Skip to Content

Jeremiah 39

ירמיהו פרק ל״ט

Section: נביאים · נביאים אחרונים | Book: Jeremiah | Chapter: 39 of 52 | Day: 252 of 742

Date: October 21, 2026

קלאוד על הנ״ך

Chapter 39 is the moment toward which the whole book of Yirmiyahu has been moving. For forty years the prophet has warned that Yerushalayim would fall, that the house of David would be humbled and the city burned, and for forty years he has been mocked, beaten, imprisoned and lowered into the mud for saying so. Chapter 38 ended with the sentence that he remained in the court of the guard (חצר המטרה) until the day Yerushalayim was taken. Chapter 39 opens on that day. What is striking is how spare the telling is. The fall of the city, which elsewhere in Tanakh draws forth the laments of Eichah and the long elegies of Tehillim, is narrated here in ten short verses, almost in the style of a chronicle, with dates, names and titles. The same account appears again, at greater length, in chapter 52 and in Melachim II 25. Here it is compressed and placed in the middle of the prophet’s own story, as if to say that the catastrophe is not the end of the book but the hinge on which it turns.

The chapter begins with two dates that would be engraved into the Jewish calendar. In the ninth year of Tzidkiyahu, in the tenth month, Nevuchadnetzar and all his army came against Yerushalayim and besieged it; in the eleventh year, in the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the city was breached (הבקעה העיר). The first date is the origin of the fast of the tenth of Tevet. The second stands behind the fast of Tammuz, though Chazal observe in the Talmud (Taanit 28b) that the walls of the First Temple were breached on the ninth of the month, as this verse says, while the seventeenth is the date of the breach in the days of the Second Temple. Metzudat David adds a quiet detail to the word ‘breached’: the walls were split open as though by themselves, because the defenders of Yerushalayim were so weakened by famine that they could not stand against the enemy. The siege of eighteen months, whose hunger was felt in chapter 38 in the bread that ran out and in the thirty men needed to lift one prophet from a pit, has done its work before a single Babylonian soldier enters the city.

Then the officers of the king of Bavel come in and sit in the middle gate (שער התוך), and the text pauses to list their names and titles: Nergal-sarezer, Samgar-nevo, Sarsechim the Rav-saris, Nergal-sarezer the Rav-mag. Rashi and Radak both see in this scene the fulfillment of the very first prophecy of the book, in which God told the young Yirmiyahu that the families of the kingdoms of the north would come and each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Yerushalayim (1:15). The circle of the book closes here. Rashi cites the rabbinic reading that the middle gate was the gate in which the halachot were decided, and applies to it the verse of Kohelet, the place of judgment, there is wickedness (Kohelet 3:16): foreign generals now sit where the judges of Israel once sat. Radak prefers a plainer reading, that it was a gate of the city itself between two others, and Metzudat David explains it as the gate in the middle of Yerushalayim’s three walls. Either way, the image is of occupation completed and of a seat of authority taken over by strangers.

The flight of Tzidkiyahu is told in the plainest terms, but the commentators fill it with midrashic color. When the king and his soldiers saw the officers, they fled by night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, toward the Aravah. Rashi and Radak bring the tradition that the king had a cave leading from his palace to the plains of Yericho, and that God, to fulfill Yechezkel’s prophecy, I will spread My net over him (Yechezkel 12:13), sent a deer running across the roof of the cave; the Babylonian soldiers chased it to the cave’s mouth just as Tzidkiyahu emerged. Whatever one makes of the deer, the point is theological: there is no escape route that God has not already closed. He is captured in the plains of Yericho, the place where Israel first crossed into the land under Yehoshua, and brought to Nevuchadnetzar at Rivla in the land of Chamat. Radak and Metzudat David explain that Nevuchadnetzar had withdrawn there during the long siege. There the king of Bavel speaks judgments with him (וידבר אתו משפטים). Rashi gives the substance of the charge in a single question: why did you transgress the oath? Metzudat David points to the account in Divrei HaYamim II 36:13, where Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king who had made him swear by God, and Radak, in the same words, speaks of the broken covenant and the oath of Hashem. The sin for which Tzidkiyahu is judged is not only rebellion but the profanation of an oath taken in the name of Hashem.

