fall of 
Jerusalem). 
***
8. The bones of the kings and great ones will be spread out under 
the sun, not buried, in the view of the hosts of heaven, to which 
they offered sacrifice. 

	People when they fall, get up again. But this people does not 
get up again, they continue to sin. They say: We are wise. They 
think just having the Law protects them. But it will not. We are 
reminded of Isaiah 29. 13-14: because they did not worship with 
true interior obedience, God will take away wisdom from the wise. 

	Already he thinks he hears the sound of the horses of the 
invaders, from the north, from Dan. 
	Jeremiah says his heart is wounded because of their sins. Is 
there balm in Gilead (famed for it)? But no one can cure the ache 
of his heart for them. 

9. He wishes his eyes were fountains of water to weep day and night 
for them. For they go from evil to evil. Each must beware of his 
neighbor, one cannot even trust a brother. While speaking 
pleasantly to another, they are really plotting ambushes. 

	After the ruin people will say: Why did God do this? God will 
reply: because the broke my laws and went after the Baals. So He 
will scatter them among the nations. -- This is frightening, it is 
the same threat God made long ago to Solomon after the dedication 
of the temple: 1 Kings 9:1-9. 

	Call for professional mourners, he cries: dead bodies fall 
like so much dung. 

	Let not the one called wise glory in his wisdom: Let a man 
rather glory in this, if he knows the Lord and obeys. 

10. God tells them not to learn the way of the nations, and not to 
be afraid of the signs, the omens, i n the skies. The idols are 
like scarecrows, they cannot speak or walk. They have to be 
carried. They are just the work of craftsmen. Those gods did not 
make the heavens. The real God has done all that. 

	Again, he seems to himself to hear the noise of the army 
coming from the north. 

	Jeremiah tries to plead that men are so weak: the way of a man 
is not in himself. So have mercy. 

11. God spoke to Jeremiah: Cursed be the man who does not listen to 
the words of this covenant which I gave your ancestors when I 
brought them out of Egypt. If they obey, I will be their God and 
they will be my people. But they did not obey, they walked in the 
stubbornness of their wicked heart. So God brought upon them 
everything the covenant threatened. 

	The cities of Judah and Jerusalem will cry to their idols to 
whom they offer incense, gods as many as their cities. But they 
cannot help. 
	
 Therefore Jeremiah must not pray for them, for God will not listen 
to him. 

	Jeremiah says, speaking of himself: I was like a lamb led to 
the slaughter, not knowing the schemes they made against me. So may 
you rectify things -- the versions commonly have him asking for 
vengeance, but that would be immoral. Rather, he asks for Hebrew 
<naqam>, rectification of the objective order by God. God will 
punish the men of his own town Anathoth. None of them shall be 
left. 

12. Jeremiah says he knows that the Lord is righteous, observes all 
that is moral, yet he wishes to ask: Why do the wicked prosper? 
They take root as if you planted them. Please rectify things, make 
them like the sheep for the slaughter. They have said God will not 
see. 

	God says He has forsaken His house. The whole land is desolate 
since there is no one who cares. Therefore God will turn the land 
over to the enemies of Israel. However, not forever. He will later 
rescue them. 

13. God told Jeremiah to buy a linen waistcloth, not let it get 
wet, and go and hide it in a cleft of the rock by the Euphrates 
river. After some days, God told him to get the garment again. It 
was spoiled by the moisture, and longer good for anything. 

	Linen was the material for the garments of priests. The cloth 
was a kind of undergarment: its closeness to the body symbolized 
the closeness of the relation of God to His people, spoiled by 
their sins. 

 There is a problem about going to the River Euphrates, which was a 
very long distance for Jeremiah -- two round trips, really hundreds 
of miles for him, and for that reason, not too apt to be useful for 
the symbolism to his own people. Further there were no rocks on the 
middle or lower Euphrates. So some have said all this happened only 
in an imaginary vision - but then there would be no visible 
symbolism for the contemporaries of Jeremiah. We could say that the 
Hebrew <Farat>, the word for Euphrates really stood for Ain Farah, 
which is about 3 miles NE of Anathoth, Jeremiah's home town. There 
are rocks in that location. 

 This was a sort of acted out prophecy (there are several of these 
elsewhere in Jeremiah e. g., in chapters 18 and 19, and 24, and in 
Ezekiel). 

	Next Jeremiah, perhaps at a feast, says:Every jar shall be 
filled with wine- an obvious fact. (A jar held about 10 gallons: 
cf. Is 30:14) So, says the Lord, this people will be filled with 
the wine of the Lord's anger. 

	|Net Jeremiah spoke to the King and to the King's mother, 
foretelling their captivity. Drought and invasion were coming. Even 
the Negev, the rather barren southern part, far from Jerusalem, 
would be hit by the invasion. That fact that even the Negev was to 
be hit stands for the completeness of the destruction. 

	The Queen Mother was the <gebirah>, who held a position of 
respect, especially in view of the polygamy of the kings. 

14. God said: Nobles send servants for water: there is none, there 
is no rain. Even the hind in the field leaves her new calf:no 
grass. God said: The people have loved to wander, so the Lord does 
not accept them, even if they fast. 

	Jeremiah tells the Lord: the false prophets say there will be 
no sword or famine. God tells him: There will be sword and famine, 
and the prophets will be consumed. Tell them: Let my eyes run with 
tears. If I go into the field, I see the slain. In the city: those 
dead of famine. Jeremiah asks:Have you completely rejected Zion? 
The Lord replied: Even if Moses and Samuel pleaded for them, I 
would not listen. Destroyers will be sent to them. I am weary of 
relenting. 

	Then Jeremiah moans: I wish my mother had not brought me 
forth. I have not violated the law. Please set things right 
(<naqam>) with those who persecute me. Then Jeremiah seems to have 
doubted God: Will you be like a deceptive brook to me? He meant 
like a <wadi>, that had water only after a downpour. But then God 
then said: If you return, to confidence in me, and proclaim my 
word, I will restore you to your office as a prophet. I will 
deliver you from your enemies. (Jeremiah seems to have understood 
that as victory over them in the temporal order. God did not mean 
it that way. He meant final triumph. But Jeremiah did not 
understand, hence later an almost bold complaint to God in 20. 7: 
"You have deceived me. " The NAB here is quite unfortunate: "You 
have duped me". )

16. Now God tells him not to take a wife -- a large sacrifice, all 
young men then married . God explains: both parents and children 
will die of deadly diseases, and not be lamented or buried. 

