CHAPTER 20
1. When Pash’hur the son of Immer the priest (who was also chief overseer in the House of YHWH) heard Yirmeyahu prophesying these words,
Son: includes the possibility of being a less immediate descendant of Immer, the priest who headed the 16th course to serve twice a year in the Temple, as appointed by David. (1 Chron. 24:14)
2. Pash’hur both beat Yirmeyahu and put him up [in] the stocks that were in the Upper Gate of Binyamin, which is by the House of YHWH.
Gate of Binyamin: the northern part of the Temple complex was in Binyamin’s tribal land. If Yirmeyahu could get the common people (v. 21) stirred up, it would weaken the power base of those who were abusing their position. Pash’hur thought this embarrassment would shut Yirmeyahu up and elicit a cowering apology. Instead he gets a bold rebuke:
3. Now on the next day when Pash’hur let Yirmeyahu out of the stocks, Yirmeyahu told him, “YHWH has not called your name Pash’hur, but rather Magor-Misaviv.
Pash’hur means “freedom” or “torn loose”, reminding us of the garment Aviyah the prophet tore into 12 pieces to represent the dividing of the kingdom. If self is torn up, we are free. But to Christian theology, freedom is having the Torah torn up. Yet this is not freedom at all. There must be boundaries, as set by the “perfect law of liberty”. (Yaaqov/James 1:25) Magor-Misaviv means “terror from every side”; LXX, “exile” (which was the bottom line). He feels secure in this freedom, but he has set aside the Torah, which is something that cannot be set aside without eventual consequences; freedom set on the wrong base must fall, leaving us wide open and exposed to terror. Without law, anyone can take whatever he wants without repercussions, and nothing can be done about it, because there is no justice. Freedom specifically means one cannot do whatever he wants. Babylon always seems to be connected with a reckoning. (e.g., Rev. 18:9-15) Babylon has continued through a set of philosophies and principles.
4. “Because this is what YHWH says: ‘Behold, I am giving you over to being a terror to [both] yourself and all whom you love, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes look on, and I will deliver all of Yehudah into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he will carry them away into exile in Bavel or strike them with the sword.
All whom you love: or, all who love you. Bavel: Babylon in Greek.
5. “‘Then I will give over all of this city’s wealth, and all the property it has worked for, and everything it values highly, and I will give all the treasures of the kings of Yehudah into their enemies’ hands, and they will plunder them and snatch them away, and bring them to Bavel.
6. “‘And you [yourself], Pash’hur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity, and Bavel you will enter, and there you will die, and there you will be buried—you and all your loved ones to whom you have prophesied fraudulently.’”
7. O YHWH, You have seduced me, and I was persuaded; You were stronger than I, and prevailed! I have become a laughingstock all day [long]; everyone is mocking me!
Seduced: implies intimacy, and he could not resist. He wishes he could get away from his family’s hating him and disrespect from his whole nation, but he cannot. He gives in, saying YHWH has won. But the fact that he did not insist on his freedom “bought” him his own freedom once the captivity would begin. Therefore, he is the freest person in the equation. Paul, on the other hand, insisted on his rights as a Roman citizen, and it ended up costing him his life after years in custody.
8. Because whenever I speak, I proclaim violence and summon havoc! Because the word of YHWH has become a reproach to me and a cause for mocking all day [long].
Whenever I speak: LXX, I will laugh with my bitter speech.
9. So I said, “I will not bring Him to mind or speak anymore in His Name.” But it was like a fire burning in my heart, restrained within my bones, and I was tired of holding it in, and I was not able to,
Bring Him to mind: LXX, name the Name of YHWH.
10. because I heard the [whispered] slander of many, terror on every side: “Expose! Yes, let’s expose him!” Every mortal of my welfare is watching [for] me to stumble: “Maybe he will be gullible, and we can beat him and take our revenge on him!”
Terror on every side: the same as the new name YHWH had given to Pash’hur. Watching for me to stumble: LXX, Watch his intentions!
11. But YHWH is with me like a giant who awakens terror, so [it is] my pursuers [who] will be tottering, and they will not win. They will be sorely put to shame, because they have not proven successful—an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten!
Will not win: LXX, could not perceive anything against me.
12. But YHWH of [organized] Armies, who scrutinizes the righteous, seeing the affections and the mind, let me see Your vengeance, because I have laid my case open to You.
His audience has already been judged; his faithfulness to keep prophesying in the face of such opposition was more for his own sake, because it raised his standing before YHWH. He understands it is a test, and submits to it; he only asks that it be over quickly.
13. Sing to YHWH! Praise YHWH, because He has snatched the soul of the needy away from the hand of those who do harm.
14. Cursed be the day on which I was born; do not let the day on which my mother bore me be blessed!
Yirmeyahu’s emotions are “bipolar” due to the intensity of the situation—not just his own, for the ramifications for the whole world because of what is happening to Israel are staggering.
15. Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, “A male offspring is born to you!”, making him very glad.
16. And let that man be like the cities that YHWH overthrew without regretting [it] (though He heard the outcry in the morning and the alarm at noon-time),
The cities: S’dom and Ghamorah.
17. who did not kill me [right] from the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always pregnant!
18. Why this? Did I come out from the womb to see grief and anguish, with my days consumed away by shame?
Or, Why is it that I came out…? Shame: or confusion. Everyone thinks he is a lunatic and has betrayed him except YHWH, and this is all he has to hang onto.
CHAPTER 21
1. The word which came to Yirmeyahu from YHWH, when King Tzidqiyahu sent Pash’hur the son of Malkhiyah and Ts’fanyah the son of Maaseyah the priest to him, saying,
This is a different Pash’hur from the one in chapter 20. This “freedom” is the son of “YHWH is my king”—the only true freedom; the other’s father was named “He truly said”—reminiscent of haSatan’s casting of doubts on YHWH’s intentions in Eden. This apparent freedom is a sham. Tsidqiyahu means “YHWH is my righteousness”. Ts’fanyah means “YHWH has stored up”. Maaseyah means “an act of YHWH”.
2. “Please ask YHWH on our behalf, because Nevukhadretzar, king of Bavel, is making war against us. Maybe YHWH will deal with us according to all His extraordinary deeds, and he will draw up from upon us!”
Despite all that these priests had done to Yirmeyahu, they still had to admit that he had more influence with YHWH. They only remembered what YHWH could do for them, forgetting how disobedient they had been to Him, rendering them undeserving of His special favor. He rewards their audacity with a shock of His own:
3. But Yirmeyahu told them, “This is what you must tell Tzidqiyahu:
4. “‘This is what YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, says: “Here I am, turning back the instruments of war that are in your hand, with which you fight against the king of Bavel and the Khasdim who are pressing against you from outside to the wall. Then I will [indeed] ‘remove’ them--into the middle of this city!
They asked Him to take the Khasdim (Chaldean) army away from the outskirts of the city; He will do so, but not in the way they are hoping for! Yirmeyahu will appear to be a traitor, because they have been traitors way for generations. Probably the reason they did not kill him was that they now see his words beginning to come true. They should be fearing YHWH instead of the Babylonians, so He turns them over to what they fear. (Compare 1:17)
5. “‘“I Myself will even fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a firm shoulder, both in anger and in rage, and with great displeasure!
6. “‘“I will also bring a scourge [on] the inhabitants of this city, both the human being and the beast; they will die through a great plague.
7. “‘“Then indeed, afterwards,” declares YHWH, “I will deliver Tzidqiyahu, king of Yehudah, and his servants and the people who are left in this city from the plague, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nevukhadretzar, king of Bavel, and into the hand of your enemies, and into the hand of those who demand their life. He will conquer them with the mouth of the sword; he will not pity or spare or have mercy!”’
8. “And you must tell this people, ‘This is what YHWH says: Look at Me! I am setting before you the path of life and the path of death.
YHWH is reiterating a choice He vividly portrayed to Israel in Y’hoshua’s day. (Compare Deut. 11:26; 28; 30:19; Y’hosh. 8:33ff.)
9. “‘Whoever remains in this city will die by the sword or by famine or by the plague, but whoever goes out and lowers himself to the Chasdim who are pressing in on you, he will survive, though his soul will belong to him as plunder,
Belong to him: i.e., the king of Bavel; alternate, and his life will be his own as spoil. I.e., all he will have left is his life. During World War II, many wealthy Jews survived by likewise taking a lower position—menial jobs in that kept them in obscure places where the Nazis did not even wish to tread. YHWH rewarded those who did submit; they soon found themselves held in high esteem by the Babylonians and even given positions within the Babylonian government. (See Daniel.) Life was so pleasant for them there that the majority did not come back to the Land when they were permitted to after the 70 years.
10. “‘because I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for prosperity,’ declares YHWH. ‘It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he will burn it with fire!’
11. “Then to the house of the king of Yehudah, [say], ‘Heed the word of YHWH!
There were still some peasants who remained in the Land, but the priests and kings (who had to write out a copy of the Torah for themselves upon inauguration and study it daily) were expected to know better, and so incurred stricter judgment than, for example, the potter Yirmeyahu visited.
12. “‘O House of David, this is what YHWH says: “Execute justice in the morning, and bring about the rescue of the one taken away by force out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My rage go forth like fire and set ablaze so there is no one who can extinguish [it], from the face of the wickedness of your practices!
In the morning: or, in the seeking, i.e., at the time when there is enough light to distinguish the right path from the wrong one. (v. 8) YHWH keeps raising the standard for Israel. Earlier He said He would bring the kingdom back with total amnesty if they would repent. But they refused to ascend at that point. There was a small window during which they could prove they were repentant. They were past the point of turning back His judgment, so the choice now was to survive or not survive. Yet He still was merciful enough to give them this. They can at least show that they admit that they are receiving what they deserve and that they concur that YHWH is right. They have reached the “seventy-times-seven” limit of which Y’shua spoke. (2 Chron. 36:21) For 490 years they had not obeyed His command to let the Land have a rest every seven years, so now He would recoup those years by sending them into captivity for 70 years.
