Jeremiah 51:59-52:34
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we finish Jeremiah. We’ll have a lot to talk about at our RTB gathering on Sunday after coffee hour in Nathan Hall. (Recall that April’s first Sunday of the month was Easter Sunday, so we rescheduled.)
Today’s six verses in chapter 51 are a bit confusing. Jeremiah sends a message in a book (scroll) with Seriah (Baruch’s brother, see Jer. 31.12) as Seriah and Zedekiah travel to Babylon during Zedekiah’s fourth year. It was Zedekiah’s eleventh year that Jerusalem was overthrown, so presumably this trip was simply a meeting between Zedekaih and Nebuchadnezzar. Seriah is ordered to read the message (possibly the words that Jeremiah had spoken in chapters 50 and 51), then destroy the scroll. The message was about the final destruction of Babylon. But to whom did Seriah read these words? To Nebuchadnezzar? That seems a bit scary, to tell the king that his nation would be overthrown! Or was Seriah reading to the Jewish exiles already in Babylon? Words of comfort for them…? Either way, Seriah would be spared and he would be able to complete his mission by destroying the scroll.
Finally, the fall of Jerusalem. We had already read a shortened version of some of the details of this destruction back in Jeremiah 39:1-10. Here we also get an exact count of the number of exiles sent to Babylon from Jerusalem during Nebuchadnezzar’s seventh year, which was the first year of Zedekiah’s reign, then eleven years later (the year of the fall and Zedekiah’s exile), and then again five years after the fall. The total number of exiles, 4,600, is probably far short of the number of residents of Jerusalem when Zedekiah began to reign. No doubt many had died or been killed during the siege and the ensuing battle, plus a number of people had been left behind to tend to the land, including Jeremiah. As we read further accounts of life in Babylon during the exile, keep in mind that the Jewish population there is only 4,600.
And so we end Jeremiah, fittingly spoken in verse 51:64b, “Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.”
See you Sunday, I hope!
Blessings.
See also:
I regularly encourage all of you to read John’s posts from 2023. Today, especially, I point you to his second “see also” post, where he recounts the order of kingship in Judah. I would like to add one other bit of information to his note.
John points out that Judah’s king Jehoiachin surrendered Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C, and that Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin to Babylon and placed Zedekiah on the throne. Today we read that Zedekiah and Seriah took a trip to Babylon in Zedekiah’s fourth year on the throne. Then we see that Jerusalem was sacked in Zedekiah’s eleventh year, following a siege that began two years earlier. So sometime between Zedekiah’s fourth year and his ninth year, he must have rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. He could not live peacefully as Jeremiah had counselled. He had to listen to the false prophets instead. A sad turn of events for him and Jerusalem!
Just that…