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Jeremiah 40:1-44:30

Jeremiah stays with Gedeliah. (Jr.40.1-6)

40¹The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after Nebuzaradan commander of the guard had released him from Ramah, where he had found him in chains with all the other captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being deported to Babylon: ²The commander of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, 'Yahweh your God foretold calamity for this country, ³and now he has brought it. He has done what he threatened to do, because you had sinned against Yahweh and would not listen to his voice; so all this has happened to you. ⁴Look, today I am having your hands unchained. If you like to come with me to Babylon, come: I shall look after you. If you do not want to come with me to Babylon, do not. Look, you have the whole country before you: go wherever you think it best and most suitable to go.' ⁵And before Jeremiah retired, he added, 'You can go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed governor of the towns of Judah, and stay with him among the people, or go anywhere else you think suitable.' With that, the commander of the guard gave him provisions and a present, and dismissed him. ⁶Jeremiah went to Mizpah, to Gedaliah son of Ahikam and stayed with him, among those people still left in the country.

GEDELIAH, Governor of the Chaldean province of Judah. (Jr.40.7-12)

⁷When the military leaders who with their men were still in the field, all heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor of the country, making him responsible for the men, women and children, and those of the poor country people who had not been deported to Babylon, ⁸they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, Jezaniah son of the Maacathite, they and their men. ⁹To them and to their men Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, swore an oath. 'Do not be afraid', he said, 'of serving the Chaldaeans, stay in the country, serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well with you. ¹⁰I for my part, as the man answerable to the Chaldaeans when they come to us, shall stay here at Mizpah, whereas you can harvest the wine, summer fruit and oil, fill your storage jars and settle in the towns which you have seized.' ¹¹Similarly, when all the Judaeans living in Moab, with the Ammonites, in Edom and elsewhere, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan as their governor, ¹²the Judaeans all came back from wherever they had been driven. On their return to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, they harvested an immense quantity of wine and summer fruit.

Gedeliah murdered. (Jr.40.13-41.18)

¹³Now Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders still in the field, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah ¹⁴and said to him, 'Are you aware that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to assassinate you?' But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them. ¹⁵Johanan son of Kareah then spoke in secret to Gedaliah at Mizpah, as follows: 'Please let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one will be any the wiser. Why should he assassinate you and cause the dispersal of all the Judaeans who have rallied round you. Why should the remnant of Judah perish?' ¹⁶But Gedaliah son of Ahikam replied to Johanan son of Kareah, 'You will do no such thing, for what you say about Ishmael is false.' 41¹In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with officers of the king and ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. And as they were taking their meal together, there at Mizpah, ²Ishmael son of Nethaniah stood up with his ten men, and attacking Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with their swords, they killed the man whom the king of Babylon had made governor of the country. ³And all the Judaeans who were with him, that is with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldaean soldiers who happened to be there, Ishmael killed too. ⁴On the day after the murder of Gedaliah, before the news had become known, ⁵eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, with their beards shaved off, their clothing torn, and covered in self-inflicted gashes; they were bringing cereal offerings and incense with them to present to the Temple of Yahweh. ⁶Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out of Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he met them he said, 'Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.' ⁷But once they were well inside the town, Ishmael son of Nethaniah slaughtered them, with the help of his men, and had them thrown into the storage-well. ⁸There were ten of them, however, who said to Ishmael, 'Do not kill us: we have stocks of wheat and barley, oil and honey, hidden away in the fields.' So he spared them and did not kill them with their brothers. ⁹The storage-well into which Ishmael threw the corpses of all the men he had killed was a large one, the one which King Asa had built as a precaution against Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the slaughtered men. ¹⁰Ishmael then took all the rest of the people prisoner who were at Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the remaining people in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, had entrusted to Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them prisoner and set out, intending to cross over to the Ammonites. ¹¹When Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders who were with him heard about all the crimes committed by Ishmael son of Nethaniah, ¹²they mustered all their men and set out to attack Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught up with him at the great Pool of Gibeon. ¹³At the sight of Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders with him, all the people with Ishmael were delighted. ¹⁴All the people whom Ishmael had taken as prisoners from Mizpah turned about, went back and joined Johaan son of Kareah. ¹⁵Ishmael son of Nethaniah, however, escaped from Johanan with eight of his men and fled to the Ammonites. ¹⁶Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders with him then rallied all the remaining people whom Ishmael son of Nethaniah had taken as prisoners from Mizpah after killing Gedaliah son of Ahikam: men—fighting men-women, children and eunuchs, whom they brought back from Gibeon. ¹⁷Setting off, they made a halt at Khan Kimham near Bethlehem, intending to go on to Egypt, ¹⁸to get away from the Chaldaeans. They were now terrified of them, since Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam whom the king of Babylon had made governor of the country.

