‏ Jeremiah 34

Summary for Jer 34:1-7: 34:1–39:18  ^a This section begins with the prediction of Jerusalem’s fall and Zedekiah’s captivity (34:1-7  ^b); the fulfillment of that prediction comes toward the end (39:1-10  ^c). These messages underline the truth that the old covenant had been irreparably broken, especially by those kings descended from David who should have been most committed to maintaining it.
Summary for Jer 34:1-7: 34:1-7  ^d The Lord encouraged Zedekiah, even though he was a weak leader who lacked courage. The message contains judgment and a promise.
34:2  ^e No matter what King Zedekiah did, Jerusalem would fall. The Lord would not rescue the city.
Summary for Jer 34:4-5: 34:4-5  ^f Even though the Babylonians would defeat Judah, the Lord promised to protect Zedekiah during the war; the king would die peacefully and be honored by the survivors of the siege. But see 39:5-7  ^g for a description of Zedekiah’s being captured and tortured and then taken away to Babylon.
Summary for Jer 34:6-7: 34:6-7  ^h King Rehoboam had made Lachish and Azekah into forts (2 Chr 11:5-10  ⁱ). Located on low hills southwest of Jerusalem, these towns guarded the key roads leading up from the great highway on the coast into the heartland of Judah. Military messages written on pieces of pottery have been found in the gateway of Lachish, reporting the progress of the Babylonians as they moved toward it.
Summary for Jer 34:8-35:19: 34:8–35:19  ^j Here are faithless (34:8-22  ^k) and faithful (35:1-19  ^l) examples of covenant-keeping.
Summary for Jer 34:8-22: 34:8-22  ^m Zedekiah ordered the people to free their slaves; he was apparently trying to curry favor with God by enforcing the covenant requirements regarding the Hebrew ownership of slaves (Exod 21:2-4  ⁿ) that had been neglected since Moses’ time. However, the order was worse than useless because the people soon went back on this new affirmation of the covenant, just as they had broken their treaty with Nebuchadnezzar (see Ezek 21:23-24  ^o) and their original covenant with the Lord. The Lord would punish them as their treachery deserved.
Summary for Jer 34:15-16: 34:15-16  ^p The slaveholders had done what was right in releasing their slaves; they had obeyed God’s command. But their covenant had been made in the Temple, and when they broke their covenant, they defiled God’s name and treated it with contempt (in violation of Deut 5:11  ^q).
Summary for Jer 34:17-20: 34:17-20  ^r Because of their sin in breaking the terms of their covenant, the Lord would cut them apart and separate them from his protective care. This expression relates to the covenant ceremony of killing and cutting a calf sacrifice into two parts from head to tail. Those making a covenant walked between the laid-out portions to indicate their willingness to be similarly cut apart if they violated the covenant (see Gen 15:9-18  ^s). All classes of people in Judah had broken their oath, so they would all receive the punishment to which they had agreed.
Summary for Jer 34:21-22: 34:21-22  ^t Pharaoh Hophra had a treaty with Zedekiah to help him if he were attacked (Isa 30:1-3  ^u; 31:1-3  ^v). The Babylonians left Jerusalem to fight against Pharaoh Hophra (Jer 37:5-7  ^w), but their departure was temporary.

‏ Jeremiah 35

Summary for Jer 35:1-36:32: 35:1–36:32  ^x These two chapters look back two decades to the time when Jehoiakim was on the throne.
Summary for Jer 35:1-19: 35:1-19  ^y The Recabites’ obedience to their ancestor contrasted sharply with the Israelites’ rebellion against the Lord their God. 35:1  ^z This incident took place during Jehoiakim’s reign, when the Babylonian army first attacked Jerusalem (605 BC; see 35:11  ^aa).
35:2  ^ab The Recabites were descendants of Jehonadab son of Recab, a Kenite who had served under Jehu, king of Israel (2 Kgs 10:15  ^ac, 23  ^ad; 1 Chr 2:55  ^ae). Jeremiah probably knew that the Recabites did not drink wine, but he obeyed the Lord’s command.
35:3  ^af The Jeremiah mentioned here was not the prophet; he and the others represented the Recabite community.
35:4  ^ag Jeremiah the prophet carefully described the location of the room in the Temple, taking note that Hanan, the man in charge, was a man of God. During this idolatrous time in Judah’s history, the prophet had some friends in high places who remained believers in the one true God.
Summary for Jer 35:6-10: 35:6-10  ^ah Jehonadab had bound his descendants to a nomadic lifestyle free of the trappings of sedentary life, and the Recabites had been obedient.
Summary for Jer 35:12-19: 35:12-19  ^ai The Lord applied the Recabites’ example in stark contrast to the people of Judah. The Recabites had been deprived of many good things in life, yet they remained obedient.
Summary for Jer 35:14-16: 35:14-16  ^aj The Recabites never drank wine, simply because their human ancestor had told them not to. The people of Israel should have been even more willing to listen and obey when the Lord told them to turn from their wicked ways and live according to his laws.
Summary for Jer 35:17-19: 35:17-19  ^ak The Lord pronounced punishment on Judah’s sin.
35:19  ^al One of the descendants of Jehonadab son of Recab apparently returned from Babylon after the Exile and helped to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem (see Neh 3:14  ^am).