13. “‘Indeed, I am against you, O [Woman] who inhabits the valley, the leveled Rock,’ declares YHWH ‘—those who are saying, “Who can penetrate into us? Or who can enter our habitations?”
Penetrate into us: LXX, alarm us. They are still cocksure that their current prosperity guarantees that YHWH will not bring any punishment upon them. The king’s audacity in refusing to pay tribute to Bavel is what brought the army after them, on the natural (political) level.
14. “‘And I will call you to account according to the fruit of your endeavors,’ declares YHWH. ‘Then I will set a fire in her forest, and it will consume everything around it.’”
CHAPTER 22
1. This is what YHWH says: “Go down to the house of the King of Yehudah and speak this word there,
2. “and say, ‘O king of Yehudah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants, and your people who enter by these gates,
3. “‘this is what YHWH says: “Do justice and righteousness, and rescue those being taken away by force from the hand of an oppressor, and do not mistreat the foreign visitor, the fatherless, or the widow, nor do violence, and do not shed innocent blood in this place,
Even if the king himself were not personally guilty of oppressing people (though we know Shlomo was in his grandiose building projects), he is the one responsible for making justice happen in the whole land, because he has his own copy of the Torah and is required to read from it every day. (Deut. 17:18-20) Thus he incurs the judgment when it is not done, just as Y’shua was held responsible when His students were perceived as doing wrong. And why not? Teachers are judged more harshly as well (Yaaqov 3:1), since, by uncovering the depths of what YHWH has hidden they fulfill the prerogative of kings. (Prov. 25:2) A rescue of this type must be harsh, but the only alternative is injustice. The visitor, the fatherless, and the widow are all without a direct covering, and are thus especially vulnerable. The visitor came to learn about YHWH, but when the Nation is not living the Torah, he cannot find Him.
4. “‘“because if you indeed do this thing, then kings will enter into the gates of this house, [in the position] of David on his throne, riding on chariots and on horses—he along with his servants and his people.
In 17:24-25 he said the same results would follow if the nation kept the Sabbath: if you will DO (not just “believe”), then He will do.
5. “‘“But if you will not heed these words, I swear by Myself”, declares YHWH, “that this House will come to be laid waste,”
This house: the royal palace and family in the lineage of David.
6. “‘because this is what YHWH says about the house of the King of Yehudah: “You are [as] Gil’ad to Me, the top of the Levanon. If I will not make you a wilderness of cities no [longer] inhabited…!
Gil’ad: a very fruitful, lush land. Top of the Levanon: snow-capped peaks, the source of plentiful water.
7. “‘“And I will dedicate destroyers [to come] against you, each one with his own tools, and cut down the choicest of your cedars and let them drop into the fire.
Dedicate: literally, “set apart”, the same word for the most sacred rooms in the Temple. Thus these destroyers are His hand-picked “special forces”. Cedars: Levanon’s greatest boast.
8. “‘“Then many Gentiles will pass by this city and say, ‘Why has YHWH done this to this great city?’
9. “‘“Then they will say, ‘On account of their forsaking the covenant of YHWH their Elohim, and bowing down to other elohim and serving them.’
Forsaking YHWH: yet the crimes listed above are against fellow men. Thus we learn that remaining neutral when it is time to judge is forsaking His covenant and is tantamount to idolatry. The covenant is not just an agreement; it is a written document which constitutes none other than the Torah. If we simply forgive an attacker when Torah says to do justice, it means we place no value on the life of an unborn child or the life of a person who was murdered. All His judgments are righteous. When it is time to be severe, we are guilty if we are not. YHWH provides for both sides—protection and the means to remove the evil that threatens the rest of the people who still remain. (Psalm 23’s well-known phrase “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” means this very thing—that the presence of just judgment is what brings peace.) We through our ancestors have forsaken the covenant in this way by worshipping a moral system that says we must always forgive and never judge, due to taking Y’shua’s words out of the whole context of Torah and all He said.
10. “‘“Don’t cry for the dead or express sorrow for him; instead, weep bitterly for the one who is going away, because he will never return or see the Land of his birth.”
In other words, he would be better off dead.
11. “‘For this is what YHWH says toward Shallum, the son of Yoshiyahu, King of Yehudah, who is reigning in the place of his father Yoshiyahu, who left this place: he will not return there again;
Shallum means “full retribution”, and is another name for Yehoakhaz; Yoshiyahu means “whom YHWH supports”.
12. “‘rather, he will die in the place where they have taken him captive, and he will never again see this Land.’”
13. “Woe [to] him who builds up his household without righteousness, and his roof-chambers without proper legal procedures, who [makes his] neighbor serve without pay, and gives him nothing for his work--
Roof-chambers: or possibly, stairways. Either way, they need props beneath them in order to remain intact. Without proper legal procedures, the ground-floor is relatively safe, being on solid ground, but the higher we ascend, the more support our steps need. The closer we get to YHWH, the more He can smell the stench that remains in our lives if we do not judge ourselves.
14. “the one who says, ‘I will build a spacious house for myself with well-ventilated roof-chambers’, with windows cut out for it, both paneled with cedar and painted in vermilion!
Vermilion: a reddish-orange coloring obtained from the “kermes” insect.
15. “Will you be king [just] because you have a passion for cedar? Didn’t your father eat and drink as well as carrying out justice and righteousness? It was well for him then.
Have a passion for cedar: or, enclose yourself in cedar, which historically in Israel represented caring for oneself before providing for YHWH’s House. (2 Shmuel 7:2; Haggai 1:4) Cedar is one of the longest-lasting woods, representing natural security. Eat and drink: i.e., keep YHWH’s feasts, when everyone in Israel, including the poor, foreign visitors, and widows all had plenty to eat, celebrating YHWH together:
16. “He pleaded the cause of the poor and needy; then [things went] well. Isn’t this [what it means] to know Me?” says YHWH.
The poor: those who realize they have a need; the word also means those who are busy (dealing with themselves—the true fast, Yeshayahu 58). Not knowing Elohim is the defining factor in our exile, and yet many want to go back to that sad state of affairs! (Gal. 4:8)
17. “But there is nothing in your eyes or heart except [thoughts] about your own profit or how to shed innocent blood, about how to effect extortion and oppression!
18. “So this is what YHWH says regarding Yehoyaqim, son of Yoshiyahu, the king of Yehudah: they will not mourn for him, saying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, beloved!’ They will not mourn for him, saying, ‘Alas, my master!’ or, ‘Alas, [your] majesty!’
Yehoyaqim: the third last king of Yehudah. His name means “YHWH raises up”.
19. “He will be buried with the burial of an ass—dragged away [roughly] and thrown beyond the gates of Yerushalayim.
20. “Ascend the Levanon and cry out! And in Bashan, employ your voice! Cry out [from grief] from all the regions on the other side, because all your lovers are crippled!
Bashan: the plateau east of the Sea of Galilee (the Golan Heights today).
21. “I spoke to you when you were prosperous; you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This is the way you have been since your childhood, because you have not obeyed My voice.
Prosperous: or, at ease (true or perceived prosperity). Our propensity is to become spoiled when YHWH blesses us, and become ungrateful like a child used to being rich, thinking we deserve His mercy. (Parallel passage: Deut. 32:15) Yet we have done the same with “grace”: we stop our ears to His instruction (Torah) because we think it is our right to be forgiven over and over without penalty.
22. “All of your shepherds will shepherd the wind, and into captivity will your lovers go, because then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness.
Shepherd the wind: i.e., have no sheep left to tend. Alt., All your pastors will feed the spirit. LXX, the wind shall tend your shepherds.
23. “O inhabitant of Levanon who builds a nest among the cedars, how graceful will you be when the pangs come upon you—the anguish as of [a woman] giving birth?
How graceful will you be: or, How you will be pitied! LXX, you will groan heavily.
24. “[As] I live”, says YHWH, “even if Konyahu the son of Yehoyaqim, king of Yehudah, were the signet ring on My right hand, still I would uproot you from there,
Konyahu: another name for Yehoyachin. It means “YHWH will establish”. In this case, it was presumptuous. Signet ring: used for sealing royal decrees and confidential documents.
25. “so I will turn you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, and into the hand of those whose face you are terrified of—that is, the hand of Nevukhadretzar, king of Bavel, and into the hand of the Khasdim.
26. “I will even cast you away—both you and the mother who bore you—into another land in which you were not born, and there you will die.
27. “But as for the Land to which they long in their souls to return, they will not return there.
Long to: literally, are intensely lifting up their souls for.
28. “Is this man Konyahu a shattered creation who is considered worthless, or a vessel in which no one takes delight? [Then] why are he and his sons thrown away and hurled into a land with which they were not familiar?
Creation: a shaped object, as by a potter; perhaps even an idol.
29. “O Land, Land, Land! Listen to the word of YHWH!
30. “This is what YHWH says: ‘Record this man [as] childless—a warrior who will not be successful, because not one of his seed will succeed [him in] sitting on the throne of David or ever again reign in Yehudah.
This seems like a death-knell to the Messianic kingdom, for the Messiah is to reign on the throne of his ancestor David! Yet he could not descend from Konyahu (Yechonyah), who was in direct line from Shlomo, through whom David chose the royal line to run. Through Miryam (whose genealogy may be the one that appears in Lukas 3:23ff), Y’shua descended from David by another line (Nathan's), but Yoseyf, his adoptive father and the rightful heir to the throne, gave Him legal right to inherit the throne through Shlomo (cf. v. 20), without making YHWH a liar. He circumvented this curse because Y’shua was not Yechonyah's physical offspring. (Missler on Matithyahu 1:6-16) Favor was restored to the line when Zerubbavel, his grandson (as per Mat. 1:12) sought YHWH diligently. YHWH even used the imagery of the signet ring again (as in v. 24) when speaking of him. (Haggai 2:23).
CHAPTER 23
1. “Woe to the shepherds who cause the sheep of My pasture to go astray, and scatter [them]!”, declares YHWH.