	God continued: Do not go into a house of mourning. For I have 
taken well-being from this people. No one may cut himself for the 
dead or make selves bald. Leviticus 19. 27 forbade cutting selves 
in lamentation. Lv 21. 5 gave same order to the priests, and said 
they must not make bare the crown of their head of shave the edges 
of their beard. 

	Nor should Jeremiah go into a house of feasting for God is 
sending such evil. 

	Yet now Jeremiah turns to a more pleasant view in the future - 
recall Isaiah often made such shifts too, -- and says time will 
come when they will no longer speak of the Lord who brought them 
from Egypt, but the Lord who brought them out of captivity. 

	But He is sending many fishers, to hunt out the Israelites who 
try to escape the Babylonians. God will give double recompense to 
their iniquity. (The <double> is Hebrew <mishnet>, which may mean 
(as suggested by a tablet from Alalakh in Syria) merely 
"proportional, " or it could be an example of the common Semitic 
exaggeration). 


17. The sin of Judah is written indelibly, with a pen of iron. So 
the Lord says: Cursed is the man who trusts in man. Blessed is the 
man who trusts in the Lord. 

	The human heart is most deceitful:who can understand it? Yet 
the Lord searches all hearts, and repays. 

	Those who turn away from God will have their names written in 
the dust-- so they will not last. (We wonder: was this line in mind 
when Our Lord wrote in the dust as the accusers of the woman taken 
in adultery went away one by one?). 

	Jeremiah pleads with God: He has not pressed God to send evil. 
But let those who persecute him be put to shame. 

	Then God told him to stand in the Benjamin Gate and tell them 
not to violate the sabbath, or He will punish them. If they listen 
to Jeremiah, there will be a line of Davidic kings, and the city 
will be inhabited forever. (This reminds one of what God told 
Solomon in 1 Kings 9). 

18. God tells Jeremiah to buy a potter's vessel. If one turns out 
badly, the potter reshapes it. So God could do to the house of 
israel. He is shaping evil against them for their sins. 
	The people will not listen. God asks:who among the other 
nations has acted this way. Does snow leave Lebanon?But God's 
people have forgotten Him. They are making their land a horror, all 
who pass by the ruins that it will be will hiss:Why did God do 
this? (Cf. also in 1 Kings 9). 

	Far from repenting, Jeremiah's enemies decide to plot against 
him, and not to heed any of his words. So Jeremiah pleads with God: 
Hear me, O Lord. Is evil the repayment of good? I stood before you 
to plead for them. But they did not heed. So now deliver them up to 
famine. 

19. Now Jeremiah is told to buy a potter's flask, go to the 
Potsherd Gate, to Topeth, where they offered the sacrifice of their 
children in the fire, and to break it before the senior priests and 
to say: The people have filled the place with the blood of 
innocents. So God is bringing evil on them. 

	So Jeremiah stood in the court of the temple and said:God says 
He is bringing evil upon this city. 

20. Then Pashur the priest, the chief officer there, beat Jeremiah 
and put him in the stocks which held a man so that the body was 
almost doubled up, this was in a conspicuous place in the city. The 
next morning Pashur released Jeremiah, but Jeremiah warned him that 
his name would not be Pashur, but Terror on Every Side. Pashur was 
to go into captivity and die there. 

	Then Jeremiah, almost boldly, complains against God: God has 
deceived Jeremiah. Jeremiah thought the promise of protection 
included protection against physical mistreatment. But God meant 
spiritual triumph instead. Jeremiah prays that God will set things 
right (<naqam> - often mistranslated as vengeance). Like Job 
Jeremiah even says: Cursed be the day I was born. 

21. Chapter 21 moves on to the reign or Zedekiah ( 597-86--during 
whose time Jerusalem finally fell to Nebuchadnezzar). There are 
many references to time and place in chapters 21-45. Especially, 
21-23 have messages given during the reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, 
Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Chapter 21 probably is to be dated 588 
when the Babylonians were advancing on Jerusalem. Chronologically 
this chapter would come between chapters 37 and 38. Zedekiah was a 
vassal king put in power by Nebuchadnezzar (cf 2 Kings 24:17) 
during the first invasion of 597. Zedekiah respected Jeremiah, but 
was too weak to do what he knew was right. Further, the Jews still 
thought of Jehoiachin as the rightful king - he had been taken 
captive in 597, and they looked for his early return from exile. 

	Zedekiah sent Pashur and Malchiah to Jeremiah to ask him to 
inquire of the Lord for them. For Nebuchadnezzar was making war. 
Jeremiah told them God said He would turn back the weapons of the 
Jews back against them, He Himself would fight against His people 
because of their sins. Then afterwards God would give Zedekiah into 
the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and for the people who survived there 
would be the sword, pestilence and famine. 
	
 God told Jeremiah to say: Behold, I set before you life and death. 
He who stays in the city will die by the sword, famine and 
pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the
Chaldeans will live. For God has set His face against the city. 

22. God told Jeremiah:Go to the king and say: Hear the word of the 
Lord. If you do what is right, then kings of the line of David will 
rule here. But if not, this house shall become a desolation. and 
many will pass by whispering: Why did the Lord do this? Reply: 
"They abandoned the Lord and worshipped other gods. "

	God says this of Shallum (preregnal name of Jehoaz):He shall 
return here no more. Woe to him who builds his house of 
unrighteousness. Having a house of cedar does not make a king. to 
know God (<yada>, meaning to know, obey, love) is to take up the 
cause of the poor and the needy. So the Lord says: There must be no 
lament for Jehoiakim. He will have the burial of an ass. (Josaiah, 
father of Jehoiakim had been a good and holy king. But the son 
beautified his palace by forced, unpaid labor (forbidden by Lev. 
19. 13; 
Dt 24. 14-15), at the very time he was paying heavy tribute to 
Egypt. 2 Kings 24. 6 says Jehoiakim "rested with his fathers. " 
Perhaps he had a hurried burial during the siege and when the 
Chaldeans took the city his body was thrown out. 

