Jeremiah 40: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Nebuzaradan, the commander of Babylon's guard, frees Jeremiah from the chains he wore among the captives at Ramah, gives him food and a gift, and lets him choose where to live. Jeremiah goes to Gedaliah, the governor Babylon has appointed, at Mizpah. Army commanders and their men come to Gedaliah, who swears that serving Babylon will go well for them, and Jews scattered in nearby lands return and gather a large harvest. Johanan warns Gedaliah that Ishmael has been sent by the king of Ammon to kill him and offers to kill Ishmael first, but Gedaliah refuses to believe the report.

Claim by Claim

1. 40:1
   • A word came to Jeremiah from the LORD.
   • This word came after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had released Jeremiah from Ramah.
   • Nebuzaradan had taken Jeremiah when Jeremiah was bound in chains.
   • Jeremiah was bound among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah.
   • Those captives were being carried into exile to Babylon.
2. 40:2
   • The captain of the guard took Jeremiah.
   • The captain of the guard said to Jeremiah that the LORD Jeremiah's God had pronounced this disaster against this place.
3. 40:3
   • The captain of the guard said the LORD had brought the disaster.
   • He said the LORD had done just as he had spoken.
   • He said this happened because the people had sinned against the LORD.
   • He said the people had not obeyed the LORD's voice.
   • He said that therefore this thing had come upon them.
4. 40:4
   • Nebuzaradan said he was freeing Jeremiah that day from the chains on his hands.
   • He said that if it seemed good to Jeremiah to come with him to Babylon, Jeremiah should come.
   • He said that if Jeremiah came, he would set his eye upon him and look after him.
   • He said that if it seemed bad to Jeremiah to come with him to Babylon, Jeremiah should refrain.
   • He said the whole land was before Jeremiah.
   • He told Jeremiah to go wherever it seemed good and right in his eyes to go.
5. 40:5
   • The Hebrew of the opening clause is obscure: it reads that he had not yet turned back or not yet answered, and the speaker of the following words is not named.
   • Jeremiah was told to go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan.
   • The king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah over the cities of Judah.
   • Jeremiah was told to dwell with Gedaliah among the people.
   • Jeremiah was told that otherwise he could go wherever it seemed right in his eyes to go.
   • The captain of the guard gave Jeremiah a food allowance and a gift.
   • The captain of the guard let Jeremiah go.
6. 40:6
   • Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah.
   • Jeremiah dwelt with Gedaliah among the people who were left in the land.
7. 40:7
   • All the commanders of the forces who were in the open country, they and their men, heard news.
   • They heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam over the land.
   • They heard that the king had committed to Gedaliah men, women, and children.
   • They heard that those committed to him were of the poorest of the land.
   • They heard that those people had not been exiled to Babylon.
8. 40:8
   • They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.
   • Ishmael son of Nethaniah came.
   • Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah came.
   • Seraiah son of Tanhumeth came.
   • The sons of Ephai the Netophathite came.
   • Jezaniah son of the Maacathite came.
   • They came with their men.
9. 40:9
   • Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan swore an oath to them and to their men.
   • Gedaliah told them not to fear to serve the Chaldeans.
   • Gedaliah told them to dwell in the land.
   • Gedaliah told them to serve the king of Babylon.
   • Gedaliah said that if they did so it would go well with them.
10. 40:10
    • Gedaliah said that he himself would dwell at Mizpah.
    • Gedaliah said he would stand before the Chaldeans who came to them.
    • Gedaliah told them to gather wine, summer fruit, and oil.
    • Gedaliah told them to put these in their vessels.
    • Gedaliah told them to dwell in the cities they had taken.
11. 40:11
    • All the Jews in Moab heard the news.
    • All the Jews among the Ammonites heard the news.
    • All the Jews in Edom heard the news.
    • All the Jews in all the other lands heard the news.
    • They heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant to Judah.
    • They heard that he had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan over them.
12. 40:12
    • All the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been driven.
    • They came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah.
    • They gathered a very great abundance of wine and summer fruit.
13. 40:13
    • Johanan son of Kareah came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.
    • All the commanders of the forces who were in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.
14. 40:14
    • They asked Gedaliah whether he really knew something.
    • They said that Baalis king of the Ammonites had sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill him.
    • Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them.
15. 40:15
    • Johanan son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah secretly at Mizpah.
    • Johanan asked permission to go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah.
    • Johanan said no one would know it.
    • Johanan asked why Ishmael should be allowed to kill Gedaliah.
    • Johanan said that if Gedaliah were killed, all the Jews gathered to him would be scattered.
    • Johanan said the remnant of Judah would perish.
16. 40:16
    • Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah that he must not do this thing.
    • Gedaliah said that what Johanan was saying about Ishmael was false.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

