Jeremiah 40:5

40:1-6 The captain of the guard seems to glory that he had been God's instrument to fulfil, what Jeremiah had been God's messenger to foretell. Many can see God's justice and truth with regard to others, who are heedless and blind as to themselves and their own sins. But, sooner or later, all men shall be made sensible that their sin is the cause of all their miseries. Jeremiah has leave to dispose of himself; but is advised to go to Gedaliah, governor of the land under the king of Babylon. It is doubtful whether Jeremiah acted right in this decision. But those who desire the salvation of sinners, and the good of the church, are apt to expect better times from slight appearances, and they will prefer the hope of being useful, to the most secure situations without it.

Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, go back also to Gedaliah,.... These words, by different versions, are made difficult to be understood, both, whose words they are, and of whom they are spoken. Jarchi makes them to be words of God, and the sense this, "and by all this he (Jeremiah) had no mind to return; and God said to him, go back to Gedaliah.'' According to the Targum, they are the words of Nebuzaradan, which paraphrases them thus; "if thou wilt not return (that is, with him to Babylon, or rather to Jerusalem, or best to his own native place), or if thou wilt not dwell (that is, in this place), go back to Gedaliah.'' But of whom they are spoken interpreters differ. Some say of Zedekiah, as Cocceius; while he (Zedekiah) does not return, that is, to Jerusalem; which possibly he might, though as yet not determined by the king of Babylon; in the mean while is bid to go to Gedaliah, appointed governor. Others of Gedaliah, thus, while he (Gedaliah) does not return, but stays at Mizpah, go to him thither.

Though it seems best to understand it of Jeremiah, who, having had leave from the captain, did not immediately set out anywhere; but, seething to be at a loss which way to go, Nebuzaradan gives him his advice; that seeing he did not care to go to Babylon, that he would go to Gedaliah the son of, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over all the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; this was one of the princes of Judah, who, during the siege, went over to the Chaldeans, and who was in great esteem with them; and being, no doubt, recommended to the king of Babylon by his generals, he made him governor of the land under him: or go wherever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go; though he gave him his advice, he did not press it, but left him at full liberty to take his own way, and go into what part of the land he pleased, and settle in it: so the captain of the guard gave him victuals, and a reward, and let him go; the prophet was just come out of prison, and destitute of the necessaries of life, and the land was laid waste by the enemy; and therefore he could not have subsisted without a supply, which was liberally given by the captain; not only food for present refreshment, and sufficient for his journey, which way soever he took, but a present of money or clothes, or both; which was very kind usage of a prophet by a Heathen officer.

Jeremiah 40:5-6 . Now while he was not yet gone back — Hebrew, ועודנו לא ישׁוב , while he would not yet return, he said, &c. — The prophet seems to have been in doubt at first what course to take. The Chaldee reads the clause, If thou wilt not abide [here] go back to Gedaliah. understanding the verb ישׁוב as if it were derived from ישׁב , to abide, words of a like sound having often a promiscuous signification. This Gedaliah was a person of considerable interest and authority. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward — It was by the particular order of Nebuchadnezzar that the prophet was used in this kind manner. Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah to Mizpah — A town in the confines of Judah and Benjamin, where Gedaliah fixed his residence, being a place of note in the times of the judges, and afterward rebuilt by King Asa. See the margin.

Verse 5. - Now while he was not yet, etc. This rendering, however, seems against the Hebrew usage. Two renderings are open to us. 1. "But since one returneth not from Babylon, then go back to Gedaliah," etc.; so Hitzig. 2. Taking ver. 5 as a continuation of "but if it seemeth ill to thee," etc., "forbear" (in ver. 4), and, supplying, "I have spoken the word," continue, "and it shall not be reversed; yea, go back;" so Graf, regarding the passage as an explanation of the permission to "forbear." A reward; rather, a present. Jeremiah 40:5

Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go.