‏ Jeremiah 36

Summary for Jer 36:1-32: 36:1-32  ^an This description of Jehoiakim’s cynical response to God’s attempt to call him to repentance and covenant obedience (36:3  ^ao, 7  ^ap) graphically underscores the hopelessness of the situation.

• Nowhere else does the Old Testament provide this much detail about the process of preserving spoken messages in written form.
Summary for Jer 36:1-2: 36:1-2  ^aq The fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign, 605 BC, was the year Nebuchadnezzar first attacked Jerusalem (see study note on Dan 1:1).

• In those days, a scroll was a roll of papyrus or leather strips joined edge to edge and rolled up.
36:3  ^ar The Lord gave the people of Judah every opportunity to repent. God wanted the messages of judgment not just to alarm his people, but to awaken them to the judgment they would face if they did not turn from idol-worship. If they heeded the alarm, repented, and sincerely worshiped the one true God, he would forgive their sins and wrongdoings.
36:4  ^as Evidently, Jeremiah was not skilled in writing, so he enlisted the services of a scribe named Baruch. As they sat in their private quarters, Jeremiah repeated message after message from memory. It is not known whether Baruch had a role in composition or arrangement, or whether he simply recorded exactly what Jeremiah dictated.
36:5  ^at Jeremiah was either a prisoner under house arrest, or he had been banished from the Temple grounds.
36:6  ^au The next day of fasting was a national festival, but it is not clear which one (none of the annual festivals occurred in the ninth month; see study note on 36:8-9). Reading the written scroll to the multitude gathered in the Temple would have placed Baruch in danger of arrest or assault.
36:7  ^av Jeremiah repeated the purpose for writing the scroll (36:3  ^aw) and reading it in public.

• Perhaps ... turn from their evil ways: The people could still receive the Lord’s forgiveness and avert his anger.
Summary for Jer 36:8-9: 36:8-9  ^ax Baruch filled the columns of the scroll with Jeremiah’s messages from the Lord. Finally, a day of fasting was announced toward the end of 604 BC. Baruch faithfully obeyed Jeremiah’s order to read the scroll in the Temple, where many people crowded the courtyard.
36:10  ^ay Baruch ... stood in front of the Temple room of Gemariah: That is, Baruch obtained permission from this high official to read to the public. This elevated location near the New Gate entrance was close to where Jeremiah’s public trial had taken place a few years earlier (26:10  ^az).

• Gemariah had a godly heritage. His father, Shaphan, had participated in Josiah’s reading of the scrolls found in the Temple (2 Kgs 22:8-10  ^ba).
Summary for Jer 36:11-13: 36:11-13  ^bb Micaiah realized the importance of the messages from the Lord that Baruch was reading, so he made sure that the administrative officials of the palace knew what was being said.
Summary for Jer 36:14-16: 36:14-16  ^bc The palace officials acted quickly. When they heard Baruch reading Jeremiah’s messages, they were terrified and decided to report the situation to the king.
Summary for Jer 36:17-18: 36:17-18  ^bd The officials wanted to know the source of the scroll and its messages.
Summary for Jer 36:19-20: 36:19-20  ^be The officials showed their respect for Jeremiah and Baruch by advising that they should both hide; they showed their respect for the Lord’s messages by placing the scroll in safekeeping while they went to inform the king.
36:21  ^bf Jehudi was well educated, and was perhaps a scribe. Only the elite were trained to read and write.
Summary for Jer 36:23-24: 36:23-24  ^bg Jehoiakim was so antagonistic and hardened that after three or four columns of the scroll were read, he cut off the section with a sharp knife and threw it into the fire. Jehoiakim’s father, Josiah, had responded very differently when the newly discovered Book of the Law was read to him (2 Kgs 22:11  ^bh).
36:25  ^bi The three officials who begged the king not to destroy the scroll probably held positions of great power, because Jehoiakim did not punish them for trying to preserve Jeremiah’s scroll.
36:26  ^bj Once the Lord had hidden them, no one betrayed Jeremiah and Baruch. The Lord can protect his servants.
Summary for Jer 36:27-32: 36:27-32  ^bk While in hiding, Jeremiah and Baruch rewrote all the messages that had been recorded on the destroyed scroll onto a new roll of papyrus. No human king can destroy God’s words. Instead, Jehoiakim was brought before God’s court and sentenced to death.
Summary for Jer 36:29-31: 36:29-31  ^bl To die without heirs or a decent burial was to suffer the worst imaginable fate (see 22:19  ^bm; Eccl 6:3  ^bn). Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin ruled for just three months. Unlike his father, Jehoiachin took Jeremiah’s warning seriously and surrendered to the Babylonians, who took him and others to Babylon as captives (Jer 22:24-30  ^bo; 2 Kgs 24:8-16  ^bp).