Scatter: the opposite of uniting them—making each go his own direction, which is dissipation. Even if physically present, they have wandered off in their hearts and forgotten their true identity as Hebrews, so He will just finish the process. Yochanan 11:52 tells of the reversal of this curse through Messiah.
2. “Therefore, this is what YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, says about the shepherds who are tending My people: ‘You have scattered My flock, and driven them away and not gone after them. Indeed, I will come after you [and bring back upon you] the wickedness of your habits,’ declares YHWH.
Driven them away: or misled them, taking them down a road of lawlessness. Gone after them: or, counted them—which means getting them ready for war, setting the gifts in order for optimum synergy (as in the Counting of the Omer).
3. “‘Then I will collect the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their sheepfold, and they will be fruitful and multiply.
I have driven: yet He just blamed the shepherds for driving them away. He had to do so because they had defiled His Land, but the shepherds are the ones who bore the responsibility; the sheep could come back after an appropriate time of punishment. These were the “other sheep not of this fold” whom He would collect back and merge into one with Yehudah again. (Yoch. 10:16) Those who hear the shepherd’s voice (in the pure tongue of Hebrew) have circumcised ears, having removed the Hellenized church teachings that stop them up to who we really are. Fruitful and multiply: the name of Efrayim and a specific prophecies about Menashe (Gen. 48:19), but also the exact words used in YHWH’s first command to mankind. Thus this will also finally bring about the obedience to the command YHWH gave to Adam and Chavvah. (Gen. 1:22; 8:17)
4. “‘And I will station over them shepherds who will shepherd them, and they will never again be afraid or terrified, nor will they be missing,’ declares YHWH.
Shepherds: plural, not just Y’shuah (v. 6), but those who are under Him—those over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. (Exodus 18:21) Israel will finally be organized the way He wants it. The message of “no fear” is what will nourish them. Missing: or, lacking anything (either of provision or of any aspect of truth, since they will be taught its fullness; compare Amos 9:9). THEN the King can come…
5. “‘Indeed, the days are coming,’ declares YHWH, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous offshoot, and a King will reign and act wisely, and carry out right rulings and justice in the Land!
For once, a king of Israel would do the right thing—something He has not seen in a long time. But this is the lineage He had chosen, and so He found a way to redeem it, though it cost Him so much. The Targum of Yirmeyahu says, “I will raise up for David Messiah the Just.”
6. “‘In his days Yehudah will be liberated, and Israel will dwell securely. Now this is the name by which he will be called: “YHWH [is] our Righteousness.”
The LXX adds “both” to the first phrase, highlighting the fact that the two groups mentioned are not just poetic synonyms, but two peoples who will again be united. The name: compare 33:16, where His bride is given the very same name.
7. “‘This being so, behold, the days are coming,’ declares YHWH, ‘when they will no longer say, “[As] YHWH lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the Land of Egypt”,
8. “‘but rather, “[As] YHWH lives, who brought up and led the seed of the House of Israel out of the land of the north, and from all the lands into which He had caused them to be banished, and they will settle down on their own ground.”’”
He reiterates the promise given in 16:14-15, changing “the descendants of Israel” to the more specific “seed of the House of Israel”, that is, the Northern Kingdom in particular, and its physical, not just spiritual seed. YHWH did not forsake them and start over with someone else, but has already begun bringing back the very same holy race to fulfill the calling that our forefathers left off.
9. My heart within me is broken for the prophets, and all my bones have gone slack. I am like a drunken man, and like a hero overcome by wine, from the face of YHWH and from the presence of the accounts of His separateness,
10. because the Land is full of people committing adultery, because the Land mourns in the face of a curse. The [pleasant] meadows of the pastureland are dried up, their place to run has become unpleasant, and their strength is not as it should be,
11. because both prophet and priest are corrupt. “Even in My own house I have encountered their wickedness!” declares YHWH.
12. “So their path will become for them like slippery places in the dark, and it will make them fall down flat [on their faces], because I will cause evil to come upon them [right in] the year of their calling to account,” declares YHWH.
13. “I have also seen tastelessness among the prophets of Shomron: they have been prophesying by Ba’al and leading My people Israel astray.
Tastelessness: or foolishness, silliness.
14. “I have also seen something among the prophets of Yerushalayim that causes Me [to bristle with] horror: they commit adultery and walk in deception. They even strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that not a man repents of his wickedness. They have all become like S’dom to Me, and her inhabitants like Ghamorah.
15. “So this is what YHWH of Armies says about the prophets: ‘Here I am, feeding them with wormwood, and have given them bitter water to drink, because from within the prophets of Yerushalayim, defilement has gone out into the whole Land.’”
Bitter water: The test YHWH prescribed for a woman suspected by her husband of adultery. (Num. 5:12-31) If she was guilty, YHWH would bring a curse through that water, which was made from words scraped off a scroll—the curse Paul says the Torah brings. It results in the loss of her husband (the opposite of YHWH’s putting His Name upon us) and childlessness for life—though she always looks pregnant (with a swollen belly). The root of bitterness is selfishness, and it bears only bitter fruit. (Deut. 29:18; Yesh. 35:3) However, for the woman who is not guilty, the reward of this test is that she bears many more children! (29:28) The Torah is a blessing to the one who works along with it, but a curse to the one who tries to oppose it. Defilement: profaneness (i.e., making something that is set-apart common again) or corruption.
16. This is what YHWH of Armies says: “Let none of you listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying themselves to you; they are causing you to become [nothing but] a vain breath! They are speaking a vision out of their own heart, not from YHWH’s mouth.
LXX: They frame a vain vision for themselves.
17. “They keep telling those who intensely despise Me, ‘YHWH has said you will have peace!’ And [to] everyone who walks in the [twisted] stubbornness of his own heart, they have been saying, ‘Nothing bad is going to come against you!’
The parallel today is the teaching that we need not “prepare our oil” in advance because we will just be removed from the world before troubled times come.
18. “Because who has stood in the innermost council of YHWH and [both] seen and heard His word? Who has paid attention to His word and will obey?
Innermost council: or, intimate secret, the term used for the deepest level of understanding and interpretation of YHWH’s Word. We cannot hear the fullness on the literal level, though it is where we must begin, and we cannot divorce the two. (That is how Paul’s words were twisted to our destruction, 2 Kefa/Peter 3:16; cf. Mat. 23:23.) The outward works are the package, like the peel of a fruit which houses the real food until it is time to eat it. He is telling the kings here to act like it—to uncover the depths of what He has hidden. (Prov. 25:2)
19. “Indeed, a storm-wind of YHWH has gone forth in rage—a twisting whirlwind, at that; it will twist upon the head of the wicked.
LXX: There is an earthquake from YHWH, and anger proceeds to a convulsion.
20. “YHWH’s anger will not turn back until He has accomplished—until He has established—the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will discern understanding in it.
LXX: at the end of days, they will understand it (completely). Compare Yeshayahu 30:8; Psalm 102:18; Daniel 9:24.
21. “I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied!
These were then men who truly had the prophetic office, yet they must have thought that whatever they said must therefore be true, and were not careful to make sure it was really from YHWH and not from their own deductions about what must be the case.
22. “But if they had [only] stood in My innermost council, then they would have caused My people to hear My words, and they would have turned them from their evil direction, and from the wickedness of their practices.
The blindness has been partially removed for many centuries, but the restoration of the nation has not yet come about, because the fullness of repentance is not possible without this deepest understanding of His secrets. But He is giving it back to us now. Will we get it right this time?
23. “I am the Elohim from nearby,” declares YHWH, “and not an elohim from far away.
The innermost council was not in Ba’al’s homeland, but right in Yerushalayim, in the heart of the Land.
24. “Or can a man hide himself in secret places so that I will not see him?” says YHWH. “Isn’t it [true] that I fill heaven and earth?” says YHWH.
25. “I have heard what the prophets who prophesy falsely in My Name have said, [and I quote]: ‘I have dreamed! I have dreamed!’
26. “How long will the prophesying of lies be in the heart of the prophets? —prophets of the fraudulence of their own heart, that is!
27. “Through their dreams which they each tell to his companion, they count on making My people forget My Name, as their forefathers forgot My Name for ‘the Lord’.
‘The Lord’: Heb., Ba’al. But the name ‘Lord’ is also rooted in the name of a pagan deity, so there is no practical difference in what people do today, except that usually they are ignorant of this fact due to the carelessness or, worse, malicious intent, of their forebears. They miss the mark nonetheless, and it is our responsibility as those who again know His Name to inform His true people of what they are doing. My Name: The first time, the LXX has, My law; thus the two are seen as closely linked.
28. “Let the prophet who has a dream within him recount his dream, but whoever has My word within him, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff [compared] with the pure [grain]?” says YHWH.
Or, what is there for the chaff with the pure [present]? They could speak their minds, but this would not nourish anyone as the real substance would. Their dreams would be valid if upheld by His actual words; prophecy is a wonderful gift when founded on Torah (1 Cor. 14), but they were not sticking to His word, and thus they got off track.
29. “Isn’t My word thus like a fire?” says YHWH, “Or like a forge-hammer that will shatter a rock?”
30. “Therefore, I am indeed against the prophets”, declares YHWH, “—each of whom steals My words from his companion.
They were doing their own thing for power, position, profit, and peace, telling people what they wanted to hear so they could then influence and control them. (“See? I’ve prophesied peace for you; why not give me an offering?”) With all the things they were doing right, would YHWH not overlook these little indiscretions, or their sending a token of recognition to the priests of Ba’al on the side? Contrast this young upstart who says it doesn’t matter if you are the high priest himself if your heart is not toward YHWH.
31. “Indeed I am against the prophets,” declares YHWH, “who take up their own tongues and claim, ‘[He] declares…’!
32. “Indeed I am against those who prophesy of fraudulent dreams, “ declares YHWH. “When they relate them, they cause My people to wander into error by their lies and their recklessness. Yet I neither sent them nor appointed them, and they will not benefit this people at all,” declares YHWH.
33. “So if this people—or a prophet or a priest—should ask you, ‘What is the burden of YHWH?’ then you must say to them, ‘What burden? I will even cast you off,” declares YHWH.
