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ToES Diary May 2018
By Admin | ToESWriting
Jeremiah and his brothers were priests. In the wilderness, Levites were counted between the ages of 30 and 50 (Numbers 4:46-47). See diary for Tuesday, 25 July 2017.
This is specified for the Kohathites (Numbers 4:2-3, 34-35). Priests were descended from Kohath (1 Chronicles 6:1-3; 23:12-13).
This age range was also specified for the Levites descended from Merari (Numbers 4:29-30, 42-43) and Gershon (Numbers 4:38-39).
There are two other ages mentioned:
This becomes important in the later years of Jeremiah. I have assumed that Jeremiah was 17 years old in the 13th year of Josiah and began to work as a priest at the age of 30 in the 26th year of Josiah. On this basis, Jeremiah would have reached the age of 50 in the 4th year of Zedekiah and no longer have been able to work as a priest.
Jeremiah’s older brother Gemariah I have said to be 7 years older than Jeremiah, and so he would have reached the age of 50 in the 8th year of Jehoiakim.
Azariah, (according to my assumptions) was Jeremiah’s oldest brother and became the High Priest. I have assumed him to be 10 years older than Jeremiah, but as High Priest he would have continued to serve as the High Priest until his death as Aaron did.
Did Jeremiah expect Jerusalem to be destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar besieged it in the time of Jeconiah? Jeremiah had been given quite a few prophecies of destruction from the start of his mission onwards. Some examples that I believe were all given before the reign of Jeconiah and refer to the land, the cities and the temple:
So when would Jeremiah have expected these prophecies to be fulfilled? It seems most likely to me that he would have felt much the same was we do now in expecting the return of Jesus very soon. In the reign of Josiah, he may have hoped that God would relent, but from then on he would expect the judgement to come very soon. Every year that passed would probably have been an unexpected delay.
When it came to the reign of Jeconiah and Nebuchadnezzar’s army was outside the walls, I think it is very likely that Jeremiah would have been expecting the immediate fulfilment of those prophecies of destruction.
When Jeconiah surrendered, I can imagine that Jeremiah would have expected death and destruction on a grand scaled, but it did not happen.
Did Jeremiah ever meet Ezekiel? We don’t know, but it is possible that he did. Since Levites (and therefore priests) probably started learning their trade at 20 or 25, Ezekiel may well have come to Jerusalem to start work. If the age was 25, which seems to me most likely, that would mean he would have arrived a short while before Jeconiah was taken captive since Ezekiel was probably 25 when he was taken captive to Babylon with Jeconiah (Ezekiel 1:1-2).
I decided this quite some time ago, but it never found its way into this diary, so here it is for completeness!
God speaks to Jeconiah in Jeremiah 22:24-26. The tone is that of an author who is annoyed with the person being spoken to:
In Jeremiah 22:27, there is a sudden change: from second to third person, probably speaking about Jeconiah and his mother:
Presumably this is extra detail given for Jeremiah, and it shows Jeconiah’s fate to be the same as Jehoahaz/Shallum’s fate.
Jeremiah 22:28 may be a rhetorical question intended to lead to the statements in verses 29 and 30, or it may be the response of Jeremiah to what he has heard. This latter explanation seems more likely to me.
Jeremiah 22:29-30 seems to partly answer the question in verse 28, and speaks about Jeconiah being a rejected failure whose sons would never sit or reign on the throne of David. They never have. Note that he was not literally childless, but “functionally” childless in that none of his sons took over even his limited kingship over Jerusalem, let alone ruling over Judah.
Calibration of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign against the reigns of the kings of Judah as well as some events anchored in Nebuchadnezzar’s reign:
Jeremiah used a seal when he bought a field in Anathoth from his cousin Hanamel (Jeremiah 32:9-15). He describes a process where an agreement is made and written down with the names of the buyer and witnesses.
This sounds very much like “tied deeds” mentioned in “Semitic Papyrology in Context: A Climate of Creativity : Papers from a New York University Conference Marking the Retirement of Baruch A. Levine” by Lawrence H. Schiffman, 2003. In speaking about documents from 600-700 years later, found in the Bar Kokbha Caves in the Judea desert, he says that the majority of the documents are tied deeds which were witnessed by several witnesses whereas simple deeds were witnessed by just two witnesses. The deed was written twice with the top copy folded, tied and sealed so that the contents could not be changed without it being clear that someone had tampered with it.