(5) Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. —The captain of the guard seems to have felt, on second thoughts, possibly after hearing the prophet’s unrecorded answer, that he had not taken sufficient precaution for Jeremiah’s safety, and therefore consigns him once more to the care of his friend and protector. On parting with him he treats him as an honoured guest, sends him a portion of food from his own table (comp. Jeremiah 52:34 )—a welcome gift, doubtless, after the privations of the siege—and an honorarium, in money as a compensation for the sufferings he had undergone as a preacher of submission to the conqueror. Governor over the cities of Judah.—The official title is significant. Jerusalem is treated as if it had been blotted from the face of the earth, and required no superintendence. Gedaliah, the prophet’s friend, had obviously acted on his counsels, and accepted the sovereignty of Nebuchadnezzar as being for the time the ordinance of God. A true patriot might well hold it to be his duty at such a time to accept office under the conqueror, in the hope of being able to do something for the remnant of the nation that was left under his charge.

While he was not yet gone back: it is not much material whether we interpret the he here mentioned of Jeremiah or Gedaliah. If we interpret it of Jeremiah, the sense is, that before Jeremiah was gone out of the presence of Nebuzar-adan, he, either by his silence, or by some declaration of his mind that is not here recorded, declaring that he was more inclined to stay in his own country, Nebuzaradan bid him, Go back, & c. If we understand it of Gedaliah, the sense must be, Because Gedaliah is not to come back any more to me, go thou to him , &c. We read that the king of Babylon left Gedaliah as his viceroy or deputy in Judah. What he was, more than the son of Ahikam. and grandchild of Shaphan, the Scripture tells us not, only that he was left by the king of Babylon as ruler over the people he thought fit to leave, 2 Kings 25:22 ; probably he was one of them who, during the siege, had gone out to the king of Babylon: to him the captain of the guard directeth the prophet, but gives him liberty to dwell where he pleaseth; so sends him away with victuals and a reward. It is more than probable that the king of Babylon had heard from some of the Jews, who, during the siege, had made an escape to his army, that the scope of the prophet’s prophecies were for the delivery of the city, and the Jews’ submission to him, as was before said.

5. while he was not yet gone back—parenthetical. When Jeremiah hesitated whether it would be best for him to go, Nebuzara-dan proceeded to say, "Go, then, to Gedaliah," (not as English Version, "Go back, also"), if thou preferrest (as Nebuzara-dan inferred from Jeremiah's hesitancy) to stop here rather than go with me. victuals—(Isa 33:16). reward—rather, "a present." This must have been a seasonable relief to the prophet, who probably lost his all in the siege.

Nebuzaradan then declared him free: "And now, behold, I free thee this day from the shackles on thine hands. If it please thee to come with me to Babylon, then come, and I will set mine eye upon thee (i.e., take thee under my protection, cf. Jeremiah 39:12 ). But if it please thee not to come with me to Babylon, then let it be so. See, the whole country is before thee (cf. Genesis 13:9 ; Genesis 20:5 , etc.); whithersoever it pleases thee, and seems right to thee to go, go." Jeremiah 40:5 . And because Jeremiah had not yet returned, he said, "Go back to Gedaliah,...whom the king of Babylon hath set over the cities of Judah, and remain with him among the people; or go wherever it seemeth right to thee to go." And the commander of the guard gave him what provisions he required and a present, and sent him away; thereafter Jeremiah went to Gedaliah to Mizpah, and remained there among the people who had been left behind in the land ( Jeremiah 40:6 ). The words ועדנּוּ were certainly misunderstood by the old translators, who made various conjectures as to their meaning; even yet, Dahler, Movers, Graf, and Nהgelsbach are of opinion that "it is impossible to understand" this sentence, and that the text is plainly corrupt.

Luther renders: "for no one will any longer return thither." Hitzig considers this translation substantially correct, and only requiring to be a little more exactly rendered: "but there, no one returns home again." Apart, however, from the consideration that on this view עדנּוּ, which stands at the head of the sentence, does not get full justice paid to it, the thought does not accord with what precedes, and the reference of the suffix to the indefinite "person" or "one" is extremely forced. According to what goes before, in which Nebuzaradan gives the prophet full liberty of choosing whether he would go with him to Babylon or remain in the country, in whatever part he likes, and from the following advice which he gives him, "Go, or return, to Gedaliah," the words עדנּוּ לא ישׁוּב, on account of the third person (ישׁוּב), cannot certainly be an address of the chief captain to Jeremiah, and as little can they contain a remark about going to Babylon.