Ordination again…

When a new High Priest was appointed, Exodus 29:29-30 makes it clear that they would need to be anointed:

“The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him; they shall be anointed in them and ordained in them. The son who succeeds him as priest, who comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place, shall wear them seven days.” (Exodus 29:29-30)

A son who had already been working as a priest would already have been ordained or consecrated to the work as a priest. This passage suggests that a further ordination would be required as part of his appointment to the position of High Priest. What did that ordination require? When Aaron was ordained originally, there were some things which he did which were different from the ordination of his sons, so I guess that the general picture of ordination of a new High Priest would be similar to the original ordination of Aaron. A complication is that the ordination of the components of the tabernacle took place at the same time, and it is not mentioned that this happened again when Aaron died and Eleazar became High Priest. However, not even the anointing referred to in Exodus 29:29 is mentioned at that time – but silence is a lack of any argument for or against, not an argument against.

The sacrifices when Aaron was ordained were:

1. Ram of ordination Aaron and sons laid their hands on its head, then Moses killed it. Blood put on right earlobe, right thumb, right big toe of Aaron. Rest thrown against altar. Fat and various parts, along with unleavened loaf and leavened loaf with oil and a wafer handed to Aaron to offer as a wave offering, then burned by Moses. Moses offered the breast as a wave offering – his share. Some anointing oil and blood sprinkled on Aaron and his garments. Flesh boiled in a holy place (entrance to tabernacle in Leviticus 8:31) and eaten at entrance to tabernacle by Aaron and sons along with basket of bread (Exodus 29:31-32; Leviticus 8:31). Anything left by morning must be burned up.

2. Ram as a burnt offering (Leviticus 8:18-21). Aaron and sons laid their hands on its head, then Moses killed it. Blood thrown against altar. Head and fat burned. Entrails and legs washed then everything burned.

3. Every day a bull as a sin offering (Exodus 29:35-36; Leviticus 8:14-17). (At that time, the altar was also being consecrated over the full seven days – would this happen with each new High Priest?) Aaron and sons laid their hands on its head, then Moses killed it. Moses put blood on the horns of the altar with his finger and poured out the blood at the base of the altar (part of consecrating the altar). Fat on entrails and some inner parts burned. Rest of the bull, skin, flesh and dung burned outside the camp (probably the same as in Leviticus 4:11-12).

Mourning again…

God forbade Jeremiah from going to the house of mourning. He explains that the reason is that he (God) had taken away peace from Judah as well as his love and mercy. Jeremiah’s absence was to show how important and unimportant people would all die and lie unburied and unmourned as part of God’s coming punishment (Jeremiah 16:5-7).

Who would recognise this? It seems most likely that people would take his absence from mourning for his father as an expression of contempt for and condemnation of his father. This would presumably bring negative reactions from relatives and others.

Moving on to the last eleven years of Josiah’s reign. Events we know of for certain revolve only around his death.

Zephaniah was another prophet who prophesied in the time of Josiah. He mentions his lineage in the introduction to his prophecy and this includes “Hezekiah” as his great great grandfather. Going back so many generations is unusual and makes it more likely that the Hezekiah referred to is King Hezekiah.

Zephaniah the son of Cushi (father),
son of Gedaliah (grandfather),
son of Amariah (great grandfather),
son of Hezekiah (great great grandfather) (Zephaniah 1:1)

If so, Manasseh was, presumably, the oldest son of Hezekiah, and was 12 years old when he became king. There are questions about co-regencies, but if we take the simple numbers, Hezekiah reigned for 29 years and at the end of that, Manasseh was 12 years old. Manasseh reigned for 55 years and Amon for 2. Zephaniah’s ancestor Amariah must have been a younger son – say 10 years old at the time Hezekiah died. Members of the royal line seem to have got married at very early ages in that time so:

• Imagine Amariah was married at 16 and had a son Gedaliah at age 18 after Manasseh had reigned 8 years.
• Imagine Gedaliah was married at 16 and had a son Cushi at age 18 after Manasseh had reigned 26 years.
• Imagine Cushi was married at 16 and had a son Zephaniah at age 18 after Manasseh had reigned 44 years.

