Jeremiah 42:1-22

Verses 1-12, “Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hashabiah, and all the people  from the least to the greatest, came near and said to Jeremiah the prophet.  ‘Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.’  Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, ‘I have heard.  Indeed, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and it shall be, that whatever the LORD answers you, I will declare it to you, I will keep nothing back from you.’  So they said to Jeremiah, ‘Let the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the LORD your God sends us by you.  Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.’  And it happened after ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.  Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, and said to them, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before him:  If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up.  For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you.  Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand.  And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’”  So far a good message from the LORD.  But he knew their hearts, deep down.  It may appear that God had set them up to fail, but there is a good reason for it. Nebuchadnezzar wanted these poor of the poor to look after the land, as it was now an outlying province of Babylon.  But the people making up this remnant had a fatal spiritual flaw, infection.  See if you can discern what it was.  Hint, it shows up in Egypt.

Flight to Egypt Forbidden

Verses 13-22, “But if you say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the LORD your God, saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’---Then hear now the word of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt and go to dwell there, then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.  So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there.  They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.  And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As my anger and my fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt.  And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’  The LORD has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’  Know certainly that I have admonished you this day.  For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and according to all that the LORD your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’  And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, or anything which he has sent you by me.  Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”  History shows that Egypt at this point under Pharaoh Hophra is about to go into great disarray, with defeat, civil war, and famine.  It’s calm right now in Egypt, but it won’t be for long.  Amongst all this coming civil unrest are these Jewish refugees who thought they’d be fleeing into a land at peace.  Nebuchadnezzar did end up in Egypt a bit later.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hophra

Jeremiah 43:1-13

Verses 1-11, “Now it happened, when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, all these words, that Azariah the son of Hashabiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, ‘You speak falsely!  The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.’  But Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.  So Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces, and all the people would not obey the voice of the LORD, to remain in the land of Judah.  “But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to dwell in the land of Judah, from all the nations where they had been driven---men, women, children, and the king’s daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah.  So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD.  And they went as far as Tahpanhes.”  Notice in verse 6, Zedekiah’s daughters, Jeremiah and Baruch are captives on this journey.  “Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, ‘Take large stones in your hand, and hide them in the sight of the men of Judah, in the clay in the brick courtyard which is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes; and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and bring Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden.  And he will spread his royal pavilion over them.  When he comes, he shall strike the land of Egypt and deliver to death those appointed for death, and to captivity those appointed for captivity, and to the sword those appointed for the sword.”  Now if God said he’d send Nebuchadnezzar down to Tahpanhes, he did so.  It actually happened in Nebuchadnezzar’s 37^th year.  But political instabilities and civil war in Egypt under the reign of Pharaoh Hophra (Apries, 589BC to 570BC) probably secured the release of Jeremiah, Baruch and Zedekiah’s daughters a long before this time, or even more likely, Pharaoh Hophra took king Zedekiah’s daughters along with Jeremiah and Baruch into protective custody, separating them out from these rebelling Jews.  These daughters are royalty, the very daughters of Zedekiah, and he did try to send a force to rescue Zedekiah and Jerusalem, but had failed.   Now here are king Zedekiah’s daughters at his doorstep.  What do you think he would do?  [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hophra] At this late date the Pharaoh’s were ruling from Tanis, from the time of Rehoboam onward, so my guess is that the Biblical Tahpanhes was Tanis, on the northwest part of the Nile Delta.  Verses 12-13, “I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captive.  And he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment, and he shall go out from there in peace.  He shall also break the sacred pillars of Beth Shemesh that are in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians he shall burn with fire.”

Jeremiah 44:1-30

Jeremiah 44:1-14, “The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Noph [Noph, ancient Memphis], and in the country of Pathros, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:  You have seen all the calamities that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they did not know, they nor your fathers.  However I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!  But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.  So my fury and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.’  Now therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel:  ‘Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, leaving none to remain, in that you provoke me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell, that you may cut yourselves off and be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?  Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your own wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?  They have not been humbled, to this day, nor have they feared; they have not walked in my law or in my statutes that I set before you and your fathers.’”  At first it looked like God was going to give these Jewish refugees mercy and allow them to stay in Judah under Gedaliah.  Then Gedaliah gets assassinated by Ishmael, Ishmael gets driven off by the forces who were under the deceased Gedaliah, but everyone at this point is afraid of retribution from Nebuchadnezzar, even though this assassination of Gedaliah wasn’t their fault, they were just ‘caught up in the middle of this nasty event.’  But you can see by these past few verses, that these Jews were still worshipping false gods.  God knew their hearts, they hadn’t repented of anything.  When they get to Egypt they started worshipping all these false gods, now under Egyptian names.  Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to till the land in Judea, so it wouldn’t go wild on him, being now one of his outlying provinces.  But this wasn’t in God’s plan at all, because he knew all along this remnant Nebuchadnezzar was allowing to remain in Judah was just as bad as those who died in the siege of Jerusalem or were deported after its fall.  You see, God reads the hearts of men and women and knows what’s going on.  It was finally revealed openly when they arrived in Egypt and went right back into false idol worship.]  “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:  ‘Behold, I will set my face against you for catastrophe and for cutting off all Judah.  And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt.  They shall be consumed by the sword and famine.  They shall die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine; and they shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse and a reproach!  For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and dwell.  For none shall return except those who escape.”  Take special note of that last part of verse 14 which I have underlined.  God allowed Jeremiah, Baruch and Zedekiah’s daughters under his care to “escape” during the ensuing civil war which erupted in Egypt, or perhaps even before that event took place.  We’ll see this same “escape” mentioned later in this chapter.  Verses 15-26, “Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwell in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying:  ‘As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!  But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.  For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble.  But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.  [Man, what circle logic of the brainless and mindless.  But can you begin to see the sickness that God saw within this group that Nebuchadnezzar had left behind in Judah?  From the outside appearance, no one would have known.  But when faced with a calamity, like Gedaliah being assassinated, their true selves came right to the surface.  And God knew it all along.  Just look at what the women said to Jeremiah.]  The women also said, ‘And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes to her, to worship her, and to pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission?’  [What a sassy attitude to show Jeremiah, coming from these women.  Considering all this, Yahweh’s judgment on them was perfectly justified.]  Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people---the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer---saying:  ‘The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and did it not come into his mind?  So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed.  Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day.  Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in his law, in his statutes or in his judgments, therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day.’  Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt!  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying:  ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour drink offerings to her.’  You will surely keep your vows and perform our vows!’  Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt:  ‘Behold, I have sworn by my great name,’ says the LORD, ‘that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD lives.  Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good.  And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them.  Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone to the land of Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose words will stand, mine or theirs.  And this shall be a sign to you,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for adversity.’  Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.”  Now God had promised protection to all who were under Jeremiah’s care.  Does God revoke his promises to his servants?  No.  So it is obvious Jeremiah must have escaped during or just before whatever calamities overtook this group of Jewish refugees.  A civil war ensued in Egypt, causing Pharaoh Hophra to flee.  Civil wars bring anarchy and disorder for awhile, and famine and sword.  Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hophra to view this period of time and see exactly what was going on in Egypt during this period of time. Jeremiah could have escaped northward and met Babylonian forces, which verse 28 could imply or allow for, and then the Babylonians could again have given him a Carte Blanche check to go anywhere again---or Jeremiah, Baruch and Zedekiah’s daughters, now under the royal care of Pharaoh Hophra himself could have already been placed on a ship bound for Carthage (Kirjath Hadeschath) and then another one bound for Tarshish.  History indicates that is what happened, one way or another, in the end, secular historic evidence indicates that he secured passage with Zedekiah’s daughters and Baruch on a ship going west across the Mediterranean Sea.  Nebuchadnezzar hadn’t attacked the Phoenician city-states of Tyre and Sidon yet (he did that in 573BC), so Jeremiah and his entourage could have secured a ship at either Joppa or Tyre itself, or they could have secured an Egyptian ship headed for Carthage.  From there it could have gone directly to Tarshish and then north.  It is right there that we lose sight of Jeremiah in the Bible record. So where did they go?  Ancient Irish histories state:

