Jeremiah 21
God: “Surrender to invaders or die”
King asks Jeremiah for help
1Judah’s King Zedekiah sent two men to ask Jeremiah a question: Pashhur [1] the son of Malchiah and a priest named Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah. The LORD gave Jeremiah an answer for the men, who said:2“The king wants you to talk with the LORD about Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar. [2] Babylon’s army is attacking us. The LORD has helped us in astonishing ways in the past. Maybe he’ll do it again, and the army will go away.”
Jeremiah to king: “It’s too late”
3Jeremiah said, “Tell Zedekiah, 4‘This is what the LORD says: I’m about to give to Babylon the army that is defending you. The Babylonian invaders have trapped you inside your own city. Soon, Jerusalem will be their city.5I’m in this battle, too, furious and fighting against you. Wrath is what you deserve, and I’m letting you have it. 6I will kill the people and the animals living inside Jerusalem. Disease will kill many of them. 7So will starvation and swords of the enemy. Babylonian soldiers intent on slaughter will capture people who survive all of that. This includes King Zedekiah, his officials, and anyone else inside the city walls.’
Stay and die or surrender and live
8Now I want you to deliver this message to the citizens. ‘This is the LORD’s message for you, the people of Jerusalem: I’m giving you a choice between life or death. 9If you choose to stay inside the city, you will die. Disease, starvation, or the sword will end you. But if you surrender to the Babylonians, you’ll live. 10I’m not going to help the city. I’m going to hit it hard. I’m giving it to the Babylonian king. He’ll burn it down.’11Give this message to the king and his officials. ‘Listen to this message from the LORD. 12This is what the LORD says to the king who comes from David’s family:
Be fair in the way you settle disagreements.
Defend people who have been robbed.
If you don’t, which you didn’t, [3]
My anger will erupt into an inferno.
And there won’t be anyone left to fight the fire.
God is now Judah’s enemy
13I’m your enemy, Jerusalem.
You perch on your rocky ridge plateau
High above the valley.
And you brag about it, saying,
‘Who can possibly conquer us?
Enemies can’t even get inside this town.’
And here I come to punish you
Just as you deserve.
I’m going to light you up
And burn you down.
I’ll destroy your palace [4]
And everything around it.
Footnotes
This Pashhur is different from Pashhur son of Immer mentioned in Jeremiah 20:1.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon led several campaigns against Judah. He eventually destroyed the persistently rebellious city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
“Which you didn’t” is implied by the poetic lines and the history of Judah that follow.
The Hebrew text literally says God will burn down the “forest.” But he’s talking to the king who lives in Jerusalem’s palace. And the largest room in the palace complex was called the Home of the Lebanon Forest (1 Kings 7:2). Builders erected cedar pillars throughout that room: three rows of cedar pillars, 15 pillars in each row, for a total of 45 pillars.
Discussion Questions
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