Jeremiah 34-36
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 34
Fate of Zedekiah. 1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord while Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army and all the earth’s kingdoms under his rule, and all the peoples were attacking Jerusalem and all her cities:(A) 2 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: Thus says the Lord: I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon; he will burn it with fire.(B) 3 You yourself shall not escape his hand; rather you will be captured and fall into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak to him face to face. Then you shall go to Babylon.(C)
4 Just hear the word of the Lord, Zedekiah, king of Judah! Then, says the Lord concerning you, you shall not die by the sword. 5 You shall die in peace, and they will burn spices for you as they did for your ancestors, the earlier kings who preceded you, and they shall make lament over you, “Alas, Lord.” I myself make this promise—oracle of the Lord.
6 Jeremiah the prophet told all these things to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem, 7 while the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish, and Azekah.[a] Only these fortified cities were left standing out of all the cities of Judah!
The Pact Broken.[b] 8 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom: 9 Everyone must free their Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold another Judahite in servitude.(D) 10 All the princes and the people who entered this covenant agreed to set free their slaves, their male and female servants, so that they should no longer be in servitude. But even though they agreed and freed them, 11 afterward they took back their male and female servants whom they had set free and again forced them into servitude.
12 Then this word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your ancestors the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery: 14 Every seventh year each of you must set free all Hebrews who have sold themselves to you; six years they shall serve you, but then you shall let them go free. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or obey me. 15 As for you, today you repented and did what is right in my eyes by proclaiming freedom for your neighbor and making a covenant before me in the house which bears my name. 16 But then you again profaned my name by taking back your male and female slaves whom you had just set free for life; you forced them to become your slaves again.(E) 17 Therefore, thus says the Lord: You for your part did not obey me by proclaiming freedom for your families and neighbors. So I now proclaim freedom for you—oracle of the Lord—for the sword, starvation, and disease. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 [c]Those who violated my covenant and did not observe the terms of the covenant they made in my presence—I will make them like the calf which they cut in two so they could pass between its parts— 19 the princes of Judah and of Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf. 20 These I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives: their corpses shall become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.(F)
21 Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, I will hand also over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon which is now withdrawing from you.(G) 22 I am giving the command—oracle of the Lord—to bring them back to this city. They shall attack and capture it, and burn it with fire; the cities of Judah I will turn into a waste, where no one dwells.(H)
Chapter 35
The Faithful Rechabites. 1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim,[d] son of Josiah, king of Judah: 2 Go to the house[e] of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them to the house of the Lord, to one of the rooms there, and give them wine to drink. 3 So I took Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, his brothers and all his sons—the whole house of the Rechabites— 4 and I brought them to the house of the Lord, to the room of the sons of Hanan,[f] son of Igdaliah, the man of God, next to the room of the princes above the room of Maaseiah, son of Shallum, the guard at the entrance. 5 I set before the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups, and said to them, “Drink some wine.”
6 “We do not drink wine,” they said to me; “Jonadab,[g] Rechab’s son, our father, commanded us, ‘Neither you nor your children shall ever drink wine.(I) 7 Build no house and sow no seed; do not plant vineyards or own any. You must dwell in tents all your lives, so that you may live long on the land where you live as resident aliens.’ 8 We have obeyed Jonadab, Rechab’s son, our father, in everything that he commanded us: not drinking wine as long as we live—neither we nor our wives nor our sons nor our daughters; 9 not building houses to live in; not owning vineyards or fields or crops. 10 We live in tents, doing everything our father Jonadab commanded us. 11 But when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded this land, we said, ‘Come, let us go into Jerusalem to escape the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Arameans.’[h] That is why we are now living in Jerusalem.”(J)
12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, say to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you not take correction and obey my words?—oracle of the Lord.(K) 14 The words of Jonadab, Rechab’s son, by which he commanded his children not to drink wine, have been upheld: to this day they have not drunk wine; they obeyed their ancestor’s command. I, however, have spoken to you time and again. But you did not obey me!(L) 15 Time and again I sent you all my servants the prophets, saying: Turn away, each of you, from your evil way and reform your actions! Do not follow other gods to serve them that you may remain in the land which I gave you and your ancestors. But you did not pay attention. You did not obey me.(M) 16 Yes, the children of Jonadab, Rechab’s son, upheld the command which their father laid on them. But this people has not obeyed me! 17 Now, therefore, says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: I will soon bring upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem every evil with which I threatened them because I spoke but they did not obey, I called but they did not answer.(N)
18 But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Since you have obeyed the command of Jonadab, your father, kept all his commands and done everything he commanded you, 19 therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Never shall there fail to be a descendant of Jonadab, Rechab’s son, standing in my presence.