 “About 585BC a ‘notable man’…’a patriarch’…came to…Ireland, accompanied by a princess, the daughter of an eastern king, and…Simon Brach…”  There is an exact match between the consonants of the Irish name “Brach” and the Biblical name “Baruch.” 

Jeremiah, as previously pointed out, knew the Israelite-Phoenician trade and naval alliance had colonies “beyond the sea”, ie the Mediterranean Sea (Jeremiah 25:14-28, esp. verse 22).  Hibernia, ancient Ireland was one of those colonies obviously, since in ancient Irish annals the founding tribe of Ireland was named Tuatha de Danaan, which is Gaelic for “tribe of Dan.”  This great patriarch was called in Irish annals “Ollam Fodhla.”  One author wrote this about Ollam Fodhla:

“…his influence caused a national reformation, and the establishment of a new code of law…The famous Four Courts of Dublin…were decorated with large medallions of the world’s greatest lawgivers.  They included Alfred, Solon, Confucius, Moses and Ollam Fodhla.”

Jeremiah, Baruch and Zedekiah’s daughters, after their forced withdrawal to Egypt, either escaped northward back into Judah as Jeremiah 44:28 could indicate, where again the Babylonians gave him the ability to travel anywhere he wanted, or they could just as easily been under Pharaoh Hophra’s royal protection and given passage to Carthage (no more than a day’s sail in good weather).  Historic accounts in ancient Irish history show he obviously asked for shipping transport to Kirjath-Hadeschath (Carthage).  From there, Jeremiah would have contracted for transportation on a Phoenician-Carthaginian ship to Hibernia (Ireland), which would have safely taken this tiny party to Ireland.  So we find the line of David, through one of Zedekiah’s daughters, was transplanted to the Irish line of kings, where they intermarried.  [for more about Ollam Fodhla, see http://www.cai.org/bible-studies/has-jeremiah-become-known-ollam-fodhla ]  We’re not quite done with the Scythian-Israelites.  I just want to show you that historically, God has not forgotten them nor abandoned them, as he said he wouldn’t do in Jeremiah 51:5a. 

Jeremiah 45:1-5

The LORD promises to protect Baruch, who during the 4^th year of Jehoiakim’s reign, was worried about losing his life.  He said this protection would follow him wherever he went.

Verses 1-5, “The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the instruction of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah [that would be 604BC], king of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch:  You said, ‘Woe is me now!  For the LORD has added grief to my sorrow.  I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.’’  Thus says the LORD:  ‘Behold, what I have built I will break down, and what I have planted I will pluck up, that is, this whole land.  And do you seek great things for yourself?  Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,’ says the LORD.  ‘But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.’”  So we see wherever Baruch went, he would live and not die.  Baruch went wherever Jeremiah went.  God said everyone who stayed in Egypt would die.  But a small number would escape and go back to the land of Judah (Jeremiah 44:28).  So we have Jeremiah, Baruch and Zedekiah’s daughters in Jeremiah’s care.  It could have been this tiny group that escaped and successfully made it back “to the land of Judah”, or this tiny group could have gone directly from Egypt and Pharaoh’s care to Carthage.  From there, this tiny group becomes lost historically.  To read another interesting historic scenario on where Jeremiah, Baruch and Zedekiah’s daughters went, see http://www.wonderfulworldtomorrow.org and click on the article titled “Jeremiah’s Mission.”  It ties together some interesting Scriptures and secular history.  Albeit this history is clouded by the fact that a lot of it came down via oral histories of Ireland, it’s still fascinating, and as they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.  We’ll all find out for sure at Jesus’ 2^nd coming, when we can ask Jeremiah in person.  Aren’t you looking forward to that?  I hope so.  I sure am.  I am not affiliated with these people at all, I just spotted the article while doing a web-search on an unrelated subject.

Kings of Judah from Hezekiah to Zedekiah

Hezekiah, 715-686BC  [co-regency, 729-716BC]

Manasseh, 686-642BC

Amon, 642-640BC

Josiah, 640/639 to 609BC

Jehoahaz, 609BC

Jehoiakim 609/608 to 598BC

Jeconiah, 598-597BC (3 months)

Zedekiah, 597 to 587/586BC

                   Nebuchadnezzar II conquers Judah and Jerusalem, takes

                   all but a few Jews captive to Babylon, 587/586BC

Jeremiah set free, Baruch, Zedekiah’s daughters under his care.  Taken captive by renegade Jews to Egypt.  Disappears historically.