‏ Jeremiah 37

Summary for Jer 37:1-38:28: 37:1–38:28  ^bq The focus now returns to Zedekiah, who succeeded his nephew Jehoiachin as king of Judah. These chapters record encounters between Zedekiah and Jeremiah that make plain Zedekiah’s inability to commit himself wholeheartedly to God’s word (cp. Deut 10:12-13  ^br). Zedekiah is a classic example of a “person with divided loyalty” (Jas 1:6-8  ^bs).
Summary for Jer 37:1-2: 37:1-2  ^bt These verses summarize Zedekiah’s reign and his entire response to the Lord’s messages through Jeremiah.
Summary for Jer 37:3-4: 37:3-4  ^bu In asking for prayer, Zedekiah apparently hoped that Jeremiah’s petitions would magically defeat the enemy (see 14:7-9  ^bv and corresponding study note).
37:5  ^bw The Babylonians began their siege of Jerusalem in 588 BC. But they left Jerusalem because the army of Pharaoh Hophra was coming to help Judah. The Babylonians hoped to block and defeat the Egyptians, which they did.
Summary for Jer 37:6-10: 37:6-10  ^bx The Lord answered Jeremiah’s prayer (37:3  ^by) with a warning for Zedekiah. The Egyptians would provide no lasting help, and the Babylonians would return to destroy Jerusalem—a prophecy that was fulfilled in 586 BC.
Summary for Jer 37:11-12: 37:11-12  ^bz When the Babylonians went to face the Egyptians, Jeremiah decided to walk three miles north to his hometown, Anathoth, to claim his share of the property among his relatives there. He wanted to see his newly purchased property (32:1-25  ^ca).
Summary for Jer 37:13-16: 37:13-16  ^cb The sentry and other officials of Judah misinterpreted Jeremiah’s action as desertion.
37:17  ^cc By asking Jeremiah about other messages from the Lord, the king indicated that he was fearful of the future and still hoped that the Lord would defeat the Babylonians. Jeremiah answered quickly and emphatically that there was no hope for the kind of divine intervention that had destroyed the Assyrian army during Hezekiah’s reign (2 Kgs 19:8-37  ^cd).
Summary for Jer 37:18-20: 37:18-20  ^ce Jeremiah evidently assumed that Zedekiah was involved in his arrest and imprisonment. The prophet would have been in poor physical condition after being flogged and confined without medical treatment and with little food.
37:21  ^cf The king defied his officials and ordered the guards to keep Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace under protective custody. Considering the scarcity of food during the long siege, a loaf of fresh bread every day was a generous ration.

‏ Jeremiah 38

Summary for Jer 38:1-13: 38:1-13  ^cg Jeremiah was free to talk to people while he was in the prison courtyard. He repeated the Lord’s decrees of judgment, but this stirred fierce anger among some of the government officials. Zedekiah showed his cowardice by letting these men put Jeremiah in a muddy cistern; the king also had a courageous moment when he permitted a palace servant to rescue Jeremiah and return him to the palace prison. 38:1  ^ch The Gedaliah mentioned here had a different father than the Gedaliah in 40:6  ^ci.

