Jeremiahchapter 42
22 verses · BSBJeremiah book hub →
Speaks with:Jeremiah 42×6Jeremiah 44×5Jeremiah 40×2Jeremiah 6×2Jeremiah 41×2Jeremiah 7×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The whole remnant, from the least to the greatest, asks Jeremiah to pray, swearing to obey whether the word is good or bad. Ten days pass before it comes, and it is exactly opposite to their plan: 'If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down', do not fear the king of Babylon, 'for I am with you to save you.' But if you say, We will go into Egypt, then the sword you fear shall overtake you there and the famine follow you, and you shall die. Jeremiah closes by naming what he already sees: 'ye have dealt deceitfully against your own souls', you sent me to ask, and you will not obey.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–6 Pray for Us: Whatever the LORD Says, We Will Do
- B. 7–17 Ten Days Later: If Ye Still Abide in This Land
- C. 18–22 Ye Have Dealt Deceitfully Against Your Own Souls
The outline
A.Pray for Us: Whatever the LORD Says, We Will Dovv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Ten Days Later: If Ye Still Abide in This Landvv. 7 to 17
Read vv. 7 to 17 →C.Ye Have Dealt Deceitfully Against Your Own Soulsvv. 18 to 22
Read vv. 18 to 22 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 42The history
The whole company — commanders, men, women and children — asks the prophet to pray that God will show them the way they should walk. They swear in advance to obey whatever answer comes, whether good or bad. In that world an oath like that put a curse on the swearer if he broke it, so this is not a casual promise.
Then the chapter records something unusual and entirely believable: ten days pass before the word comes. Prophecy is not shown here as a tap you turn on. Ten days is a long time to sit in a camp with an army on the road behind you.
The answer is the reverse of what everyone in the camp wanted: stay in this land and I will build you and not tear you down, and I will grant you mercy before the king of Babylon so that he lets you remain. Do not fear him; I am with you to save you.
The warning attached is precise. If you set your faces to go to Egypt to live, the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow close behind. The chapter says plainly that they had gone astray at the cost of their lives when they sent the prophet to ask, because their minds were already made up.
What it meant to them
For first hearers this is the anatomy of a fake question. The refugees did everything correctly — asked, swore, waited — and had already packed.
Egypt was the reasonable choice. It was fed by the Nile in a famine year, it was outside Babylon's reach at that moment, and Judean communities were already there. The chapter's whole weight rests on the fact that reasonable and obedient were not the same thing that week.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Jeremiah
- John Bright, Jeremiah (Anchor Bible)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 42. 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.