Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Jeremiah · About this commentary
The Way of Life and the Way of Death
Jeremiah 21:1-14
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, · WEB
A king asks for a miracle like the ones in the records, and is told that the God of the exodus will be fighting on the other side.
The request is respectful and it has a precedent in mind. Zedekiah sends a delegation with Babylon already at the walls, asking whether Yahweh will deal with them according to all his wondrous works so that the enemy withdraws. Everyone in the city knew what that meant. An Assyrian army had once camped outside Jerusalem and had gone away without taking it 2 Kings 19:35–36. The king is asking for that again. The request contains no repentance of any kind, only a hope that the pattern will repeat.
The answer is the most frightening reversal in the book. God will turn back the weapons in their hands and gather them into the middle of the city; and then, I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm. That pairing is exodus vocabulary, the standing description of how Israel was brought out of Egypt Deuteronomy 26:8. The arm that broke Pharaoh is raised against Jerusalem, and the deliverer's own formula is used to announce it. Zedekiah asked for the God of the wonders and was given him.
What follows is the counsel that made Jeremiah a traitor in the eyes of every patriot in the city. Two ways are set out — the way of life and the way of death — and the way of life is desertion. He who stays in the city dies by sword, famine and pestilence; he who goes out and surrenders to the besiegers lives and escapes with his life. There is no third option offered and no promise of victory. Judah's entire theology was that God defends this city. An instruction to walk out through the gate and give up was the practical denial of everything the temple slogan had said, and it is exactly why he is later arrested on suspicion of defecting Jeremiah 38:4.
Even here the offer to the dynasty is left standing, and it is not religious. Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. The house of David is told what would still avert the fire. It is the ordinary work of a court hearing cases early and finding for the plaintiff who was robbed. The city's inhabitants are then quoted asking who could ever come down against them, secure on their ridge above the valleys. The reply names what actually breaches a place like that. It is not a weakness in the rock. It is the fruit of what its rulers have been doing.
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