What burden? LXX, “You are the burden!” Burden: oracle or utterance. Cast you off: or, let you loose; notice the relationship to the idea of a burden.
34. “And [any] prophet or priest or ethnic group who says, ‘The burden of YHWH…’, I will even single that man and his household out for special attention,” declares YHWH.
Single out for special attention: the term also includes being held accountable and being punished.
35. “This is what you must each say to his companion, or each [ask] his brother: ‘What has YHWH answered? ‘ or ‘What has YHWH said?’
36. “And ‘the burden of YHWH’ you must never even mention, because each man’s own word will be his burden, because you have turned the words of the living Elohim every which way—[the words of] YHWH of Armies, our Elohim!
The office of prophet was thus rescinded from those who abused it.
37. “This you may say to the prophet: ‘What has YHWH answered? ‘ or ‘What has YHWH said?’
38. “But if you say, ‘The burden of YHWH’, then this is what YHWH says: ‘On account of your saying this word—‘the burden of YHWH’—when I have sent [word] to you, saying, ‘Do not say “the burden of YHWH”,
This phrase was used frequently by other prophets, especially Yeshayahu, but it must have become a fad, sort of a mark of validity on the prophets’ words, so He would no longer let them use it at all.
39. “I will therefore even utterly forget you and let you go, away from My presence, along with the city that I gave to you and to your forefathers.
40. “And I will appoint over you an age-long disgrace which cannot be shrugged off.”
Shrugged off: forgotten, ignored, or, in modern parlance, “blown off”. Age-long: but not forever, since YHWH would still recall His people and His city to memory when everything else was completed.
CHAPTER 24
1. YHWH let me see, and lo and behold, two baskets of figs [that had been] set in front of the Temple of YHWH after Nevukhadretzar, king of Bavel, had taken Y’chonyahu, the son of Yehoyaqim, king of Yehudah, along with the rulers of Yehudah and Yerushalayim’s artisans and locksmiths, into exile and had them brought into Bavel.
Locksmiths: or possibly door-keepers. (Jastrow) The firstfruits of figs are offered in the Temple at Sukkoth, so the time of selecting them coincides with Yom T’ruah, when the books are opened in the heavens:
2. The one basket [held] figs of very high quality, like the figs that ripen first, while the [other] basket had very unpleasant figs—so bad they could not be eaten.
If the figs that ripen first are of the best quality, this is why the firstfruits are required to be offered to YHWH.
3. And YHWH said to me, “What do you see, Yirmeyahu?” And I said, “Figs! The ones of quality are of very high quality, but the bad [ones] are so bad that they cannot be eaten for their badness.”
4. Then the Word of YHWH came to me, saying,
5. “This is what YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, says: ‘Just like these high-quality figs, I will acknowledge [and honor] the Jewish exiles whom I have sent out of this place [into the] land of the Khasdim, as of high quality,
6. “‘because I will fix My eyes on them for [their] benefit, and bring them back onto this Land. Then I will build them up and not tear them down, and I will plant them and not uproot them.
I will fix My eyes on them: Aram., I will set my Memra (Living Word) over them. Plant: or, establish. YHWH took special care of those, like Daniel, who were willing to accept His punishment. They ended up being given high positions of honor in Bavel because of their wisdom. He removed these dedicated people and made them even more righteous. Though most of the priests were wicked, we see the high priest, Y’hoshua, recognized by YHWH as righteous when the remnant returns along with Ezra and Nechemyah, and even the king’s descendant, Zerubavel (which means “sown in Bavel”). The exile was fruitful for them. They maintained a Jewish community and had a group ready to come back and rebuild as soon as their punishment was up.
7. “‘And I will give them a heart [and mind] to know Me, because I am YHWH, and they will become a people for Me, and I will be [in the position] of an Elohim to them, because they will turn back to Me with their whole heart!’
This was not something that happened magically. The exile did its work. They were put in a hard place where they would appreciate Torah more by its absence, and in this way it was planted deep within them. It is convoluted reasoning that says we need not obey it if it is written on our hearts! If something is on one’s heart, he is thinking about it at every free moment. Hoshea promises the same regarding Efrayim after our much longer exile. May we be the ones it applies to!
8. “And [as for] the bad figs, which cannot be eaten for their badness, this is what YHWH says: ‘I will treat Tzidqiyahu, king of Yehudah and his princes, and the remnant of Yerushalayim who are left in this Land and those who settle in the land of Egypt, in the same way --
In the land of Egypt: i.e., those who tried to avoid surrendering to Bavel by running to a stronger nation further away from them. But YHWH hunted them down as well. No place is safe if His hand is set against you.
9. “‘I will even make them into an object of horror to all the kingdoms—to be [a nation] scorned, a byword, used as a gibe and a vilification in all the places into which I will drive them,
Gibe: Indeed, the term “Jew” has come, in many languages, to be just that, but YHWH will bring justice upon this as well. A byword: LXX, a proverb.
10. “‘and I will send the sword, the famine, and the plague among them until they are completely [removed] from off the Land that I gave to them and to their ancestors.’”
The fruitless tares are gathered together just like the wheat—but burned. (Mat. 13:29) The evil of the world will also be united (like Israel) before the end-time destruction comes upon it. But there were many who were neither blessed nor cursed as these two groups were. These coincide with the three books opened during the Days of Awe—that of the righteous, who are sealed for redemption; that of the wholly wicked, who are not granted repentance; and that of sinners, the common, lukewarm people in the middle, who have not made their decision and do not even receive YHWH’s attention. They are left in the land without protection, without wisdom, and without rulers to guide them. They are open prey for whatever comes along. He concentrates on His enemies and those who love Him, yet those in between were Israel(Yehudah) too—yet He “never knew them”. We need to take warning form this.
CHAPTER 25
1. The word that came over Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Yehudah in the fourth year of [the reign of] Yehoyaqim, the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah (this was the first year of [the reign of] Nevukhadretzar, king of Bavel),
2. which Yirmeyahu the prophet declared concerning the whole nation of Yehudah and to all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, said [the following]:
3. “From the thirteenth year belonging to Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Yehudah, all the way to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of YHWH has been coming to me, and I have been declaring it to you—getting up early to declare it! Yet you have not obeyed [it].
Getting up early: indicates willingness and eagerness to obey, though it was difficult.
4. “YHWH has also sent you all His servants the prophets—having them get up early, and sending [them]! Yet you have not obeyed or turned your ear to listen.
5. “[He has had them] say, ‘Please turn back, [each] man from his own evil direction and from the wickedness of your practices, and remain on the ground that YHWH has given to you and to your ancestors to [be] from antiquity and unto eternity,
Remain on the ground: not just a promise, but a command. Being dedicated to the inheritance of Yaaqov is part of Israel’s obedience to YHWH. We are meant to be established in it, let it be what we are about, not just live in it. How many who live in the Land today have this attitude?
6. “‘and do not walk after other elohim to serve them or bow down to them, so you will not provoke Me [to anger] with what your hands have made, and I will do you no harm.
7. “‘Yet you have not obeyed Me,’ declares YHWH, ‘with the result of provoking Me to [anger] with what your hands have made, to your own hurt.’
8. “Therefore, this is what YHWH of Armies says: ‘Because you have not obeyed My words,
9. “‘here I am, sending and will fetch all the clans of the north,’ declares YHWH, ‘and to Nevukhadretzar, king of Bavel, My servant, and I will cause them to come against this Land and against her inhabitants, and against all these nations all around, and I will dedicate them for destruction and turn them into an appalling wasteland [that people will] whistle [at], and into a [land] laid waste for an age,
My servant: Not until many years later did Nevukhadretzar acknowledge YHWH’s sovereignty (Dan. 4:34-37), but YHWH was still using Him for His purposes. Clans: or families; in Aramaic, interpreted as kingdoms. Whistle at: i.e., out of shock or surprise.
10. “‘and I will cause the voice of gladness and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of a pair of millstones and the light of a lamp, to vanish from [among] them,
YHWH promised that if Israel would obey, He would cause our grain, wine, and oil to multiply. (Deut. 7:13) The wine symbolizes the joy mentioned here, the oil provides the light of the lamp, and the millstones make the grain useable. All of these are present at the Sabbath table, so as we return to His set-apart days, these things that were taken away are restored to us in some measure even in our exile.
11. “‘and this whole Land will become a place laid waste and an appalling horror, and these nations will serve the king of Bavel [for] seventy years.
Daniel took this quite literally, and when he saw that the set time was approaching, he began to take steps to prepare for the restoration of the Israelite heart so that the Land could be resettled. (Daniel 9:2) The very same task is before us today, as our exile is also calculated to be over after not seventy but 2,730 years of not being a people. It would not “just happen” automatically or magically, nor will it this time either. We have to turn our hearts toward bringing it about while again asking YHWH to do His part as He promised. 2 Chronicles 36:21 explains that these 70 years were overdue to YHWH because for 490 years no one had let the land rest on the seventh year as YHWH had commanded. The only cause for this could be lack of faith, which in itself is idolatry. 490 years prior to this extended to the time the monarchy began, or a few years prior to it. This means that none of the kings of Yehudah or the united kingdom had ever enforced this law!
12. “‘But what will take place is that, when seventy years have been fully [completed], I will bring punishment upon the king of Bavel and that nation,’ declares YHWH, ‘[for] their perversity, and upon the land of the Khasdim, and I will turn it into an age-long desolation.
Bring punishment: or call to accountability, because of the way they acted toward His people, even while He was using them as His tool to chastise His nation. Nevukhadretzar himself repented (Dan. 4:37), but his son Belshazzar profaned YHWH’s set-apart vessels for a drinking feast, and that was the last straw. (Daniel 5:25) Bavel lost its sovereignty to Medo-Persia well before the 70 years were up.
13. “‘and I will bring upon that land all My words that I have spoken against her—all that is being written in this book which Yirmeyahu has prophesied against all the Gentiles,
14. “‘because many nations and great kings will work them as well, and I will pay them back as they have done and according to the work of their hands,’
I.e., as their deeds deserve.