Also Note 1 (f) at the bottom of http://www.bible.ca/bulla/#exhibit
“Another very interesting example of the use of bullae came to light in 1909, at Avroman in remote Kurdistan.’ There a stone jar was found containing several documents on parchment, rolled up, tied and sealed with bullae. Three of them have survived. Dated to the 3rd century BCE, two documents are in Greek and one in Aramaic script. They were written and sealed in the following manner: the text was written twice, once, an “original” in the upper part of the page, and the second time in a “copy” in the lower part of the page, with a space in between; the upper part was then rolled up and bound with a string which was passed through small holes punched through the blank strip between the two texts. Lumps of clay were pressed over the strings and then impressed with the seals of all the parties to the contract. The lower text, which remained open for inspection at any time, was not sealed (see Fig. 3). These Avroman documents are a rare example of the survival of a “double document”, half of which is sealed with bullae and the other half of which remains unsealed. In Latin, the closed, rolled-up portion was known as scriptura interior, while the open portion was known as scriptura exterior. If the open version was contested, the sealed version could be opened for verification in the presence of the authorities. This practice of “double documents” (or “tied deeds” in the terminology of the Talmud) was well known in antiquity and was very common in Hellenistic times throughout the Seleucid and Ptolemaic domains.” (Hebrew Bullae from the time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a burnt archive, Nahman Avigad, p124, 1986 AD)
When Jerusalem was besieged in the time of Jeconiah, it is made clear that Nebuchadnezzar’s servants laid siege to the city and that Nebuchadnezzar was not there at the beginning, but came later (2 Kings 24:10-11). Furthermore, we are told that Jeconiah surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar and we are given a list of those who surrendered with him (2 Kings 24:12):
2 Chronicles 26:10 may also suggest that Jeconiah was not taken to Babylon while Nebuchadnezzar was there with his army at Jerusalem. Saying that Nebuchadnezzar “sent” for Jeconiah suggests that Nebuchadnezzar was not were Jeconiah was. Possibly Nebuchadnezzar was there for the surrender, but once it was complete, immediately left on more important business. The removal of Jeconiah from Jerusalem along with the precious vessels of the temple and the appointing of Zedekiah as king may not have been expected. There are few words used and I may be reading more into them than is intended. However, almost all of the different versions I have use the words “sent” and “brought to Babylon” in this verse, suggesting that Nebuchadnezzar was in Babylon when the call to bring Jeconiah to Babylon was made. As another possible alternative, maybe Nebuchadnezzar had left to return to Babylon and on the way decided to replace King Jeconiah with his uncle Zedekiah and sent the order back – he would be in Babylon waiting for the captives.
So who was taken captive?
2 Kings 24:14-16 provides a list, starting with “all Jerusalem” which seems to be expanded to include all types of people from Jerusalem excluding the poor people:
The number first number given is 10,000 captives which then appears to be broken down as:
The other 2,000 were presumably officials, priests like Ezekiel and rich people.
Given these details, it is likely that the total of 10,000 only included men. Women were presumably taken as well (such as Ezekiel’s wife), and probably children too. The total number could easily have been 40,000-50,000 people.
Why not Jeremiah? By this time he may well have been in the category of “poor”. Too poor to bother with. There is no record of him even being there, whereas at the final destruction of Jerusalem, we know he was there and well known to the Chaldean officers.
We can’t really be sure why he was not taken on this occasion.
Note that there is another number in Jeremiah 52:28 which reports that 3,023 Judea were taken in the 7th year of Nebuchadnezzar. The deportations discussed earlier are described as taking place in the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar, so these may have been captives taken from other cities of Judah while the siege of Jerusalem continued, or it may be a difference in counting. This verse does not appear in the Septuagint (LXX).
How would you feel if your town was surrounded by enemies, armed to the teeth and angry; and today was the day when your king was going to surrender and allow the hordes to enter the gate?
In 2 Kings 24:20 we are told that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. On the face of it, that seems reasonable – why not rebel against an overlord if you think you can get away with it?
But God did not view it that way: he viewed it as a breach of promise.
What did Zedekiah promise Nebuchadnezzar?
We don’t hear anything about it when the promise was given, but we read some details in Ezekiel 17. Ezekiel is to tell a parable about a cedar twig which was plucked by a great eagle and planted. It grew and became a vine and depended on the eagle.
However, another eagle came and the vine bent its roots and branches towards it and looked for water from it.
God announces that the vine will not thrive, but will wither and be plucked up. He goes on to explain that the first eagle was the king of Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar) and the second was Pharaoh of Egypt. Although the vine is not named, the details identify it unquestionably as Zedekiah, the king who replaced Jeconiah when he was taken into captivity.
God also says that in approaching Pharaoh Hophra for support, Zedekiah had committed treachery against God (Ezekiel 17:20). The details given in Ezekiel 17 are as follows.
Making the covenant:
Breaking the covenant:
God announced that Zedekiah would be taken to Babylon and die in captivity because of his unfaithfulness (Ezekiel 17:16,20).
God takes promises seriously.