In this scenario, Zephaniah would have been about 13 years old when Josiah became king. This is probably the oldest he could possibly have been and in all likelihood, he would be younger than this as these figures are only possible if each generation was the oldest son. Historically, God has worked with younger children in families much more often. Realistically, Zephaniah could have reasonably been any age between about 5 years older than Josiah and about 24 years younger. Taking the average of those would leave him about 9 years younger than Josiah and 5 years younger than Jeremiah as I have positioned him in this series. In the 20th year of Josiah, he would have been 19 years old and by the 26th year, 25 years old.

His message states only that it came from God during the reign of Josiah. There is no indication of when in that 31 year period God spoke to him. As with Jeremiah, there is a concentration on coming judgement in Zephaniah’s message. In the eighteenth year of Josiah, God gave the assurance that Josiah would see peace throughout his reign, and Zephaniah warns the people to act “before the decree takes effect” (Zephaniah 2:2).

Zephaniah 1:8 speaks of punishment of the king’s sons, which suggests they were old enough to have refused the good and chosen the evil. When Josiah died, Jehoahaz was 23 years old (2 Chronicles 36:2) and Jehoiakim 25 years old (2 Chronicles 36:5), so if we work on 12 years old as the age at which they might choose their path (like Jesus), that would make the prophecies likely to be made in the last 11-13 years of Josiah’s reign – that is, starting in the eighteenth to twentieth years. If we took the example of 20 years of age from God’s judgement in the wilderness, it could suggest the last 5 years of his reign.

Zephaniah 1:9 talks about those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud and this is in close enough proximity to 1:8 to suggest that this refers to Josiah’s nobles and officials who fill Josiah’s house with violence and fraud – without his approval, intent or knowledge. This is likely to happen some years after the cleansing of the nation in the 18th year.

On the basis of these details, I have made a guess that Zephaniah began to prophesy in about the 25th year of Josiah, at the age of 24 (when Josiah was 33 and Jeremiah 29).

Another question is where Zephaniah delivered his prophecies? He does not tell us. There are mentions of many different nations around Israel, and within Israel, Judah and Jerusalem are mentioned (1:4) as well as the king’s sons (1:8), his nobles (1:8) and priests (1:4). Various parts of Jerusalem are mentioned including the second quarter which was the area in which Huldah lived (Zephaniah 1:10).

There is enough detail about Jerusalem that I believe it is most likely that the prophecy was delivered in Jerusalem.

For all of these conclusions: logic and guesswork only. No proof.

To conclude the life of Josiah, I need to determine which prophecies were made during his lifetime. Very little is specified. It seems very likely that the first few chapters are from the time of Josiah and many chapters in the middle of Jeremiah specify times which are after the death of Josiah. Which other chapters are in the time of Josiah? The divisions are not necessarily as clear-cut as chapter divisions either. Some could easily be in the middle of chapters since the separation into chapters is quite artificial.

New sections are easy to identify when they are in the form of Jeremiah 3:6 “The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah” or Jeremiah 36:1 “In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord”. But, even so, how long does a section continue for?

The example of Jeremiah 3:6 above is worth examining. Jeremiah 3:11 says again “And the Lord said to me” and seems almost to continue the theme from verses 6-10, except that the target has changed from Judah to Israel. Does all this come at the same time or is it part of the mixing up of Jeremiah’s words? Some things seem to be collected by theme or something like that. For example, Jeremiah 20 talks about Pashhur the son of Immer attacking Jeremiah. There is no indication of when this happened. Jeremiah 21 speaks about Pashhur the son of Malchiah in the time of King Zedekiah. From my reading of the chapters they are unlikely to be occurring at the same time, but seem to be put together because of the name “Pashhur”.