The people ask Jeremiah to pray for them. (Jr.42.1-6)

42¹Then all the military leaders, in particular Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from least to greatest, approached ²the prophet Jeremiah and said, 'Please hear our petition and intercede with Yahweh your God for us and for all this remnant—and how few of us are left out of many, your own eyes can see— ³so that Yahweh your God may show us the way we are to go and what we must do.' ⁴The prophet Jeremiah replied, 'I hear you; I will indeed pray to Yahweh your God as you ask; and whatever answer Yahweh your God gives you, I will tell you, keeping nothing back from you.' ⁵They in their turn said to Jeremiah, 'May Yahweh be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not follow the instructions that Yahweh your God sends us through you. ⁶Whether we like it or not, we shall obey the voice of Yahweh our God to whom we are sending you, so that we may prosper by obeying the voice of Yahweh our God.'

The LORD answers Jeremiah's prayer. (Jr.42.7-22)

⁷Ten days later the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah. ⁸He then summoned Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders who were with him, and all the people from least to greatest, ⁹and said, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, to whom you deputed me to present your petition says this, ¹⁰'If you will only stay in this country, I shall build you and not overthrow you; I shall plant you and not uproot you, for I am sorry about the disaster I have inflicted on you. ¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you fear now; do not fear him, Yahweh declares, for I am with you to save you and rescue you from his clutches. ¹²I shall take pity on you, so that he pities you and lets you return to your native soil. ¹³But if you say: We will not stay in this country; if you disobey the voice of Yahweh your God, ¹⁴and say: No, Egypt is where we shall go, where we shall not see war or hear the trumpet-call or go short of food; that is where we want to live; ¹⁵in that case, remnant of Judah, listen to Yahweh's word: Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: If you are determined to go to Egypt, and if you do go and settle there, ¹⁶the sword you fear will overtake you there in Egypt, and there you will die. ¹⁷Yes, all those who are determined to go to Egypt and settle there, will die by sword, famine and plague: not a single one of them will survive or escape the disaster I shall inflict on them. ¹⁸Yes, Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Just as my furious anger was poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my fury be poured out on you if you go to Egypt: you will become an object of execration and horror, a curse, a laughing-stock; and you will never see this place again.' ¹⁹Remnant of Judah, Yahweh has told you, 'Do not go into Egypt.' Understand clearly that today I have given you a solemn warning. ²⁰You were not being sincere when you sent me to Yahweh your God and said, 'Intercede for us with Yahweh our God; tell us exactly what Yahweh our God says and we will do it.' ²¹Today I have told you, but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God or any part of the message he sent me to give you. ²²So understand this clearly: you will die by sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go and settle.'

Jeremiah taken to Egypt. (Jr.43.1-13)

43¹When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, which Yahweh their God had sent him to tell them—all the words quoted above- ²Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and all those arrogant men, said to Jeremiah, 'You are lying. Yahweh our God did not send you to say, 'Do not go to Egypt and settle there.' ³It was Baruch son of Neriah, who keeps inciting you against us, to hand us over to the Chaldaeans so that they can put us to death or deport us to Babylon.' ⁴So neither Johanan nor any of the military leaders nor any of the people obeyed the voice of Yahweh by staying in the country of Judah. ⁵Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders led off the entire remnant of Judah, those who had come back from all the nations where they had been driven to live in the country of Judah: ⁶men, women, children, the royal princesses too, and every single person that Nebuzaradan commander of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, including the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah. ⁷And so, in disobedience to the voice of Yahweh, they reached Egypt and arrived at Tahpanhes. ⁸At Tahpanhes the word of Yahweh was addressed to Jeremiah as follows, ⁹'Take some large stones and bury them in the cement on the terrace outside the entrance of Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanhes, where the Judaeans can see you. ¹⁰Then say to them, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Look, I shall send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will place his throne on these stones I have buried, and spread his canopy above them. ¹¹When he comes, he will defeat Egypt:

Those for the plague, to the plague;
those for captivity, to captivity;
those for the sword, to the sword!

