Jeremiah;- Picking up the pieces (ch40)

This book includes the standard account of the fall of the city and the fate of Zedekiah (ch39 vv1-10) in order to establish the point that Jeremiah had been right all along. The details are not our concern, apart from the important point that the Babylonians did not evacuate the entire population and leave the land empty. There were “people remaining”. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who was in charge of the operation, left in the land of Judah “some of the poor people who owned nothing”, and gave them confiscated vineyards and fields.

We are given two stories about the release of Jeremiah from his confinement. I think the first one (ch39 vv11-14) must come from Neburazaradan’s official report in the Babylonian records. It records the king of Babylon’s command and the way the command was obeyed. The command was to find Jeremiah, treat him well, and let him go where he wanted. The king would have been aware of Jeremiah’s record in advocating submission, and would have regarded him as one of the “friendlies” in the local population. The report says that the officers took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard and handed him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, so that Gedaliah could “take him home” and he could dwell among the people.

The account in ch40 is more detailed and circumstantial, telling the story from Jeremiah’s viewpoint. Jeremiah was originally taken in chains to Ramah along with the rest of the captives of Jerusalem and Judah. Then the captain of the guard spoke to him and told him that he was being released. He would be permitted, if he wished, to come to Babylon voluntarily, in which case the captain of the guard would take care of him. Otherwise, “the whole land is before you; go wherever you think it good and right to go” (v4). The recommendation, in that case, was that he join Gedaliah, the newly appointed governor of the cities of Judah. That is what Jeremiah chose to do, and the captain gave him “an allowance of food and a present”.

In our text, the captain first took it upon himself to tell Jeremiah “The Lord your God pronounced this evil upon this place… Because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey his voice”. Unless the message was “We Babylonians agree with what you have been saying”, it isn’t clear why he should have said this to Jeremiah, who knew it already.

The first verse in ch40 announces “the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after the captain of the guard let him go”, but I think this is meant to be the heading of the whole five chapter narrative about his life among the survivors.

Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan belonged to an influential family with an interest in religious reform. Shaphan was the royal secretary who helped in the finding of the book of the law in Josiah’s time (2 Kings ch22). Ahikam was also commissioned in that episode, and later gave his protection to Jeremiah in the early days of king Jehoiakim (ch26). Gedaliah’s uncle Gemariah, another son of Shaphan, permitted his chamber in the house of the Lord to be used for the reading of Jeremiah’s scroll (ch36) A third son of Shaphan helped to deliver Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles (ch29). Jeremiah would have recognised Gedaliah as a very worthy leader of the people.

Gedaliah had been appointed governor by the king of Babylon. There is no need to be surprised at this. Historically, it is common practice for large empires to delegate local government to natural leaders found among the subordinate population. It promotes local acceptance of the situation. We might remember Zerubbabel, the Davidic prince appointed governor by the Persians, the Herodian dynasty and the Sanhedrin in the Roman empire, and the “native princes”, like the Nizam of Hyderabad, in British India. Or, for that matter, Petain in Vichy France.

Gedaliah had chosen Mizpah as his base. Mizpah was a very ancient gathering place for the people, used before the time of the kingdoms. It was the place where Saul was chosen as king. The downfall of the kingdom being accepted, Gedaliah was trying to recreate the older community under Babylonian auspices.

He was gathering the remaining population to himself, presumably with the intention of redistributing them over the land and re-establishing agricultural life. There were the captives released by the Babylonians, who chose to leave “the poorest of the land” behind instead of taking them into exile. The king wanted to remove the potential troublemakers, including the priests, but the more passive population could be left in place. The same thing probably happened when the Assyrians took the northern kingdom into exile, so there would have been some truth in the Samaritan claim to be descended from Israel.

There were also people who had evaded the Babylonian army. The chapter names half a dozen different leaders of guerrilla bands, who might have escaped from Jerusalem in the chaos of the fall, but it may be more likely that they stayed out in the countryside when the Babylonian army first arrived. These bands came to the encampment at Mizpah to meet Gedaliah, and he gave them the same advice that he gave everybody else. They should not be afraid to remain as dwellers in the land under the king of Babylon. They should collect from the fields the “wine and summer fruits and oil” which would be ready at that season of the year, and go back to dwell in the cities of Judah which they had taken over. He would remain at Mizpah to liaise with the Chaldeans who would be sent to supervise him.

There were also Jews who had found refuge among the peoples on the eastern side of the Jordan, like Moab and Ammon and Edom. A natural escape route, since the Babylonians came down from the north. These two heard about the appointment of Gedaliah, and many of them came back to join him.

Gedaliah was now in a good position to be the re-founder of community life in the land of Judah.