GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (16) Jeremiah & the Jerusalem establishment

 

“Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look around and take note!” (Jer. 5.1)

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house… and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord.” (Jer. 7.1-2)

“Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah… and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah sitting on the throne of David—you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.” (Jer. 22.1-3)

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah… At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah...” (Jer. 32.1-3)

     At one level, Jeremiah’s daily life was quite predictable.  Following his becoming aware of the plot in Anathoth to assassinate him (Jer. 11.18-23), Jeremiah appears to have taken up residence three miles to the south in Jerusalem and to have remained there for almost 40 years until the fall of the city in 587.  Indeed, Jeremiah’s only attempt to return home (in 588) was thwarted (cf. Jer. 37.11-16).  In terms of where he lived, Jeremiah’s life can be roughly divided into three periods:

(1) Anathoth (ages 0-20),

(2) Jerusalem (20-60), and

(3) Egypt (60-80). 

For the first 60 years of his life, Jeremiah did not travel more than 3 miles from his place of birth.[1]  Indeed, during his tenure in Jerusalem, Jeremiah inhabited the government quarter, the complex of buildings surrounding the royal palace and the Temple (think of Ottawa, where Notre Dame Cathedral is situated 850 meters from Parliament Hill).  Jeremiah lived and moved at the very centre of the life of his nation.  Jeremiah’s correspondence with the exiles following the deportation of 598 demonstrates that he had access to royal emissaries (cf. Jer. 29.1-23; 51.59-64).  The fact that over 60 individuals are mentioned by name in the book of Jeremiah testifies to the fact that Jeremiah was intimately acquainted with the members of the royal court – including the court prophets[2] – as well as those of the priestly aristocracy.  Princes, priests and prophets – Jeremiah knew them all by name, and by all appearances, it seems like they knew him – and often regretted the fact.  Indeed, following the death of King Josiah in 609 (halfway through his tenure in Jerusalem), Jeremiah’s daily routine once again involved an ever-present element of danger; his survival depended on who had the king’s ear at any given moment (cf. Jer. 38.1-13).

     Perhaps Jeremiah played a role vis-à-vis King Josiah similar to that played by Isaiah vis-à-vis Hezekiah some 50 years before Jeremiah’s birth (cf. 2 Kings 18-20; Is. 36-39)?  Jeremiah may indeed have been a member of the royal “cabinet” during the reign of Josiah.  A fact that may corroborate this hypothesis is Jeremiah’s committing his prophecies to writing beginning only in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim (605; cf. Jer. 36.1-32).  Perhaps the version of the book of Jeremiah enshrined in the biblical canon reflects the attitudes of the prophet from that moment forward?[3]  The tone of the book of Jeremiah seems to reflect a situation where Judah is under the reign of evil kings – of whom Jehoiakim was the first of any importance[4] – with Egypt’s manipulation of the Judahite crown foreshadowing the coming Babylonian subjugation and eventual destruction of Jerusalem, a subjugation which began in that fateful fourth year of Jehoiakim.  If this was indeed the case, then Jeremiah would have experienced a significant loss of status when Josiah died, and would have become a gadfly to most members of the Jerusalem palace/Temple establishment.  Was it Jeremiah’s friends at court who provided him with the necessities of life after 609?  One thing is clear: from 609 onward, Jeremiah’s life was fraught with hostility, including Jehoiakim’s burning of Jeremiah’s (first) scroll (Jer. 36.20-23; cf. 26.1-24)!

 

EXCURSUS: 4 DETERMINATIVE DATES

609:

·         Death of King Josiah

·         End of religious reformation begun in 622

·         End of Assyrian hegemony in Judah

·         Accession of Jehoahaz to throne of Judah

·         Deposition/exile of Jehoahaz to Egypt by Pharaoh Neco II

·         Neco II’s placing of Jehoiakim on throne as Egyptian vassal

·         Jeremiah survives lynching attempt thanks to Ahikam, father of Gedaliah, who would be made governor of Judah in 587 (Jer. 26.24)

605:

·         The “fourth year of Jehoiakim”

·         Victory of Babylonians against Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish

·         Death of Nabopolassar, King of Babylon

·         Accession of Nebuchadrezzar to throne of Babylon

·         Beginning of Babylonian hegemony in Judah

·         Deportation of Daniel and friends to Babylon

·         Jeremiah dictates his prophecies to Baruch, who records them in a series of scrolls

598:

·         Death (assassination?) of Jehoiakim (cf. Jer. 22.18-19)

·         Accession of Jehoiachin to throne of Judah

·         Nebuchadrezzar lays siege to Jerusalem and deposes/exiles Jehoiachin and his family to Babylon, along with 10,000 members of the military/priestly class (including Ezekiel)

·         Nebuchadrezzar’s placing of Zedekiah on throne as Babylonian vassal

·         Jeremiah has vision of 2 baskets of figs (Jer. 24.1-10)

587:

·         End of Nebuchadrezzar’s siege begun in 589, during which Jeremiah spent most of his time in prison (Jer. 37.11 – 40.6)

·         Exile of Zedekiah and thousands of Judahites to Babylon

·         Destruction of Jerusalem, including Temple, palace and city walls

·         Nebuchadrezzar releases Jeremiah and allows him to remain in Judah

·         Installation of Gedaliah as governor of Judah

·         Assassination of Gedaliah?[5]

·         Jeremiah is taken to Egypt?

---

[1] This is a recurring phenomenon amongst those of great minds and prodigious literary output: Immanuel Kant, who never left his hometown of Konigsberg and published around 90 books; C.S. Lewis, who spent 47 of his almost 65 years in Oxford and published over 30 books during his life, with several volumes consisting of essays and unpublished notes being published posthumously (Lewis was born in Ireland, and died a week shy of his birth date; he did a brief tour of duty in the trenches of France in 1917 at the age of 19); and, in spite of the fact that he didn’t publish anything, there is Jesus, whose travels, with the exception of his brief sojourn in Egypt as an infant, were limited to Jerusalem (yearly visits according to Lk. 2.41), roughly 150 km from his native region of Galilee.  Of course, many wo/men of genius have been widely travelled, but there seems to be a certain type of personality which thrives in a situation of geographic “stability”, even if their lives, as is the case with Jeremiah, Lewis and Jesus, are quite unstable in other ways.

[2] Religious functionaries whose role seems to have been to provide theological legitimacy to the king’s initiatives (cf. 1 Kings 22).  This is a classic monarchical manoeuver; cf. Napoleon’s invitation of the Pope to his self-performed coronation as Emperor of France in 1804.  Jeremiah pitilessly lambastes these officially sanctioned preachers throughout his work (cf. Jer. 2.8; 5.31; 26.8; Lamentations 4.13); in fact, every time the phrase “the prophets” appears in the book of Jeremiah, it refers to these state-sponsored “false prophets” (Jeremiah’s verdict).

[3] Cf. Brown, Michael L. “Jeremiah” in Longman & Garland, eds. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary 7: Jeremiah-Ezekiel, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010, pp. 438-39.

[4] His kid brother Jehoahaz only reigned for 3 months before being deposed/exiled by Pharaoh Neco II in 609.

[5] There is uncertainty as to whether Gedaliah was killed in 587 or 583.