	So he calls:Go up to Lebanon, Bashan, and Abarim (which stand 
foe the extreme parts of the land and wail, for all your lovers are 
destroyed. The wind of adversity shall carry off all their leaders. 
So Coniah (same as Jechoniah) shall not return to this land. He is 
like a broken pot. None of his offspring will manage to sit on the 
throne of David -- really, there were no more kings the line of 
David after the exile. 

23. God says woe to the false shepherds, leaders of the people, who 
have scattered the sheep. 

	In verse 3 something remarkable appears: God says: "I myself 
shall gather the remnant of my sheep from all the lands to which I 
have driven them. " The RSV omits the <myself>, but it is there, in 
the emphatic pronoun <ani> (NRSV and NAB keep the <myself>). This 
at least seems to mean God Himself will come, as indeed He did come 
in the Messiah. And we add that Jer 30. 11 has: "For I am with you, 
says the Lord, to save you. " Ezekiel 34. 11 writes that God 
Himself said: "For thus says the Lord God: Behold I, I will search 
out my sheep and seek them out. " We note the repeated I here. 
Then, going back to Jeremiah 23 and going down to verse 5 we find: 
"I will raise up for David a righteous branch". So we seem to have 
a connection again between God Himself coming, and the Messiah. We 
notice the word <branch>, which the Targums regularly take to stand 
for the Messiah. The Targum Jonathan does mark this passage as 
Messianic. Also: we could relate these lines to Psalm 45:7-8: "Your 
throne O God is ever and ever. " Some exegetes think this psalm was 
written for a royal wedding, but the Targum calls it Messianic. And 
of course we recall that in Isaiah 9. 5-6 the Messiah is called God 
the Mighty. So there are multiple indications in the OT of the 
divinity of the Messiah. 

	Then, looking ahead to that Messianic age, God says the time 
is coming when they will no longer use the expression: "The Lord 
who brought us up from Egypt", but instead: "The Lord who brought 
us back from exile". 

	After that the Lord laments: My heart is broken about the 
prophets -- the false prophets -- for the land is full of 
adulterers. Prophet and priest are ungodly, and I have found 
wickedness even in my own house. So their paths will be slippery in 
darkness. In Samaria I saw that they prophesied by Baal, and led 
Israel astray. Similarly the prophets of Jerusalem commit adultery. 
They have become like Sodom and Gomorrah. So God will feed them 
with wormwood. Hence God tells His people:Do not listen to these 
prophets. The storm of the Lord is coming. I did not send such 
prophets, they ran of their own accord. 

	In verse 33: When they ask: What is the <massa> of the Lord? 
The word <massa> had two meanings: burden and oracle. It seems the 
wicked were saying this in derision: What does God threaten now? 
They do not believe. Hence God will bring disgrace on them, and 
cast them out. 

24. After Jeconiah was taken into exile, a vision came to Jeremiah 
of two baskets of figs, good figs, and bad figs. Relatively 
speaking God was calling those already in exile the good figs. He 
did not of course mean their moral character - they had been exiled 
for their sins. So the word good referred to the conditions in 
which they lived in Babylon, in contrast to those of the survivors 
in Jerusalem. God promised in time to bring back the exiles. But 
Zedekiah who remained was to become a horror. 

25. This chapter clarifies the length of the exile. In the 4th year 
of Jehoiakim, that is, 605 BC, which was the first year of 
Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah said that for 23 years he had spoken to 
the people, but the people had not listened. So God said: In view 
of that He was sending "His servant" Nebuchadnezzar against the 
land. God called N His servant, for God willed that N should take 
Jerusalem and punish His people. 

	The charge has been made that in Daniel 1. 1 we read that King 
N besieged Jerusalem in the third year of Jehoiakim, which seems to 
be 607 BC, but from the Babylonian Chronicle, the siege should have 
been three years later. But we need to notice two things: 1) Judah 
used the accession year method of counting the reigns, while 
Babylon, where Daniel was, used the nonaccession year (On this cf. 
E. R. Thiele, <The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings>, pp. 6-
7, 17). 2)Secondly, the genre of Daniel is most likely edifying 
narrative at this point, in which precision of timing is not 
important. 

 God said that for 70 years they would serve N. After that God 
would punish Babylon, for even though God used Babylon to punish 
His people, yet the actions of Babylon were in themselves evil, not 
motivated by any good purpose. Most likely the 70 years is just a 
round number -- they often used round numbers. For example Jonah, 
in the Hebrew text, told Nineveh God would destroy the city in 40 
days, but in the Septuagint Greek version of the same verse, it was 
3 days. 

	God then told Jeremiah to take the cup of His wrath and make 
all the nations drink. They would stagger, and be crazed because of 
the sword coming among them. So the Lord will roar from on high. 

26. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, before the fall of 
the city, God told Jeremiah to stand in the court of the temple, in 
the hope they might listen. He should tell them that if they did 
not repent he would make that temple like Shiloh, which was 
destroyed long before. The priests and the court prophets heard 
Jeremiah speaking, and seized Jeremiah saying: He must die. They 
had the vain notion that with the mere possession of the temple, 
with ceremonies devoid of interior obedience, they were safe. But 
Jeremiah knew otherwise. 

	So Jeremiah replied: The Lord has sent me to say these things. 
If you slay me, innocent blood will be upon you and upon this city. 
So the princes and people told the priests and prophets that 
Jeremiah did not deserve to die. They recalled Micah who also 
foretold ruin in the days of the good king Hezekiah, and was not 
killed for it. Hezekiah sought the favor of the lord, and so God 
did relent and did not bring disaster. (The words "seek the favor 
of the Lord" in Hebrew [<wayehal eth pene Yahweh>] literally mean, 
" stroke the face of the Lord" - a powerful anthropomorphism). So 
Ahikam, son of Shaphan saved Jeremiah from death at this point. 

27. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, when Judah was on 
the verge of revolting against Babylon, God told Jeremiah to make a 
yoke, such as was used on oxen, and to put it on his neck. This was 
to symbolize that God had given Nebuchadnezzar the power to 
subjugate Judah, and so it was futile to resist. God said it was 
His power that made all things, and so he could give power to 
whomsoever He might will. This word was to be sent through the 
ambassadors of several nations. God even called Nebuchadnezzar His 
servant- we saw this in chapter 25. That rule of Nebuchadnezzar was 
to last through the times of his son and his grandson, that is, the 
time of Belshazzar, during whose rule Cyrus captured Babylon. 

	So Jeremiah told the King Zedekiah not to listen to the false 
prophets, who said Babylon would not conquer or that the vessels of 
the Lord taken to Babylon would soon be brought back. 

28. About this time a false prophet, Hananiah, spoke to Jeremiah in 
the temple and said God would break the yoke of Babylon, and within 
2 years would bring back the captured temple vessels. Jeremiah 
replied: He wished it were true, but God has said otherwise. Then 
Hananiah took off the yoke, which Jeremiah had put on in chapter 
27, and broke it, to symbolize breaking the yoke of Babylon. 

	So God then told Jeremiah: tell Hananiah: You have broken a 
wooden yoke, I will put on you an iron yoke. Hananiah would die 
within a year. 

29. Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles in Babylon, and sent it 
by the hands of an embassy which Zedekiah sent to Nebuchadnezzar. 
The letter advised the exiles: Build houses in Babylon, and plant 
gardens. Take wives, and give your sons and daughters in marriage. 
Seek the welfare of the city of your exile. And do not let false 
prophets deceive you saying you will soon return. When 70 years are 
completed, God said He would visit them and rescue them. 

	And God added He would punish the false prophet Shemaiah. 

30. Then God said:Behold better days are coming, when I will 
restore the fortunes of my people and bring them back. Then God 
will take the yoke off their neck, and they will serve the Lord, 
and David their king, whom He would raise up for them -- the real 
fulfillment of this of course came with Jesus the Messiah, son of 
David. The Davidic line was never restored to Judah after the 
exile. Yet they would serve the son of David, in fulfillment of 
Genesis 49:10 (which said a leader would not be lacking from Judah 
until the time of the Messiah). Yes God would punish their sins, 
but in time would bring back the dispersion. The city will be 
rebuilt. --here the prophet's vision telescopes the return from 
Babylon and the time of Jesus the Messiah. 

31. Then, in that age, God will be the God of all the families of 
Israel, and will rebuild Zion, even though it will be just a 
remnant. God said He had loved them with an everlasting love, and 
so has continued His faithfulness to them. 

	A voice is heard in Ramah, which was probably five miles north 
of Jerusalem (though other locations have been suggested: some 
uncertainty), and was the place from which they had gathered and 
set out for exile, and the place of the tomb of 
Rachel, the ancestress of the northern tribes, 
Ephraim and Manasseh, and of the tribe of Benjamin in the south. 

	In consolation, God tells them to cease their weeping. Their 
reward was to come, they were to return. Ephraim is a dear son, and 
God will surely have mercy on him. 

	Matthew 2:17-18 quoted the words of Jeremiah about Rachel 
weeping in Ramah, and made them refer to the slaughter of the 
innocents whom Herod killed in trying to kill the Messiah. This is 
best taken as a sort of multiple fulfillment-- as are also the 
words of Hosea 11. 1 cited by Matthew 2. 15: "Out of Egypt I have 
called my son. " In the original setting, the son was all the whole 
people rescued from Egypt in the Exodus. Matthew saw another 
fulfillment in the return of Jesus from Egypt. (Matthew seems also 
to like to picture Jesus as a new Moses). And Matthew also shows 
another multiple fulfillment in his quotation of Isaiah 7. 14, of 
which we spoke in the comments on that passage in Isaiah. 

 Verse 22, about the woman protecting the man, has led to many 
proposals from interpreters. St. Jerome and many Fathers thought it 
could refer to the virginal conception of Jesus. But the wording is 
not well suited to that - the word for woman here is <neqabah>, 
without a definite article, and not apt to mean a virgin. And the 
word <sahab> "surround" does not readily suggest the idea of 
conceiving. 

	There are many other suggestions: A physically weaker partner 
will sustain a stronger one -- or: Israel will be so secure that 
women could defend it, and let the men stay with their work --or: 
Israel formerly weak becomes stronger than Babylonia. But really, 
there is no certainty. 

	A major teaching comes in v. 29: The proverb that the fathers 
have eaten sour grapes and the teeth of the children are set on 
edge is rejected: each one will suffer only for his own iniquity. 
Could it be that the exiles near the end were saying they suffered 
unjustly for the sins of their fathers? God said that is not the 
case. Those already in exile were not without their own sins! 
Ezekiel 18. 2-4 more strongly rejects such a proverb. 
Interestingly, in Exodus 20. 5-6 God had said he would reward the 
children of the good for a thousand generations, but punish the 
children of the wicked to the third and fourth generation. - We do 
not have a contradiction here. The sense of Exodus was this: the 
children of wicked parents are very apt to become wicked 1)by 
growing up in a wicked family: children are apt to imitate the ways 
of their parents; 2) <Science News> of August 20, 1983, p. 122-25 
reported that a chemist from Argonne laboratory took hair samples 
of violent criminals at Stateville prison in Illinois, found highs 
or lows of certain trace elements tended to correlate with 
tendencies to violence. Similarly, <Discover> magazine of Oct, 
1993, pp. 30-31 reported in: "Violence in the Blood" by Sarah 
Richardson, a perfect correlation between inclination to violence 
seems to relate to a defect in men on the short arm of the X 
chromosome, a marker known to code for an enzyme monoamine oxidase 
A which should break down three important neurotransmitters, 
including norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. Again, 
<Discover> magazine, of Aug. 1992. pp. 11-12 reported: Louis 
Gottschalk a neuro-psychiatrist at U of C at Irvine took hair 
samples of 193 rapists, murderers, armed robbers and other violent 
criminals - and also took samples from normal persons. "On the 
average violent criminals have almost five times more manganese in 
their hair. " He had set out to reproduce an earlier study that had 
found elevated levels of lead, cadmium, and copper in criminal 
hair. Those results did not hold up, but the manganese connection 
did. 