40:1

LORD printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God (the four Hebrew letters YHWH), which Jewish readers avoided saying aloud; where the text simply says "lord" as a title, ordinary lower case is used. Ramah was a town about five miles north of Jerusalem that the Babylonians used as a staging camp, where prisoners were held and sorted before the long march east. "Commander of the guard" translates a Babylonian court title (literally something like "chief of the butchers") for a very senior royal officer. The events follow the capture of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC.

40:2

A foreign officer speaking about "the LORD your God" was not unusual: in the ancient Near East a conquering army routinely explained a defeat by saying the defeated people's own god had abandoned them or turned against them, and victors often said so publicly.

40:3

"Ye" is the old plural word for "you all." The officer is speaking about the whole nation, not blaming Jeremiah himself.

40:4

"Forbear" means hold back or do not do it, so Nebuzaradan is saying "then stay where you are." "Convenient" in 1611 English meant fitting or suitable, not handy. A prisoner in chains being offered a free choice of destination, plus protection in Babylon, was extraordinary treatment; Jeremiah had spent years telling Judah to submit to Babylon, and the Babylonians knew it.

40:5

The opening words of this verse are obscure in the Hebrew (literally something like "and he was still not turning back") and it is not certain who is speaking or exactly what is meant; translations supply the speaker's name to make it readable. Gedaliah's father Ahikam and grandfather Shaphan were senior officials in the royal court at Jerusalem, and both had protected Jeremiah earlier in his life. Babylon did not appoint a new king over Judah but a governor, an administrator answering to Babylon.

40:6

Mizpah was a town in the territory of Benjamin, roughly eight miles north of Jerusalem. With Jerusalem burned and its walls broken down, Mizpah became the administrative center for what was left of Judah.

40:7

These were officers of Judah's army whose units had scattered rather than surrender when Jerusalem fell; they were still armed and living rough in open country. "The poorest of the land" were the people Babylon judged not worth deporting, farm laborers and the landless, who were left behind and given the vineyards and fields of the deported to work.

40:8

Netophah was a village near Bethlehem. A Maacathite came from Maacah, a small Aramean territory near Mount Hermon, well to the north. Ishmael son of Nethaniah is later identified as a member of Judah's royal family (Jeremiah 41:1), which is why he had a claim of his own to press.

40:9

"Chaldeans" is the Bible's usual name for the Babylonians; the Chaldeans were the tribal group from southern Mesopotamia that supplied Babylon's ruling dynasty at this time. An oath was a formal, legally binding guarantee sworn before God, not a casual assurance; Gedaliah was staking his own standing on the safety of men who had every reason to expect execution as holdout fighters.

40:10

Wine grapes, summer figs and olives ripen in late summer and early autumn, months after Jerusalem fell, so this is the first normal harvest under the new arrangement. The "jars" are large ceramic storage vessels used for wine and oil. "The towns you have taken over" refers to settlements left empty by the deportations, now simply occupied by whoever was there.

40:11

Moab, Ammon and Edom were neighboring kingdoms east and southeast of Judah, across the Jordan and the Dead Sea. People had fled there during the Babylonian invasion, as refugees crossing the nearest border.

40:12

The harvest was unusually large because the vineyards and orchards were still standing while most of the population that would normally have worked and eaten from them had been deported.

40:14

Ammon had joined Judah in resisting Babylon and had not been conquered; a Babylonian-appointed governor next door was a threat to it. Ishmael, being of Judah's royal line, would have had his own reasons to resent a governor who was not a king and not a descendant of David.

40:15

"The people left in Judah" translates a term usually rendered "the remnant", the survivors of a disaster, here the fraction of Judah's population still living in the land after the deportations. Johanan's fear is that Gedaliah's murder would bring Babylonian reprisals and drive even those survivors out.