ToES Diary July 2018

After the death of the false prophet Hananiah in the 7th month of the 4th year of Zedekiah, there is no information which is tied in time until the 10th day of the 10th month of the 9th year when Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem for the last time.

The only details we have where the time is specified are given in Ezekiel. These include many details about things that went on in the everyday life of Jerusalem at that time: shedding of blood, immorality, robbery extortion, oppression and many other things. For example, Ezekiel 22 describes a long list. There are also many descriptions of false worship, idol worship and finally Ezekiel’s vision of the departure of the glory of God from the temple. This seems to have happened on the 5th day of the 6th month of the 6th year of Zedekiah’s reign (Ezekiel 8:1) and is described in Ezekiel 10.

These details allow us to put some tentative timing on the prophecies of Jeremiah that are not tied down otherwise.

Jeremiah 12:7 says that God has abandoned his house, so it seems reasonable to assign this prophecy to a time after Ezekiel’s vision of God’s glory leaving. Did Jeremiah see any such vision? We have no mention of it. We do not know what Jeremiah was doing during these years, but I assume that his work continued and the hatred his family and his nation felt for him grew. Yet God stopped them from killing him, which is quite amazing.

When Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem for the last time in the 8th or 9th year of Zedekiah’s reign, we read that Nebuchadnezzar’s army had been besieging Jerusalem, but withdrew when they hear that Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt against them.  By itself, this is simple and easy to understand, but we also have another passage from the time of Jehoiakim/Jeconiah:

And the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

2 Kings 24:7

How do we fit these two ideas together?  There are two easy options that occur to me:

1. The “king of Egypt” referred to may be an individual king rather than the position.  Pharaoh Neco was the king throughout the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jeconiah (609BC-598BC) before dying sometime between 595 and 593BC sometime in the 3rd to 5th year of Zedekiah’s reign.  He was replaced by his son Psamtik II who was king of Egypt for about 6 years until about the 9th or 10th year of Zedekiah, probably after this incident.
2. The advance by the Egyptian army may have been in a place that could be described as both inside and outside Egypt.  As a kingdom, Egypt controlled large areas that would not be considered part of Egypt.  2 Kings 24 says that Nebuchadnezzar had taken all the lands north of the brook of Egypt.  The name “The Brook of Egypt” suggests that the watercourse is connected with Egypt, but that could have three possible meanings.  It might be:
   1. within Egypt,
   2. a border, or
   3. on the way towards Egypt.

   This brook is referred to 9 times in the Bible (ESV) and is often given as the border of Israel or the border of an area related to Israel.  In no place is it specifically described as the border of Egypt, despite the fact that when Israel’s borders with other nations are described, the is often a reference to the bordering nation.  To cut a long theory short, if the area beyond the Brook of Egypt was considered a sort of “no-man’s-land” that nobody really wanted because it was desert, then the land beyond it to the south could still be outside the ordinary boundary of the land of Egypt, but within the region Egypt controlled.

Of these two possibilities, the former sounds a little more convincing to me in some ways, particularly since Pharaoh Neco had been involved in all the campaigns in the north where Egypt had been fighting King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon for control.

However, the second option could also be completely valid.  There may also be other explanations.

Would God show visions or give instructions to a prophet only once? Jeremiah was a prophet for more than 40 years. Were all of the visions or messages he received only given once in that time? Some are specific to particular times or kings, but what about the messages of destruction? The early chapters include great detail about destruction which was finally delivered, but it seems likely that they were first given in the time of Josiah, possibly as much as 35-40 years before they were fulfilled.

Did Jeremiah receive them only once? Deliver them to an audience only once?

Alternatively, could God have repeated the same messages more than once or told Jeremiah to speak to the people the message already given?

The early chapters of Jeremiah sound like urgent descriptions of immediate terror. If they were given in the time of Josiah, could they also have been repeated in the time of Zedekiah?