	In verse 31 comes the great prophecy of the new Covenant . God 
says: I will make a new covenant, it will not be like the covenant 
I made with your fathers, for they broke my covenant and I had to 
show myself their master. But this is the covenant: I will write my 
law on their hearts; I will be their God and they will be my 
people. - St. Paul in Romans 2. 15 quoted the words about writing 
the law on hearts to show that gentiles could be saved by obeying 
that law, for it was really the Spirit of Christ who made known to 
them interiorly what they needed to do morally. If they did that, 
then they had Pauline faith, which included:1)Belief in what God 
says; 2) confidence in His promises; 3) obedience to His will: cf 
Romans 1. 5, "the obedience of faith," that is, the obedience that 
faith is. Then, according to St. Paul's principle they were 
justified by faith. And according to St. Justin Martyr (<Apology> 
1. 46) by following the law written on their hearts by the spirit 
of Christ they were Christians. 

	Vatican iI in LG §9 says that Jesus made this New Covenant in 
the Upper Room on the first Holy Thursday (He pledged His obedience 
that evening, carried it out the next day, Friday. That obedience 
of His was the essential interior condition of the sacrifice, and 
of the covenant. Without it, His sacrifice would have been as empty 
as those of which Isaiah complains in chapter 1 and elsewhere, esp 
29. 13). The essential obedience of the New Covenant was Christ's: 
cf. LG §3 and Rm 5. 19. Did Jeremiah see this? God surely could 
have revealed it to Jeremiah, but we see no indication that God did 
so. Then Jeremiah would most likely think of the obedience as that 
of the people, in parallel with the Sinai Covenant: Ex 19. 5. 

	So God at this time appeals to the fact that He had made the 
heavens and the earth, as an assurance of His promise to restore 
Israel. 

32. The year is most likely either 588 or 587, the last part of the 
siege of Jerusalem. Jeremiah himself was shut up in the court of 
the guard by Zedekiah for foretelling the city would be taken. But 
Jeremiah said God had told him to buy a field in his town of 
Anathoth from Hanamel. This was a demonstration of the faith of 
Jeremiah in the promise of the Lord, to buy a field at such a time. 
But he did so, as God commanded. (Hanamel went to where Jeremiah 
was staying). Jeremiah then prayed to the Lord, but the Lord still 
told him the city would be taken, for the sins of the people, which 
included sacrificing their sons in the fire to Molech in the valley 
of the son of Hinnom. But later, God said, He would bring them back 
from exile to this place, and so fields would be bought in the 
place, even as Jeremiah had just done. 

33. The word of the Lord came again to Jeremiah while Jeremiah was 
still shut up in the court of the guard. God again told Jeremiah He 
would hand over the city to the Chaldeans, but later He would 
forgive them and bring them back. again the voice of mirth was 
going to be heard there. 

	Further, in time, for the days were coming, God would cause a 
righteous branch to spring up for David. The Targums regularly 
recognize that word branch as standing for the Messiah. God added 
there would always be a king from David to sit on the throne. Now 
this did not happen after the exile, for the line of David was 
never restored to power. Yet in Christ, son of David, it was 
restored, and his kingship is eternal. 

	God further promised Levitical priests would continue. But we 
know that often in the OT spiritual things were promised under the 
imagery of temporal things, such as in the Sinai covenant, which at 
first referred to temporal favors, later was reinterpreted to refer 
to eternal salvation, cf. St. Paul, Gal 3:15-22. 

34. When the siege was still more severe, only Jerusalem and a few 
other cities, Lachish and Azekah still held out. But God told 
Zedekiah through Jeremiah that he would have to answer personally 
to the king of Babylon, and would die in captivity in Babylon. 
Spices would be burned in honor of his death. This did not mean 
cremation of his body, which was not usual for the Hebrews. 

	Then Zedekiah made a covenant with the people of Jerusalem: 
they were to free all their Hebrew slaves. The people at first 
obeyed, then went back on their word, and again enslaved Hebrews. 
Therefore the Lord said:since you have not proclaimed liberty, I 
proclaim liberty to the sword, pestilence and famine against you. 
God said He would make them like the calf they had cut in two - a 
part of the covenant ceremony, in which they passed between the 
halves: cf. Genesis 15. 9-17. The ceremony seems to have been a 
sort of curse: if one party breaks the covenant, he is to be like 
the animal cut in two. We notice the expression, "to cut a 
covenant" is related to this rite. 

35. God told Jeremiah to go to the Rechabites, take them to the 
temple, and offer them wine. The purpose is to contrast the 
remarkable obedience of the Rechabites to their ancestor, with the 
disobedience of Judah. The Rechabites were nomads, stemming from 
Jonadab (Jehonadab) who had purged the northern kingdom of Baal 
worship in the time of Jehu c 840 BC. Cf. 2 Kings 10. 15-23. 

 Wanting to go back to the nomadic life with its simplicity, they 
banned all sedentary living, dwelling in the southern deserts and 
also in northern territory. They drank no wine, as prescribed by 
Jonadab -- a remarkable example of obedience for so many years. The 
fact God sent Jeremiah to them does not mean God wanted their way 
of life, just their obedience as a contrast to Judah. 

	When Jeremiah offered them wine, they refused, saying their 
ancestor had told them not to do so, nor to build houses. 

	God promised them blessing for their devotedness. 

36. We move back in time a bit. In the fourth year of Jehoaikim, 
that is, 605 B. C. God told Jeremiah to write his prophecies on a 
scroll. He did so, dictating to Baruch, his secretary. Jeremiah 
said he was debarred from the temple -- probably because of the 
destruction he foretold. 

	Then in the 9th month of the fifth year, which was 604 BC, a 
time of fasting, Baruch read the scroll he had written to all the 
people. Then Micaiah, son of Gemariah, went to the king and the 
princes, and told them what had been read. Baruch was asked to come 
and read to the king. They all turned to one another in fear. The 
princes told Baruch to go to Jeremiah and both should hide. Then 
Jehudi took the scroll and read it to the king. A fire was burning 
there. When Jehudi red 3 or 4 columns, the king with a knife cut 
them off from the scroll, and put them into the fire. The king 
commanded that Jeremiah and Baruch be seized, but the Lord hid 
them. 

