Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 21:1-10
Zedekiah Appeals To Jeremiah As A Last Resort, Only To Learn That There Is No Hope Of Intervention By YHWH Whose Will Is Being Done (Jeremiah 21:1).
As we have seen these verses form an inclusio along with Jeremiah 24:1 in order to emphasise that this subsection concludes the Section of Jeremiah which contains his general prophecies with a guarantee of their fulfilment. Zedekiah is the last of the royal house of David (even if he was Nebuchadrezzar's appointee) who will reign in the land until after the Exile is over. The events described occurred in the very last days of the siege of Jerusalem, with Nebuchadnezzar pressing at the gates, at a time when all could see that the promises of the false prophets had failed and that in Jerusalem only Jeremiah and his circle had prophesied truly. In their desperation the king and his people still clung on to the hope that YHWH would once more intervene and deliver Jerusalem as He had done in the days of Isaiah and Hezekiah, and it was to that end that Zedekiah called on Jeremiah. YHWH was seen as their last hope.
But Jeremiah had no hope to offer. The message that he returned to Zedekiah was that it was too late, and that YHWH's purpose on Jerusalem must be fulfilled. The potter's vessel (Jeremiah 19:1) would be smashed. YHWH would in fact be fighting on the side of Babylon, and Jerusalem must be destroyed. Those therefore who had any sense would surrender to the Babylonians before it was too late.
‘The word which came to Jeremiah from YHWH, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,'
This passage contains YHWH's response when Zedekiah during the last throes of the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC sent his ministers to Jeremiah to intercede for them before YHWH. Pashhur the son of Malchijah was a different Pashhur from the one mentioned in Jeremiah 20:1 who was the son of Immer (and who would have been carried off to Babylon after the earlier siege of 597 BC). He was one of those who had called for Jeremiah to be imprisoned because of his prophecies (Jeremiah 38:1), and was probably the king's chief minister. He was no friend of Jeremiah. He is not said to have been a priest, and both his own name and his father's were apparently fairly common names. Zephaniah was a priest and appears to have been more neutral as appears from the fact that he read to Jeremiah the prophetic letter which was being circulated by Shemaiah the Nehelamite (Jeremiah 29:29), and was not included within YHWH's condemnation of Shemaiah. He is nowhere mentioned as one of Jeremiah's adversaries. He was the second priest after the High Priest (Jeremiah 52:24), probably holding the same position as that previously held by Pashhur the son of Immer, and he had previously been sent to Jeremiah when his intercession was being sought by Zedekiah at the time when the Egyptians had temporarily caused a raising of the siege (Jeremiah 37:3). He was later handed over to Nebuchadrezzar at Riblah along with the High Priest (2 Kings 25:18).
“Enquire, I pray you, of YHWH for us, for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps YHWH will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.”
The sending by Zedekiah of his prime minister and the ‘second Priest' is similar to the sending of an important deputation to Isaiah by Hezekiah in a comparable situation (2 Kings 19:2; Isaiah 37:2), something Zedekiah may well have had in mind. In that case it had resulted in a remarkable deliverance for Jerusalem, and Zedekiah clearly hoped for the same. But the difference lay in the fact that Hezekiah was held in greater regard by YHWH than Zedekiah, and had previously paid greater heed to His prophet, while the people as a whole were at that time not so steeped in idolatry and the Temple itself had recently been purified. Conditions were very different now. But in such a crisis where else could he turn?
Zedekiah's request was that Jeremiah as the one whose prophecies had proved correct would ‘enquire' on their behalf of YHWH, with the hope that YHWH ‘will deal with us according to all His wondrous works' and would be the Saviour of Israel/Judah as in the past. The expression ‘that he (Nebuchadrezzar) may go up from us' simply signifies ‘that he may raise the siege'.
This is the first mention by name of Nebuchadrezzar (of which Nebuchadnezzar was an acceptable variant, although it has been argued by some that it was a deliberate changing of the name by writers in order to signify ‘Nabu protects the mule'. Such alterations were quite common. Compare the changing of Eshbaal (man of Baal) to Ishbosheth (man of shame). The name is a transliteration of Nabu-kudurri-usur, which probably means something like, ‘Nabu has protected the succession rites'. He succeeded Nabopolassar who died not long after Nebuchadrezzar's great victory over the Egyptians in c. 605 BC. It was following that that he had initially subjugated Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoiakim. When Jehoiakim later withheld tribute, encouraged by Egypt, Nebuchadrezzar had besieged Jerusalem which yielded to him in 597 BC when Jehoiakim was replaced on the throne by Jehoiachin. That was when Jehoiachin was carried off to Babylon, with Zedekiah being appointed to the throne by Nebuchadrezzar. But now Zedekiah had also rebelled, encouraged by Egypt but against the advice of Jeremiah, which was why Nebuchadrezzar was once more at the gates of Jerusalem.