The punishment is terrible in its exactness. The king of Bavel slaughters Tzidkiyahu’s sons before his eyes at Rivla, together with all the nobles of Yehudah (חורי יהודה). Rashi, following the rabbinic tradition, identifies these nobles as the members of the Sanhedrin, who were punished because they had released the king from his oath; Radak reads them simply as the officers and princes of Yehudah. Then Tzidkiyahu’s own eyes are put out, and he is bound in bronze fetters to be taken to Bavel. The last thing he sees is the death of his children. The classical reading notices how this reconciles two prophecies that seemed to contradict one another: Yirmiyahu had told the king that his eyes would see the eyes of the king of Bavel (34:3), and Yechezkel had said that he would be brought to Bavel and would not see it (Yechezkel 12:13). Both came true. He saw Nevuchadnetzar at Rivla, and he never saw Bavel. In chapter 38 Yirmiyahu had begged him, surrender and you will live, and your house will live. Now his house is gone.

Verses 8 through 10 complete the destruction. The Kasdim burn the king’s house and the house of the people and tear down the walls of Yerushalayim. Rashi reads ‘the house of the people’ as the synagogues, a reading Radak also records as the midrashic one, while Radak’s plain sense is simply the houses of the people in general, and Metzudat David, citing the parallel accounts, understands it as the house of every great man. Nevuzaradan, the chief of the executioners (רב טבחים), whom Metzudat David describes as the officer over those who carried out the king’s death sentences, exiles the remnant of the city and those who had gone over to the Babylonians. Only the poorest, those who had nothing at all, are left in the land, and he gives them vineyards and fields (כרמים ויגבים), which Rashi and Radak explain as land to be worked. It is one of the sharp ironies of the chapter: the poor, whose oppression was among the sins Yirmiyahu had denounced, and whose freedom the nobles had revoked in chapter 34, now inherit the estates of the men who are led away in chains.

The second half of the chapter turns from the nation to two individuals. Nevuchadnetzar himself gives orders concerning Yirmiyahu through Nevuzaradan: take him, set your eyes upon him, do him no harm at all, and do with him whatever he tells you. Radak understands this as a grant of complete freedom: if he does not wish to go to Bavel, do not bring him there, and if he does not wish to stay with the poor of the land, do not leave him. The Babylonian king evidently knew that this prophet had counseled surrender, and the man whom Yehudah’s princes called a traitor is treated by the conqueror with honor. Yet the honor is shadowed. The Babylonian officers take Yirmiyahu from the court of the guard and give him to Gedalyahu son of Achikam son of Shafan, to bring him home, and he dwells among the people. Radak observes that this verse is a summary of the outcome, and that the fuller story, told in chapter 40, involves Yirmiyahu being found bound in chains among the exiles at Ramah before Nevuzaradan freed him. Rashi and Metzudat David identify Gedalyahu as one who had gone over to the Kasdim on Yirmiyahu’s advice and was appointed governor over the remnant. His family, the house of Shafan, had stood by the prophet more than once, and it is fitting that the prophet is entrusted to its care. Chapters 40 and 41 will show how short-lived that refuge would be.

The chapter ends with a flashback. While Yirmiyahu was still shut up in the court of the guard, the word of God came to him for Eved-melech the Kushite, the court servant who had drawn him out of the cistern in chapter 38. God’s words against the city will come to pass for evil and not for good, and Eved-melech will see them with his own eyes, but he will be saved; he will not be given into the hand of the men whom he dreads, and his life will be his as spoil (והיתה לך נפשך לשלל), because he trusted in God. The phrase is the very one Yirmiyahu had offered to anyone who would go out to the Kasdim (21:9, 38:2). Rashi and Metzudat David identify the feared men as the Kasdim, while Radak reads the promise as answering Eved-melech’s fear of the Judean princes, who might kill him before the city fell for having acted against their will; though he belonged to the household of Tzidkiyahu, whose companions would die in their flight, he would survive. Metzudat David defines his trust precisely: he spoke up for Yirmiyahu before the king and did not fear all the officers who became his enemies, and that was an act of faith in God. Placed here, after the account of the fall, the promise is a deliberate counterweight. A king who heard the truth and could not act on it loses his sons, his eyes and his kingdom; a foreign servant who simply did what was right keeps his life. Amid the ruins, the chapter insists that the fall of a city is not the end of God’s care for the individual who trusts in Him.