Jeremiah chapters 46-51---Other Prophecies God Gave Jeremiah Concerning the Nations: Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Damascus, Kedar, Hazor, Elam and Babylon

Jeremiah 46:1-28

Prophecy Concerning Egypt

Halley has, “A description of the defeat of the Egyptian army at Carchemish (605BC), in the middle period of Jeremiah’s life (verses 1-12).”  Don’t forget, this Pharaoh Necho was the one that killed Josiah, the king of Judah who faithfully served the LORD.  This chapter was probably written early on in Jeremiah’s ministry, perhaps even while Josiah was still alive.  “…and a later prophecy that Nebuchadnezzar would invade Egypt (verses 13-26), which is an extension of Jeremiah 43:8-13.”  Verses 13-26 describe Nebuchadnezzar leaving off the siege of Jerusalem to chase the oncoming Egyptians under Pharaoh Hophra back into Egypt, before he resumes his siege and final destruction of Jerusalem.  These two separate prophecies could have been given to Jeremiah by God at the same time or at different times before their historic fulfillment, but were arranged by Baruch after the fact in his final draft of the book, as verses 1-2 are definitely written in hindsight, identifying the historic players in the prophecy, and verses 1-2 are also written in the past tense, where verses 3-12 are not, but written the present tense as many unfulfilled prophecies are written in.  Verses 27-28 pertain to the LORD’s promise to restore all of Israel at his 2^nd coming. Christian denominations who believe that “Israel” simply means ‘the Jews,’ and has nothing to do with the 10 tribes of which are historically lost from view right now, often erroneously equate these two verses with the return of the Jews to Palestine from 1946 through 1948, and the continuing influx of Jews into the Israeli nation.  Nothing could be farther from the actual historic truth.  The Bible in the Old Testament histories constantly makes the distinction between the House of Israel and the House of Judah, as we have seen in that series on Kings & Chronicles (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/1.html).  To intentionally ignore a historic Bible teaching in favor of being “politically correct” borders on sin.

Verses 1-12, “The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations.  Against Egypt:  Concerning the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates in Carchemish, and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:   ‘Order the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle!  Harness the horses, and mount up, you horsemen!  Stand forth with your helmets, polish the spears, put on the armour!  Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back? Their mighty ones are beaten down; they have speedily fled, and did not look back.  For fear was all around,’ says the LORD.  Do not let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they will stumble and fall toward the north, by the River Euphrates.  Who is this coming up like a flood, whose waters move like the rivers?  Egypt rises up like a flood, and its waters move like the rivers; and he says, ‘I will go up and cover the earth, I will destroy the city [this would be Haran, whom the Babylonians had taken from the Assyrians] and its inhabitants.’  Come up, O horses, and rage, O chariots!  And let the mighty men come forth:  The Ethiopians and the Libyans [Hebrew: Put or Phut] who handle the shield, and the Lydians who handle and bend the bow.  For this is the day of the LORD God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge himself on his adversaries.  The sword shall devour; it shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood; for the LORD God of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the River Euphrates.  Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt; in vain you will use many medicines; you shall not be cured.  The nations have heard of your shame.  And your cry has filled the land; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty; they both have fallen together.”  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carchemish and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashur-uballit_II and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah to see this battle and why it was being fought.  Josiah tried to stop Pharaoh Necho and his chariot forces who were heading north through Megiddo on the way to Haran, and the battle ended up being fought in Carchemish near the Euphrates.

Nebuchadnezzar Strikes Egypt and Pharaoh Hophra

Verses 14-26, “The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come and strike the land of Egypt.  Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Tahpanhes; say, Stand fast and prepare yourselves, for the sword devours all around you.  Why are your valiant men swept away?  They did not stand because the LORD drove them away.  He made many fall; Yes, one fell upon another.  And they said, ‘Arise!  Let us go back to our own people and to the land of our nativity from the oppressing sword.’  They cried there, ‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise, he has passed the appointed time!’  ‘As I live,’ says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, ‘Surely as Tabor is among the mountains and as Carmel by the sea, so he shall come.  O you daughter dwelling in Egypt, prepare yourself to go into captivity!  For Noph [ancient Memphis] shall be waste and desolate, without inhabitant.  Egypt is a pretty heifer, but destruction comes, it comes from the north.  Also her mercenaries are in her midst like bulls.  For they also are turned back, they have fled away together.  They did not stand, for the day of their calamity had come upon them, the time of their punishment.  Her noise shall go like a serpent, for they shall march with an army and come against her with axes, like those who chop wood.  They shall cut down her forest,’ say the LORD, ‘though it cannot be searched, because they are innumerable, and more numerous than grasshoppers.  The daughter of Egypt shall be ashamed; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.’  The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will bring punishment on Amon [the sun god of the Egyptians] of No [ancient Thebes], and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings---Pharaoh and those who trust him.  And I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of his servants.  Afterward it shall be inhabited as in the days of old,’ says the LORD.”  That last part of verse 26 shows that Nebuchadnezzar would cease his attack against the Egyptians when they fled south, and that they would resumed normal life south in Egypt, while Nebuchadnezzar went back to his siege of Jerusalem, which is exactly what happened.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apries. 

A Word For Israel Concerning Her Millennial Restoration

Verses 27-28, “‘But do not fear, O my servant Jacob, and do not be dismayed, O Israel!  For behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity; Jacob shall return, have rest and be at ease; no one shall make him afraid.  Do not fear, O Jacob my servant,’ says the LORD, ‘for I am with you; for I will make a complete end of all the nations to which I have driven you.  But I will not make a complete end of you.  I will rightly correct you, for I will not leave you wholly unpunished.’”

Jeremiah 47:1-7

Halley says “This prophecy, foretelling the desolation of Philistia by Babylon, was fulfilled 20 years later when Nebuchadnezzar took Judah.”  By saying “20 years later”, Halley is surmising, probably accurately, that God gave this prophecy to Jeremiah early on in his ministry when Josiah was still alive, and that Baruch had inserted it here at the end of the book.

Verses 1-7, “The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.  Thus says the LORD:  ‘Behold, waters rise out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood; they shall overflow the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell within; then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.  [Comment:  the terms ‘waters, and rising floods’ are often used in the Bible to denote an army, as seen here when taken in context with verses 3-6]  At the noise of the stamping hooves of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers will not look back for their children, lacking courage, because of the day that comes to plunder all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains; for the LORD shall plunder the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor [Bible maps show Caphtor as the island of Crete].  Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is cut off within the remnant of their valley.  How long will you cut yourself?  O you sword of the LORD, how long until you are quiet, seeing the LORD has given a charge against Ashkelon and against the seashore?  There he has appointed it.”  Yahweh is angry with these nations who were allied to the Phoenician Empire’s capital city-states of Tyre and Sidon.  Why?  Because it was Tyre and Sidon, allied to the northern House of Israel, who were responsible for infecting Israel with Baal worship, which ended up infecting the House of Judah, especially during the reign of Manasseh.  But it all originated in Tyre and Sidon, and God held them responsible.  So he just prophecied that he’d cut off all their allies, as a part of his plan to bring down their vast maritime shipping empire.