‘Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus shall you say to Zedekiah,”
We are not told whether Jeremiah did ‘enquire of YHWH', but we do learn that he had a very definite message for Zedekiah from YHWH, which he now sent through the illustrious messengers. It was a message of ‘no hope', in accordance with what he had earlier made clear in his prophecies.
“Thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls, and I will gather them into the midst of this city.”
YHWH's sad message was that not only would He not help them but that, rather than making them strong in the use of their weapons (see Psalms 18:34), He would in fact turn their own weapons against them, or at least render them useless, so that they would not be successful in the defence of the city (there is perhaps a hint here of conflicts within the city as arguments arose as to whether they should surrender or not). It is made clear that at this stage Nebuchadrezzar and his Chaldean (Babylonian) army were actually outside the walls, besieging the city and seeking to break them down.
Alternately if we connect ‘outside the walls' with ‘with which you fight against the Babylonians', as many insist is necessary, the idea is that those who were manning the outer defences outside the huge walls would have to retreat back into the city within the safety of the walls along with their weapons.
“And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation.”
Indeed YHWH declared that He Himself would be fighting against Jerusalem with all His power and might, ‘with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm' (compare for this description Jeremiah 27:5; Jeremiah 32:21; Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 5:15; Deuteronomy 26:8; Psalms 136:12). For His ‘anger (root - heavy breathing) and wrath (root - heat) and great indignation (root - bitterness)' were levelled at Jerusalem. The three words are very expressive,
“And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They will die of a great pestilence.”
Initially His anger would be revealed by ‘a great pestilence' within the city, striking at the defenders and smiting both man and beast. In a besieged city, short of water and food, and weakened by starvation (compare Jeremiah 19:9 and see the vivid picture in 2 Kings 6:25), disease was a common problem, and to lose their beasts who provided milk was a catastrophe. But here it was to be exacerbated.
“And afterward, says YHWH, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and he will smite them with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them, nor have pity, nor have mercy.”
And then once starvation and pestilence had done their worst it would all prove in vain, for the end would come. Those who remained after the pestilence, and the famine, and the sword would be delivered into ‘the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, and of their enemies, and of those who sought their lives'. There would be great slaughter, and he would not ‘spare them or have pity or show mercy' because they had not surrendered. Note the threefold repetitions emphasising the completeness of the devastation.
“And you shall say to this people, Thus says YHWH, Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.”
These words are a deliberate ironic parallel with Moses' words in Deuteronomy 30:15; Deuteronomy 30:19, ‘behold I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil', but it will be noted that there is no mention of ‘good'. Here it was literally a stark choice between living and dying. He was not offering a life of well-being, but simply the stark possibility of survival for those who would surrender to the Chaldeans before it was too late. For them there would then be a life of poverty or exile. But at least they would be alive (Jeremiah 39:9; Jeremiah 52:15 tell us that some took the opportunity to ‘fall away').
We must not underestimate Jeremiah's courage in saying all this. While he was simply bringing out the hopelessness of the situation because of what YHWH had said, he could have been seen as actually recommending desertion in the face of the enemy, and hardening himself against offering hope.
“He who remains in this city will die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence, but he who goes out, and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he will live, and his life will be to him for a prey.”
For the truth was that he had no hope to offer. The time for hope was past. As with Pharaoh in Egypt in the time of Moses they had hardened their hearts too often. Thus the only hope of anyone for survival would lie in deserting the city and going over to the besieging Chaldeans. Only those who did this would live, seizing their lives as though they had hunted them down with great difficulty and taken them as a prey (this phrase is typically Jeremaic, see Jeremiah 38:2; Jeremiah 39:18; Jeremiah 45:5). All the remainder would die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence. If there were dissensions in the city it could be that the alternative had actually been on offer that those who wished to do so could surrender to the Babylonians, for the less people left in the city the more food and water for those who remained. The Babylonians on the other hand would offer less severe terms to deserters both because they would see them as ‘friendly' and because it would mean less defenders in the city and could cause a lack of morale there.
“For I have set my face on this city for evil, and not for good, the word of YHWH, it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.”
YHWH then finalises His message of doom by emphasising that He has set His face against the city for evil and not for good. This was the prophetic and certain ‘word of YHWH'. It would thus be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, who would burn it with fire. Burning with fire was a regular end for cities which had constantly rebelled, and which did not surrender immediately. It was literally fulfilled (Jeremiah 52:13).