Jeremiah 43

ירמיהו פרק מ״ג

Section: נביאים · נביאים אחרונים | Book: Jeremiah | Chapter: 43 of 52 | Day: 256 of 742

Date: October 25, 2026

קלאוד על הנ״ך

Chapter 43 is the hinge on which the story of the remnant turns away from the land. It follows directly from the scene of chapter 42, where Yochanan son of Kare’ach, the army officers and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came to Yirmiyahu after the murder of Gedalyahu and begged him to pray on their behalf, swearing that whatever the LORD answered, good or bad, they would obey. The prophet waited ten days for the word to come (42:7), and the word was unambiguous: stay in the land of Yehudah and God will build you and not tear you down; go down to Egypt, and the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will cling to you there. The final verses of chapter 42 already anticipate the outcome, with Yirmiyahu declaring that they had deceived themselves when they sent him. Chapter 43 now shows what that self-deception looks like in action. In thirteen verses the last organized community of Yehudah walks out of the land, carrying its prophet with it against his will, and the chapter closes with a prophecy that the refuge they have chosen will itself fall to the king they are running from.

The opening verse is carefully constructed. The narrator repeats the divine name twice — all the words of the LORD their God, with which the LORD their God had sent him to them — as though to underline that nothing Yirmiyahu said was his own. Metzudat David notes simply that ‘all these words’ refers to what was stated above, the message of chapter 42. The emphasis matters because the response in verse 2 is a flat denial of exactly that point: you are speaking falsehood (שקר אתה מדבר); the LORD our God did not send you. The speakers are Azaryah son of Hoshayah, Yochanan son of Kare’ach, and ‘all the arrogant men’ (כל האנשים הזדים). The adjective is the narrator’s verdict, not merely a description. Zadon, presumption, is the quality the Torah associates with one who acts defiantly against the word of the court and of God (Devarim 17:12, 18:22), and here it describes men who had asked for a prophecy and then rejected it because it was not the answer they wanted. Azaryah son of Hoshayah appears to be the same figure called Yezanyah son of Hoshayah in 42:1, now singled out as a leader of the revolt. Metzudat David remarks on the slightly awkward repetition of the verb ‘saying’ in verse 2, explaining that the long list of names led the text to restate it.

Verse 3 introduces a remarkable accusation. The leaders do not quite dare to attack Yirmiyahu himself as a traitor; instead they claim that Baruch son of Neriyah is inciting him against them, so that they will be handed to the Kasdim to be killed or exiled to Bavel. Metzudat David suggests a plausible human background: perhaps they had some quarrel or dispute with Baruch, and therefore suspected him of pushing the prophet to tell them to remain where the Kasdim could reach them. The charge is psychologically telling. It allows the people to reject the message while preserving a pretense of respect for the messenger, and it recasts a call for trust in God as a Babylonian plot. Baruch, the faithful scribe who wrote the scroll of chapter 36 and read it in the Temple at great personal risk, is now accused of being the hidden hand behind a pro-Babylonian conspiracy. The irony is that the Kasdim had in fact treated the remnant generously; Nevuzaradan had appointed Gedalyahu and released Yirmiyahu with honor (40:1-6). The real danger had come from Yishmael son of Netanyah, a Judean, not from Bavel. Fear of Babylonian reprisal for Gedalyahu’s murder was understandable, but the prophet had addressed that fear directly and promised that God would cause the king of Bavel to show them mercy (42:12).

Verses 4 through 7 narrate the departure with a heavy repetition of one phrase: they did not listen to the voice of the LORD (ולא שמע… בקול ה’), stated in verse 4 and again in verse 7. Between those two statements lies a sweeping inventory of everyone taken. It includes the Judeans who had returned from all the nations to which they had been scattered — Metzudat David glosses them simply as those who came back to live in the land of Yehudah, the refugees from Moav, Ammon and Edom who had gathered to Gedalyahu (40:11-12) — and the men, women and children, the daughters of the king, and every soul whom Nevuzaradan had left with Gedalyahu. Radak notes that ‘et Gedalyahu’ here means ‘with Gedalyahu.’ Last in the list come Yirmiyahu the prophet and Baruch son of Neriyah, and Metzudat David is explicit that they too were taken against their will (שלא בטובתם). The list reads like an undoing of everything Gedalyahu had begun to rebuild. The scattered had gathered, the land had begun to yield its summer fruit in abundance (40:12), and now the whole community empties out toward the south. The narrative ends at Tachpanches, which Metzudat David identifies as a city of Egypt, a frontier fortress on the eastern edge of the Delta that Yirmiyahu himself had named long before, in his opening oracles, when he warned that the men of Nof and Tachpanches would break the crown of Yehudah’s head (2:16). The reversal of the Exodus is unmistakable. The Torah had warned that the LORD would one day bring Israel back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which He had said they would never see it again (Devarim 28:68), and the king was forbidden to cause the people to return to Egypt (Devarim 17:16). Now, after centuries in the land, the remnant of Yehudah walks back along that road by its own choice.