Jeremiah 3:11 may be from a different time / place and may have been put with Jeremiah 3:6-10 because of the similar theme. There is no way to tell with confidence. To decide the order, we can look at little hints which may help – for example, chapter 11 talks a lot about covenants, so it seems likely that it is connected with Josiah’s reading of the Book of the Law and the confirming of the covenant. Even so, that does not mean it came immediately before or after. The text: “They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers” may give a hint that this passage came from God some time after this covenant was re-made as the nation turned away from God again; or it may refer to the situation at the time when the covenant was made.

Others have no indication of time at all, such as Jeremiah 7:1 “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.” An earlier article on “God’s Communication” (https://www.bibletales.online/gods-communication/) pointed out that we are told God communicated with Jeremiah at least 38 times. Sometimes these were part of a conversation, but most of them are separate messages from God which needed no reply from Jeremiah. Often they were instructions as to what he should tell the people. Jeremiah’s comment in Jeremiah 25:3 that he had been giving them messages from God for 23 years at the time suggests that we could expect quite a lot of the contents of the book of Jeremiah had already been presented to the people by that time, just 5 years after the death of Josiah.

In general, I would expect that sections that occurred at a different time would start with an indication of some sort. Examples of typical “section starters” could be:

• [Then] The word of the Lord [that] came to… (13:8; 14:1) or
• Thus says the Lord (13:1) or
• The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord (7:1; 11:1)
• [Again|Then] the Lord said to me (11:9; 14:11; 15:1)
• You shall speak to them this word (13:12)

Notes:
1. Words in square brackets occur in some cases but are missing in others
2. Words in square brackets and separated by a pipe symbol “|” indicate different words which occur in some cases but may be completely missing in others
3. Many of the expressions above will can be prefixed with “therefore” or “for” or similar joining words, but these suggest a connection with the preceding content and would not count as “section starters”.

Several days have been spent trying to decide a “final” order for the book of Jeremiah. This task has kept me busy on and off over the last two years and I still keep changing the answers! There are many passages where there is no indication at all as to when it may have been delivered. Attempting to reverse-engineer the ordering method used to give the current order doesn’t seem to help much.

The end result is an order which seems to fit together satisfactorily, but could be completely wrong. My level of confidence in its accuracy is not high although I do have rough reasons for many of my choices.

For the moment, I only need to know which passages or prophecies relate to the time of Josiah. I am still struggling with the order in Jehoiakim’s reign which I will need very soon.

My opinion is that the following passages are in the time of Josiah:

Missing Chronological table: Needs copying

Many prophecies against various nations seem to have been made before the 4th year of the reign of Jehoiakim since Jeremiah 25:9 & 13 refer to such prophecies already existing at that time.

I think it is more likely that they would be in the time of Josiah since Jeremiah was originally appointed a prophet to the nations.

Jeremiah is traditionally thought likely to be the author or compiler of the books of Kings. To achieve this, he probably had access to notes and history which are not included in the Bible. Some such books are listed in various parts of the Bible in somewhat chronological order:
a. The Book of Wars of the Lord (Numbers 21:14)
b. The Book of Jashar (Joshua 10:13; 2 Samuel 1:18)
c. Book of land details (Joshua 18:9)
d. Samuel’s book (1 Samuel 10:25)
e. The Chronicles of Samuel the seer (1 Chronicles 29:29)
f. The Chronicles of King David (1 Chronicles 27:24)
g. The Chronicles of Gad the seer (1 Chronicles 29:29)
h. The Chronicles of Nathan the prophet (1 Chronicles 29:29)
i. The history of Nathan the prophet (2 Chronicles 9:29)
j. The Books of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings 11:41)
k. The prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite (2 Chronicles 9:29)
l. The visions of Iddo the seer (2 Chronicles 9:29)
m. The story of the prophet Iddo (2 Chronicles 13:22)
n. The chronicles of Jehu the son of Hanani – “recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel” (2 Chronicles 20:34)
o. The Story of the Book of the Kings (2 Chronicles 24:27)
p. The Chronicles of the Seers (LXX) / The Chronicles of Hozai (Heb.) (2 Chronicles 33:19)

This can help to give a little more background as Jeremiah describes what he works on in the latter years of the reign of Josiah.