פרק ל״ט · Chapter 39

פסוק א׳ · Verse 1

Hebrew:

בַּשָּׁנָ֣ה הַ֠תְּשִׁעִ֠ית לְצִדְקִיָּ֨הוּ מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָ֜ה בַּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הָעֲשִׂרִ֗י בָּ֠א נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּ֨ר מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶ֤ל וְכׇל־חֵילוֹ֙ אֶל־יְר֣וּשָׁלַ֔͏ִם וַיָּצֻ֖רוּ עָלֶֽיהָ׃

English:

In the ninth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the tenth month, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon moved against Jerusalem with his whole army, and they laid siege to it.

פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2

Hebrew:

בְּעַשְׁתֵּֽי־עֶשְׂרֵ֤ה שָׁנָה֙ לְצִדְקִיָּ֔הוּ בַּחֹ֥דֶשׁ הָרְבִיעִ֖י בְּתִשְׁעָ֣ה לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ הׇבְקְעָ֖ה הָעִֽיר׃

English:

And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, on the ninth day of the fourth month, the [walls of] the city were breached.

After eighteen months of siege the city is breached on the ninth of the fourth month, the date Chazal associate with the fast of Tammuz for the First Temple. Metzudat David explains that the Babylonian army split the wall as if it happened by itself, because the people of Yerushalayim were so weakened by famine that they could not stand against them. Hunger, not battle, decided the end.

פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3

Hebrew:

וַיָּבֹ֗אוּ כֹּ֚ל שָׂרֵ֣י מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶ֔ל וַיֵּשְׁב֖וּ בְּשַׁ֣עַר הַתָּ֑וֶךְ נֵרְגַ֣ל שַׂ֠רְאֶ֠צֶר סַֽמְגַּר־נְב֞וּ שַׂר־סְכִ֣ים רַב־סָרִ֗יס נֵרְגַ֤ל שַׂרְאֶ֙צֶר֙ רַב־מָ֔ג וְכׇ֨ל־שְׁאֵרִ֔ית שָׂרֵ֖י מֶ֥לֶךְ בָּבֶֽל׃

English:

All the officers of the king of Babylon entered, and took up quarters at the middle gate—Nergal-sarezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sarezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.

The Babylonian officers enter and sit in the middle gate. Rashi and Radak both see here the fulfillment of the book's opening vision, that each would set his throne at the gates of Yerushalayim (1:15). Rashi brings the rabbinic reading that this was the gate where halachot were decided, applying 'the place of judgment, there is wickedness'; Metzudat David places it in the middle of the city's three walls, and Radak suggests the two Nergal-sarezers may be different men.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ויבאו כל שרי מלך בבל וישבו בשער התוך וגו'. מגיד שנתקיימה כאן נבואה עליונה ובאו ונתנו איש כסאו פתח שערי ירושלים וגו' (לעיל א): בשער התוך. בתרעא מציעתא שער העזרה שער ניקנור המזרחי והוא בין שער עזרת נשים ובין שער ההיכל ורבותינו אמרו שער התוך שער שמחתכין בו הלכות עליהם הוא אומר מקום המשפט שמה הרשע (קהלת ג׳:ט״ז):
And all the officers of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate, etc. [This] tells [us] that here the above prophecy, "And they will come and place, each one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, etc." (1:15) was fulfilled. in the middle gate Heb. בשער התוך. Jonathan renders: in the middle gate, the gate of the Temple court, the Nicanor Gate, the Eastern Gate, and it is between the gate of the Women's Court and the gate of the Temple proper. And our Rabbis (Sanh. 103a) said: The gate where the halachoth were decided (מחתכים). Concerning them, Scripture says. "The place of judgment there is wickedness" (Ecc. 3:16).

פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4

Hebrew:

וַיְהִ֡י כַּאֲשֶׁ֣ר רָ֠אָ֠ם צִדְקִיָּ֨הוּ מֶלֶךְ־יְהוּדָ֜ה וְכֹ֣ל ׀ אַנְשֵׁ֣י הַמִּלְחָמָ֗ה וַֽ֠יִּבְרְח֠וּ וַיֵּצְא֨וּ לַ֤יְלָה מִן־הָעִיר֙ דֶּ֚רֶךְ גַּ֣ן הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ בְּשַׁ֖עַר בֵּ֣ין הַחֹמֹתָ֑יִם וַיֵּצֵ֖א דֶּ֥רֶךְ הָעֲרָבָֽה׃

English:

When King Zedekiah of Judah saw them, he and all the soldiers fled. They left the city at night, by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the double walls; and he set out toward the Arabah.

Tzidkiyahu and his soldiers flee by night through the king's garden toward the Aravah. Rashi and Radak cite the tradition that a cave ran from the palace to the plains of Yericho, and that God, fulfilling Yechezkel's 'I will spread My net over him', sent a deer across its roof so that the pursuing Kasdim reached its mouth just as the king came out. Metzudat David gives the plain route: by the road toward the plains of Yericho.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
דרך גן המלך. מער' היתה לו מביתו עד ערבות ירחו ויצא לילך דרך המערה מה עשה הקב"ה לקיים ופרשתי את רשתי עליו (יחזקאל י״ב:י״ג) זימן צבי לפני הכשדים מהלך על גג המערה חוץ לעיר ורצו אחריו לתפשו והוא רץ עד פתח המערה וראו את צדקיהו יוצא מן המערה:
by way of the king's garden He had a cave from his house to the plains of Jericho, and he went out at night by way of the cave. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do to fulfill "And I will spread My net over him" (Ezek. 12:13)? He prepared a deer before the Chaldeans walking on the roof the cave outside the city, and they ran after it to seize it, and it ran up to the entrance of the cave, and they saw Zedekiah going out of the cave.

פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5

Hebrew:

וַיִּרְדְּפ֨וּ חֵיל־כַּשְׂדִּ֜ים אַחֲרֵיהֶ֗ם וַיַּשִּׂ֣גוּ אֶת־צִדְקִיָּ֘הוּ֮ בְּעַֽרְב֣וֹת יְרֵחוֹ֒ וַיִּקְח֣וּ אוֹת֗וֹ וַֽ֠יַּעֲלֻ֠הוּ אֶל־נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּ֧ר מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶ֛ל רִבְלָ֖תָה בְּאֶ֣רֶץ חֲמָ֑ת וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אִתּ֖וֹ מִשְׁפָּטִֽים׃

English:

But the Chaldean troops pursued them, and they overtook Zedekiah in the steppes of Jericho. They captured him and brought him before King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon at Riblah in the region of Hamath; and he put him on trial.

The Kasdim overtake Tzidkiyahu in the plains of Yericho and bring him to Nevuchadnetzar at Rivla, where, as Radak and Metzudat David explain, the king had gone during the long siege. Metzudat David notes he was taken alone, his army having scattered. The 'judgments' spoken with him concern his broken loyalty: Rashi puts it as one question, why did you transgress the oath, and Radak adds that he had sworn by God.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
וידבר אתו משפטים. למה עברת על השבועה:
he called him to account Why did you transgress the oath?

פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6

Hebrew:

וַיִּשְׁחַט֩ מֶ֨לֶךְ בָּבֶ֜ל אֶת־בְּנֵ֧י צִדְקִיָּ֛הוּ בְּרִבְלָ֖ה לְעֵינָ֑יו וְאֵת֙ כׇּל־חֹרֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה שָׁחַ֖ט מֶ֥לֶךְ בָּבֶֽל׃

English:

The king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons slaughtered at Riblah before his eyes; the king of Babylon had all the nobles of Judah slaughtered.