Jeremiah 48:1-47

Moab helped Nebuchadnezzar fight against Judah, but was later devastated in 582BC.  Now why would Nebuchadnezzar attack a nation which had been allied to him against Judah?  Ammon and Moab are two nations that were often intermingled with each other (descendants of Lot).  Remember Ishmael had been sent by the king of Ammon to kill Gedaliah?  Nebuchadnezzar was dealing with this duplicity and conspiracy, and as we see, he didn’t make any distinction between Ammon and Moab, but treated them as one and the same people.  For centuries the land has laid desolate and sparsely inhabited, the ruins of its many cities testifying to its ancient populousness.  But I believe the people never left the land after being defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, and were the ones who were later absorbed into the general Arab race, but have been known as the Hashemite Kingdom (the modern-day nation of Jordan).  It is the east bank of the Jordan River which occupies the same land that the country of Moab once occupied.  This prophecy then is duel, because it shows God will yet again bring the captivity of Moab in the latter days (verses 40-47), and evidently Moab will enter the time period of the Millennium as a nation and people.  Interestingly enough, Jordan under its Hashemite kings have often quietly sided with the Israeli nation, acting as a buffer between present day Israel and the harsher policies of her Arab neighbors, particularly king Hussein and his father king Abdullah when the Israeli nation was being founded in 1948.  King Abdullah was assassinated for his secret pro-Israeli stance, and numerous assassination attempts were made on his son, king Hussein during his lifetime.

“Against Moab, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:  ‘Woe to Nebo!  For it is plundered, Kirjathaim is shamed and taken; the high stronghold is shamed and dismayed---no more praise of Moab.  In Heshbon they have devised evil against her:  ‘Come, and let us cut her off as a nation.’  You also shall be cut down, O Madmen!  The sword shall pursue you; a voice of crying shall be from Horonaim:  ‘Plundering and great destruction!’  Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard; for in the Ascent of Luhith they ascend with continual weeping; for the descent of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.  ‘Flee, save your lives!  And be like the juniper in the wilderness.  For because you have trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be taken.  And Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together.  [Comment:  Chemosh was the god of Moab.]  And the plunderer shall come against every city; no one shall escape.  The valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken.  Give wings to Moab, that she may flee and get away; for her cities shall be desolate, without any to dwell in them.  Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.  [Comment on verse 10:  “Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD deceitfully,” that is, he who is slothful in carrying out what God has commanded…many people are doing the work of the Lord, but many times we are doing it slothfully…”and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.”  We’re in the midst of powerful spiritual warfare as believers in this world we find ourselves in.  Many believers there be that draw back from the “battle” we’ve been called to wage.  We all have a part to play, just as this website is doing (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/memphisbelle.htm).]  Moab has been at ease from his youth; he has settled on his dregs, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into captivity.  Therefore behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I shall send him wine-workers [literally: tippers of wine bottles] who will tip him over and empty his vessels and break the bottles.  Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.  How can you say, We are mighty and strong men for the war?  Moab is plundered and gone up from her cities; her young chosen men have gone down to the slaughter,’ says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.  ‘The calamity of Moab is near at hand, and his affliction comes quickly.  Bemoan him, all you who are around him; and all you who know his name.  Say, How the strong staff is broken, the beautiful rod!  O daughter inhabiting Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the plunderer of Moab has come against you, he has destroyed your strongholds.  O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and watch; ask him who flees and her who escapes; say, What has happened?  Moab is shamed, for he is broken down.  Wail a cry!  Tell it in Arnon, that Moab is plundered.  And judgment has come on the plain country:  On Holon and Jahzah and Mephaath, on Dibon and Nebo and Beth Diblathaim, on Kirjathaim and Beth Gamul and Beth Meon, on Kerioth and Bozrah, on all the cities of Moab, far and near.  The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,’ says the LORD.  ‘Make him drunk, because he has exalted himself against the LORD.  Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he shall also be in derision.  For was not Israel derision to you?  Was he found among thieves?  For whenever you speak of him, you shake your head in scorn.  You who dwell in Moab, leave the cities and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove which makes her nest in the sides of the cave’s mouth.  [Comment: verse 28 is often taken as a Scripture referring to “a place of safety” during the period of the Great Tribulation by those who hold to the Classic Pre-Millennial interpretation of 2^nd coming prophecies.  Verse 47 indicates this prophecy is duel, having been fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar in 582BC, and yet again “in the latter days”.  Why do these believers think that?  Because it cross-references to Isaiah 42:11-12, which says, “Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains, let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands.”  Verse 13 puts this into a 2^nd coming of the Messiah context, “The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war:  he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.”  Continue reading through verses 16 if you don’t believe me.  Here’s a prophecy in Isaiah the LORD is giving to Moab during the Tribulation period.  It’s found in Isaiah 16:1-5, “Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela [Sela is an ancient Biblical name for Petra] to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.  For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.  Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray [betray] not him that wandereth.  Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler:  for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.  And in mercy shall the throne be established; and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.”  Verses 6-11 of Isaiah 16 show this is a parallel passage to Jeremiah chapter 48, and ties right into Jeremiah 48:28.  Look up Isaiah 16:1-14 and read the whole passage for yourself.]  We have heard the pride of Moab (he is exceedingly proud), of his loftiness and arrogance and pride, and of the haughtiness of his heart.  I know his wrath,’ says the LORD, ‘but it is not right; his lies have made nothing right.  Therefore I will wail for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; I will mourn for the men of Kir Heres.  O vine of Sibmah!  I will weep for you with the weeping of Jazer.  Your plants have gone over the sea, they reach to the sea of Jazer.  The plunderer has fallen on your summer fruit and your vintage.  Joy and gladness are taken from the plentiful field and from the land of Moab; I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses; no one will tread with joyous shouting---not joyous shouting!  From the cry of Heshbon to Elealeh and to Jahaz they have uttered their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim, like a three-year old heifer; for the waters of Nimrim also shall be desolate.  Moreover,’ says the LORD, ‘I will cause to cease in Moab the one who offers sacrifices in the high places and burns incense to the gods.  [Comment:  as seen in that archaeological site in Salem, NH, temples of Baal doubled as Calendrical observatories, so they could determine exact dates for special sacrificial days. Thus they had to be on hills for good solar observations.  Refer back to Jeremiah chapter 32 in this study to see that site and a description of how it worked.]  Therefore my heart shall wail like flutes for Moab, and like flutes my heart shall wail for the men of Kir Heres.  [Why does the LORD wail and mourn for these people?  God loves all people, and hates it when he has to punish them, often through other nations.  Jesus cried, shed tears over Jerusalem just before he was crucified, knowing of the city’s coming destruction both in 70AD and 135AD.]  Therefore the riches they have acquired have perished.  For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped; on all hands shall be cuts, and on the loins sackcloth---a general lamentation on all the housetops of Moab, and in its streets; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which is no pleasure,’ says the LORD.  [Pastor Chuck Smith in his Word For Today NKJV study Bible comments on this verse 38, “The Bible speaks about us as vessels.  God has many vessels, some of honor and some of dishonor.  As a vessel, my purpose is to contain God.  What a marvelous thing!  We have this treasure in earthen vessels, in clay pots, that the glory may be to God instead of us.  God does things that are rather ludicrous.  He puts the treasure in an earthen vessel.  He invests himself in men.  He works through men.  But he desires to work through unlikely men in order that the glory might be to God and not to man.  That’s why God uses people like me.  People are always saying, “Well how in the world does God use him?”  “Well, that’s so the glory might be to God.”  They come and try to figure out, you know, “What’s he got?”  “Nothing!”  “Well, how come then?”  “Because that’s the Lord.”  But here is a vessel [verse 38] in which God finds no pleasure.  This is speaking of a person’s life, and how tragic when God would say that of an individual [or in this case, a nation], “I have no pleasure in him.  He’s a useless vessel.”  Ibed. p. 1023  See also Isaiah 52:11, “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.”]  They shall wail:  How she is broken down!  How Moab has turned her back with shame!  So Moab shall be a derision and a dismay to all those about her.’” 

