Baruch 6:1-39  (thought to be a Letter of Jeremiah) – Jeremiah tells them what to expect in exile.  He asks them to beware of becoming like the foreigners or “of letting fear for [their] gods possess you when you see the multitude before and behind them worshiping them.  But say in your heart,’ It is you, O Lord, whom we must worship.’ For my angel is with you, and he is watching over your lives.” (6:5-6) They are false gods; they “cannot speak” (6:8). No one should be…

Jeremiah 51 – Oracle Against Babylon Again – Jeremiah here repeats that the “moral arc” of God’s dealing with Israel and Babylon will be long, but in the end Babylon whom God used to punish the unfaithfulness of His people, will also be brought low by its “kingdom from the north” [Persia].

“The Lord made the earth by his power; by his wisdom he created the world and stretched out the heavens. At his command the waters above the sky roar; he brings clouds from…

Jeremiah 44 - For the Jews in Egypt, Jeremiah continues to rant and rave against them.  It is because of the evil they did to provoke God that they have seen Judah and Jerusalem destroyed.  “Though I kept sending to you all my servants the prophets, with the plea not to commit this horrible deed which I hate, [sacrificing to strange gods] they would not listen or accept the warning to turn away from the evil of sacrificing to strange gods” (44:4).

Why do they keep…

Jeremiah 42 - The leaders of the remnant, Johanan and Azariah, beg Jeremiah to intercede for them with God. They sound as if they are REALLY ready to be obedient to whatever the Lord wants from them. Jeremiah takes ten days to consult with the Lord, but when he returns and tells them they must not go on to Egypt, they disobey YET AGAIN. They give in to their fears: their fear of the Chaldeans, their fear of starvation and battle. The message of Jeremiah…

Jeremiah 40 - The next several chapters are very dramatic and show the chaos surrounding the whole broken Judaean region following the Chaldean conquest. Jeremiah is taken with the captives who are being led into exile with their Chaldean captors as far as Ramah, but is then told that he does not have to go into exile; he can go wherever he wants to go.  He is advised to go to Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon has named governor of Judah. Gedaliah comes from a family that was deeply…

Jeremiah 38 - Jeremiah counsels surrender again.  The princes want him dead because he disheartens the soldiers and people of the city with his words.  The king, Zedekiah, seems to give them leave to do what they want. So they put him in a cistern that is in the Court of the Guard, a cistern filled with mud.  A man named Ebed-melech, a Cushite (Ethiopian), pleads with the king to let him take Jeremiah out and he does.  The king seems very easy to manipulate. Zedekiah…

Jeremiah 37 - Chronologically, this chapter follows 34:1-7. Zedekiah is installed as king by Nebuchadnezzar, and he will not listen to Jeremiah. But he does send people to ask Jeremiah to intercede with God for the people.  Pharaoh’s army is on the move to Jerusalem and the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) will abandon the siege of the city for a time.  But the Lord warns Jeremiah that the Egyptians will turn back and when they do, the Chaldeans will return to destroy the…

Jeremiah 35 - In the days of Jehoiakim (609-598 BC), Jeremiah said go to the Rechabites and take them to the Temple, give them wine.  The Rechabites were a nomadic clan that upheld the ancient religious practices of the desert. They didn’t live in houses but in tents close to the soil.  They had been driven into Jerusalem around 605 BC, by bands of Syrians sent out by Nebuchadnezzar to harry the countryside according to JB note.  Jeremiah does what the…

Jeremiah. 34 - With Nebuchadnezzar at the gates, Jeremiah is told to go to King Zedekiah, and tell him the Lord is handing the city over to the king of Babylon.  If he obeys, he will die in peace; if not he will die by the sword.  Only the fortified towns of Lachish and Azekah hold out. 