15. “for this is what YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, is telling me: ‘Take the cup of the wine of this fury from My hand, and cause all the nations to whom I am sending you to drink it.
My hand: Y’shua, the one who will bring YHWH’s wrath upon men. (Rev. 19:11) Fury: Aramaic, curse.
16. “‘And when they have drunk it, they will reel to and fro and act like madmen from the presence of the sword that I Myself am sending among them [to divide them].’”
17. So I began to take the cup from YHWH’s hand and began to cause all the nations to whom YHWH had sent me to drink [it]--
18. Yerushalayim, the cities of Yehudah, and her kings and princes (to turn them over [to being] a ruin, an appalling wasteland, something to whistle [about], and something to despise, just as [it truly is] this day),
19. Pharaoh, king of Egypt and his servants, his princes, and his whole nation,
20. and all the mixed peoples and all the kings of the land of Utz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashqelon, and Gaza, and Eqron, and what remains of Ashdod,
Mixed peoples: Aramaic, auxiliaries. Utz means “wooded”. The meaning of the name Philistines is “immigrants”. Ashqelon means “the fire of infamy”, Gaza, “strong”,Eqron, “emigration” or “torn up by the roots”, and Ashdod, “powerful”.
21. Edom, Moav, and the sons of Ammon,
These three are all modern-day Jordan.
22. and all the kings of Tzor and all the kings of Tzidon, and all the kings of the coast across the sea--
Tzor and Tzidon: meaning “a rock” and “hunting”, these are in present-day Lebanon.
23. D’dan, Theyma, Buz, and all who have the edges cut off,
D’dan means “low country”, Theyma, “desert”, and Buz, “contempt”. The edges: of their beards--perhaps a reference to a particular group of people, or simply all non-Israelites.
24. all the Arab kings, all the kings of the mixed people who dwell in the wilderness,
Arabs…mixed people: related terms in Hebrew, and interpreted so in Aramaic. Arab means “darkening”, and by extension, sterile.
25. all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Eylam, all the kings of Madai,
Zimri means “my music”. Eylam means “eternal”, and Madai, “the middle land”. All these nations were punished because of tiny Israel! Only the presence of the righteous remnant (until the time they were called back to the Land) kept YHWH’s judgment back from Bavel (Babylon):
26. and all the kings of the north, both those near and those far away, [each] man against his brother, and all the kingdoms of the earth that are on the face of the Land, and after them the king of Sheshakh will drink.
Earth… Land: the same word in Hebrew, but probably referring to the time when all the kings of the earth gather against Yerushalayim (Zech. 12:2; Rev. 16:14) Sheshakh: a code name for Bavel through a form of Hebrew encryption called “atbash”, in which one letter is substituted for another by replacing letters of the normal alphabet with the equivalent order of letters when reversed (Missler), i.e., like substituting Y-Y-O for B-B-L in English. Varying orders of the Hebrew alphabet for ciphering purposes have been found dating all the way back to the earliest known forms of writing it.
27. “Then you must tell them, ‘This is what YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, says: “[All of you], drink and become drunken! Vomit [it] up! Fall down, and do not get up, due to the presence of the sword that I [Myself] am sending among you!’
Vomit: Aramaic, be confused.
28. “And what must take place is [this]: If they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you must tell them, ‘This is what YHWH of Armies says: “You will indeed drink [it],
29. “‘“because, look! I am beginning to bring trouble on the city upon which My name has been proclaimed, and will you be exempt from punishment? No, you [won’t] be exempt, because I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the Land,” declares YHWH of Armies.’
Exempt from punishment: or innocent, clear; related to the word for a nursing infant.
30. “Then prophesy all these words against them, and tell them, ‘YHWH will roar from an elevated place, and issue forth His voice from His set-apart habitation. He will roar powerfully over His [beautiful] abode, cheering like those who tread [out grapes]; He will testify against all the inhabitants of the Land.
Issue forth His voice: Aramaic, lift up His Memra (living Word). Roar powerfully: Aram., summon, so that plunderers will come.
31. “‘A [crashing] uproar will reach the extremities of the earth, because YHWH has a case against the nations; He is entering into a legal dispute with all flesh. He will assign the wicked to the sword,’ declares YHWH.
32. “‘This is what YHWH of Armies says: “Behold, a calamity is proceeding from nation to nation, and a great storm-wind will be stirred up from the extreme recesses of the earth,
33. “‘“and in that day those mortally pierced [by] YHWH will [be strewn] from [one] end of the earth to [the other] end of the earth. They will not be mourned, collected up, or buried; they will come to serve as fertilizer on the surface of the ground.”
34. “‘Make a great howling, you shepherds, and cry out and roll yourselves [in ashes], you chiefs of the flock, because your days are filled up to be butchered and scattered, and you will be thrown down like a coveted article!
Chiefs: most majestic, principal ones, nobles; LXX, the choice rams. They bear the brunt of the punishment because they are the ones responsible to dissuade all of Israel from disobeying the covenant and taking on the ways of the nations. Coveted: includes the sense of being beautiful, costly, precious, and desirable, bringing great pleasure.
35. “‘The shepherds’ way of escape has been taken away from [them], along with the chiefs of the flocks’ place to flee [for refuge].
Since the Latin word pastor means “shepherd”, any prophecy about shepherds should be heeded by those who go by that title today.
36. “‘The sound of the outcry of the shepherds and the howling of the chiefs of the flock [is heard], because YHWH is devastating their pasture,
37. “‘and the peaceful meadows have been left silent due to the presence of the fierceness of YHWH’s anger!
38. “‘He has left His lair like the lion, because their Land has become an appalling wasteland due to the presence of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of the fierceness of His anger.
He has left: Aramaic, a king has gone into exile from his fortified place.
CHAPTER 26
1. At the beginning of the reign of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah, this word came from YHWH:
2. “This is what YHWH says: ‘Stand in the trumpeting-court of the House of YHWH, and speak about all the cities of Yehudah that are coming to bow themselves [in] the House of YHWH; [of] all the words that I order you to speak to them, you may not withhold a word.
Trumpeting-court: The place the new moons and festivals were announced for all Israel.
3. “‘It could be that they will listen and [each] man may turn back from the evil direction [in which] he [is going], so that I may be moved to relent from the trouble that I am planning to bring them because of the wickedness of their practices.’
Trouble: or simply, evil; the same word as “wickedness” in the next phrase. YHWH has a face-off with Yehudah, saying, “Put down your gun, and I’ll put down mine.” What we sow, we reap. If we feed into Him, He feeds the same back to us in a magnified way. (“Those who honor Me, I will honor.” 1 Shmuel 2:30)
4. “So tell them, ‘This is what YHWH says: “If you will not obey Me by walking in My instruction that I have set before you,
Instruction: Heb., Torah.
5. “‘“by listening to My servants the prophets whom I Myself am sending to you (even getting up early and sending, yet you have not listened),
6. “‘“then I will make this House like Shiloh, and this city of little account to all the nations of the earth.”’”
Like Shiloh: where the ark of the Covenant no longer rested, and the Tabernacle no longer sat, making the town of little importance anymore. (e.g., I Shmuel 4:4) Two sons of the high priest were killed there by YHWH, and the authority departed (4:21), so “like Shiloh” would have an especially ominous meaning to this “household” of priests.
7. When the priests and prophets and all the people heard Yirmeyahu speaking these words in the House of YHWH,
8. and Yirmeyahu had indeed finished saying all that YHWH had ordered him to say to all the people, then the priests and prophets and all the people arrested him, saying, “You are going to die a death!
9. “Why have you prophesied in YHWH’s Name, saying, ‘This house will become like Shiloh, and this city struck down [by the sword] and [left] without inhabitant’?” And all the people were assembled together against Yirmeyahu in the House of YHWH.
Note that they changed his words to an interpretation, albeit a correct one.
10. When the princes of Yehudah heard [about] these things, they came up from the king’s house to the House of YHWH, and sat at the entrance to the Gate of YHWH,
11. then the priests and prophets said to the princes and to all the people, “A death sentence for this man, because he has been prophesying against this city, as you have heard with your [own] ears!”
This sounds very much like what happened to Y’shua, and He called Yerushalayim the place that “killed the prophets”.
12. Then Yirmeyahu told all the rulers and all the people, “YHWH sent me to prophesy against this House and against this city all the words that you have heard.
13. “So now, make your directions and practices right, and obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, so that YHWH may be moved to retract the trouble He has threatened [to bring] upon you!
Make right: or, amend; Aramaic, reform. Retract: He did so in the case of Nin’veh. (See the book of Yonah.)
14. “And as for me, here I am in your hands; do to me what is right and proper in your eyes.
Right: LXX, expedient.
15. “Yet know for certain that if you put me to death, then you are ascribing innocent blood on yourselves and to this city and to its inhabitants, because in truth YHWH has sent me upon you to speak all these words into your ears.”
16. Then the princes and all the people told the priests and the prophets, “There is no death sentence for this man, because he has spoken to us in the Name of YHWH our Elohim!”
Both Gamaliel (Acts 5:34ff) and Pontius Pilate (Yochanan 19:4) had similar responses.
17. And some men from among the elders of the Land rose up and spoke to the whole assembly of the people, saying,
18. Michayah of Moresheth was prophesying in the days of Hizqiyahu, [the] king of Yehudah, and he told all the people of Yehudah, ‘Tzion shall be plowed [like] a field, and Yerushalayim will become [twisted] heaps of ruins, and the Mount of the House [will be given over] to pagan worship-sites like [those found in the] forest.’