Future Fulfillment Coming

Verses 40-47 show this has a future fulfillment during the Tribulation.  Verses 40-47, “For thus says the LORD:  ‘Behold, one shall fly like an eagle, and spread his wings over Moab.  Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are surprised:  The mighty men’s hearts in Moab on that day shall be like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.  And Moab shall be destroyed as a people.  Because he exalted himself against the LORD.  Fear and the pit and the snare shall be upon you, O inhabitant of Moab,’ says the LORD.  ‘He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who gets out of the pit shall be caught in the snare.  For upon Moab, upon it I will bring the year of their punishment,’ say the LORD.  ‘Those who fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of exhaustion.  But a fire shall come out of Heshbon, a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the brow of Moab, the crown of the head of the sons of tumult.  Woe to you, O Moab!  The people of Chemosh perish; for your sons have been taken captive, and your daughters captive.  Yet will I bring back the captives of Moab in the latter days,’ says the LORD.  Thus far is the judgment of Moab.”

Jeremiah 49:1-39

Judgment On Various Nations

As with the last chapter, the prophecies in chapter 49 appear to be duel, with a fulfillment which took place during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and a future fulfillment during the period leading up to the 2^nd Coming of the Messiah, Yeshua.  I will color code them red.  We’ll see for sure later how these prophecies apply after Jesus returns.  Ammon and Moab reside in the modern-day nation of Jordan now.  Edom is believed by some to be the modern-day nation of Turkey.  Damascus, obviously, is Syria, even today.  Kedar and Hazor ceased to exist.  Elam was Persia, and is modern-day Iran.

Judgment on Ammon

Verses 1-6, “Against the Ammonites:  Thus says the LORD:  ‘Has Israel no sons?  Has he no heirs?  Why then does Milcom inherit Gad, and his people dwell in its cities?  [The tribe of Gad, one of the ten tribes in the northern House of Israel, captured by the Assyrians in the 740s BC, lies on the eastern side of the Jordan River.  Now the Jordanians, descendants of Ammon and Moab, live in the tribal lands of Gad, Rueben and the half tribe of Manasseh.  The LORD is saying that’s about to change.  This has to be referring to the time of the Tribulation.]  Therefore behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will cause to be heard an alarm of war in Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall be a desolate mound, and her villages shall be burned with fire.  Then Israel shall take possession of his inheritance,’ says the LORD.  [Israel, the tribes of Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh have not returned to the eastern half of the Jordan since they left the area in the 740s BC, so this prophecy most definitely ties into the Tribulation and 2^nd coming in time sequence, and just after it.]  ‘Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is plundered!  Cry, you daughters of Rabbah, gird yourselves with sackcloth!  Lament and run to and fro by the walls; for Milcom shall go into captivity with his priests and his princes together.  Why do you boast in the valleys, your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter?  Who trusted in her treasures, saying, Who will come against me?  Behold, I will bring fear upon you,’ says the Lord GOD of hosts, ‘from all those around you; you shall be driven out, everyone headlong, and no one will gather those who wander off.  But afterward I will bring back the captives of the people of Ammon,’ says the LORD.

Judgment on Edom

Verses 7-22, “Against Edom: thus says the LORD of hosts:  ‘Is wisdom no more in Teman?  Has counsel perished from the prudent?  Has their wisdom vanished?  Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan!  For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will punish him.  If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes?  If thieves by night, would they not destroy until they have enough?  But I have made Esau bare; I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself.  His descendants are plundered, his brethren and his neighbors, and he is no more.  Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me.’  For thus says the LORD:  ‘Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk.  And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished?  You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it.  For I have sworn by myself,’ says the LORD, ‘that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse.  And all its cities shall be perpetual wastes [ruins].’  I have heard a message from the LORD, and an ambassador has been sent to the nations:  ‘Gather together, come against her, and rise up to battle!  For indeed, I will make you small among nations, despised among men.  Your fierceness has deceived you, the pride of your heart, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill!  Though you make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there,’ says the LORD.  ‘Edom also shall be an astonishment; everyone who goes by it will be astonished and will hiss at all its plagues.  As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,’ says the LORD.  ‘No one shall remain there, nor shall a son of man dwell in it.  Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan against the dwelling place of the strong; but I will suddenly make him run away from her.  And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?  For who is like me?  Who will arraign me?  And who is that shepherd who will withstand me?’”  There was a prior fulfillment of this by Nebuchadnezzar, when Edom lived in the Mount Seir/Petra region, and there also will be a future fulfillment when Edom attempts to stop the “refugees” of Israel (the northern ten tribes of the House of Israel) from returning to the Promised Land out of “the land of the north.”    “Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that he has taken against Edom, and his purposes that he has proposed against the inhabitants of Teman:  Surely he shall make their dwelling places desolate with them.  The earth shakes at the noise of their fall; at the cry its noise is heard at the Red Sea.  Behold, he shall come up and fly like an eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah; the heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.”

