The Answer They Asked for, but Did Not Want

In 43:2 this man is called Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and the Greek reads Azariah here too, so the two names probably belong to one man. “From the least even unto the greatest” is the phrase of 6:13 and 8:10, where everyone from least to greatest was given to greed; now everyone comes asking for guidance.

“A few of many” recalls the covenant curse of Deuteronomy 28:62: “ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude.” They plead in the same falling-prostrate idiom Jeremiah used before Zedekiah (37:20), now turned towards the prophet himself.

They ask for “the way wherein we may walk” from the lodging place near Bethlehem, where 41:17 has already set them, and that lodging stood on the road south to Egypt. They ask for directions while standing on the road they have already chosen.

“I will keep nothing back” echoes Jeremiah’s own commission in the temple court: “diminish not a word” (26:2). He promises to be the same prophet to them that he was to kings, which, given how kings fared, is a warning as well as a reassurance.

Calling God as witness between two parties is covenant language, as when Laban said “God is witness betwixt me and thee” (Genesis 31:50). “True and faithful” doubles the terms: emet and ne’eman. They invoke on themselves the penalty of a broken oath.

The pledge sounds like Israel at Sinai: “All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). Here too the people promise before they have heard the terms. Their stated reason is Deuteronomy’s, “that it may be well with us.”

Jeremiah waits. He had waited once before, after Hananiah broke the yoke, going his way until the word came (28:11–12). For people who feared a Babylonian reprisal at any hour, ten days on the road was a long time to stand still.

The whole company is summoned by the same list as verse 1. The place matters: near Bethlehem, a few hours’ walk from the ruined city, so “this land” in the answer means ground they can see from where they stand.

The answer opens by reciting their commission back to them, “unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication”, the formal manner of an envoy reporting. They had sent the prophet as their messenger; he returns as God’s.

The four verbs repeat 24:6 almost exactly: “I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.” There the promise was for the good figs, the exiles in Babylon. Here it is extended to the remnant still in Judah.

“I am with you to save you, and to deliver you” is the promise made to Jeremiah at his call, “I am with thee to deliver thee” (1:8), now given to the whole remnant. “Be not afraid” is said twice, with the object of their fear named between the two.

God will show mercy, “that he may have mercy”: Nebuchadnezzar’s clemency is to be God’s mercy in action. “Cause you to return to your own land” is odd for people who have not left; several ancient translations, the Latin Vulgate among them, read “cause you to dwell”, a small change in the Hebrew.

The word anticipates their refusal and quotes it before they have spoken it. “If ye say” turns the rest of the answer into a script of what they will say, and it will be word for word what 43:2 records.

“The sound of the trumpet” is the shofar, the alarm blown from the hills as the enemy approached; Jeremiah had cried “blow ye the trumpet in the land” in 4:5 and heard it in his own chest in 4:19. Egypt promises a country where the alarm does not sound.

“To sojourn” is gur, to live as resident aliens, the verb used when Jacob’s sons told Pharaoh, “For to sojourn in the land are we come” (Genesis 47:4). Deuteronomy 17:16 had said, “Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.” The exodus is about to run backwards.

“Overtake” is the verb of a pursuer catching up; “follow close after” is davaq, to cling or stick, the word used of a man cleaving to his wife (Genesis 2:24). The famine will not merely follow them; it will cling to them.

“None of them shall remain or escape” uses sarid and palit, survivor and fugitive. The Book of Jeremiah later qualifies it: “a small number that escape the sword shall return” (44:28). The sentence is general, with its exceptions given later.

Four words of disgrace: execration (alah, a curse used in oaths), astonishment, curse, reproach. The list has appeared before, of the exiles in 29:18. “Ye shall see this place no more” is what Jeremiah said of King Shallum, taken to Egypt in 609 BC (22:10–12).

“Admonished” is heidoti, “I have testified against you”, the language of a witness in court. In verse 5 they called the LORD as witness against themselves; the witness has now spoken.

“Dissembled in your hearts” translates a hard Hebrew phrase: literally “you have erred against your souls”, which can mean you deceived yourselves, or you went astray at the cost of your lives. The King James takes it as deceit; other translations hear self-harm.

Jeremiah speaks as though they have already refused, though their refusal is recorded only in 43:2. Some think he read it in their faces; others that these closing verses were placed after the event. The order of the text itself leaves the question unresolved.

“Know certainly” is a doubled verb, knowing ye shall know, repeated from verse 19. Sword, famine and pestilence are named for the second time in the chapter, the same three that were named over besieged Jerusalem (21:9). The chapter ends on the word sojourn.