Chapter Forty-Three

1–7. The Judeans’ disobedience to God’s will. 8–13. Jeremiah’s address to the Judeans in Egypt.

Jer 43:1-7. Justifying their manifest disobedience to God’s will, the leaders of the Judeans tell Jeremiah that he is mistaken, that God did not at all speak to him what he said to the Judeans. Therefore, they went to Egypt, taking Jeremiah and Baruch with them.

Jeremiah 43:1. When Jeremiah finished telling all the people all the words of the Lord their God, everything that the Lord their God had sent him to say to them, Jeremiah 43:2. Then Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, You are lying; the Lord our God has not sent you to say, “Do not go to Egypt to dwell there”; “All the arrogant men.” The people, apparently, were on the side of Jeremiah, but remained silent, and only a small group of “arrogant men,” who for some reason had special influence, refused to recognize in the prophet, this time, a true messenger of divine decisions.

Jeremiah 43:3. Rather, Baruch, son of Neriah, is stirring you up against us, to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, that they might kill us or take us into exile to Babylon. Why the “arrogant men” attributed special participation here to Baruch, Jeremiah’s disciple, is unknown. It can be supposed that, in view of the respect that Jeremiah enjoyed among the Hebrews at that time, the Hebrew leaders did not want to accuse the prophet himself, but found a “scapegoat” in Baruch, the faithful disciple and companion of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 43:6. And they took all the men and women, children and the daughters of the king, and every person whom Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, had left with Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch, son of Neriah; Jeremiah and Baruch were evidently given a strict order to follow Johanan.

Jeremiah 43:7. And they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord, and they arrived at Tahpanhes. Tahpanhes – see Jer 2:16. Jer 43:8-13. To show how foolishly the Hebrews acted in moving to Egypt, Jeremiah, by God’s command, must perform a symbolic action: bury several large stones in soft clay at the entrance to the house of Pharaoh. By this Jeremiah was to visibly represent the invasion of the mighty Chaldeans into the weakened Egyptian kingdom and the complete defeat of Pharaoh by Nebuchadnezzar.

Jeremiah 43:9. Take in your hands large stones and hide them in the mortar in the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the Judeans, “Mortar in the brick pavement.” The Hebrew word malat here, in the later Hebrew language (post-biblical), means “brick pavement.” If we suppose that Jeremiah with several representatives of his people stood before Pharaoh’s house at the time when the area before the house was being paved with bricks, it is quite possible that he could unobtrusively place several stones underneath the bricks.

Jeremiah 43:10. And say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, My servant, and set his throne upon these stones which I have hidden, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them Nebuchadnezzar on this square before the palace of the defeated Pharaoh will set up his magnificent tent for conducting various affairs (compare 2 Sam 19:8).

Jeremiah 43:12. And I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt; and he will burn them and take them captive; and he will wrap himself in the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unharmed, Nebuchadnezzar, from whom the Hebrews felt themselves safe, will manage Egypt so easily, just as easily and quickly a shepherd in bad weather wraps himself in his cloak.

Jeremiah 43:13. And he will break the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt, and the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire. Heliopolis is mentioned here as an Egyptian city in distinction from a Palestinian city with the same name. It is the city of On or Heliopolis (City of the Sun), which was located in Lower Egypt and was famous for its temple dedicated to the sun and its tall obelisks (in Russian, inexactly translated as “statues”). Among these, the “Cleopatra’s Needles” are especially well-known, one of which is now in the city of Alexandria, and another in London. On the spot where it stood, there still stands one ancient obelisk to this day. As for the fulfillment of this prophecy, critical scholars for a long time maintained that there was no invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. But recently sufficient evidence has been found which shows that such an invasion did actually take place. 1) One Egyptian inscription of a high official under Pharaoh Hophra (in our text – Vaphres) reports of an attack by “Syrians, people of the north, Asians” on Upper Egypt, where they, reaching Syene (Elephantine), devastated the temple of Khnum, but were prevented from crossing the cataracts (waterfalls) by the Pharaoh. Since for the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek 29:17 and following) this appears to be a matter of the future (573–572 B.C.), and Hophra reigned until 572–571 B.C., the mentioned attack could only be around 572 B.C. 2) In a Babylonian inscription, also only recently discovered, Nebuchadnezzar himself states that in the 37th year of his reign (568 B.C.) he went to Egypt, defeated the king (Ama)-su, that is, Amasis, and took rich spoils. There is nothing improbable that he also went to Egypt earlier, in 572 B.C.