Michayah: the same as Micha. Moresheth: Aramaic, Mar’shah, one of the defense cities for Yerushalayim which stood along the Sh’felah (piedmont) a few miles inland from the coast. This passage is from Micha 3:12, dating from 730 B.C.E. This original Tzion should not be confused with the western mount in the city that is now called Mt. Tzion; that was misnamed due to an error in identification of David's tomb. In 1977 Arthur C. Custance wrote that what had once been David's stronghold was still gently sloping farmland. (It has since become an Arab slum.) This leveling was begun when the Maccabees, wanting to be sure that the cumulatively-raised level of the City of David did not encroach on the defensibility of the Temple Mount, worked night and day for three years between 141 and 135 B.C.E. to remove the ancient Citadel of David, lowering the City of David until it stood below the level of the Temple! (Josephus, Antiquities xiii., 7:7) Though resettled, this area was left outside the city wall the Roman Emperor Hadrianus built on the site of Yerushalayim after the two Jewish revolts, and time completed the process of bringing the original city of David to ruins. Pagan worship-sites: the Romans built a temple to Jupiter on the precise site of the Holy of Holies, then the Christians built churches with icons in them within the Temple precincts. Now the Muslim Dome of the Rock, dedicated to what was originally the moon-god of southern Arabia, stands on the site until the time comes for the House of YHWH to be rebuilt there.
19. “Did Hizqiyahu, king of Yehudah, or any of the people of Yehudah, do [anything at all] to put him to death? Didn’t he fear YHWH and plead [so] strongly before YHWH [as to make himself sick] that YHWH had compassion in regard to the trouble that He had threatened [to bring] against them? So we are doing ourselves great harm!”
This Hebraic reasoning from valid and just precedent has made it into our modern system of jurisprudence.
20. (Though there was another man who prophesied in the Name of YHWH—Uriyahu the son of Shemayahu from the Village of the Forests, who prophesied against this city and against this Land with words just like Yirmeyahu’s,
Village of the Forests: Heb., Kiryath ha-Ye’arim.
21. and when the king, Yehoyaqim, and all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words, the king tried very hard to put him to death, but Uriyahu heard and was afraid, and ran away into Egypt,
Since this event took place “at the beginning of Yehoyaqim’s reign” (v. 1), the Uriyahu affair must have occurred only a short time prior to this.
22. But Yehoyaqim the king sent men to Egypt (Elnathan the son of Akhbor and [other] men with him) into Egypt,
Elnathan was Yehoyaqim’s father-in-law. (2 Kings 24:8) Pharaoh-Nekho was the one who had installed Yehoyaqim in place of his brotherYehoakhaz (2 Kings 23:31-35), so this would have been a simple move diplomatically. Akhbor means “mouse”.
23. and they extradited Uriyahu from Egypt and brought him to King Yehoyaqim, who had him struck by the sword and his dead body thrown into the graves of the sons of the people.)
Graves of the sons of the people: i.e., common, unmarked graves. The treatment of this man is the opposite of the behavior these men brought forth as their precedent. (Compare 2 Chron. 10:8) Yet YHWH distinguishes and honors him with this parenthetical account. The Aramaic targum has “graves of the exiles”.
24. But the hand of Akhiqam the son of Shafan was with Yirmeyahu, so he avoided being given over into the hand of the people to be put to death.
Akhiqam (whose name means “my brother has risen”) was the son of the scribe who had read the Torah to Yoshiyahu when he was repairing the Temple. (2 Chron. 34:18-20) His son Gedalyah was the one whom the king of Bavel would appoint to rule those he left behind in Yehudah after the siege. (2 Kings 25:22) His tragic murder by another Jew is still remembered to this day by a special fast that falls during the Counting of the Omer.
CHAPTER 27
1. At the beginning of the reign of Yehoyaqim, the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah, this word came to Yirmeyahu from YHWH:
2. This is what YHWH told me: “Make chastening-bands and yoke-bars for yourself, and put them over the back of your neck,
3. “then send them to the king of Edom and to the king of Moav and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tzor and to the king of Tzidon by the hand of messengers who have come to Tzidqiyahu, king of Yehudah, in Yerushalayim,
4. “having given them orders for their masters, saying, ‘This is what YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, says: “This is what you must tell your masters:
5. “‘“‘I Myself have made the earth, mankind, and the beast[s] that [are] on the surface of the earth by my great power and My outstretched arm, and have given it to whomever was appropriate in My eyes.
I Myself: Aramaic, by My Memra (living Word, i.e.,Y’shua).
6. “‘“‘And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nevukhadnetzar, king of Bavel, My servant. I have even given him the animals of the field to serve him,
7. “‘“‘so all the nations must serve him, his son, and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes, and his own [time] as well, and [then] many nations and great kings will put him to work [as a slave].
8. “‘“‘And what will become of the nation or kingdom that will not serve him (Nevukhadnetzar, king of Bavel) or will not yield the back of its neck to the yoke of the king of Bavel, I will bring punishment upon that nation with the sword and with the famine and with the plague,’ declares YHWH, ‘until I have finished them off with his hand.
9. “‘“‘So [all of] you must not listen to your own prophets or diviners or dreamers or cloud-conjurers or sorcerers, who tell you, “You will never be enslaved to the king of Bavel”,
10. “‘“‘because they are prophesying to you fraudulently, in order to remove you far from your land so that I would [have had to] thrust you out and you would have vanished [as a nation].
11. “‘“‘But the nation that [does] bring the back of its neck into the yoke of the king of Bavel and serve him, I will allow to remain on its own land,’ declares YHWH, ‘and they will work it and inhabit it.’”’”
Yehudah did not have this promise, because more was expected of it, and its king and princes had already chosen punishment for the whole nation; however, there was still mercy for those who surrendered:
12. I also spoke the same kind of words as all of these to Tzidqiyahu, king of Yehudah, saying, “Bring your necks into the king of Bavel’s yoke and serve him and his nation, and survive.
13. “Why should you and your people die by the sword, the famine, or the plague, as YHWH has said [would happen] to the nation that will not serve the king of Bavel?
14. “So do not listen to the words of the prophets who tell you, ‘You will never be enslaved to the king of Bavel’, because they are prophesying to you fraudulently,
15. “since YHWH declares, ‘I have not sent them, yet they are prophesying in My Name to deceive [you], so that I would [have had to] thrust you out and you would have vanished [as a nation]—you along with the prophets who are prophesying to you.”
16. I spoke to the priests and this whole nation as well, saying, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Do not listen to your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, “Indeed the vessels of the House of YHWH will now be brought back from Bavel quickly”, because they are prophesying to you fraudulently.
17. “‘Do not listen to them! Serve the king of Bavel and survive! Why should this city become a ruin?
This was the last thing YHWH wanted. Yet for a limited time, the way for the set-apart nation to survive was to leave its Land, though He had indicated that He never wanted them to leave it. (25:5) There will be another time when another “king of Bavel” besieges the city, and Y’shua said those who were to survive would have to temporarily leave Yehudah to do so. (Mat. 24:16)
18. “‘But if they are prophets, and if they have the word of YHWH with them, let them please interceded with YHWH of Armies that the vessels that are left in YHWH’s House and in the house of the king of Yehudah and in Yerushalayim, may not [have to] go into Bavel,
19. “‘because this is what YHWH says about the pillars, and about the sea, and about the pedestal-bases, and about the rest of the vessels that remain in this city,
Sea: i.e., the huge washing-basin, or laver, that (according to 1 Kings 7:38) held 40 baths (360 gallons, or, according to rabbinic writings, half as much). Also called a sea in 2 Kings 25:13, it was a copy of the “sea” before the heavenly throne. (Rev. 4:6; 15:2) All of these things were made of bronze, which symbolizes the need for sin to be dealt with before we can approach YHWH. This may be the message He intended to convey by having only these leftover items mentioned. Perhaps it also symbolized that it was generally the less noble of the people who were left in the Land.
20. “‘which Nevukhadnetzar, king of Bavel, did not take when he carried Yechonyahu the son of Yehoyaqim, king of Yehudah, away into exile along with all the [free-born] nobles of Yehudah and Yerushalayim--
21. “‘because this is what YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, says about the vessels that are left [in] the House of YHWH and the house of the king of Yehudah, and Yerushalyim:
22. “‘they will be taken to Bavel, and they will be there until the day I call for them,’ declares YHWH. “Then I will have them brought up and restored to this place.’”
The day I call for them: or visit them; Aramaic, the day their memorial comes up before Me. He still planned to have them taken away, and they would be profaned (Dan. 5:2), just as His holy people were, but He asked them to pray that they would not be damaged beyond reusability. In the deepest sense, we as Israel are His vessels that are now being brought back out of Babylon.
CHAPTER 28
1. Now what took place that year, in the first part of the reign of Tzidqiyahu, king of Yehudah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, [was that] Chananyah, son of Azzur the prophet who was from Giv’on, spoke to me in the House of YHWH, in the sight of the priests and all the people, saying,
In the sight of: literally, for the eyes of. Giv’on was a town with a history of both deceit (Yehoshua 9) and wisdom (1 Kings 3). The prophet that came from there was a mixture of both. His words were half true:
2. “This is what YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Bavel!
3. “‘Within two more years, I will return to this place all the vessels of the House of YHWH, which Nevukhadnetzar, king of Bavel, took from this place and brought into Bavel.
Within two more years: Literally, In two more years of days. The Aramaic and Greek translations suggest that it means when two full years were completed.
4. “‘I will also return Yechonyah, son of Yehoyaqim, king of Yehudah to this place along with all of Yehudah’s exiles,’ declares YHWH, ‘because I will break the yoke of the king of Bavel.’”
5. Then Yirmeyahu the prophet spoke to Chananyah the prophet for in the sight of the priests and in the sight of all the people who were standing in the House of YHWH,
People who were standing: possibly the “standing men”, priests who rotated their duty in the Temple according to the order set up by David. (1 Chron. 24) The more familiar Greek form of Chananyah is Ananias. It was also the name of one of Daniel’s three companions who was delivered from the furnace.
6. and Yirmeyahu the prophet said, “I wish [you] were right! I wish YHWH would do just that! I wish YHWH would cause the words you have prophesied to stand, that all the vessels of YHWH and all the exiles be brought back from Bavel to this place!
The only thing Yirmeyahu did not agree with was the time frame. Yet the test of a prophet’s genuineness is in the details:
7. “But now, please hear this word that I am speaking in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people:
8. “The prophets that have come before you and me since ages [past] indeed prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, for war and for trouble, and for a plague.
