Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem... — The prophet’s motive in leaving the city may well have been his apprehension that the answer he had sent would move the king’s anger, and lead, as it actually led, to an order for his arrest. The fact that the Chaldæans had raised the siege gave him free egress.
To separate himself thence in the midst of the people. — More accurately, to take a share from thence in the midst of the people. This gives probably the ostensible reason of his journey. As a priest belonging to Anathoth, he had property (like that which he afterwards bought of his uncle, Jeremiah 32) in the land of Benjamin, and he now went to look after it, either in the way of ploughing and sowing, or to receive his share of its produce during his sojourn in Jerusalem. If, as seems probable from Jeremiah 34:8-16, this was a Sabbatical year, the former, assuming the siege to have been raised when the year was over, would be the more probable alternative, and would better explain, as in Ruth 4:2; Ruth 4:9, the addition of the clause “in the midst of the people,” as showing that there was nothing clandestine in his proceedings. Other meanings that have been given to the words, “to buy bread,” “to till a field,” “to separate a field,” “to conciliate,” “to divide the spoil,” are less satisfactory. At such a time all the owners of land would be eager to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the departure of the Chaldæan army to transact any business connected with it.