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Context No. 120 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 40:1-5: in context

1The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were carried away captive to Babylon. 2The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God pronounced this evil on this place; 3and the LORD has brought it, and done according as he spoke. Because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing has come on you. 4Now, behold, I release you today from the chains which are on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will take care of you; but if it seems bad to you to come with me into Babylon, don’t. Behold, all the land is before you. Where it seems good and right to you to go, go there.” 5Now while he had not yet gone back, “Go back then,” he said, “to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him food and a present, and let him go.

Jerusalem has fallen. Jeremiah, who spent forty years telling the city Babylon would take it, has been rounded up with everyone else, chained, and marched to the staging camp at Ramah with the deportees. This passage is the Babylonian commander finding him there.

Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, has him unchained, and then delivers a speech that is one of the odder moments in the Old Testament. The LORD your God pronounced this disaster on this place, he says, and now he has brought it and done what he said. This happened because your people sinned against the LORD and did not obey his voice. A Babylonian officer states Jeremiah's own theology back to him, accurately, as the official explanation of the campaign he just fought.

Then he gives the prophet a genuine choice. Come with me to Babylon and I will look after you, or stay. Look, the whole land is before you, go where you think it is good and right. Jeremiah stays, and goes to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Everything he warned about has now happened, and his reward is a free choice offered by the enemy commander. When my worst prediction turns out right, what do I actually want next, and would I recognize a chance to choose if it came from the wrong person?

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