There are other books referred to which may be the books we have or others:
1. The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (1 Kings 14:19; 15:31; 16:5, 14, 20, 27; 22:39; 2 Kings 1:18; 10:34; 13:8, 12; 14:15; 14:28; 15:11, 15, 21, 26,31)
2. The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (1 Kings 14:29; 15:7, 23; 22:45; 2 Kings 8:23; 12:19; 14:18; 15:6, 36; 16:19; 20:20; 21:17, 25; 23:28; 24:5)
3. The Book of the Kings of Israel (1 Chronicles 9:1; (2 C Chronicles 20:34: see earlier))
4. The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah (2 Chronicles 16:11; 25:26; 27:7; 35:27; 36:8)
5. The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel (2 Chronicles 28:26; 32:32)

In this list, entries 4. and 5. are probably the same. The references to the Book of the Kings of are all found in Chronicles which is believed to have been written/compiled by Ezra, well after the time of Jeremiah. They may refer to the books of Kings or to some other ancient records. I suspect they are different records with a lot more detail than any of the books we have.

The Hebrew and Septuagint (LXX) versions of Jeremiah are different in some ways.

A page which summarises the differences is shown here: https://www.ccel.org/bible/brenton/Jeremiah/appendix.html

Overall, it shows signs that someone probably tried to put the book in chronological order particularly with the last few chapters of prophecy (Jeremiah 46-51) which were probably delivered in or before the 4th year of Jehoiakim and are inserted in the middle of chapter 25. Thus to find a chapter in the LXX from chapter 26 onward, add 7. There are a few extra changes also, but this is the basic picture.

Hebrew Ch 25 (first half) -> LXX Ch 25
Hebrew Ch 46 -> LXX Ch 26
Hebrew Ch 50 -> LXX Ch 27
Hebrew Ch 51 -> LXX Ch 28
Hebrew Ch 47 -> LXX Ch 29
Hebrew Ch 49 -> LXX Ch 30
Hebrew Ch 48 -> LXX Ch 31
Hebrew Ch 25 (second half) -> LXX Ch 32

From the web page above, we can get a list of the significant (larger) omissions from the LXX in Jeremiah. Some of them are interesting to note:
8:10-12 – similar to 6:12-15
10:6-8,10 – God’s greatness
11:7-8 – God’s command for obedience ignored
17:1-4 – v3-4 similar to 15:13-14
29:16-20 – v16-18 similar to 24:8-10, v19 to 25:4 and v20 to 24:5
30:10-11 – similar to 46:27-28
33:14-26 – v14-16 is similar to 23:4-6 and v20-26 to 23:20-26
39:4-13; v4-7 similar to 2 Kings 25:4-7
48:45-46 – Judgement on Moab
51:44d-49a Judgement on Babylon (some similarity with other verses in Jeremiah 51)
52:2-3 – very similar to 2 Kings 24:19-20
52:27c-30 – v27c very similar to 2 Kings 25:21

Once again, several days have been spent trying to fix in my mind the parts of the book of Jeremiah that relate to the time of King Josiah. The order in the table I sent out a while ago has changed a little, but not much. However, this process raised another question which has been in my mind on and off for years:

Was the Sabbath day kept during the period of the kings?

There are no direct answers given and silence is no answer at all. Did people have elbows in the time of the kings? The Bible never says they did, so maybe they didn’t…? Clearly this is ridiculous.

