1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan the high chamberlain sent him off when he took him—and he was bound in fetters—in the midst of all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah who were exiled to Babylonia. 2And the high chamberlain took Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God spoke of this evil concerning this place. 3And the LORD brought to pass and did as He had spoken, for you offended against the LORD and did not heed His voice, and this thing happened to you. 4And now, I release you today from the fetters that are on your hands, and if it be good in your eyes to come with me to Babylonia, come, and I will keep my eye on you. And if it be not right in your eyes to come with me to Babylonia, do not. See, all the land is before you. To wherever is good and right in your eyes to go, there go.” 5And yet he did not turn back. “And turn back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylonia appointed over the towns of Judah and stay with him in the midst of the people, or wherever is right in your eyes to go, go.” And the high chamberlain gave him a food allotment and provisions and sent him off. 6And Jeremiah came to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and he stayed with him in the midst of the people remaining in the land.
7And all the commanders of the troops who were in the field heard, both they and their men, that the king of Babylonia had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam over the land and that he had left with him men, women, and children, some of the poor of the land who had not been exiled to Babylonia. 8And they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and Johanan and Jonathan sons of Kareah, and Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Eiphai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah son of Maacathite, they and their men. 9And Gedaliah son of Ahikam swore to them, saying, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylonia, and it will go well with you. 10As for me, here I am staying in Mizpah to stand in attendance before the Chaldeans who come to us, and you, gather wine and summer fruit in your vessels, and dwell in your towns of which you have taken hold.” 11And also all the Judahites who were in Moab and in Ammon and in Edom and in all the lands had heard that the king of Babylonia had left a remnant for Judah and had appointed over them Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan. 12And the Judahites turned back from all the places where they were scattered and came to the land of Judah to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and they gathered wine and summer fruit in great abundance. 13And Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the troops who were in the field had come to Gedaliah at Mizpah. 14And they said to him, “Do you actually know that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you?” But Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them. 15And Johanan son of Kareah secretly said to Gedaliah at Mizpah, saying, “Let me go, pray, and strike down Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no man will know. Why should he kill you, and all Judah gathered round you will disperse, and the remnant of Judah will perish?” 16And Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, “Do not do this thing, for you speak a lie about Ishmael.”
CHAPTER 40 NOTES
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1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD. This introductory phrase has puzzled interpreters because what follows is not a prophecy but a narrative report. The least strained explanation is that of S. D. Luzatto: in 1:3, Jeremiah’s prophecies were said to continue “until the exile of Jerusalem”; the opening phrase here introduces his acts and prophecies after the exile has begun.
he was bound in fetters. This is an outright contradiction of the report in the preceding chapter that Nebuchadrezzar gave orders that Jeremiah be sent to stay with Gedaliah at Mizpah, unhampered and unharmed. Various attempts at harmonization of the two stories have been made, but it looks as though the text has combined two contradictory sources. See the comment on verse 6.
2. The LORD your God spoke of this evil. The high chamberlain’s speech must be a historical fiction because it is hard to imagine that a Babylonian official would invoke this pious Yahwistic language.
5. And yet he did not turn back. This brief clause, which interrupts the speech of the Babylonian commander, looks grammatically suspect: weʿodenu lʾo-yashuv (the verb in the imperfect should be weʿodenu lʾo-shav). The entire clause may be a clumsy gloss.
6. And Jeremiah came to Gedaliah. Only now is the contradiction of verse 1 with chapter 39 resolved.
7. all the commanders of the troops who were in the field. The crucial phrase here is “in the field.” The Judahite troops in Jerusalem would have been killed or captured when the city was breached, but there remained forces of resistance in open areas well beyond the city.
9. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylonia, and it will go well with you. Gedaliah’s counsel is entirely in keeping with Jeremiah’s: resistance is futile and flight self-defeating; if the remaining Judahites cooperate with the Babylonian conquerors, they will be treated generously.
10. gather wine and summer fruit. Some commentators see a problem here because wine is not “gathered.” The idiom is no more than an ellipsis: gather grapes, which will be turned into wine.
your towns of which you have taken hold. The verb suggests seizing something not previously possessed. Many of the towns may have been emptied out as their population fled from the Babylonians, and those who remained, perhaps roaming over the countryside in bands, took over the towns.
14. Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you. The Ammonites were one of the trans-Jordanian peoples that resisted the Babylonians. Their king would thus want to kill Gedaliah as a collaborator with the Babylonians. Some have proposed that he had an eye to taking over the kingdom of Judah.
16. Do not do this thing, for you speak a lie about Ishmael. Gedaliah is no doubt recoiling from the idea of authorizing an assassination, which could scarcely have remained a secret, as Johanan claims. But he also appears to be by temperament an accommodationist, unwilling to imagine either that the Babylonians will deal harshly with those who remain in Judah or that a fellow Judahite might harbor murderous intentions toward him. He will pay with his life for his naïveté.