The Tanakh Podcast

After Gedalia's assassination the people request that Jeremiah appeal to God to guide them what to do. God responds to Jeremiah but the people should remain in the land and not migrate down to Egypt.

Our chapter describes the Assassination of Babylonian Governor - Gedaliah. In the narrative, two side-references are made to two places which each signify awful instances of Jewish in-fighting.

In the initial segment of this chapter we read how Jeremiah is given the choice to go to Babylon as an ally and a guest of the Babylonians. He refuses. He wants to stay amongst the people. In the second segment of the chapter we meet Gedalia the official who is appointed by the Babylonians as the governor of the land of Israel. Who is he? What is his agenda? And who are his opponents?

In this chapter we read about the fall of Jerusalem. What becomes of King Zedekiah? What will befall Jeremiah?

Jeremiah is thrown into a cistern and submerged in mud. Surprisingly a foreigner Eved-Melekh the Kushite, saves his life!

This chapter sees Jeremiah arrested as a suspected accomplice with the Babylonians. But what rings through the chapter is the spineless character of King Zedekiah.

Jeremiah writes his prophecies in a scroll. Barukh reads it to government officials in Jerusalem. They hear Jeremiah's prophecy and are impressed and fearful of his messages. But when the king hears the contents of the scroll, he is unmoved. He takes the scroll and burns it. This is a classic story about government ignoring warnings, turning a blind eye to criticism. Nonetheless, God instructs Jeremiah to re-write the scroll because truthful messages will always endure.

Is withdrawal from life an ideal? Is refraining from wine an aspiration? Jeremiah brings the "Rehabites" to the Temple and instructs them to drink wine. The respond: "We don't drink wine, nor do we plant a field, a vineyard, or build a house!" Who is this peculiar family, and what does Jeremiah want us to learn from them?

In the reign of Zedekiah, the people make a covenant to free their slaves, and then they re-enslave them. Why do they free them? Why do they re-enslave them? And what does God have to say about all this?

In this, the final chapter in a series that promise restoration and national rehabilitation, God affirms his eternal covenant with the House of David, the priesthood, and the Jewish People