STUDIES IN JEREMIAH

The 70 Year Captivity

Jeremiah’s first explicit reference, 5:19

“And it will come about when they say, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’”

Note the ParallelismThis is punishment exactly appropriate to

their sin!

Terms and Connotations

Captivity: emphasizes subjugation by enemy; removal of freedom, nationally and personally.

Deportation: emp. (the action of) removal by transportation to another location.

Exile: emp. (the condition of) enforced, prolonged living away from one’s own country..

“Scattering”: emphasizes the violent nature of their removal, with loss of national unity and community

Penalty of Breaking the Covenant

Lev. 26:25, “I will also bring upon you a sword…so that you will be delivered into enemy hands.” V.33, “You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.”

Deut. 4:26-31, Moses preached this threat in his farewell address: “you will surely perish quickly from the land…The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you.”

Penalty…

Deut. 28:32-37, One of the “curses” as consequence of disobedience to Jehovah: “The Lord will bring you…to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known…You shall become a horror…among all the people where the Lord your God drives you.” See also vv. 63-65.

Jer. 11:6-8, “For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt…therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant.”

Some of Jeremiah’s references to Captivity

1:13-16, Vision of the Boiling Pot from North: implied among “My judgments on them”

5:19, First explicit reference9:16, “I will scatter them among the nations”;

10:18, “I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land”; 16:13, “I will hurl you out of this land”

13:17, 19,2415:1-2, Moses’ nor Samuel’s intercession

would avail17:1-4, Because their idolatry indelibly

inscribed!18:15-17, Analogy of the Marred Clay

Significance of Captivity; Deportation

Just as keeping the covenant brought the blessing of enjoying prosperity in the land (Dt. 28:11), so perishing from off the land only emphasized to them their breaking of covenant.

It was the particular land where Jehovah had “chosen to cause My name to dwell.” Since they had profaned His name they should not be allowed to continue dwelling there (“send them away from My presence and let them go!”, Jer. 15:1). Likewise, upon “returning to God,” God would return them to the place of His name. See Neh. 1:8-9

Significance of Captivity; Deportation

Having been redeemed from bondage in Egypt, now for their disobedience “the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ‘You will never see it again!’”(Dt. 28:28).

Hosea decreed their return to Egypt, both literally for some “in the land of Egypt”(7:16), and figuratively, “They will return to Egypt”(8:13), explaining, “They will not return to the land of Egypt; but Assyria – he will be their king, because they refused to return to Me”(11:15)

Significance of Captivity; Deportation

Because they wanted to, and did, serve other gods, Jehovah would remove them from the vicinity of Jerusalem and the temple (site of their true worship) and send them to nations where they would be “forced” to serve other gods, even if indirectly, by serving those kings and peoples. See Jer. 16:11-13

From another prospective, God would force them to do without their means of idolatry. See Hos. 3:4-5

Important Dates

612 - Fall of Nineveh to Babylon609 - Pharaoh Neco kills Josiah enroute to

Haran - Deposed Jehoahaz(3 mo.), installed Jehoiakim605 - Babylon defeats Neco at Carchemish;

Nebuch- adnezzar becomes king; invades Judah

- 1st Deportation to Babylon, including Daniel597 - Jehoiachin begins reign(3 mo.); taken

captive - 2nd Deportation, including Ezekiel - Zedekiah begins reign (of 11 yrs.)586 - Fall of Jer.; Dest. of Temple; 3rd

Deportation

Important Dates (cont.)

586 - Fall of Jerusalem561 - Evil-Merodach releases, elevates

Jehoiachin (Jer. 52:31; 2 Kgs. 25:27)

539 - Fall of Babylon538 - First year of Cyrus; Cyrus’ Decree to

Return and Rebuild536 - Temple foundation laid516 - Temple completed

Photograph of actual Cuneiform tablet documenting Jewish transaction from the period of the Babylonian captivity