Judgment on Damascus

Verses 23-27,  “Against Damascus.  Hamath and Arpad are shamed, for they have heard bad news.  They are fainthearted; there is trouble on the sea; it cannot be quiet.  Damascus has grown feeble; she turns to flee, and fear has seized her.  Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor.  Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of my joy?  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,’ says the LORD of hosts.  ‘I will kindle a fire in wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.’”  Again, this will have a future fulfillment, just as it had a prior fulfillment under Nebuchadnezzar.  Syria is a chief enemy of the Israeli nation and has constantly sought her destruction.  Again that won’t go unpunished.

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor

Verses 28-33, “Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall strike.  Thus says the LORD:  ‘Arise, go to Kedar, and devastate the mean of the East!  Their tents and their flocks they shall take away.  They shall take for themselves their curtains, all their vessels and their camels; and they shall cry out to them, ‘Fear is on every side!’  ‘Flee, get far away!  Dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Hazor!’ says the LORD.  ‘For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a plan against you.  Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely,’ says the LORD, ‘which has neither gates nor bars, dwelling alone.  Their camels shall be for booty, and the multitude of their cattle for plunder.  I will scatter to all winds those in the farthest corners, and I will bring calamity from all its sides,’ says the LORD.  ‘Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever;. no one shall reside there, nor son of man dwell in it.’  [And I’m willing to bet Hazor is merely a mound archaeologists like to scrape and dig around.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Hazor]

Judgment on Elam

Verses 34-39, “The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts:  ‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might.  Against Elam I will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and scatter them toward all those winds; there shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go.  For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before her enemies and before those who seek their life.  I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.  I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from there the king and the princes,’ says the LORD.  ‘But it shall come to pass in the latter days:  I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the LORD.’”

Jeremiah 50:1-46

This is a prophecy that has two fulfillments, past, and future at the time of the Tribulation and 2^nd coming of Jesus Christ.  Verses 4-7 tie right into the returning Houses of Israel and Judah right after the 2^nd coming, leading into the Millennial Kingdom of God, and mentioning a new perpetual covenant being made with them.  I will note specific verses which show this is true.  J. Vernon McGee thinks this is all past, fulfilled when Persia conquered Babylon.  But Revelation reveals another Babylon which is part of the Beast Empire, and this Babylon has nothing to do with the modern-day nation of Iraq.  So let us begin.

Verses 1-7, “The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.  ‘Declare among the nations, proclaim, and set up a standard; proclaim---do not conceal it---say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are humiliated, her images are broken in pieces.’  For out of the north a nation comes up against her, which shall make her land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein.  They shall move, they shall depart, both man and beast.  [Now this has two fulfillments, first one was historic, when General Gobryas of the Medes and Persians invaded Babylon.  But the Persians, Elam, dwelled to the east of Babylon, not to the north.  God is never confused about where he says someone is going to attack from or from which direction they’re going to come from.  Confusion is just not part of his nature, he knows the beginning from the end, and everything inbetween.]  In those days and in that time,’ says the LORD, ‘the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; with continual weeping they shall come, and seek the LORD their God.  They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten.’  [Now if that ain’t a 2^nd coming/Millennial Kingdom of God passage, I’ll eat my hat!  Notice “children of Israel” and “children of Judah” mentioned here.  They haven’t been together since Israel’s being driven out and/or deported from Palestine since the Assyrian invasion in the 700s BC, except for that short 28 year span of time during Josiah’s reign.  This makes this ‘fall of Babylon’ a second fall.  The only other Babylon mentioned in the Bible is in the Book of Revelation, and it’s fall is prophecied in Revelation 18.  This Babylon is a religious-economic system which is an integral part of the Beast empire.]  My people have been lost sheep.  Their shepherds have led them astray; they have turned them away on the mountains.  They have gone from the mountain to the hill; they have forgotten their resting place.  All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, ‘We have not offended, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.’ 

Verses 8-13, “Move from the midst of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldeans; and be like the rams before the flocks.  For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall array themselves against her; from there she shall be captured.  Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; none shall return in vain.  And Chaldea shall become a plunder; all who plunder her shall be satisfied,’ says the LORD.  ‘Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, you destroyers of my heritage, because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain, and you bellow like bulls, your mother shall be deeply ashamed; she who bore you shall be ashamed.  Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert.  Because of the wrath of the LORD she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate.  Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified and hiss at all her plagues.”  [This has two fulfillments, one historic, one yet to come.]    

Verses 14-17, “Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD.  Take vengeance on her.  As she has done, so do to her.  Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle at harvest time.  For fear of the oppressing sword everyone shall turn to his own people, and everyone shall flee to his own land.  [That verse definitely has two fulfillments, the last to be greater than the first.]  Israel is like scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away.  First the king of Assyria devoured him [700s BC]; now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

Verses 18-20, “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:  ‘Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.  But I will bring back Israel to his home, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan; his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.  In those days and in that time,’ says the LORD, ‘the iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I preserve.’”

Verses 21-32, “‘Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod.  Waste and utterly destroy them,’ says the LORD, ‘and do according to all that I have commanded you.  A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.  How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!  How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!  I have laid a snare for you; you have indeed been trapped, O Babylon. And you were not aware; you have been found and also caught, because you have contended against the LORD.  The LORD has opened his armory, and has brought out the weapons of his indignation; for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.  Come against her from the farthest border; open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps of ruins, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.  Slay all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughter.  Woe to them!  For their day has come, the time of their punishment.  The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon declares in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.  Call together the archers against Babylon, all you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around; let none of them escape.  Repay her according to her work; according to all she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.  Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,’ says the LORD.  ‘Behold, I am against you, O most haughty one!’ says the Lord GOD of hosts; for your day has come, the time that I will punish you.  The most proud shall stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up; I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all around him.’”