9. “[As for] the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes [true], then the prophet will be known [as one] whom YHWH has really sent.”
10. Then Chananyah the prophet took the yoke-bar from the back of Yirmeyahu’s neck, and broke it.
11. And Chananyah said, in the sight of all the people, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Just like this I will break the yoke of Nevukhadnetzar, king of Bavel, from off the neck of all nations within two years of days.’” And the prophet Yirmeyahu went his way.
Until his last phrase, the prophet was speaking the truth. However, he interjected his own wishes at the end. We will see how seriously YHWH took this addition to His words. It is a fearful privilege to be His spokesman; it is crucial to know when to stop speaking.
12. Then the word of YHWH came to Yirmeyahu after Chananyah the prophet had broken the yoke-bar from off the neck of Yirmeyahu the prophet, saying,
13. “Go and tell Chananyah, ‘This is what YHWH has said: ‘You have broken yoke-bars of wood, but in their place you have [managed to] produce yokes of iron!’
14. “Because this is what YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, has said: ‘I have set a yoke of iron on the back of the neck of all these nations to be in the service of Nevukhadnetzar king of Bavel, and they will [indeed] serve him! I have even given him the animals of the field as well.’”
15. Then Yirmeyahu the prophet told Chananyah the prophet, “Listen now, Chananyah! YHWH has not sent you, but you have made this people put their confidence in a lie!
Confidence in a lie: We have often done the same, whether it be the assumption that YHWH has to forgive us even if we are not repentant, or that we will be spared persecution or will necessarily prosper financially if we have faith. But those who lead others to have such false confidence are held more accountable.
16. “So this is what YHWH has said: ‘Behold, I am dismissing you from [being] upon the face of the earth; you will die this year, because you have spoken [what amounts to] defection toward YHWH.”
Proverbs 19:9 says a false witness will not go unpunished.
17. And Chananyah the prophet did die that year in the seventh month.
Aramaic, died that year, and was buried in the seventh month. This was two months after the aforementioned events took place. It may have been on the tenth of the month at Yom Kippur, the day when the books are closed on those who have not repented by that point.
CHAPTER 29
1. Now these are the words of the scroll that Yirmeyahu the prophet sent from Yerushalayim to the remnant of the elders [who had been carried away into] exile, as well as to the priests and the prophets and all the people whom Nevukhadnetzar had taken away from Yerushalayim into Bavel
2. (after Yechonyah the king and the queen, the eunuchs, and the rulers of Yehudah and Yerushalayim, as well as the craftsmen and the smiths had left Yerushalayim)
Queen: or queen mother; literally, the great woman. Eunuchs: not an Israelite practice, but probably borrowed by the kings from other nations.
3. by the hand of El’asah the son of Shafan and Gemaryah the son of Chilqiyah, whom Tsidqiyahu king of Yehudah sent into Bavel to Nevukhadnetzar, king of Bavel:
El’asah means “Elohim has done [it]”. Chilqiyah: perhaps another name for Yirmeyahu’s own father.
4. “This is what YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, says to all the exiles whom I have caused to be carried [away] from Yerushalayim into captivity in Bavel:
5. “‘Build houses and settle down and plant gardens and eat their fruit.
Eat their fruit: If this was the fruit of trees, they would have to wait five years (Lev. 19:25)—not the “less than two years” that Chananyah had predicted.
6. “‘Take wives, and father sons and daughters, and takes wives for your sons, and give your daughters to men [in marriage] so that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply so that you may not grow few [in number],
These commands apply to our present exile as well. Yet we must never forget that we are in exile. (1 Kefa/Peter 2:11)
7. “‘and seek the welfare of the city into which I have caused you to be exiled, and pray to YHWH for it, because when it has peace, then you will have peace’;
Seek: from a root meaning to plow up; i.e., take whatever steps are necessary to that end. The Jews who surrendered and went into Bavel were treated well, having freedom of religion much like that found in the free world today. Many even forgot that they were not at home, much like many Jews today. But the Holocaust showed that their hosts would never regard them as truly assimilated, nor does YHWH want us to. It is allowable for a master to loan out his servants to another, but they do not therefore belong to that other forever. Our exile was His will, but now He intends for us to be remembering who we are and taking steps to bring it to an end.
8. “because this is what YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, has said: ‘Do not let your prophets, who are in your innermost [circle], nor your practitioners of divination, deceive you, and do not listen to your own dreams that you are dreaming up,
9. “‘because they are prophesying to you fraudulently in My Name. I have not sent them,’ declares YHWH.
10. “For this is what YHWH has said: ‘When, according to My word, seventy years have been completed for Bavel, I will muster you and bring into effect the benefit I have promised you, of bringing you back to this place,
According to My word: literally, for My mouth. Muster: or visit, pay attention to. Bring into effect: or cause to be established.
11. “because I acknowledge that the plans I am making for you,” declares YHWH, “[are] plans [for] peace and not for misery, to bestow on you posterity and hope.
12. “Then you will call out to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you,
Pray: plead for our exile to end again, just as Daniel and Nehemyah did. Like them, we should recall that we are not worthy, yet appeal to His promises to our ancestors. When the Israelites in Egypt finally cried out to Him, He listened and responded.
13. “and you will search for Me [with intense longing] and acquire [what you seek], because you will follow Me with your whole heart!
Follow: seek, demand, investigate carefully, or consult. This is the opposite of what Adam did, and what Yehudah had been doing; both wanted to make decisions without asking for His expertise. These are the steps that will bring our exile to an end. He gave Efrayim a path home as well. But for the majority of Yehudah it has taken many centuries to be completely fulfilled.
14. “And I will [allow Myself to] be found by you,” declares YHWH. “Then I will return your captives and gather you together out of all the nations, and from all the places into which I have caused you to be banished,” declares YHWH, “and I will bring you back to the place from which I have caused you to be removed,
All the places: This is speaking of a larger scenario than simply Yehudah going in to Bavel; it refers to all the tribes that were exiled by Ashur previously and thereafter scattered to every part of the world.
15. “since you have said, ‘YHWH has raised up prophets for us in Bavel’,
I.e., they admitted that that was where He wanted them and that was where His provision lay at this time.
16. “because this is what YHWH says to the king who sits on the throne of David, and to all the people who remain in this city—your relatives who have not gone out with you into exile--
17. “this is what YHWH of Armies says: ‘Indeed, I am releasing onto them the sword, the famine, and the plague, which will make them like disgusting figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.
Disgusting: from a word meaning “split open” (thus, spilling their contents and harboring pests attracted by their decay).
18. “‘I will even chase them down with the sword, the famine, and the plague, and make them a cause for swearing, horror, and whistling and an object of scorn among all the nations into which I have caused them to be banished
19. “‘in return for [the fact] that they have not listened to My words,’ declares YHWH, ‘which I sent to them with My servants the prophets—[having them] to get up early and extend [the offer], yet you would not listen,’ declares YHWH.
20. “So you listen to the word of YHWH, all [you] exiles whom I have sent from Yerushalayim into Bavel:
21. “This is what YHWH [Master] of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, says in regard to Akh’av the son of Qolayah and in regard to Tzidqiyahu the son of Maaseyah who are prophesying to you fraudulently in My Name: ‘Here I am, handing you over into the power of Nevukhadretzar, king of Bavel, and he will strike them down before your [very] eyes.
22. “‘Then they will be taken up as a vilification by all the exiles of Yehudah who are in Bavel, saying, “May YHWH make you like Tzidqiyahu and Akh’av, whom the king of Bavel roasted in the fire!”
23. “‘in return for their committing disgraceful folly in Israel, having committed adultery with their companions’ wives and having uttered a deceitful word in My name, about which I did not give them orders, because I am the one who knows and bears witness,’ declares YHWH.
24. “And you shall tell Shema’yah the Nehelamite,
25. “‘This is what YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel, says: “In exchange for your having sent letters in your name to all the people who are in Yerushalayim and to Ts’fanyah the son of Maaseyah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
26. “‘“‘YHWH has made you priest in place of Yehoyada the priest, to become overseers in the House of YHWH for every madman who makes himself a prophet so that you assign him to the stocks and to the pillory.
Makes himself a prophet: or, acts the part of a prophet. Stocks: or a narrow, vaulted prison that requires one’s body to be contorted somewhat to fit into it, or simply stiff from being unable to move while within it.
27. “‘“‘So then why have you not rebuked Yirmeyahu the Anathothite, who makes himself your prophet?
Makes himself your prophet: seemingly; it is a rhetorical question much like Y’shua’s: “If Yochanan is sent by YHWH, why don’t you obey what he says?”
28. “‘“‘Because on account of this He sent you into Bavel, saying, “It [will be a] long [time]; build houses and settle down and plant gardens and eat their fruit.”’”’”
29. And Ts’fanyah the priest read the scroll within ear[shot] of Yirmeyahu the prophet.
30. Then the word of YHWH came to Yirmeyahu, saying,
31. “Send [word] to all the exiles, saying, ‘This is what YHWH says in regard to Shema’yah the Nehelamite: In exchange for Shema’yah’s prophesying to you although I did not send him, and [since] he wrongfully made you feel secure,
32. “‘therefore YHWH says this: Behold, I am calling Shema’yah the Nehelamite to account [and punishing him and] his descendants! Not a man of his will [any longer] dwell among this nation, nor will he catch a glimpse of the prosperity that I will bring about for My people,’ declares YHWH, ‘because he has spoken [what amounts to] defection toward YHWH.’”
Since he led others to defect, his punishment fit the crime: he was banished from returning.
CHAPTER 30
1. The word from YHWH that came to Yirmeyahu:
2. “This is what YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, says: ‘Write all the words that I have said to you in a scroll,
3. “‘because behold, days are coming,’ declares YHWH, ‘when I will turn back the captives of My people Israel and Yehudah—YHWH has said [it]—and I will bring them back to the Land that I gave to their ancestors, and they will take possession of it.’”
