Scripture Daily

Context No. 839 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 52:29-34: in context

29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons; 30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five people. All the people numbered four thousand six hundred. 31In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and released him from prison. 32He spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, 33and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life. 34For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

The book of Jeremiah ends the way the exile did, in tallies of the carried-away: eight hundred and thirty-two here, seven hundred and forty-five there, dry numbers of people torn from their land. It is a bleak place to close a book, a nation counted out and hauled off. But the very last paragraph turns, unexpectedly, toward mercy. In the thirty-seventh year of the exiled king Jehoiachin's captivity, a new Babylonian king comes to the throne, and he does something no one had reason to expect. He lifts up the head of Jehoiachin, releases him from prison, speaks kindly to him, sets his seat above the other captive kings, changes him out of his prison clothes, and gives him a place at the royal table and a daily allowance for the rest of his life.

After thirty-seven years in a cell, the imprisoned son of David has his head lifted and eats bread before the king every day until he dies. It is a small thing against the scale of the catastrophe, and the book does not pretend otherwise. But it is not nothing, and it is not placed here by accident. This is a descendant of David, the line to which every promise of a coming king was tied, and here he is, alive, freed, honored, at a table. The story of judgment does not get the last word; a quiet grace does, and with it a flicker of hope that the promise is not dead after all. The Gospel of Matthew would later list this very Jehoiachin in the family tree of Jesus. Even at the darkest, most defeated end of the story, God leaves a door cracked open, and lifts a prisoner's head.

After thirty-seven years in prison, Jehoiachin's head was lifted and the dark book ended on grace. When a long, defeated stretch seems to be ending in nothing but loss, do I still watch for the small, unexpected mercy that keeps the door of hope open?

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