	The word of the Lord came, ordering Jeremiah to dictate the 
same words on another scroll, and say to the king that the king of 
Babylon would take the city. Baruch did write it again and Jeremiah 
added many similar words. God foretold that Jehoiakim would have no 
one to sit on the throne of David: Jehoiakin did rule three months 
after Jehoiakim, but was under siege, and not free. He was then 
taken captive to Babylon where he stayed for 37 years. (Many of the 
upper class of Judah also were sent to Babylon at this time, 
including the prophet Ezekiel). No other descendant of Jehoiakim 
ever became king. Nebuchadnezzar then put on the throne Mattaniah, 
uncle of Jehoiakin, and changed his name to Zedekiah. There were no 
more Davidic kings. 

37. This Zedekiah and his servants did not listen to the words of 
the Lord through Jeremiah. But Zedekiah did send to Jeremiah, 
asking his prayers. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: tell 
Zedekiah that the army of Pharaoh which came to help him was about 
to return to Egypt. The Chaldeans would return, and take and burn 
the city. 

	When the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the 
approach of the army of Pharaoh, Jeremiah went to the land of 
Benjamin. A sentry there accused Jeremiah of deserting, and beat 
and imprisoned him. After many days Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah and 
received him and asked if there was word from the Lord. Zedekiah 
has Jeremiah put in the court of the guard, and provided a loaf of 
bread daily for him until all the bread was gone from the city. 

38. Jeremiah said in the name of the Lord: Those who go out in 
surrender to the King of Babylon will be spared. But those who stay 
in the city will perish. The princes then told the king; Jeremiah 
should be put to death. The King let them have Jeremiah, and they 
put him into a cistern that had no water, but mire in it. 

	But Ebedmelech, a Eunuch of the King, learned of it, reported 
to the king, who had them take Jeremiah up out of the cistern. 
Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard. 

	King Zedekiah called Jeremiah and was given the same advice. 
The King feared the Jews who had deserted to the Chaldeans. 
Jeremiah said there was no cause to fear. Z did not comply, but 
told Jeremiah not to let the princes hear what was said. Jeremiah 
obeyed, and stayed in the court of the guard until the day 
Jerusalem fell. 

39. Finally the walls of Jerusalem were broken open. We are not 
sure how long the siege lasted. If we use the 
Babylonian New Year, which was in March, as the basis, it ran from 
January 588 to July 587. The fall of the city is described more 
fully in chapter 52. 

 King Zedekiah seeing this tried to flee but was caught in the 
plains of Jericho. Nebuchadnezzar slew the sons and nobles of 
Zedekiah before him, and then put out Zedekiah's eyes, and took him 
in chains to Babylon. The Chaldeans burned the city. Nebuzaradan, 
captain of the guard for the Chaldeans left some poor landless 
people in the land, and gave them land there. Nebuchadnezzar gave 
orders to treat Jeremiah well, and took him from the court of the 
guard, and entrusted him to Gedeliah, who had been a prominent 
official in the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim, and who was 
appointed governor for the Chaldeans. Before Jeremiah left the 
court of the guard, God told him he would destroy the city but save 
Jeremiah. 

40. Jeremiah as taken to Ramah, place of assembly for the exiles to 
leave. But Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard was kind to Jeremiah, 
told him he could come to Babylon and would be cared for, or could 
stay in Judah, and go to Gedeliah, Chaldean governor there. 

	The guerilla bands of Jews from the countryside then came to 
Gedeliah at Mizpah -- the Chaldeans did not want to trust them in 
Jerusalem, and made Mizpah the seat of the governor. Gedeliah seems 
to have been a good ruler, who promised to represent them before 
Nechuchadnezzar. But many did not trust Gedeliah, even though the 
Chaldeans had not used a scorched earth policy, but left some 
produce in the land. Gedeliah told them to gather supplies, for the 
coming bleak winter. One of them, Johanan, warned Gedeliah that he 
was in danger of being killed by Ishmael son of Nethaniah. Gedeliah 
did not believe the warning and did not let Johanan kill Ishmael. 

41. (Narrative simply continues). In the 7th month Ishmael came 
with ten men to Gedeliah. While they were eating together, they 
killed Gedeliah and also killed the Jews who were at Mizpah and the 
Chaldean soldiers who were there. 

 The day after this, a band of 80 men from Shechem, Shiloh and 
Samaria came with beards shaved, clothes torn and bodies gashed, 
with cereal offerings and incense to present in the temple, even 
though it had been ruined - cf. the use of the Wailing Wall in 
Jerusalem even today. These men even though from the northern 
kingdom still wanted to worship in the sacred ruins. But Ishmael 
and the men with him killed them and threw their bodies into a 
cistern. However those who had not yet been killed told Ishmael 
they had stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden. So he did 
not kill them. Ishmael then took captive all the rest of the people 
who were in Mizpah. 

 But Johanan heard of it, and came with a force against Ishmael. 
However Ishmael and 8 men escaped and went to the Ammonites. 
Johanan then planned to go to Egypt with a remnant. 

42. (Narrative continues). Johanan and others went to Jeremiah, 
asking him to pray to the Lord and they would obey. After ten days 
Jeremiah summoned them and told them that if they stayed in Judah 
the Lord would build them up. But if they went to 
Egypt, the sword would find them there. 

43. (narrative continues). But they refused to listen to Jeremiah 
and went to Egypt, taking him and Baruch his secretary along. In 
Egypt Jeremiah told them the Lord would send Nebuchadnezzar against 
them even in Egypt. 

44. (narrative continues). Jeremiah rebuked the people, for they 
were burning incense to the gods of Egypt. Jeremiah told them they 
would be consumed in Egypt. The men then, knowing their wives had 
burned incense there, came to Jeremiah and said they approved of 
the action of their wives, and that they would burn incense to the 
Queen of Heaven. They said that when they did that in Judah they 
had had plenty, so they must do it now. Jeremiah told them that 
this idolatry was the reason why the Lord had sent the sword 
against Jerusalem. Most of them would be smitten with the sword, 
only a remnant would escape to Judah. 