• The first Pashhur might have been the man in 20:1  ^cj. The second Pashhur had a different father.
38:4  ^ck The officials apparently believed that the morale of the men resisting the Babylonian army outside the walls of the city would be harmed if Jeremiah continued to prophesy, so they put him on trial for treason.
38:5  ^cl When the officials angrily confronted King Zedekiah and made their demands, he was weak and cowardly.
38:6  ^cm In the presence of everyone in the palace courtyard, Jeremiah was thrown into an empty cistern. At the bottom was a thick layer of mud that slowly enveloped Jeremiah’s body.
Summary for Jer 38:7-8: 38:7-8  ^cn the Ethiopian (cp. Luke 17:18  ^co; Acts 28:28  ^cp): Jeremiah’s rescuer was not from Judah; he was a foreigner who dared to defy the other officials. He ran to the Benjamin Gate, where Jeremiah was first arrested (Jer 37:11-13  ^cq), and rushed into the king’s presence without ceremony.
38:10  ^cr The rescue party included thirty ... men, perhaps indicating that Zedekiah felt the need to keep his officials from attacking it.
Summary for Jer 38:11-12: 38:11-12  ^cs Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian rescuer (38:7  ^ct), was a caring person who wanted to protect Jeremiah’s weakened body as much as possible.
Summary for Jer 38:14-16: 38:14-16  ^cu Zedekiah so desperately wanted a miracle to save his kingdom from the attacking Babylonian armies that he arranged a secret meeting with Jeremiah. 38:14  ^cv The location of the third entrance of the Lord’s Temple is not known. The gates of the Temple had small rooms nearby, so the private meeting probably took place in one of them.
Summary for Jer 38:17-18: 38:17-18  ^cw Jeremiah laid out the Lord’s decree. Zedekiah could save the city by surrendering or he could watch as it was destroyed by the invaders.
38:19  ^cx Zedekiah still feared his fellow countrymen—this time, those who had defected—more than he feared the Lord or the Babylonians, so he rejected Jeremiah’s advice. This was Jeremiah’s last message to the king.
Summary for Jer 38:20-22: 38:20-22  ^cy Jeremiah reassured Zedekiah that everything would go well if Zedekiah chose to obey the Lord. If he refused, even his friends would abandon him.
Summary for Jer 38:24-28: 38:24-28  ^cz When Zedekiah’s fear of his officials surfaced again, he demanded that Jeremiah keep secret what he had told the king.

• The officials might have suspected that Zedekiah was about to surrender to the enemy. Jeremiah obeyed the king’s order to keep quiet, and he spent the final days of the siege in the palace prison under the king’s protection.

‏ Jeremiah 39

Summary for Jer 39:1-10: 39:1-10  ^da Just as Jeremiah had predicted (34:1-7  ^db), the Lord’s judgment fell on Zedekiah and the kingdom of Judah. For other accounts of this event, see 52:4-16  ^dc; 2 Kgs 25:1-21  ^dd; 2 Chr 36:11-21  ^de; Ezek 24:1-14  ^df.
39:2  ^dg The Babylonian siege took a long time because the stone walls of Jerusalem were thick and the people’s resistance was strong.
39:3  ^dh High-ranking officers came into the city to oversee its destruction and sat in triumph at the Middle Gate, showing how important this victory was to the Babylonians. According to custom, victorious officials positioned themselves at one of the gates, since judicial and administrative matters were controlled at gateways.
39:4  ^di The steep slopes of the Kidron Valley on the east side and the Ben-Hinnom Valley on the west and south sides of Jerusalem forced the Babylonian army to concentrate their men to the north. This made it possible for Zedekiah, his family, and his officials to slip out of the south end of the city, cross the Kidron Valley, and travel up and over the Mount of Olives. Although they made this move after nightfall, the noise of their departure alerted Babylonian sentries, and soldiers were soon chasing them.
39:5  ^dj Zedekiah and his royal party fled on foot, so it was not difficult for strong and healthy soldiers to capture the group near Jericho. The enemy troops then forced their captives to walk more than 200 miles north to Riblah, where King Nebuchadnezzar had his field headquarters.
39:6  ^dk Zedekiah’s last sight was the slaughter of his sons and all the nobles of Judah. Their slaughter ensured that Zedekiah’s rule could never continue.
39:7  ^dl After Nebuchadnezzar gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, Zedekiah had to walk 400 miles to Babylon, blinded, in great pain, and with his arms in bronze chains.
39:9  ^dm took as exiles to Babylon the rest of the people: The usual practice in that time was to tie a person’s hands together, and then tie him or her to the person in front, making a long line of grief-stricken captives.
Summary for Jer 39:11-14: 39:11–44:30  ^dn These chapters describe the events that followed the destruction of Jerusalem, especially as they affected Jeremiah.
Summary for Jer 39:11-14: 39:11-14  ^do It is not fully known how Jeremiah and his urging the king to surrender to Babylon came to Nebuchadnezzar’s attention. Perhaps it was through the messages that Jeremiah sent to the exiles (ch 29  ^dp; see 40:2-3  ^dq).
Summary for Jer 39:15-17: 39:15-17  ^dr Ebed-melech had saved Jeremiah from death in the muddy cistern (38:7-13  ^ds). This promise was a solemn decree (see study note on 2:2).