Zedekiah had agreed to emancipate all Hebrew slaves (presumably to provide more defenders for their side; but maybe also because they knew they had not obeyed the command of YHWH to…

Jeremiah 33 - Jeremiah is still in prison at the Court of the Guard when a second message from God reminds Jeremiah that despite the destruction they will suffer, God also promises restoration: “I am going to fulfill the promise I made to the House of Israel and the House of Judah.”  A virtuous branch will grow for David (33:15). Yahweh would sooner break his covenant with day and night, with nature and its laws as break his covenant with David and the Levitical priests…

Jeremiah 31  - This chapter is maybe one of the most important biblical passages in Quaker “theology.” Jeremiah gives voice to his prophecy of the “New Covenant.” I don’t think scholars are sure of the origin of the Book of Consolation  (chapters 30 through 33}, of which this is a part. Laurence Boadt, in his Reading the Old Testament, says that they are “words of hope from a variety of different times and occasions. Some . . . are addressed to ‘Israel’ and…

Jeremiah 30 – Here towards the end of the Book of Jeremiah, the lack of historical continuity becomes a bit of a problem for readers. Chapter 30 begins what my Jerusalem Bible calls The Book of Consolation; it was written sometime between 622 BC and the death of Josiah in 609, at the very beginning of Jeremiah’s “career” as a prophet. The Assyrian Empire was in decline and Josiah made an attempt to retake the lands of Samaria and Galilee that had been lost at the end of…

Jeremiah 29  - Jeremiah writes a letter to the exiles in Babylon and tells them to settle there, take wives, have families; it will be a long time (70 years), but he encourages them: “I know the plans I have in mind for you, . . . plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of hope for you”  (29:11). I will let you find me.  Do not be deceived by false prophets there, in Babylon, or people who interpret dreams.  The King who remained…

Jeremiah 27 - Chapter 27 is the first of three chapters that apparently existed separately at one time; and each is about the “false prophets.”  The date of this first is supposedly 594 BC when an embassy of states—Edom, Moab, Sidon [south to north on the eastern side of the Jordan River]--conferred about what to do about Nebuchadnezzar. It is at the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign (c.598/597 BC). Jeremiah is called by God to make a yoke and to wear it as a sign to these leaders. There…

Jeremiah 26  - The narrative here goes back to around 608 BC just after Jehoiachim becomes king of Judah as a vassal of the Neo-Babylonians. Jeremiah tells us he must speak, for the people of Judah still have a choice at this point. They might listen and be saved. Everything rests on the word IF. IF the people change then the Lord “may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds” (26:3). It is interesting that the writer…

Jeremiah 25 - The year is about 605 BC, the year of Nebuchadnezzar’s victory over Egypt at Carchemish.  Babylon became the dominant power in the region, and Jeremiah saw them as the “enemy to come out of the North” that his prophecies had foretold.  It is 23 years since Jeremiah was called to preach his message. Jeremiah’s message has been, “Turn back. . .from your evil behavior and your evil actions and you will stay on the soil Yahweh long ago gave to you. . .” (JB 25:5-6), but you…

Jeremiah 23 - Jeremiah’s harangue against the people’s shepherds very similar to the words of Ezekiel. “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord” (23:1).

Early Friends took passages such as these for prophesies that God would never trust his people to human shepherds under the new covenant, but that Christ Himself would be their shepherd.  “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have…

Jeremiah 22 - In 588 BC, Jeremiah goes to the King of Judah and says, “Practice honesty and integrity – rescue the man who’s been wronged from oppressor.”  If you do, the monarchy will prosper; but if not, the palace shall become a ruin. Again, as in Jeremiah 7, God’s promise is seen as conditional. Nothing God establishes can continue in power unless the inward spirit continues.  There are no eternally sacred outward things (!!!)  “You were like a Gilead to me, like a peak…

Jeremiah 14 – Judah suffers a terrible drought: “The wild asses stand on the bare heights, gasping for breath like jackals; Their eyes grow dim, because there is no vegetation to be seen” (14:6).  Jeremiah tries the same kind of intercession Moses successfully used with the Lord, trying to get His help by pointing out that Judah’s difficulties involve YHWH’s honor and reputation in some way. 

There is a poignant sense here of God’s very real…

Jeremiah 11 – A curse lies over the heads of those who do not observe the terms of God’s covenant, the Lord says to Jeremiah.  “Urgently and constantly I warned your fathers to obey my voice, from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day” (11: 7). He tells Jeremiah not to try to intercede for them.  It is too late.  Outward observance alone is not enough: “Can vows and sacred meat turn away your misfortune from you?” (11:15). Jeremiah then learns that…