There are a few mentions of the Sabbath during the times of the kings and in the prophets who spoke or wrote at that time. Some of these references give the impression that keeping the Sabbath was common.
• Psalm 92 is a song for the Sabbath.
• At the end of the reign of David, we have description of the work of Levites as singers on Sabbaths, new moons, feast days etc. (1 Chronicles 23:31).
• Solomon told Hiram just before he began building the temple, that it would be a place for worship including offerings on Sabbaths, new moons, feast days, etc. (2 Chronicles 2:4).
• Solomon offered sacrifices on the altar in the temple as each day required: for Sabbaths, new moons and the three annual feasts (2 Chronicles 8:13).
• The husband of the Shunammite woman was surprised when she went to see Elisha on a day that was not a Sabbath or a feast day, which implies he would not have been surprised at those times (2 Kings 4:23).
• God would put an end to Israel’s new moons, Sabbaths and appointed feasts (Hosea 2:11).
• In the time of the usurper Athaliah, Jehoiada the priest gave commands to groups of guards based on who came on duty on the Sabbath and who went off duty at that time (2 Kings 11:5, 7, 9; 2 Chronicles 23:4, 8). Obviously the name was still used.
• People are complaining that they have to wait until the Sabbath is over before they can start dishonest dealing again (Amos 8:5).
• God condemns empty offerings made on new moons and Sabbaths (Isaiah 1:13).
• King Ahaz did something to a covered way used on the Sabbath. The text is obscure but it seems that changes to the worship of God were made to honour the king of Assyria (2 Kings 16:18).
• King Hezekiah provided offerings for each day, for Sabbaths, new moons and appointed feasts (2 Chronicles 31:3).
• In destroying Jerusalem, God had made his people forget festivals and Sabbaths (Lamentations 2:6).

Others give the impression that the Sabbath was not kept (or was kept in a way that was not acceptable to God).
• Probably in the time of King Hezekiah, God promises blessings for people who keep the Sabbath and don’t profane it (Isaiah 56:2).
• Probably in the time of King Hezekiah, God promises a monument in his house to eunuchs who keep his Sabbath (Isaiah 56:4).
• Probably in the time of King Hezekiah, God promises blessings to foreigners who join themselves to him and keep his Sabbath and don’t profane it (Isaiah 56:6).
• Probably in the time of King Hezekiah, God promises blessings to those who don’t do their pleasure on the Sabbath but call the Sabbath a delight (Isaiah 58:13).
• Possibly in the time of Josiah (since repentance and forgiveness are still offered), God says the people should take care to keep the Sabbath and not carry any burden during it for the sake of their lives. Otherwise a fire would burn in Jerusalem and not be quenched. (Jeremiah 17:21, 22, 24, 27).
• In the time of King Zedekiah, God said that the Sabbath had been given as a sign between himself and his people, but that they had profaned his Sabbaths in the wilderness and that he would spread them through the nations because they had continued with this (Ezekiel 20:12-13, 16, 20, 21, 24).
• Probably in the time of Zedekiah, God says that the nation had despised his holy things and profaned his Sabbaths (Ezekiel 22:8).
• Probably in the time of Zedekiah, God says that the priests had disregarded his Sabbaths (Ezekiel 22:26).
• Both Israel and Judah had profaned God’s Sabbaths by slaughtering their children as offerings to idols and gone into the temple on the same day (Ezekiel 23:38).
• After God sent Judah into captivity, the land enjoyed its Sabbaths for 70 years (2 Chronicles 36:21).

Overall, the most likely conclusion is that at many times during the time of the kings, particularly in the time of David, Solomon and Hezekiah, the Sabbath was being kept, possibly quite well. At other times, it may well have been kept in a way that looked as if it was being kept, but that was not genuine. This is the impression given by the words of Isaiah. It seems likely that in the time of Manasseh, the Sabbath was not kept. Josiah may or may not have restored it to some extent. Jeremiah gave the command (Jeremiah 17), but it is given as a simple command in the way God seems to use when the practice has been lost completely rather than having been corrupted. Ezekiel gives the impression that the Sabbath was not kept after the time of King Josiah.

