Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, so I will be turning my attention to Passion Week in the Gospel of Mark. But I wanted to mention some passages in Jeremiah that I didn't get to, especially chapters 29 and 31. We largely covered Jeremiah's prophecies during the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim. But there are a few key passages I want to mention before moving on.
Josiah -- Jeremiah 1-7, maybe 8-10. Died in battle against the Egyptians
Shallum/Jehoahaz -- mentioned in Jeremiah 22:11. He was deposed by Pharaoh Necho II. Reigned for 3 months. Taken to Egypt.
Jehoiakim -- Maybe Jeremiah 8-10. We have looked at Jeremiah 11-20, 25-26, 35-36, and 45 which come from his reign. He likely died an ignominious death outside Jerusalem.
I would say that Jeremiah 46-47 come from his era as well, but these are part of the Oracles Against the Nations (OAN), which seem to have been grouped together from ancient times. In the MT they are chapters 46-51. In the LXX they are 25-31. They are a key reason why the LXX chapter order is different.
Coniah/Jehoachin -- mentioned in Jeremiah 22. This chapter is a look back at all the kings up to this point. He is also mentioned in 37:1, 24:1, 27:20, and 28:4. The first deportation to Babylon takes place as he is deposed by Nebuchadnezzar in 597BC.
Zedekiah -- Jeconiah (Coniah) is taken to Babylon after 3 months of ruling. Zedekiah is installed next. Here are chapters relating to his reign:
- Jeremiah 27 -- Jeremiah says to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, symbolism of the yoke
- Jeremiah 28 -- Conflict with the false prophet Hananiah
- Jeremiah 23 -- has similar themes to Jeremiah 27-28
- Jeremiah 51:59-64 -- Part of the OAN, scroll taken to Babylon
- Jeremiah 24 -- illustration of good and bad figs, possibly drawn on by Jesus/Mark, message to early exiles
- Jeremiah 29 -- letter to exiles, see below
- Jeremiah 21 -- Jeremiah prophesies doom as Babylon moves against Jerusalem
- Jeremiah 34 -- Zedekiah frees slaves in Jerusalem, but his people reverse it.
- Jeremiah 30-33 constitute the "Book of Consolation" after the first deportation. We will look at Jeremiah 31 below.
- Jeremiah 32 -- Jeremiah buys a field as a symbol of future hope.
- Jeremiah 33 -- Jeremiah predicts the Davidic line will be restored.
- Jeremiah 37 -- Jeremiah imprisoned as Babylonians temporarily withdraw.
- Jeremiah 38 -- Jeremiah thrown into a cistern
- Jeremiah 39 -- The fall of Jerusalem
- Jeremiah 52 -- a historical appendix added later
- In the OAN, the oracle against Edom probably fits during this time frame: 49:34-39
Gedaliah
Chapters 40-41 give the appointment of Gedaliah after Zedekiah is deported and killed. He is assassinated. In Jeremiah 42-43, some survivors flee to Egypt. In Jeremiah 44, Jeremiah prophesies to the refugees in Egypt.
I want to end with a quick spotlight on two of the most significant chapters in Jeremiah. Earlier, I gave my favorite list earlier as including Jeremiah 1, 7, 29, and 31. Let's slip the last two under the wire.
Jeremiah 29 (36LXX)
This is the chapter where Jeremiah writes to those who were taken to Babylon in the first deportation of 597BC. King Jehoiakim was killed. Nebuchadnezzar deported King Jehoiachin after he had only ruled for three months. Jeremiah tells them to build houses and settle down, mentioning the 70 years in exile again. "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile" (29:7).
29:11 is the well-known promise of God to those in exile that this is not the end for Israel. "Know the thoughts I have for you," Yahweh says. They are thoughts to give Israel a future and a hope.
While I don't have a problem with quoting this verse about your own life, clearly they were originally about the future return of Israel from exile. Thankfully, there are plenty of other verses that make it clear God loves us too and will guard our eternal destiny. There is never a promise, however, that life will always end up positively in this life. Think of all the martyrs for their faith.
Jeremiah 31 (38LXX)
1. From a New Testament perspective, Jeremiah 31 is probably the most important chapter in the book of Jeremiah. It is here that the famous "new covenant" passage is found. "Days are coming," says Yahweh, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel" (31:31). Hebrews 8 quotes this passage -- the longest quote of the OT in the NT.
We have of course taken it well beyond its original sense. Jeremiah is simply predicting that when Israel returns from Israel, the Law will be written on their hearts. Israel will be faithful to Yahweh without having to be warned over and over again. The New Testament thinks of the age of the Spirit, when those who are in Christ have the Spirit inside us to guide us into all truth and empower us to live righteously (=love God and neighbor).
2. Matthew 2 also connects Jeremiah 31:15 with the deaths of the babies in Bethlehem, "Rachel weeping for her children because they no longer exist." The first meaning in Jeremiah of course was in reference to the destruction of the northern kingdom. The children of Rachel -- especially her grandson Ephraim -- were taken away. This is a good example of the NT reading the OT in a "fuller sense" beyond anything the original authors would have understood.
3. Finally, I have long been struck by 31:29, a saying that also appears in Ezekiel 18. "Our fathers ate sour grapes but it is our teeth that are set on edge." Although the prophecies of Jeremiah show clear enough that ungodliness continued in Israel, there were many who felt like Judah was destroyed because of the sins of Manasseh and those who had come before. Psalm 44 may actually come from this time period --
"All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, or been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way, yet you have broken us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with deep darkness. If we had forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Because of you we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
In Jeremiah 31 and Exekiel 18 we see a potential shift in biblical theology. Prior to this time, the sins of the fathers were visited on the sons to the third and fourth generation. But from now on, "the one who does the sinning will be the one who dies" (Ezek. 18:20). This is good NT theology and good Christian theology. We are not judged on the sins of our parents but on our individual sins.
Jeremiah 52
The last chapter of Jeremiah is a historical appendix. It is virtually word for word for 2 Kings 24:18-25:30. (A similar dynamic takes place in Isaiah 36-39, which is nearly word for word for 2 Kings 18:13-20:19). There is sometimes resistance to a sense that these books in their current forms were edited after the lives of the prophets themselves, but this is unsupported sentimentality. There is no problem with inspiration or inerrancy for the books to have been collected and edited after the lives of the prophets. God can inspire editing too!
I think our problem in part is multiple. One, it means that what we see is not what we get. But remember, these books were not originally written to us. They are for us as Scripture, but Israel was their original audience. If we get the wrong impression, that's our problem, not the Bible's. I think the idea of such processes may also seem less magical to us. But again, that's not the Bible's problem. It's mine.
It simply means that the anonymous people who put the prophets in their current form were inspired as well. In Jeremiah 52, a later canonical compiler has appended 2 Kings 24 to Jeremiah's prophecies for the sake of context. And it makes a wonderful, very fitting end to the book.
Here endeth the Lenten reading, 2025.
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