The People Of Judah And Their Leaders Reject The Word Of YHWH And Seek Refuge In Egypt (Jeremiah 43:1-7).
Even as Jeremiah had been giving to the people ‘the word of YHWH' he had recognised from their reaction that they were going to reject it. And so it proved. A group of ‘proud men', which included the leaders of the people, came to Jeremiah and accused him of prophesying at the behest of Baruch, the son of Neriah, who had been Jeremiah's amanuensis and was a man of high standing. And they then subsequently sought refuge in Egypt, in the border town of Tahpanes. This had clearly always been their intention, whatever word from YHWH Jeremiah brought them. So once again Judah proved itself unwilling to obey the voice of YHWH.
We must not underestimate the significance of this event. YHWH had made a clear offer to Judah to re-establish it in accordance with His promises in Jeremiah 31:28, by ‘building it and planting it'. This was thus an open and direct rejection of the new covenant. It will be noted that they did not attack Jeremiah directly. They did so through Baruch, suggesting that Jeremiah's influence over many of the people was still large. By this means they justified to themselves their disobedience to the word of YHWH. How easily we can find ourselves doing the same thing. We do not directly refuse to obey God. Instead we find some way of arguing our way round what He demands in order to justify our own position.
‘And it came about that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of YHWH their God, with which YHWH their God had sent him to them, even all these words,'
Note the emphasis on the fact that Jeremiah had brought to them the word of ‘YHWH THEIR God' (repeated twice), and that they had listened while he pronounced the whole. It was a momentous situation. Judah were once more being faced up to the question as to whether they were truly willing to respond to YHWH as THEIR God by obeying His word through Jeremiah, as they had solemnly promised to do (Jeremiah 42:2-5).
‘Then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely. YHWH our God has not sent you to say, “You shall not go into Egypt to sojourn there but Baruch the son of Neriah set you on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captive to Babylon.”
Up to this point Johanan had been the prominent one but now the leadership is taken by Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, who may have been the brother of the Jezaniah mentioned in Jeremiah 42:1, or may indeed be identical with him. (It was not unusual for people to have two names. Some, however, see one of the names as being a copying error, but there is no reason why this should be so, although LXX sees it that way). This may have been because Azariah was the leader of the discontented party, or because in governmental matters he held precedence over the military leaders. The ‘arrogant/proud men' were those whose self-pride made them exalt themselves against YHWH, they were the ‘discontents'. It may simply be a way of describing the whole attitude of the group of leading men.
They came as a group to Jeremiah and informed him that in their view he was speaking falsely, and not bringing them the word of YHWH at all. They refused to believe that YHWH had commanded them not to go to Egypt. It may be significant that they altered what Jeremiah had actually said, replacing ‘al (not at this time) with lo (not at all). This has ever been the method of the deceiver of men, right from the time of his activity in the Plain of Eden.
Indeed they claimed that he had simply been influenced by Baruch, the son of Neriah, his former amanuensis and assistant (Jeremiah 32:12-16; Jeremiah 36:4-32), who was also with the party (Jeremiah 43:6). Baruch was clearly a man from an influential family, and an aristocrat, who undoubtedly owed his freedom to the fact that he had been Jeremiah's close supporter (his brother Seraiah had been transported to Babylon (Jeremiah 51:59) and was designated as a ‘prince' or ‘noble'). He is rebuked elsewhere for a certain tendency to seek greatness and influence (Jeremiah 45:5), a danger for us all. This may suggest that unlike Jeremiah he had taken advantage of Nebuchadrezzar's goodwill to further himself and his ambitions, something for which he had to be rebuked. In Jewish tradition he is depicted as the author of the apocryphal book of Baruch, and is portrayed as having lived in Babylon for a period, and as having had influence there, although we must remember that that book might have arisen directly as a result of what is written here. However that might be, Jeremiah is being accused of being influenced by Baruch with a view to Nebuchadrezzar being able to gain his revenge on them. The words bear all the marks of being an excuse, but they do indicate how sure they were that Nebuchadrezzar would seek to do just that.
Of course most of them had for a long period in the past been prejudiced against Jeremiah, considering him to be a false prophet. Thus in spite of the fact that what he had prophesied came true, and that he had refused to go to Babylon and had remained among them, there was that within them that would always hold Jeremiah in suspicion of being a Babylonian collaborator
‘So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, did not obey the voice of YHWH, to dwell in the land of Judah.'
The consequence was that the commanders of the Judean forces, headed by Johanan, together with ‘all the people' (i.e. those present in the party) did not obey YHWH's voice. They refused to continue living in the land of Judah with the constant threat of Nebuchadrezzar's vengeance hanging over them. There is a reminder here for all of us that before changing our whereabouts we should consider the will of God.
‘But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to sojourn in the land of Judah, the men, and the women, and the children, and the king's daughters, and every person that 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,'
Thus the whole group, ‘the remnant of Judah', decamped and set off for Egypt. It is difficult to know how far the description of those who went with them takes in all the inhabitants of Judah. The description certainly covers the men who were in the various fighting groups who had been guerillas, no doubt along with their families, (they would see themselves as liable to retribution), together with former refugees who had returned to Judah and could be seen as there ‘without permission' (Jeremiah 40:11). And it includes all who had been living in Mizpah under the protection of Gedaliah, who could be seen as liable to suspicion, especially daughters of the royal house who could be made an example of. And it includes Jeremiah and Baruch who were probably forced to go with them (even though they may have been quite willing to go so as to cater to the spiritual needs of the people). But there would be many elsewhere in Judah who had survived the invasion, and among them would be many of ‘the poor of the land' to whom Nebuzaradan had given land who were no doubt scattered throughout Judah (Jeremiah 39:10). None of them had much to fear from Nebuchadrezzar's reprisals. Thus the land may well have remained fairly well populated, as in fact is required by the fact that when Nebuchadrezzar did arrive he was able to take into exile 745 of the leading men in Judah (Jeremiah 51:30), no doubt with their families.
‘And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of YHWH, and they came to Tahpanhes.'
So the refugees made for Egypt, and it is emphasised that this was because ‘they did not obey the voice of YHWH'. And when they came to the border town of Tahpanhes they settled there. A thpnhs is in fact referred to in a Phoenician papyrus letter of the 6th century BC found in Egypt.
Tahpanhes is usually located at modern Tell Defneh, 43 km south-south-west of Port Said (on the grounds of location, the archaeological discovery of Greek pottery, and its similarity in name to the Greek Daphnae, a fortress town fortified by Psammatichus I) and it may mean ‘Mansion of the Nubian' (t-h(wt)-p-nhsy), having reference to the fortress built there by Psammeticus I for Greek mercenaries. It is probable that there was already a Jewish community there.
Jeremiah no doubt saw it as ironic that after over 600 years of ‘freedom' from Egypt God's nominal people had returned there. They had by their own free choice returned to the subjection from which they had been delivered. We can compare how Hosea, in fact, insisted that their heart had always been there (Hosea 11). That was why God's initial step after the birth of His Son, was to bring Him out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15) finally fulfilling deliverance from Egypt and reversing what had happened here. Men's hearts have to be ‘delivered from Egypt'.