Jeremiah 39
Jeremiah 39 is the thirty-ninth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It is numbered as Jeremiah 46 in the Septuagint. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter is part of a narrative section consisting of chapters 37 to 44. Chapter 39 records the fall of Jerusalem, verses 1-10, and Jeremiah's fate, verses 11-18.
Text
The original text was written in Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 18 verses. The content is similar to and.Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus. The Septuagint version does not contain the part what is generally known to be verses 4-13 in Christian Bibles.
Verse numbering
The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text, and Vulgate, in some places differs from that in the Septuagint according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.The order of Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study based on Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta, differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs' edition.
| Hebrew, Vulgate, English | Rahlfs' LXX | Brenton's LXX |
| 39:1-3,14-18 | 46:1-3,14-18 | 46:1-4,15-18 |
| 39:4-13 | none | |
| 32:1-44 | 39:1-44 |
Parashot
The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Jeremiah 39 is a part of the "Fifteenth prophecy " in the section of Prophecies interwoven with narratives about the prophet's life . : open parashah; : closed parashah.Analysis
Chronologically and thematically this chapter is a continuation of the previous one, describing Babylon's invasion of Jerusalem and its consequences, particularly for Zedekiah and Jeremiah. The narrative places the invasion as background to larger issues, as the focus is more on the Zedekiah's cowardly behavior, escape, and capture under the fulfillment of the prophecy, with the ending of the king being blinded, physically as already spiritually. On the other hand, Jeremiah simultaneously obtains release and protection from Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, at the command of Nebuchadrezzar and then under the protection of Gedaliah, the governor appointed by Babylon, and son of Ahikam. This signifies the fulfillment of another prophecy that by submitting to Babylon, people could save their lives as the prize of war and returned home. The episode with Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian rescuer of Jeremiah, further emphasizes the fulfillment of the divine message about his life as a prize of war because he trusted in YHWH.The Fall of Jerusalem (39:1–10)
Verses 1-3 detail the events of the Babylonian invasion to Jerusalem from the ninth to the eleventh year of Zedekiah when finally the city was captured, occupied and destroyed by the Babylonian army. Verses 4–5 focus on Zedekiah's failed effort to escape and the fulfillment of the prophecy that Zedekiah's offspring were killed in front of him before he himself was blinded and taken to captivity. The houses of Jerusalem were burned and people were exiled, except the poor ones who remained and given their land back by Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian captain of the guard.Verse 1
Cross reference: ; ;"The ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month" refers to January 587 BCE., and provide the date as "the tenth day of the month".
Verse 2
Cross reference: ;- "The city was broken up" ; "the city was penetrated" : An alternative translation would be "... the city wall was breached". "The eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month" refers to July 586 BCE: the wall of Jerusalem "was broken through" after 18 months of siege, and the city fell after completely devoid of food. Cannibalism became prevalent.
Verse 3
Now when Jerusalem was captured … all the officers of the King of Babylon marched in...
The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi considered the statement "All the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat at the Middle Gate" as the fulfillment of the prophecy, "They shall come and each one set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem" in.
Various language versions have rendered the list of names differently:
| Hebrew: | נֵרְגַל שַׂרְ-אֶצֶר סַמְגַּר-נְבוּ שַׂר-סְכִים רַב-סָרִיס נֵרְגַל שַׂרְאֶצֶר רַב-מָג |
| Hebrew : | Nêrəḡal Śar’eṣer Samgar Nəḇū-Śarsəḵîm Raḇsārîs Nêrəḡal Śar’eṣer Raḇmāḡ |
| Greek: | Μαργανασαρ και Σαμαγωθ και Ναβουσαχαρ και Ναβουσαρεις Ναγαργας Νασερραβαμαθ |
| Vulgate: | NEREGEL SERESER SEMEGAR NABV SARSACHIM RABSARES NEREGEL SERESER REBMAG |
- "Nebusarsechim Rab-saris" : David Vanderhooft reported, "A certain Nabû-šarrūssu-ukīn held the office of rēš šarri under Amel-Marduk in 561 B.C.E." A tablet was unearthed in the ancient city of Sippar in the 1870s and acquired by the British Museum in 1920, but only being discovered by Michael Jursa of University of Vienna in 2000s, to contain both the name and the title Nabu-sharrussu-ukin rab ša-rēši closely matched of this person. As the tablet is dated just eight years before the events described here, Jursa wrote that the rarity of the Babylonian name, the high rank of the rab ša-rēši and the close proximity in time make it almost certain that the person mentioned on the tablet is identical with the biblical figure.
- "Samgar" or "Simmagir"; "Rab-saris"; and "Rab-mag" are "titles of Babylonian officials" according to the New Oxford Annotated Bible.
Verse 4
- "The king’s garden": mentioned in in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and 'the stairs that go down from the City of David', which point to the southern part of the city near the Tyropoeon Valley. The location supports the reference to the "two walls," which were likely 'the walls on the eastern and western hills'.
- "The plain": or "Arabah; the Jordan valley", which is the 'rift valley' extending from Galilee along the Jordan River then descending to the Gulf of Aqaba. The king and his men might try to escape across the Jordan river to Moab or Ammon, because from and it is known that the Ammonites were harboring fugitives from the Babylonians.
Verse 7
- Huey notes the fulfillment of two prophecies in this verse:
- # Zedekiah would see the king of Babylon and then be taken to Babylon
- # Zedekiah would die in Babylon without being able to see that country
Jeremiah and Ebed-melech went free (39:11–18)
Verse 13
"Rabsaris"; and "Rabmag" are "titles of Babylonian officials" according to the New Oxford Annotated Bible.Verse 14
According to the court of the prison was located in Ramah, from where Jeremiah was released into the protection of Gedaliah.Jewish
Christian