VII. Jeremiah and the Fall of Jerusalem
Chapter 36
Baruch, the Scribe of Jeremiah. 1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you about Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, until today. 3 Perhaps, if the house of Judah hears all the evil I have in mind to do to them, so that all of them turn from their evil way, then I can forgive their wickedness and their sin.(O) 4 So Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah, and he wrote down on a scroll what Jeremiah said, all the words which the Lord had spoken to him. 5 Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch: “I cannot enter the house of the Lord; I am barred[i] from it. 6 So you yourself must go. On a fast day in the hearing of the people in the Lord’s house, read the words of the Lord from the scroll you wrote at my dictation; read them also to all the people of Judah who come up from their cities. 7 Perhaps they will present their supplication before the Lord and will all turn back from their evil way; for great is the anger and wrath with which the Lord has threatened this people.”(P)
8 Baruch, son of Neriah, did everything Jeremiah the prophet commanded; from the scroll he read the Lord’s words in the Lord’s house. 9 In the ninth month, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, all the people of Jerusalem and all those who came from Judah’s cities to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord. 10 So Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll in the room of Gemariah,[j] son of the scribe Shaphan, in the upper court of the Lord’s house, at the entrance of the New Temple Gate, in the hearing of all the people.
11 Now Micaiah, son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord read from the scroll. 12 So he went down to the house of the king, into the scribe’s chamber,[k] where the princes were meeting in session: Elishama, the scribe; Delaiah, son of Shemaiah; Elnathan, son of Achbor; Gemariah, son of Shaphan; Zedekiah, son of Hananiah; and the other princes. 13 Micaiah reported to them all that he had heard Baruch read from his scroll in the hearing of the people. 14 The princes immediately sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch with the order: “The scroll you read in the hearing of the people—bring it with you and come.” Scroll in hand, Baruch, son of Neriah, went to them. 15 “Sit down,” they said to him, “and read it in our hearing.” Baruch read it in their hearing, 16 and when they had heard all its words, they turned to each other in alarm and said to Baruch, “We have to tell the king all these things.” 17 Then they asked Baruch: “Tell us, please, how did you come to write down all these words? Was it at his dictation?” 18 “Yes, he would dictate all these words to me,” Baruch answered them, “while I wrote them down with ink in the scroll.” 19 The princes said to Baruch, “Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah; do not let anyone know where you are.”
20 They went in to the king, into the courtyard; they had deposited the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe. When they told the king everything that had happened, 21 the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the scribe, and read it to the king and to all the princes who were attending the king. 22 Now the king was sitting in his winter house, since it was the ninth month, and a fire was burning in the brazier before him. 23 Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, he would cut off the piece with a scribe’s knife[l] and throw it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire in the brazier. 24 As they were listening to all these words the king and all his officials did not become alarmed, nor did they tear their garments. 25 And though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26 He commanded Jerahmeel, a royal prince, and Seraiah, son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch, the scribe, and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them away.
27 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after the king burned the scroll and the words Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch: 28 Take another scroll, and write on it all the words in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned. 29 And against Jehoiakim, king of Judah, say this: Thus says the Lord: You are the one who burned that scroll, saying, “Why did you write on it: Babylon’s king shall surely come and ravage this land, emptying it of every living thing”? 30 The Lord now says of Jehoiakim, king of Judah:(Q) No descendant of his shall sit on David’s throne; his corpse shall be thrown out, exposed to heat by day, frost by night.[m] 31 I will punish him and his descendants and his officials for their wickedness; upon them, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the people of Judah I will bring all the evil threats to which they did not listen.