For the purposes of “Terror on Every Side!” I am concluding that the Sabbath was not widely kept in the time of Josiah or any of the kings after him.

Why would Josiah concentrate on removing idols as he did yet not make the people keep the Sabbath? Well, Deuteronomy only mentions the Sabbath when detailing the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5). There is no other reference to the Sabbath in the book and since I have assumed that Deuteronomy is the Book of the Law, I suspect that Josiah concentrated on concepts from Deuteronomy – which does not frequently discuss the Sabbath.

So if the country as a whole did not keep the Sabbath, did anyone keep it? This is a very hard question to answer. God uses words like “all” to mean “the vast majority” in many cases. God says that:
– all the people are stubbornly rebellious (Jeremiah 6:28)
– he cast all Ephraimites out of his sight (Jeremiah 7:15)
– he will send the sword against all the inhabitants of the world (Jeremiah 25:29)

It seems most likely that these mean “many” or similar words, but not literally “all”.
Likewise “no one” or “no man” is often used to mean “very few”. For example, God says to Jeremiah that:
– no man relents of his evil (Jeremiah 8:6)
– no one speaks truth (Jeremiah 9:5).
– no one would mourn for the dead (Jeremiah 16:6)
– Babylon would be a land in which no one dwells (Jeremiah 51:43)

It seems most likely that these mean “very few”.

There are also other cases where “all” does mean “all” and “none”, “no one” and “no man” should be taken literally.

Regarding the Sabbath, I would assume that some righteous people – probably quite a small number – did keep the Sabbath as best they could, although they may not have known much about it.

Names of idols/gods and their usage in Jeremiah and contemporary prophets (Ezekiel, Daniel and Zephaniah):
“Baal” (pl. “Baals”) mentioned in Jeremiah (12), Ezekiel (1) and Zephaniah (1) (Canaanite and Phoenician, adopted by Israel and Judah).
“Chemosh” is mentioned only in Jeremiah (3) (for Moab only).
“Asherah” (pl. “Asherim”) mentioned only in Jeremiah (plural) and only once (Canaanite). Not to be confused with Ashtoreth (mentioned in Kings, but not these prophets), said to be the consort of Baal and also known as Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus.
“Molech” mentioned only in Jeremiah and only once there (Ammon, but adopted by Judah also).
“Milcom” mentioned in Jeremiah (2) and Zephaniah (1) (for Ammon only in Jeremiah, for Judah in Zephaniah).
“Queen of Heaven” mentioned only in Jeremiah (5). Not mentioned anywhere else in the whole Bible.
“Tammuz” mentioned only in Ezekiel (1) (Babylonian).
“Bel” mentioned only in Jeremiah (2) (Babylonian).
“Merodach” mentioned only in Jeremiah (1) (Babylonian).
“Amon” mentioned only in Jeremiah (1) (Egyptian).

Research to continue tomorrow (DV)…

As well as using specific names for each god, other “catch-all” words are also used.
“Gods” is mentioned in Jeremiah (31), Ezekiel (1), Daniel (16) and Zephaniah (1).
“Idols” mentioned in Jeremiah (8) and Ezekiel (35). Idol is not mentioned.
“Images” mentioned in Jeremiah (7), Ezekiel (4), Daniel (1). Image (singular) in Jeremiah (1), Ezekiel (2), Daniel (10).
“Teraphim” is mentioned in Ezekiel (1).

Many other words are used to refer to the worship of other gods including “altars”, “green tree”, “high hill”, “high place”, “offerings”, “drink offerings”, “kneading dough to make cakes”, “gathering wood”, “kindling fire” and probably many others.

There is a lot of concentration on other gods, but vastly more on the use of “Yahweh” (“Lord”) or “God” to make it clear that the only real god is Yahweh, the God of Israel. “Lord God” occurs 113 times in Jeremiah, 219 times in Ezekiel, 13 times in Daniel and 5 times in Zephaniah. The frequency is striking – well more than once per chapter on average.