Tzidkiyahu's sons are slaughtered before his eyes at Rivla, together with all the nobles of Yehudah. Rashi identifies these nobles as the Sanhedrin, punished for having released the king from his oath to Nevuchadnetzar -- in God's eyes the sin lay in permitting the oath to be broken. Radak reads them more simply as the officers and princes of Yehudah. Either way, the dynasty and its leadership are cut down together.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ואת כל חורי יהודה. אלו הסנהדרין על שהתירו לו את שבועתו החטא היה בעיני האלהים שהתירו השבועה:
and...all the nobles of Judah These are the Sanhedrin, because they had annulled the oath.

פסוק ז׳ · Verse 7

Hebrew:

וְאֶת־עֵינֵ֥י צִדְקִיָּ֖הוּ עִוֵּ֑ר וַיַּאַסְרֵ֙הוּ֙ בַּֽנְחֻשְׁתַּ֔יִם לָבִ֥יא אֹת֖וֹ בָּבֶֽלָה׃

English:

Then the eyes of Zedekiah were put out and he was chained in bronze fetters, that he might be brought to Babylon.

Tzidkiyahu is blinded and bound in bronze fetters to be taken to Bavel. Radak explains that the dual form refers to chains for both legs, of bronze or hard iron. The verse quietly reconciles two prophecies: Yirmiyahu had said the king would see the eyes of the king of Bavel (34:3), and Yechezkel that he would not see Bavel. He saw Nevuchadnetzar at Rivla, then never saw anything again.

פסוק ח׳ · Verse 8

Hebrew:

וְאֶת־בֵּ֤ית הַמֶּ֙לֶךְ֙ וְאֶת־בֵּ֣ית הָעָ֔ם שָׂרְפ֥וּ הַכַּשְׂדִּ֖ים בָּאֵ֑שׁ וְאֶת־חֹמ֥וֹת יְרוּשָׁלַ֖͏ִם נָתָֽצוּ׃

English:

The Chaldeans burned down the king’s palace and the houses of the people by fire, and they tore down the walls of Jerusalem.

The Kasdim burn the palace and the 'house of the people' and tear down the walls of Yerushalayim. Rashi reads the house of the people as the synagogues, a reading Radak also cites as midrash while his plain sense is the people's houses in general. Metzudat David, following the parallel accounts at the end of the book and in Melachim, understands it as the house of every great man of the city.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ואת בית העם. בתי כנסיות:
the houses of the people The synagogues.

פסוק ט׳ · Verse 9

Hebrew:

וְאֵת֩ יֶ֨תֶר הָעָ֜ם הַנִּשְׁאָרִ֣ים בָּעִ֗יר וְאֶת־הַנֹּֽפְלִים֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נָפְל֣וּ עָלָ֔יו וְאֵ֛ת יֶ֥תֶר הָעָ֖ם הַנִּשְׁאָרִ֑ים הֶגְלָ֛ה נְבוּזַרְאֲדָ֥ן רַב־טַבָּחִ֖ים בָּבֶֽל׃

English:

The remnant of the people that was left in the city, and the defectors who had gone over to him—the remnant of the people that was left—were exiled by Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, to Babylon.

Nevuzaradan exiles the survivors of the city, the deserters, and the rest of the people. Metzudat David explains the categories: those not killed, those who had gone over to the enemy to make peace, and the remnant in the other cities of Yehudah; he defines Nevuzaradan's title as the officer over those who carried out the king's executions. Radak adds only that the name Nevuzaradan is a single word.

פסוק י׳ · Verse 10

Hebrew:

וּמִן־הָעָ֣ם הַדַּלִּ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֤ר אֵין־לָהֶם֙ מְא֔וּמָה הִשְׁאִ֛יר נְבוּזַרְאֲדָ֥ן רַב־טַבָּחִ֖ים בְּאֶ֣רֶץ יְהוּדָ֑ה וַיִּתֵּ֥ן לָהֶ֛ם כְּרָמִ֥ים וִיגֵבִ֖ים בַּיּ֥וֹם הַהֽוּא׃

English:

But some of the poorest people who owned nothing were left in the land of Judah by Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, and he gave them vineyards and fields at that time.