Final Fall of Babylon

Verses 33-46, “Thus says the LORD of hosts:  ‘The children of Israel were oppressed, along with the children of Judah; all who took them captive have held them fast; they have refused to let them go.  Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name.  He will thoroughly plead their case, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.  A sword is against the Chaldeans,’ says the LORD, ‘against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her princes and her wise men.  A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.  A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.  A sword is against their horses, against her chariots, and against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst; and they will become like women.  A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.  A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up.  For it is a land of carved images, and they are insane with their idols.  [Comment:  Now what religion within our Judeo-Christian nations is “insane with their idols”?  The nation where this religion is headquartered in gives a hint as to where this modern Babylon of Revelation 18 will be located just before Jesus Christ’s 2^nd coming, during the Tribulation.  All these verses in chapter 50 are duel, applying to both Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon and its fall, and to the fall of the future Babylon which will have no ties or connections to the nation of Iraq, but is merely called Babylon by God himself in prophecy.  In verse 41, “Behold a people shall come from the north,” ties this prophecy into 2^nd coming, as Babylon’s attackers, the Persians came from the east, Persia, Elam is east of Babylon, not north of it.  God is very specific in the directions attacking armies come from in his Bible prophecies.  That is why this prophecy is duel, applying to both the historic and future Babylons.]  Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals.  And the ostriches shall dwell in it.  It shall be inhabited no more forever.  Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.  As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,’ says the LORD, ‘so no one shall reside there, nor son of man dwell in it.  Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation and many kings shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.  They shall hold the bow and the lance; they are cruel and shall not show mercy.  Their voice shall roar like the sea; they shall ride on horses, set in array, like a man for the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon.  The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, and his hands grow feeble; anguish has taken hold of him, pangs of a woman in childbirth.  Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan against the dwelling place of the strong; but I will make them suddenly run away from her.  And who is like me?  Who will arraign me?  And who is that shepherd who will withstand me?’  Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that he has taken against Babylon, and his purposes that he has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:  Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely he will make their dwelling place desolate with them.  At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.”  [cf. Revelation 18:9-10]

Jeremiah 51:1-64

There are elements of the historic fall and yet future fall of prophetic Babylon throughout chapter 51.

Verses 1-10, “Thus says the LORD:  ‘Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, against those who dwell in Leb Kamai, a destroying wind.  And I will send winnowers to Babylon, who shall winnow her and empty her land.  For the day of doom they shall be against her all around.  Against her let the archer bend his bow, and lift himself up against her in his armor.  Do not spare her young men; utterly destroy all her army.  Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and those thrust through in her streets.  For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, the LORD of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.  Flee from the midst of Babylon, and every one save his life!  Do not be cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; he shall recompense her.  Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunk.  The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations are deranged.  Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.  Wail for her!  Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed.  [cf. Revelation 18:9,11,19.]  We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed.  Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.  [cf. Revelation 18:5.]  The LORD has revealed our righteousness, come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.”  This most definitely cross-references to Revelation 18. 

Verses 11-14, “Make the arrows bright!  [polish the arrows!]  Gather the shields!  The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.  For his plan is against Babylon to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.  Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon; make the guard strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes.  For the LORD has devised and done what he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.  O you who dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your covetousness.  The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself:  ‘Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, and they shall lift up a shout against you.’

Description of the LORD

Verses 15-19, “He has made the earth by his power; he has established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heaven by his understanding.  When he utters his voice---there is a multitude of waters in the heavens:  he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain; he brings the wind out of his treasuries.  Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image; for his molded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.  They are futile, a work of errors; in the time of their punishment they shall perish.  The Portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the Maker of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.  The LORD of hosts is his name.”

The LORD’s Description of Nebuchadnezzar, and later fall of Babylon

Verses 20-35, “‘You are my battle-ax and weapons of war:  for with you I will break the nation in pieces; with you I will destroy kingdoms; with you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; with you I will break the chariot and its rider; with you also I will break in pieces man and woman; with you I will break in pieces old and young; with you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden; with you I also will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.  And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion in your sight,’ says the LORD.  ‘Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth,’ says the LORD.  [Comment:  Here we see how the word “mountain” is used in the Bible’s symbolic language to refer directly to a nation, kingdom or empire.  This term if often found being used like that in the Book of Isaiah, as well as in Daniel.]   They shall not take from you a stone for a corner nor a stone for a foundation, but you shall be desolate forever,’ says the LORD.  Set up a banner in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations!  Prepare the nations against her, call the kingdoms together against her:  Ararat, Minni [the Mitanni], and Ashkenaz.  Appoint a general against her [General Gobryas, Cyrus’ and Darius’ top general]; cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.  Prepare against her the nations, with the kings of the Medes, its governors and all its rulers, all the land of his dominion.  And the land will tremble and sorrow; for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.  The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting, they have remained in their strongholds; their might is failed, they became like women; they have burned her dwelling places, the bars of her gate are broken.  One runner will run to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides; the passages are blocked, the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are terrified.  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:  ‘The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor when it is time to thresh her; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come.’ [Judah vicariously speaking in these next few verses.]  ‘Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a monster; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies, he has spit me out.  Let the violence done to me and my flesh be done upon Babylon,’ the inhabitant of Zion will say; ‘and my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!’ Jerusalem will say.”  Jeremiah was dead when this prophecy was fulfilled by general Gobryas and Cyrus the Great of Persia, 66 years after Babylon’s first deportation of Jews from Jerusalem in 605 BC. 

Verses 36-44, “Therefore thus says the LORD:  ‘Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.  I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.  Babylon shall become a heap, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabitant.  They shall roar together like lions, they shall growl like lions’ whelps.  In their excitement I will prepare their feasts; I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake,’ says the LORD.  ‘I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.  Oh, how Sheshach is taken!  [Sheshach, a code word for Babylon, Jer. 25:26]  Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!  How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!  The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.  Her cities are a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land where no one dwells, through which no son of man passes.  I will punish Bel in Babylon,  [Bel was a god of Babylon, but also of the ancient Celts, and was the equivalent of Baal, as inscriptions dedicating the same temple to both Bel and Baal have been found.] and I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; and the nations shall not stream to him anymore.