Here He overtly includes the Northern Kingdom which was exiled long before Yehudah. They will take possession: or dispossess; LXX, they will be its masters. Here he does become a prophets to the nations (1:5, 10), for these people are scattered among the nations, many having “become Gentiles”. (See note on v. 24.)
4. Now these are the words that YHWH said to Israel and Yehudah,
5. because this is what YHWH has said: “We have heard a voice trembling [with anxiety]—it was afraid and lacking in peace.
Peace: soundness or completeness.
6. “Please carefully inquire and find out if there is a male that gives birth! Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in childbirth, and every face turned pale?
This alludes to the Birthpangs of the Messiah (Mat. 24:8), the fruitful time of anguish in which the “birth” of a new man is promised (Gen. 35:16; Eph. 2:15; Gal. 4:19), while the counterfeit man will prove not a child at all, but only indigestion and wind (Yeshayahu 21:3; 26:18). It is the closing of one door (which seems to cramp us, as the word connotes) but the threshold to or crossing over into something new, a harbinger of the arrival of something (Yochanan 16:21), as the word also means “ambassador”. While Y’shua, the Head, was born before she went into labor (Yeshayahu 66:7), the promise that the rest will come (66:9), though it looks impossible (Yesh. 37:3); His Body is the result of this (Rev. 12:2, 17) The deliverance will begin in Bavel/Babylon (Micha 4:10), and indeed His Body is being brought together while we are still in exile. Many antagonistic factors will cast doubt on the viable “birth” of the One New Man, the reunited Israel, the Messianic Kingdom. YHWH will bring us to the point where only He can deliver us, but the darkest backdrop is the place where His ability shines most brightly, just as the new moon comes right after the darkest time. Pale: Aramaic, like jaundice.
7. “Alas, because that day is great since there is none that compares with it, and it is a time of [dire] straits for Yaaqov, yet he will be delivered from it.
Great: in intensity or importance. Dire straits: the feminine form of the word for narrow or tight spots or stress/distress. Thus it can refer to the birth canal, from which the child being born is then “delivered”. Any woman who has given birth can testify that there is no pain that compares with it. So this is speaking of Yaaqov’s being “born” back into the world again after presumably having become a thing of the past.
8. “And what will take place on that day,” declares YHWH [Master] of Armies, “[is that] I will break his yoke from [being] on the back of your neck, and snap off your chastening-bands, and he will never again [be forced to] serve a foreigner.
Chastening-bands: Aramaic, chains. In the context of the false prophecies about when Yehudah would be delivered from Bavel, YHWH appears to be saying it will not take place completely until the last days. This is because Yehudah carried many Babylonian customs back with them (such as the practice of not voicing the name of their deity), and many remained there and became thoroughly intertwined with the system that Babylon began and which continues to present-day assimilation. But this phrase is very similar to what Yitzhaq told Esau he would do to Yaaqov: “You will serve your brother, yet when you brandish that sword, you will break his yoke from off your neck”. (Gen. 27:40) Since Esau is, by tradition, the ancestor of the Romans, Esau’s yoke has indeed been on the House of Israel as well, having much the same effect as Bavel’s, with its emphasis on material wealth. Esau had the same father as Yaaqov; likewise the church uses the same Scriptures, yet majors on its minor points and all but ignores what YHWH spends the most time on. One Jewish tradition says Esau was the one who killed Nimrod (hence inheriting his crown; Nimrod was the founder of Bavel.) Y’shua offered a better yoke—learning to know His Father as He did. (Mat. 11:28-30) This will rid us of foreign (Gentile) religious agendas and their concepts of what YHWH is like.
9. “Rather, they will serve YHWH their Elohim and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
Raise up: or resurrect. This is usually taken as a reference to the Messiah, David’s descendant. Nonetheless, for that reason He is, in a sense, David himself, bearing his genes, and thus keeping him alive. Yehezqel 34:23 says David would reign over both houses of Israel as one shepherd for both. (cf. 37:24; Hos. 1:11)
10. “So as for you, do not be afraid, My servant Yaaqov,” says YHWH. “Do not go to pieces, O Israel, because here I am, bringing you deliverance from afar off, and [rescue] your descendants from [the] land of their captivity. Then Yaaqov will return and be undisturbed and at ease, and there will be no one [who will] make him tremble,
Do not…: These are instructions for that time of Yaaqov’s birthpangs.
11. “because I am [the one who is] with you,” declares YHWH, “to deliver you. Even if I should finish off all the nations into which I have scattered you, still I will not bring a complete destruction to you, though I will discipline you to the extent that I [legally] determine you deserve, and will not entirely acquit you,
I am the one who is with you: Aramaic, My Memra (living Word) is at your assistance to redeem you.
12. “because,” YHWH says, “your fracture is severe and your wound is sickening.
13. “There is no one to plead your case so that [your wound] might be bound; there is no remedy to make new skin form over [it].
14. “All of your lovers have forgotten you; they do not even care to search for you, because I have struck you with the blow of an enemy—[the] chastisement of a cruel one—on [account of] how badly you were twisted [out of shape, and] how many times you had wandered [off track].
Care to search for you: Aramaic, ask about your welfare.
15. “What can you cry [to] for help in regard to your fracture? Your pain is severe on [account of] how badly you were twisted [out of shape and] I have done these things to you [because of] how many times you had wandered [off track].
16. “Nonetheless, all who devour you will be devoured, and all who oppress you—every one of them—will go into captivity. Those who plunder you will become [the] spoils, and those who prey upon you I will assign to be the booty,
Go into captivity: LXX, eat their own flesh.
17. “because I will raise you back to health, and I will doctor your wounds,” declares YHWH, “since they called you an outcast—‘Tzion, whom no one revisits’.”
Revisits: or resorts to, frequents. I.e., no one goes there regularly for the festivals as they used to. Part of the reason YHWH takes compassion on Israel is because no one else will. Both the church and Islam diminished the value of Yerushalayim by making other places more important to their adherents, or said it was no longer necessary or important to obey YHWH in this way.
18. This is what YHWH says: “I will turn back the captivity of Yaaqov’s tents and I will have compassion on his dwelling places, and the city will be rebuilt on her own mound [of ruins], and a palace where it has been duly proven to have sat.
Yaaqov’s tents: symbolic of his descendants’ places or habits of study. Palace: or fortress, citadel. Duly proven: by reliable archaeology and historical documents from antiquity, not by guesswork, as many spurious sites for biblical events were “located” by Emperor Constantine’s mother.
19. “And from them will emanate thanksgiving and the voice of merrymakers, and I will multiply them, and they will never be diminished; I will cause them to be honored, and they will not be taken lightly.
Merrymakers: or those who make music; from the root word for Yitzhaq (laughter).
20. “And his descendants will be as they were [in] ancient times, and his congregating before Me will be firmly established, and I will punish any who oppress him.
As they were: There are so many implications of this “return to the ancient path” (6:16). On aspect of this is seen in Tsefanyah 3:9, which says YHWH will restore His people to the use of a pure language (i.e., Hebrew, which for many centuries was relegated to the status of Latin today—used only for religious ceremonies).
21. “And his chief will be from within, and his governor will come forth from his own innermost part, and I will bring him near and he will approach Me, because who is it that has given his heart in pledge to come close to Me?” says YHWH.
From within: i.e., foreigners will no longer rule over Israel. (v. 8) Rather, someone who has grown up within the same structure and knows Torah intimately, and would thus allow the people under his rule to keep it too. Establishing such authority structures (setting the stage for the Messiah) is itself a crucial stage in the coming of the Kingdom.
22. “Indeed you will serve as a people for Me, and I will become an Elohim for you.”
23. Behold, YHWH’s stormwind goes out with [heated] fury; a [constantly] roaring stormwind that will whirl over the head of the wicked [and sweep them away]!
24. The fierce anger of YHWH will not turn back until He has accomplished [this], or until He has made the purposes of His heart binding; in the last days you will understand it.
Made binding: or established, caused to stand. In the last days: This is why it was written down for the day when YHWH would bring the exiles back (v. 2-3). It was not meant for anyone in his day to understand it. But we now do understand this passage, so that time of return is quickly approaching.
25. “At that time,” declares YHWH, “I will serve as Elohim to all the families of Israel, and they will become a people for Me.”
THE WRITINGS OF THE PROPHET
Yirmeyahu
(Jeremiah)
INTRODUCTION: Yirmeyahu, traditionally called Jeremiah in English, was a priest, and therefore from the tribe of Levi, and a reluctant prophet due to his young age. He prophesied beginning almost 100 years after the fall of the Northern Kingdom (Israel), just after Yoshiyahu’s widespread reforms, and just prior to the fall of the Southern Kingdom (Yehudah). The reigns spanned were the fifth-last and (skipping the three-month reign of Yehoakhaz) the final three kings of the Southern Kingdom. (Yehoyachin is not mentioned in 1:3, but he reigned for three months between the reigns of Yehoyaqim and Tzidqiyahu.) The time frame was 628 B.C.E.—about 60 years after Yeshayahu’s death--and from 609 through 586 B.C.E. (2 Kings 22-25; 2 Chron. 34-36) During this time Yoshiyahu was killed for meddling in Pharaoh Nekho’s military affairs, his son Yehoachaz was taken to Egypt, Nevukhadnetzar of Babylon made Yehudah a vassal, Yehoyaqim rebelled and was then plagued with Chaldean, Aramean, Moavite, and Ammonite raiders, Nevukhadnetzar again besieged Yerushalayim, Yehoyaqim surrendered and was taken captive to Babylon along with the temple and royal treasures (to be imprisoned 37 years, then treated well by the Babylonians until he died, as per 52:31). Tzidqiyahu was installed in his place, until he too rebelled and Yerushalayim was burned and the walls broken down. This particular Yirmeyahu is also mentioned in the 2 Chronicles 36 account, but that this was a common name in his generation is evident from several others mentioned throughout the books of Kings, Chronicles, and N'khemyah, including the grandfather of King Yehoakhaz.