 Jeremiah continued: the Lord would sent the Chaldeans to overthrow 
Pharaoh Hophra, who had been the ally of Zedekiah. Hophra was 
overthrown by one of his own officers, Amasis, who shared rule with 
Hophra for about 3 years. But then in 570 Amasis rebelled against 
Nebuchadnezzar and was defeated in 568. Hophra was dethroned and 
strangled by some of his subjects. 

 Scripture does not tell us more about Jeremiah himself after this 
point in time. There are many legends, none of them certain. 

45. We now go back in time to the year 604. The Lord sent a message 
to Baruch, secretary of Jeremiah. God told Baruch who was weary and 
groaning under all the trouble. God said that He had caused the 
destruction that was coming. But Baruch's life would be spared, 
wherever he might be. 

46. All the remainder of Jeremiah, except chapter 51, is made up of 
prophecies against foreign nations. Some have thought a different 
writer added them. But there is no strong reason for saying that. 
These chapters 46-51 are some of the finest poetry in Scripture. 	

	The Septuagint Greek version puts these oracles after 25. 13 
and arranges them in a different order. 

	First, against Egypt:The text is specific, it deals with the 
defeat of Pharaoh Neco at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar in 605. 
Carchemish is in Syria, near the Euphrates river. The battle there 
was one of the great decisive battles of history. It showed 
Assyria, supported by Egypt, could not resist the rising power of 
Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar pursued Neco to Egypt, but turned back at 
the news of the death of his father, Nabopolassar. He had to go 
back to be crowned king. The name Carchemish means the Fort of 
Chemosh, god of the Moabites: cf. 2 Kings 23. 13. 

	Jeremiah in words with a color of sarcasm tells of the 
preparation of the Egyptians, and their defeat in a panic, which 
seems to have been induced by the Lord. 

	Jeremiah says that day was a day of <naqam>, God's setting 
things right (not <vengeance> as versions often have it. That is 
immoral). Jeremiah tells Neco to get balm in Gilead, famous for 
balm, even though Egypt itself was famed in that time for its 
physicians. It was from Egypt and India that the knowledge of 
medicine came to Europe:cf. Herodotus 2. 116. 

	Jeremiah asks: Why has Apis fled? Apis was the sacred bull of 
Egypt, the incarnation of Osiris. But the gods of Egypt could not 
stand up. So the mercenary troops of Neco called him a braggart, "a 
loud noise" (v. 17). 

	Jeremiah speaks of Egypt as a beautiful heifer, the gadfly 
from the north is Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah says Egypt will hiss 
like a serpent-- the Pharaoh had an image of a Uraeus serpent on 
his crown. They thought it could strike people dead if they came 
too close. 

	God is bringing punishment on Amon, chief god of Thebes in 
Egypt. But the Lord said that Egypt would later be restored. 

	But the Lord promises to save His people even from a distant 
place. 

47. Jeremiah speaks of the Pharaoh smiting Gaza, a Philistine city. 
There could be any of several historical incidents: Neco conquered 
Gaza (2 Kings 23. 29-30) about the time he defeated Josiah at 
Megiddo. Or on his return from the battle of Carchemish Neco may 
have struck Gaza. Or it could be Pharaoh Hophra who took Gaza in 
his campaign against Tyre and Sidon. 

	The waters rising out of the north stand for Babylon. Limp 
hands indicated paralysis from fear. The mention of Caphtor recalls 
that Crete, once called Caphtor was the original home of the 
Philistines before their entrance into Palestine:
cf. Dt. 2. 23. 

	Baldness of Gaza means they shaved their heads as signs of 
deep mourning . Ashkelon is another Philistine city on the coast. 
V. 5 in RSV speaks of the remnant of the Anakim, which seems to 
mean the tall people, living near Hebron in prehistoric times:. cf 
Joshua 11. 21-22. 

48. Against Moab: The people of Moab were descended form Lot (Gen 
19. 37). They lived east of the Dead Sea, were often in conflict 
with Israel. When Israel was coming back from Egypt they wanted to 
pass through Moab, but the Amorite King Sihon, who had conquered 
Moab, refused them permission, even though God has told them not to 
harass Moab (Dt 2. 8-9). Later on, King Balak of Moab hired a pagan 
seer, Balaam, to curse Israel, but God forced Balaam to bless them 
instead. He foretold that a star, the Messiah, would arise from 
them: Numbers 24. 17. It was from Me. Nebo in Moab that Moses saw 
the promised land, which God ordered hi not to enter. They joined 
Nebuchadnezzar as marauding bands against Israel in 602 after the 
revolt by Jehoiakim. Early in the reign of Zedekiah they joined in 
a plot to revolt against Babylon. They were conquered by 
Nebuchadnezzar, and disappeared as a nation. Yet at the end of this 
chapter Jeremiah says God will eventually restore them, in the 
final age. 

	We meet a series of woes against more than twenty cities. We 
do not know even the location of some of them. Nor is it helpful 
for us to determine the places of many of the others. 

 Jeremiah says that Chemosh will go into exile. He was the chief 
god of Moab. He was mentioned on the Moabite stone, which 
celebrated the victory of King Mesha of Moab over Israel in the 9th 
century. Idols were often taken into captivity with their conquered 
worshippers. 

	The valley would be the part of the Jordan valley which 
touched Moab on the west. Most Moabite cities were located on a 
high plateau, 3000 ft above sea level. 

	Moab has been at rest for long in that while it was made a 
tributary by Assyria and Babylon, it was not exiled. But days are 
coming when men will pour from jars and they will pour her oil, 
empty her jars, and smash them. Then they will be ashamed of their 
idol Chemosh, who did not help them, just as Israel was later 
ashamed of Bethel where Israel had worshipped a bull. 

	Jeremiah says there will be shaved heads, beards cut off, and 
gashes on the body - signs of mourning at funerals. 

	Yet God shows pity even to Moab. In v 36 He says his heart 
moans for Moab, and in v 47 He says eventually He will restore 
Moab, in the last days. 


 In verse 9 he says: Put salt on Moab. That was sometimes done in 
ancient times to ruin the soil, so nothing would grow there. 