Only the poorest, who owned nothing at all as Metzudat David stresses, are left in Yehudah, and Nevuzaradan gives them vineyards and fields. Rashi explains the rare word for fields as land to be dug and tilled, and Radak cites Targum Yonatan that they were left to work the fields and vineyards. The poor whom the nobles had oppressed now hold the land the nobles have lost.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
כרמים ויגבים. שדות לעבדם כל יגיבה לשון חפירה אפושי"ץ בלע"ז:
vineyards and fields Heb. ויגבים, fields to till. Every יגיבה is an expression of digging (a fosser in French), to dig.

פסוק י״א · Verse 11

Hebrew:

וַיְצַ֛ו נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּ֥ר מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶ֖ל עַֽל־יִרְמְיָ֑הוּ בְּיַ֛ד נְבוּזַרְאֲדָ֥ן רַב־טַבָּחִ֖ים לֵאמֹֽר׃

English:

King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon had given orders to Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, concerning Jeremiah:

פסוק י״ב · Verse 12

Hebrew:

קָחֶ֗נּוּ וְעֵינֶ֙יךָ֙ שִׂ֣ים עָלָ֔יו וְאַל־תַּ֥עַשׂ ל֖וֹ מְא֣וּמָה רָּ֑ע כִּ֗י (אם) כַּֽאֲשֶׁר֙ יְדַבֵּ֣ר אֵלֶ֔יךָ כֵּ֖ן עֲשֵׂ֥ה עִמּֽוֹ׃

English:

“Take him and look after him; do him no harm, but grant whatever he asks of you.”

Nevuchadnetzar's order: take Yirmiyahu, watch over him, do him no harm, and do with him as he asks. Metzudat David reads 'set your eyes upon him' as a charge to look after him. Radak expands the command: no harm at all -- if Yirmiyahu does not wish to come to Bavel, do not bring him, and if he does not wish to stay with the poor of the land, do not leave him there.

פסוק י״ג · Verse 13

Hebrew:

וַיִּשְׁלַ֞ח נְבוּזַרְאֲדָ֣ן רַב־טַבָּחִ֗ים וּנְבֽוּשַׁזְבָּן֙ רַב־סָרִ֔יס וְנֵרְגַ֥ל שַׂרְאֶ֖צֶר רַב־מָ֑ג וְכֹ֖ל רַבֵּ֥י מֶלֶךְ־בָּבֶֽל׃

English:

So Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, and Nebushazban the Rab-saris, and Nergal-sarezer the Rab-mag, and all the commanders of the king of Babylon sent

Nevuzaradan and the Babylonian commanders send for the prophet. Rashi explains that the word for commanders here means officers, and Metzudat David that each of them sent. Radak notes a scribal detail: the nun in the name Nevushazban is written small, one of three such small nuns in Tanakh. The list of senior names underlines the honor shown to Yirmiyahu.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
רבי. כמו שרי:
the officers of Heb. רבי, like שָּׂרֵי.

פסוק י״ד · Verse 14

Hebrew:

וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ֩ וַיִּקְח֨וּ אֶֽת־יִרְמְיָ֜הוּ מֵחֲצַ֣ר הַמַּטָּרָ֗ה וַיִּתְּנ֤וּ אֹתוֹ֙ אֶל־גְּדַלְיָ֙הוּ֙ בֶּן־אֲחִיקָ֣ם בֶּן־שָׁפָ֔ן לְהוֹצִאֵ֖הוּ אֶל־הַבָּ֑יִת וַיֵּ֖שֶׁב בְּת֥וֹךְ הָעָֽם׃ {ס}         

English:

and had Jeremiah brought from the prison compound. They committed him to the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, that he might be left at liberty in a house. So he dwelt among the people.