32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to his scribe, Baruch, son of Neriah, who wrote on it at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words contained in the scroll which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire, adding many words like them.
Footnotes
- 34:7 Lachish, and Azekah: fortress towns southwest of Jerusalem which Nebuchadnezzar besieged to prevent any help coming to Jerusalem from Egypt. At Lachish, archaeologists found several letters written on ostraca (pottery fragments) dated to 598 or 588 B.C., which mention both Lachish and Azekah.
- 34:8–22 During the siege of Jerusalem, its citizens made a covenant at Zedekiah’s instigation to free Judahites they held in servitude, thus providing additional defenders for the city, leaving slave owners with fewer mouths to feed, and making reparation for past violations of the law, which dictated that Hebrew slaves should serve no longer than six years (Dt 15:12–15). But when the siege was temporarily lifted, when the assistance promised by Pharaoh Hophra arrived (cf. Jer 37:5), the inhabitants of Jerusalem broke the covenant and once more pressed their fellow citizens into slavery (v. 11).
- 34:18–19 Both the Old Testament (Gn 15:10–17) and the eighth century B.C. Sefire inscription indicate that sometimes contracting parties ratified an agreement by walking between dismembered animals, invoking upon themselves the animals’ fate if they failed to keep their word. The covenant: that mentioned in vv. 10, 15.
- 35:1 In the days of Jehoiakim: probably in 599 or 598 B.C. (cf. 2 Kgs 24:1–2).
- 35:2 House: both members of the family of Rechab (cf. v. 3) and the place where they live; cf. note on v. 11. The Rechabites: traditionalists who rejected the settled agricultural and urban cultures to which other Israelites had assimilated, maintaining their loyalty to the Lord by perpetuating the semi-nomadic life of their distant ancestors (cf. 2 Kgs 10:15–17). Jeremiah contrasts their adherence to their vows with the Judahites’ disregard for divine commands.
- 35:4 The sons of Hanan: probably disciples of Hanan. Man of God: occurring only here in Jeremiah, the title frequently is applied to prophets: e.g., Samuel (1 Sm 9:6–10), Elijah (2 Kgs 1:9–13), Elisha (2 Kgs 4–13). Whatever the function of the sons of Hanan, they encourage Jeremiah by lending him their room. Maaseiah: perhaps the father of the priest Zephaniah (29:25; 37:3). Guard at the entrance: an important priestly responsibility (cf. 52:24).
- 35:6 Jonadab: another spelling of Jehonadab, a contemporary of King Jehu; cf. 2 Kgs 10:15–17.
- 35:11 The army of the Arameans: Nebuchadnezzar enlisted the help of Judah’s neighbors in his assault on Jerusalem. Living in Jerusalem: the current military threat and the prospect of being killed or captured as plunder drove the Rechabites into the city and away from their tents.
- 36:5 I am barred: Jeremiah could have been forbidden to enter the Temple for any number of reasons: e.g., his inflammatory preaching (the Temple sermon, 7:1–15; the broken pot); the hostility of Temple guards; the restrictions of arrest.
- 36:10 Gemariah: member of a family friendly to Jeremiah with rights to a room in the gateway fortress overlooking the court of the Temple. His father Shaphan had been Josiah’s secretary of state (2 Kgs 22:3). From a window in this room Baruch read Jeremiah’s scroll to the people.
- 36:12 The scribe’s chamber: the office of the royal secretary.
- 36:23 A scribe’s knife: used to sharpen reed pens.
- 36:30 Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin was named king, but reigned only three months; he was better known for his long exile in Babylon. His corpse shall be thrown out: just as Jehoiakim had thrown pieces of the scroll into the fire (cf. 22:19).
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.