Elements of the Tribulation Babylon seen in the following verses

Verses 45-58, “‘My people, go out of the midst of her!  And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the LORD.  And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land (a rumor will come one year.  And after that, in another year a rumor will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler).  [possibly cross-referencing to Daniel 11:44, which takes place at the end of the second year in the tribulation.  Don’t forget, a lot of prophecies are in code, with former and latter fulfillments written into them.  This verse also cross-references to Revelation 18:4, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”]  Therefore behold, the days are coming that I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon; her whole land shall be ashamed, and all her slain shall fall in her midst.  Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them shall sing joyously over Babylon; for the plunderers shall come to her from the north,’ says the LORD.  [Ancient Babylon’s plunderers came from the east, Persia, Biblical Elam.  This next verse is a little bit more all encompassing than Babylon ever was.]  As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.  You who have escaped the sword, get away!  Do not stand still!  Remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.  We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.  Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house.  Therefore behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will bring judgment on her carved images, and throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.  Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven, and though she were to fortify the height of her strength, yet from me plunderers would come to her,’ says the LORD.  The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans.  Because the LORD is plundering Babylon and silencing her loud voice, though her waves roar like great waters, and the noise of their voice is uttered, because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men are taken.  Every one of their bows is broken; for the LORD is the God of recompense, he will surely repay.  ‘And I will make drunk her princes and wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.  And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake,’ says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.  Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; the people will labor in vain, and the nations, because of the fire; and they shall be weary.’  [Babylon had great walls that encompassed the city.  This prophecy goes back and forth, and elements within this prophecy apply to both the old Babylon and the prophetic Babylon of Revelation 13, 17 and 18.]

Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah

Verses 59-64, “The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah [this appears to be Baruch’s brother, as he was also the ‘son of Neriah.’], when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign.  And Seraiah was the quartermaster.  So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.  And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, ‘When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, then you shall say, ‘O LORD, you have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’  Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates.  Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her.  And they shall be weary.’”  [Baruch obviously tacked this onto the prophecies about Babylon, where it fits.  Obviously this these last five verses where written well after the actual prophecies against Babylon were written down.]

Jeremiah 52:1-34

The Fall of Jerusalem in Review

What Jeremiah first gave as prophecy he now writes as history

Verses 1-11, “Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.  His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah [not the prophet, who was unmarried].  He also did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.  For because of the anger of the LORD this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till he finally cast them out from his presence.  Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.  Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around.  So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.  By the fourth month [of this 11^th year of Zedekiah], on the ninth day of the month, the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.  Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around.  And they went by way of the plain.  But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho.  All his army was scattered from him.  So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him.  Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes.  And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah.  He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

Verses 12-26, “Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.  He burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire.  And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.  Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.  But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.  The bronze pillars that were in the house of the LORD, and the carts and bronze Sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon.  They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered.  The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away.  The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which king Solomon had made for the house of the LORD---the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.  Now concerning the pillars:  the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was four fingers [3 inches]; it was hollow.  A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze.  The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same.  There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates, all around the network, were one hundred.”  That was a whole lot of bronze, probably weighing multiple tons.

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

Verses 24-30, “The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three door-keepers.  He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principle scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.  And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.  Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath.  Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.  These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews [that would have been in 605BC, Daniel, his three friends, and Ezekiel were probably taken to Babylon in this deportation.]; in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar [deportation of Jeconiah, 597BC] he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar [586BC], Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons.  [Not that many people survived the siege of Jerusalem, obviously.  745 people is not that many for Jerusalem and all of Judea.]  All the persons were four thousand six hundred.”

Jehoiachin [Jeconiah] Released from Prison

Verses 31-34, “Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin [Jeconiah] king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up [showed favor to] the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.  And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon.  So Jehoiachin [Jeconiah] changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life.  And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.”

End of this commentary on Jeremiah

Lamentations, and explanation

J. Vernon McGee has this to say about Lamentations, “Jeremiah began his ministry during the reign of Josiah.  Both he and Josiah were young men, and they were evidently friends.  It was Josiah who led the last revival in Judah  It was a revival in which a great many hearts were touched, but on the whole it proved to be largely a surface movement.”  Josiah met his untimely death in the battle at Megiddo against Pharaoh Necho, a battle that Josiah never should have been in.”  [That’s J. Vernon McGee’s opinion.  But considering the geopolitical rise and fall of empires, Josiah was siding with Babylon and the retreating Black Sea Scythian-Israelites who had just retreated out of the land, against a potential resurgence of the Assyrian Empire which Pharaoh Necho was attempting to facilitate.]  Jeremiah, however, continued his prophetic ministry during the reigns of the four wretched kings who followed Josiah:  Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin [Jeconiah], and Zedekiah, the last king of Judah.  His was a harsh message [delivered with love and compassion] as he attempted to call his people and his nation back to God, but he was never able to deter the downward course of Judah.  He witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem; and as he saw it burn, he sat down in the warm ashes, hot with tears coursing down his cheeks.  The Book of Lamentations is composed of five chapters, and each chapter is an elegy [eulogy?], almost a funeral dirge.  These elegies are sad beyond description.  In them we see Jeremiah as he stood over Jerusalem weeping.  This book is filled with tears and sorrow. It is a paean of pain, a poem of pity, a proverb of pathos.  It is a hymn of heartbreak, a psalm of sadness, a symphony of sorrow, and a story of sifting.  Lamentations is the wailing wall of the Bible.”  [THRU THE BIBLE, Vol. III, ,p. 425, par. 3-4] 

How should we English speaking peoples view the Book of Jeremiah?

Considering the downward moral spiral the United States and English speaking peoples in England, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa are headed in, can we learn a lesson from the book of Jeremiah?  We know that a future captivity is going to take place, at the hands of a revived Holy Roman Empire of some kind, rising up in Europe, and that at the end of the tribulation period all the tribes of Israel, not just the Jews, are going to be re-gathered by Jesus Christ, re-gathered back into the Promised Land in Palestine.  Is there hope for the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa?  Take an honest look at what’s coming on the scene at these links.  In the light of the knowledge contained on those links, what do you thing that we, in the Body of Christ ought to be doing?  What job did Jesus give the Body of Christ to accomplish just before he ascended back up to heaven?  It is found on the Mission Statement of this site (or simply read Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15-16).

http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm

http://www.unityinchrist.com/revelation/Pentecost-Revetion1.htm

http://www.unityinchrist.com/missionstatement.htm

Lamentations is only five chapters, open your Bibles and read this one for yourselves.