49. Oracles against several nations:

	a)Against Ammon: These people were descended from Ben-Ammi, 
son of Lot(Gen 19:38), and lived north of Moab. It seems they first 
occupied the land in which the tribe of Gad settled after the fall 
of Sihon. When Tiglath Pileser III in 733 conquered the 
Transjordanian tribes, Ammonites encroached on the territory of 
Gad, which was east of the Jordan. They were often in conflict with 
Israel. They joined in the invasion of Judah in 602. It as probably 
Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Ammon. 

	Molech [the root is same as in Hebrew <melech>, king] was 
their chief god. Rabbah was the chief city of the Ammonites, now 
Amman, capital of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. Hesbon was under 
control of the Ammonite king Sihon, and later it came under Moabite 
control. The Ai mentioned here is not the one conquered by Joshua 
(Joshua 8. 1-29). They lived in a country with mountains on three 
sides, and so felt safe from invasion. Josephus (<Antiquities> 10. 
181 [9. 7] says Nebuchadnezzar defeated Ammon in the 5th year after 
the fall of Jerusalem. Even after the Exile the Ammonites opposed 
Israel. During the time of the Maccabees they were forced to accept 
the Jewish religion. God promised later restoration to them. 

	b)Against Edom: The relations of the Edomites with Israel were 
always poor. They descended from Esau (Gen 36. 1-19) twin brother 
of Jacob. Their land was in a mountainous region south of the Dead 
Sea until the Nabateans displaced them. They were proud and had 
violent hatred of Israel. There was no prophecy given here for the 
future restoration of Edom. 

	c)Against Damascus: We are not sure of which historical event 
is spoken of here. The chief cities in Syria were Hamath, Zobah and 
Damascus. Damascus was seat of a powerful dynasty that of Ben-Hadah 
- which was also the name of some individual kings (cf. 1 Kings 
15:18; 2 Kings 13:24). Hamath is on the Orontes river, modern Hama, 
and is about 110 miles north of Damascus. Arpad is about 95 miles 
north of Hamath. 

	All three cities were conquered by Assyria (cf. Isaiah 10;9). 
Damascus was also conquered by Nebuchadnezzar in 605. 

	d)Against Kedar and Hazor: Kedar was an Ishmaelite desert 
tribe, but rich in livestock, and good at archery. Yet 
Nebuchadnezzar conquered them. Hazor is not the Hazor mentioned in 
Joshua 11. 1-13, for this one is in a desert region -- not 
mentioned elsewhere in the Bible. 

	e)Against Elam: This oracle comes from the early part of the 
reign of Zedekiah, c 598 BC. Elam was an ancient kingdom 200 miles 
east of Babylon and west of the Tigris River. It had been an 
important power, but was conquered about 640 BC. Its capital, Susa, 
became the residence of Darius Hystaspes of Persia. Elamites were 
famed for skill in archery. Yet invaders would overwhelm them from 
all sides and scatter them. In the last days Elam will be restored. 

50-51. Oracle Against Babylon: We have already seen the words of 
Isaiah on the destruction of Babylon, it is good to review them 
now. 

	Jeremiah says: Bel and Merodach (=Marduk), gods of Babylon are 
put to shame. A nation shall come out of the north, the Medes and 
Persians, and will take Babylon. Israel and Judah together will 
turn back to the Lord, seeking an everlasting covenant. Their 
shepherds had led them astray. Their enemies saw that 
God had turned them over to the enemies. So Jeremiah advises them 
to flee from Babylon, for it was to be destroyed. There will be 
complete desolation. This is the <naqam> of the Lord (not 
vengeance). 

	God will restore Israel and will pardon their iniquity. In v. 
12 Merathim ("twice bitter") and Pekod ("punishment" stand for 
Babylon. Babylon is called the hammer of the whole earth, but now 
it will be repaid. The <naqam> of the Lord (not vengeance) comes. 
It is true, God had used the agency of the Babylonians to carry out 
His punishment of His people. Yet what they did was at the same 
time objectively wrong, and their intention too was wrong: so they 
must face punishment now. 

	 In v. 34 the Lord is called the redeemer (<goel>) of Israel, 
the kinsman who has the right and duty to rescue them when they are 
in dire straits. 

 In v. 38 Babylon is called a land of images, mad over idols. 

	At its fall, the earth will tremble -- we recall the 
apocalyptic language of Isaiah 13. 10 on this subject. 

	So they will fall in the streets at the time of the Lord's 
<naqam>. It is He who set up the earth by His power. Men are stupid 
to put their trust in the idols that their smiths make. Babylon 
will be a perpetual waste. 

	Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz, nations north of Babylon, 
conquered by Medes early in 6th century, are called on to strike 
Babylon. God will make the princes of Babylon like drunks. 

		Jeremiah told Neriah the staff officer who went to 
Babylon with Zedekiah to read his prophetic scroll in Babylon, and 
then to tie the scroll to a rock, and throw it into the Euphrates, 
as a symbol of the way Babylon was going to sink. 

 51. 64 the last words of this chapter read: "Thus far the words of 
Jeremiah". This would seem to imply that chapter 52 was an addition 
by another writer, who would be inspired too. 

	Herodotus in 1. 191 said that Cyrus conquered 
Babylon by diverting the water of the Euphrates into a trench. The 
Persian attack was so sudden and unexpected that when the outer 
areas of the city were taken, those in the center did not realize 
they were captured. Herodotus also, in 1. 178 ff. said Babylon was 
surrounded by a double wall which allowed four chariots to run 
abreast. 

52. This chapter is a sort of historical supplement to the book of 
Jeremiah. It is almost identical with 2 Kings 24. 18 - 25. 30. 

	The number of those deported in this chapter, at 52. 28-29, is 
somewhat smaller than that given in 2 Kings. It seems both writers 
were using different perspectives. The smaller figure may include 
only adult males, and the larger number may give the total of all 
persons. Perhaps the one figure covers only those from Judah, the 
other is more inclusive. 

52. 31-34 tells how in 561 BC Evil- Merodach, King of Babylon 
released King Jehoiakin of Judah from prison, gave him a seat of 
honor, and a place at the king's table. The cuneiform tablets from 
Babylon confirm this point. Jewish tradition says that Evil-
Merodach was imprisoned by his father during the reign of 
Nebuchadnezzar. In prison, Evil-Merodach became a friend of 
Jehoiachin. 
chin. 

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