¹²'He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn these gods or take them prisoner; like a shepherd wrapping his cloak round him, so he will wrap Egypt round him, and then leave without anyone laying hands on him. ¹³He will break the obelisks of the temple of the Sun in Egypt, and burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.' '

The LORD's message to the Israelites. (Jr.44.1-30)

44¹The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judaeans living in Egypt, those, that is, living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph and the territory of Pathros. ²'Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this, 'You have seen all the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah; today they lie in ruins and uninhabited. ³This was because of the wicked deeds they committed to provoke my anger, by going and offering incense and serving other gods whom neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors knew anything about, ⁴although I urgently and untiringly sent you all my servants the prophets to say: You must not do this loathsome thing, which I hate. ⁵But they would not listen or pay attention, and turn from their wickedness and stop offering incense to other gods. ⁶And so my furious anger overflowed, burning down the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, which were reduced to ruins and wasteland, as they still are today. ⁷And now, Yahweh, God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Why bring complete disaster on yourselves by cutting yourselves off from Judah—your men, women, children and babes in arms—so as to leave yourselves no remnant, ⁸by provoking my wrath by your actions, offering incense to other gods in Egypt where you have come to settle, as though bent on your own destruction and on becoming a curse and a laughing-stock for all the nations of the earth? ⁹Have you forgotten the wicked deeds of your ancestors, of the kings of Judah and of your princes, your own wicked deeds and those of your wives, committed in the country of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰To this day they have felt neither contrition nor fear; they have not observed my Law or my statutes, which I prescribed for you, as for your ancestors. ¹¹So, Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, I have determined on disaster and shall destroy Judah completely. ¹²I shall take the remnant of Judah who were determined to come to Egypt and settle there, and in Egypt they will perish; they will fall to the sword or perish of famine, from least to greatest; by sword and famine they will die and be an object of execration and horror, a curse, a laughing-stock. ¹³I shall punish those who live in Egypt just as I punished Jerusalem: by sword, famine and plague. ¹⁴Of the remnant of Judah which has come to settle in Egypt, not a single one will escape or survive to return to the country of Judah where they long to return and live. For none of them will return, except a few refugees.' ' ¹⁵At this, all the men who knew that their wives offered incense to other gods, and all the women who were standing there, a great crowd (and all the people living in Egypt, in Pathros), answered Jeremiah as follows, ¹⁶'We have no intention of listening to the word you have just spoken to us in Yahweh's name, ¹⁷but intend to go on doing all we have vowed to do: offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring libations in her honour, as we used to do, we and our ancestors, our kings and our chief men, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: we had food in plenty then, we lived well, we suffered no disasters. ¹⁸But since we gave up offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring libations in her honour, we have been destitute and have perished either by sword or by famine. ¹⁹Besides, when we offer incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour libations in her honour, do you think we make cakes for her with her features on them, and pour libations to her, without our husbands' knowledge?' ²⁰To all the people, men and women, all those who had made this answer, Jeremiah retorted, ²¹'The incense you offered in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, you, your ancestors, your kings, your chief men and the people at large—was this not what Yahweh kept remembering, and found so repellent ²²that Yahweh could not endure your misdeeds and your loathsome practices any longer, with the result that your country has become the uninhabited ruin, the object of horror and cursing it is today? ²³Because you offered incense, because you sinned against Yahweh, refusing to listen to the voice of Yahweh, or to observe his Law, his statutes and his decrees—that is why the present disaster has overtaken you.' ²⁴Further, Jeremiah said to all the people, and particularly to all the women, 'Listen to the word of Yahweh, all you Judaeans in Egypt, ²⁵Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this, 'You and your wives, what your mouths promised, your hands have indeed performed! You said: We shall punctiliously fulfil the vows we have made and offer incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour libations in her honour. Very well, keep your vows, perform them punctiliously! ²⁶But listen to the word of Yahweh, all you Judaeans living in Egypt: I swear by my great name, Yahweh says, that my name will no longer be uttered by any man of Judah throughout Egypt; no one will say: As Lord Yahweh lives. ²⁷No, I am going to keep my eye on them for disaster, not for prosperity, and all the Judaeans in Egypt will perish either by the sword or by famine until they are wiped out. ²⁸Yet, though few in number, those who escape the sword will return to the country of Judah from Egypt. Then the entire remnant of Judah which has come and settled in Egypt will know whose word comes true, mine or theirs. ²⁹'And here is the sign for you, Yahweh declares, that I shall punish you in this place: so that you will know that the words with which I threaten you will come true: ³⁰Yahweh says this: Look, I shall hand Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies and to those determined to kill him, just as I handed Zedekiah king of Judah over to his enemy Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was determined to kill him.' '