against Babylon

February 3, 2017

Against Babylon (Jer 50:1-50:1)

“The word

That Yahweh spoke

Concerning Babylon,

Concerning the land

Of the Chaldeans,

By the prophet Jeremiah.”

Now there is a switch in tone. Prior to this, Jeremiah and the oracles of Yahweh had said to obey the Babylonian king. Now there are a series of oracles against the Babylonians or the Chaldeans. Eventually Babylon would fall in 539 BCE, long after the death of Jeremiah (582 BCE) and King Nebuchadnezzar (562 BCE). In the Septuagint Greek translation, this is chapter 27, not chapter 50 as here.

January 7, 2017

The warning from Johanan (Jer 40:13-40:14)

“Now Johanan,

The son of Kareah,

With all the leaders

Of the forces

In the open country,

Came to Gedaliah

At Mizpah.

He said to him.

‘Are you at all aware

That King Baalis

Of the Ammonites

Has sent Ishmael,

The son of Nethaniah,

To take your life?’

But Gedaliah,

The son of Ahikam,

Would not believe them.”

Johanan, the son of Kareah, was one of the open field leaders against Babylon. He and the other rebel leaders came to Mizpah to see what was going on there. When he got there, he told Governor Gedaliah that the king of the Ammonites, King Baalis, had sent Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, also another Judean country leader, to kill Gedaliah. They have actually found a seal from this King Baalis of Ammon dated around 600 BCE. However, Gedaliah did not believe him, since Ishmael was also a member of the Judean royal household.