Jeremiahchapter 40
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Speaks with:Jeremiah 39×5Jeremiah 41×3Ezekiel 5×2Joshua 18×1Ephesians 6×1Acts 21×1
Summary
Chapter summary
Nebuzaradan finds Jeremiah bound among the captives at Ramah, releases him, and (with a Babylonian officer's summary of Judah's own theology, that this came because they sinned against Jehovah) gives him a free choice: come to Babylon and be looked after, or go anywhere you please. He returns to Gedaliah at Mizpah and dwells among the people left in the land. Scattered Judeans hear that a governor has been appointed and stream back from Moab, Ammon, and Edom, gathering wine and summer fruits in great abundance. Then the shadow: Johanan warns that Baalis king of Ammon has sent Ishmael to kill Gedaliah, and offers to kill him first. Gedaliah refuses to believe it.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–6 Loosed from His Chains at Ramah: Go Back to Gedaliah
- B. 7–12 Gathering Wine and Summer Fruits: the Remnant Returns
- C. 13–16 Warned of Ishmael's Plot, and Not Believing It
The outline
A.Loosed from His Chains at Ramah: Go Back to Gedaliahvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Gathering Wine and Summer Fruits: the Remnant Returnsvv. 7 to 12
Read vv. 7 to 12 →C.Warned of Ishmael's Plot, and Not Believing Itvv. 13 to 16
Read vv. 13 to 16 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 40The history
The chapter opens with a scene worth picturing: Jeremiah is found in chains at Ramah among all the captives being carried away — a prisoner in a holding camp where the columns were assembled and shackled before the long march. The Babylonian commander singles him out, unbinds him, and offers him a choice of Babylon with an allowance or staying with the governor. He stays.
Mizpah, generally identified with the mound of Tell en-Nasbeh a few miles north of Jerusalem, becomes the administrative centre because Jerusalem is uninhabitable. Excavation there shows the site continuing in use through this period while Jerusalem lay in ruins.
Gedaliah son of Ahikam is installed as governor. His father had saved Jeremiah's life at the trial in chapter 26, and his grandfather Shaphan was Josiah's secretary. A seal reading belonging to Gedalyahu who is over the house was found at Lachish, and is often connected with this man, though the identification cannot be proved from the seal alone.
His policy is practical and hopeful: settle in the towns, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, store them in your vessels, and serve the king of Babylon. The harvest that year was reportedly abundant. Judeans who had fled to Moab, Ammon and Edom during the war started coming back.
What it meant to them
For the first hearers this was the one chapter where things might have turned out differently. The land was quiet, the harvest was in, and a decent man from a good family was in charge.
The warning that ends it is the tragedy in miniature. Johanan tells the governor plainly that the king of Ammon has sent Ishmael to assassinate him, and Gedaliah refuses to believe it. A seal from a site in Ammon naming a servant of Baalisha shows there really was a king of that name across the river.
Sources cited
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 40. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.