Jeremiah 43:1-13
1 And it came to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, even all these words,
2 Then spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: the LORD our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there:
3 But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, for to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death, and carry us away captives into Babylon.
4 So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the LORD, to dwell in the land of Judah.
5 But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all nations, whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah;
6 Even men, and women, and children, and the king's daughters, and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah.
7 So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.
8 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
9 Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;
10 And say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.
11 And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword.
12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace.
13 He shall break also the imagesa of Bethshemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.
Jeremiah 43:3. Baruch setteth thee on against us, in our purpose to seek an asylum in Egypt. Jeremiah's character as a prophet, having received the seals of providence, they durst not deny him the glory, but artfully threw the blame on Baruch.
Jeremiah 43:7. Tahpanhes, is Pelusium, and called Hanes in Isaiah 30:4. It was the frontier fortress of Egypt, and is now the residence of the court. It is by others called Daphnæ.
Jeremiah 43:13. Bethshemesh, the house of the sun, which the LXX read, Heliopolis, the city of the sun. It was situate between Alexandria and the Coptus, and so called because it had a temple dedicated to the sun, and was the grand seat of Egyptian idolatry. Its inhabitants were reckoned the most enlightened and ingenious of all the Egyptians. See Strabo, lib. 17., and Herodotus.
REFLECTIONS.
No sooner had Jeremiah closed his speech, and delivered his revelation from the Lord, than it was rejected, and slandered as a lie of Baruch's forgery. Nay, so violent were those men, that they forcibly carried away Jeremiah, and all the people into Egypt. They forsook the wings of JEHOVAH to trust in the bruised reeds of Egypt, which had so often proved faithless to the Hebrews. God sends a spirit of infatuation on wicked men who reject his word, and they go from evil to evil till they go to their own place.
The wicked often involve their children in their own calamities. They carried away the king's daughters, who were of course in nonage and infancy, as Zedekiah's reign was short. Thus the iniquities of the fathers, by a mysterious providence, were temporally visited on the children to the third and fourth generation.
When the wicked flee from one country to another, they take their guilt with them, and their punishment is sure to follow. Scarcely had these refugees received the promises of protection from Pharaoh, scarcely had they got settled in the places assigned them for a dwelling, before Jeremiah troubled them with new predictions. He threw great stones into the brick kiln as a sort of pedestal for Nebuchadnezzar's throne, who is called the Lord's servant, because he accomplished his pleasure in scourging the impious nations. He described all the horrors of his invasion. He saw the cities stormed, he saw the carnage of the sword, he saw the princes led to execution, and the best looking of the younger people delivered to captivity. Nay, more: he saw the temples of Egypt, in which these apostate Jews had sought refuge, all in flames, as the defiled temple of Jerusalem. When the sanctuary of God becomes impure with crimes, it is not long before the Lord purifies it with vengeance. May sinners learn never to speak against religion, because it is the only hope and refuge of man.
The burning of the Egyptian temples claims a farther thought. When God inspires an army to do his awful pleasure, they astonish the earth by their ardour, their courage and achievements. Rabshakeh scarcely deigned to mention the conquests of nations, being so much taken up with the conquests of the gods of Hamath, Arphad, and Damascus. Belshazzar boasted with equal pride of the gods his grandfather had subdued. Isaiah 36; Daniel 5. Xerxes with equal pride burnt the temples of Greece and Asia in his career of devastation. Hence Jeremiah showed his apostate countrymen the temple of the sun in Bethshemesh, this most ancient seat of idolatry, all in flames, that they might make a just transition in their own thoughts to the unquenchable fire about to receive them, unless a radical work of repentance ensued.