Yirmiyahu is taken from the court of the guard and entrusted to Gedalyahu son of Achikam, and he dwells among the people. Rashi and Metzudat David explain that Gedalyahu had gone over to the Kasdim on Yirmiyahu's word and was made governor of the remnant. Radak notes the verse summarizes the outcome: before this, Nevuzaradan found the prophet bound among the exiles, the fuller story told in chapter 40.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
אל גדליהו בן אחיקם. שנפל אל הכשדים ע"פ ירמיהו וכשנלכדה העיר מינהו שליט בנשארים שם:
to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam who defected to the Chaldeans in compliance with Jeremiah's orders, and when the city was taken, he appointed him governor over those remaining there.

פסוק ט״ו · Verse 15

Hebrew:

וְאֶֽל־יִרְמְיָ֖הוּ הָיָ֣ה דְבַר־יְהֹוָ֑ה בִּֽהְיֹת֣וֹ עָצ֔וּר בַּחֲצַ֥ר הַמַּטָּרָ֖ה לֵאמֹֽר׃

English:

The word of GOD had come to Jeremiah while he was still confined in the prison compound:

פסוק ט״ז · Verse 16

Hebrew:

הָל֣וֹךְ וְאָמַרְתָּ֡ לְעֶבֶד־מֶ֨לֶךְ הַכּוּשִׁ֜י לֵאמֹ֗ר כֹּֽה־אָמַ֞ר יְהֹוָ֤ה צְבָאוֹת֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הִנְנִי֩ מֵבִ֨י אֶת־דְּבָרַ֜י אֶל־הָעִ֥יר הַזֹּ֛את לְרָעָ֖ה וְלֹ֣א לְטוֹבָ֑ה וְהָי֥וּ לְפָנֶ֖יךָ בַּיּ֥וֹם הַהֽוּא׃

English:

Go and say to Ebed-melech the Cushite: “Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to fulfill My words concerning this city—for disaster, not for good—and they shall come true on that day in your presence.

A flashback: while still confined, Yirmiyahu is sent to Eved-melech the Kushite, who had raised him from the pit, as Metzudat David recalls. God's words against the city will come for evil, since the people did not return, and Rashi explains that Eved-melech will see them fulfilled. Radak reads this as reassurance that the princes he had defied would not kill him first; though of Tzidkiyahu's household, he would survive to see the city fall.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
והיו לפניך ביום ההוא. והיו הדברים לפניך שתראה אותם מתקיימי':
and they shall be before you on that day And the words shall be before you, for you shall see them fulfilled.

פסוק י״ז · Verse 17

Hebrew:

וְהִצַּלְתִּ֥יךָ בַיּוֹם־הַה֖וּא נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה וְלֹ֤א תִנָּתֵן֙ בְּיַ֣ד הָאֲנָשִׁ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּ֥ה יָג֖וֹר מִפְּנֵיהֶֽם׃

English:

But I will save you on that day—declares GOD; you shall not be delivered into the hands of those you dread.

God promises to save Eved-melech on that day, and he will not be handed over to the men he dreads. Rashi and Metzudat David both identify those men as the Kasdim. Radak's reading of the previous verse suggests another fear as well -- the Judean princes whose will he had opposed by rescuing the prophet. Either way, the promise singles out one man for protection amid the general catastrophe.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ביד האנשים. ביד הכשדים:
into the hand[s] of the men into the hand[s] of the Chaldeans.

פסוק י״ח · Verse 18

Hebrew:

כִּ֤י מַלֵּט֙ אֲמַלֶּטְךָ֔ וּבַחֶ֖רֶב לֹ֣א תִפֹּ֑ל וְהָיְתָ֨ה לְךָ֤ נַפְשְׁךָ֙ לְשָׁלָ֔ל כִּֽי־בָטַ֥חְתָּ בִּ֖י נְאֻם־יְהֹוָֽה׃ {פ}

English:

I will rescue you, and you shall not fall by the sword. You shall escape with your life, because you trusted Me—declares GOD.”

The promise closes with the phrase Yirmiyahu had offered to all who would go out to the Kasdim: your life will be yours as spoil. Metzudat David explains it as though he had seized his own soul as booty, and defines the trust that earned it: Eved-melech spoke well of Yirmiyahu before the king without fearing the officers who became his enemies, because he relied on God.

← Jeremiah 38 | Jeremiah 40 →

Back to Jeremiah | Back to Nach Yomi