For example, Jeremiah 4:23-27 seems to be a vision of the destruction that was coming. If Jeremiah saw this in the time of Josiah, could he have seen it again in the time of Zedekiah?

The condemnation of the princes, priests, prophets and people which were given early on, could they have been repeated also?

Could this be one of the reasons why there is no timing given in many of the prophecies of Jeremiah? Would you give two lots of timing if they are received more than once or just leave it out completely?

I don’t believe the answer can be given with confidence, but it is an interesting idea to consider.

How long is “many days”?

When Jeremiah is put into prison after Irijah arrested him in Jeremiah 37, we are told that he stayed there “many days”.

This occurred in the window of freedom when Nebuchadnezzar’s army had withdrawn from Jerusalem to respond to the king of Egypt’s move towards Judah, but before he retired and Nebuchadnezzar returned.

We do not know exactly when this was, just that Nebuchadnezzar returned on the 10th day of the 10th month in the 9th year of Zedekiah (2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 52:4; Ezekiel 24:1-2) and Jerusalem stayed under siege (2 Kings 25:2; Jeremiah 52:4) until the 9th day of the 4th month of the 11th year of Zedekiah (2 Kings 25:2-4; Jeremiah 39:2; 52:4). (NB: the details about Pharaoh’s army and a temporary lifting of the siege must have been before this time because these passages say that the city was under siege for all of this final period.)

When the Chaldean army returned, Jeremiah was in prison and stayed there for some time afterwards, but had been moved to the court of the guard.  That is where he was in the 10th year of Zedekiah, when God told him that Hanamel his uncle’s son would come to him offering some land for sale (Jeremiah 32:1-15).

We do not know how long Nebuchadnezzar’s army was occupied with the army of Egypt, but the impression given is that it was not very long, probably somewhere between a few weeks (3-4 weeks) and a few months (3-4 months) and ending on the 10th day of the 10th month of the 9th year of Zedekiah (probably in December or January, the wettest and coldest time of the year in Jerusalem).

Events in the ninth year of Zedekiah may have unfolded something like this (using months in the Jewish religious calendar):

• 1st month: Nebuchadnezzar attacks Israel/Judah (April)
• 2nd month: Nebuchadnezzar arrives at Jerusalem (May)
• 6th month: Rich make agreement (start September)
• 7th month: Pharaoh moves army towards Judah (start October)
• 7th month: Nebuchadnezzar leaves Jerusalem (start October)
• 8th month: Rich break agreement (end October)
• 8th month: Messages of condemnation from God (end October)
• 9th month: Jeremiah tries to go to Anathoth and is arrested (end November)
• 10th month: Nebuchadnezzar returns to besiege Jerusalem (end December)

Thus, if Jeremiah was imprisoned in the 9th month of Zedekiah’s 9th year and had been moved to the court of the guard by some time in the 10th year of Zedekiah, the “many days” here would be between 3 months and 15 months.

There are two other occurrences of “many days” in Jeremiah:

• Jeremiah 13:6 – Jeremiah was sent to the Euphrates to bury a loincloth.  After many days, he was told to go and find it.  There is no way of knowing how long this time was.
• Jeremiah 35:7 – Jonadab the son of Rechab commanded his family to live in tents so that they would live many days in the land.  This seems to be equivalent with God’s promises to his people about living long in the land.  It is likely to refer to a much greater length of time.

A review of the use of the expression through the Old Testament shows great variation in its meaning, referring to anywhere from relatively short times (180 days in Esther 1:4) to many centuries (Ezekiel 38:8; Daniel 8:26).  In the days of Solomon, Shimei stayed in Jerusalem for “many days” before, at the end of three years, chasing two servants who had fled to Gath (1 Kings 2:38-39).  In the drought in the days of Elijah, “many days” referred to some time under 3 1/2 years on two occasions (1 Kings 17:15 and 18:1).

A period of 6-12 months seems reasonable for Jeremiah’s imprisonment.