The second half of the chapter, verses 8 through 13, is a prophetic sign performed on Egyptian soil. The word of the LORD comes to Yirmiyahu in Tachpanches itself: the prophet who was dragged there is not silenced by exile but continues to speak. He is told to take large stones in his hand and hide them in the mortar of the brick terrace at the entrance of Pharaoh’s house in Tachpanches, in the sight of the Judean men. The commentators work hard on the rare words במלט במלבן. Rashi explains that the mem of מלט is not part of the root, which is לט, as in Eliyahu wrapping (וילט) his face in his mantle (I Kings 19:13); the sense is to envelop the stones in the mortar, and he gives the Old French gloss. Radak explains מלט as the clay from which bricks are made, or mortar of lime and sand, and מלבן as the place where bricks are fired or formed, while Metzudat David describes it as burying them in the clay where the bricks are made, beside the entrance. The act is quiet and physical, much like the buried loincloth of chapter 13 or the shattered jug of chapter 19, and its meaning is supplied in verse 10: God will send for Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel, My servant, and will set his throne above these very stones, and he will spread his royal canopy over them. Rashi and Radak both explain שפרירו as his tent, Radak adding that a splendid tent is called shafrir for its beauty, from the root of beauty (שפר), and Rashi cites the parallel in Iyov 26:13. Metzudat David explains ‘My servant’ as ‘the one who carries out My mission.’ The stones hidden at Pharaoh’s door, before Judean witnesses, become a foundation already laid for the Babylonian conqueror’s judgment seat.

The prophecy that follows (verses 11-13) extends the doom from the refugees to Egypt itself. Nevuchadnetzar will strike the land, and the formula of 15:2 returns: those destined for death, to death; those for captivity, to captivity; those for the sword, to the sword. Radak notes the written form ובאה, feminine, referring to the army, while the reading ובא refers to the king. God will kindle fire in the houses of Egypt’s gods, and the conqueror will burn them and carry off their images; Metzudat David explains that idols of wood will be burned while those of silver and gold will be taken as captives, and Radak offers that alternative and the possibility that ‘carry them off’ refers to their worshippers. Then comes the striking image of the shepherd: he will wrap himself in the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will go out from there in peace. Rashi and Metzudat David read it as a shepherd rolling up his cloak with all his belongings when he moves on, leaving nothing behind; Radak describes the shepherd wrapping himself tightly against the cold of the desert night, and cites his father’s view that it is the shepherd folding up the tent he lived in when he departs. Either way Egypt will be packed up and carried off whole. Finally he will shatter the pillars (מצבות) of Beit Shemesh and burn the temples of Egypt’s gods. Metzudat David and Radak take Beit Shemesh as a house where the sun was worshipped, commonly identified with On (Heliopolis), whose priest was Yosef’s father-in-law (Bereshit 41:45). Rashi offers a different reading, tying the pillars to the altars built by converts in Chizkiyahu’s time, with reference to Yeshayahu 19:18 and Targum Yonatan’s identification of Beit Shemesh as a city destined for destruction.

The theological point of the chapter is simple and severe. The remnant fled to Egypt because they believed that safety lay in distance from Bavel and in the shelter of Pharaoh. Yirmiyahu answers by showing that the throne of Nevuchadnetzar will be set up at Pharaoh’s own door, and that the gods of Egypt, whose temples seemed so permanent, will burn. There is no geography outside the reach of God’s decree. Yet there is also a quiet note of fidelity. Yirmiyahu and Baruch are carried off against their will, and still the word of the LORD finds the prophet in Tachpanches. The prophet of the land now becomes a prophet of the diaspora, and chapter 44, his last recorded oracle, will address the Judean communities spread through Egypt, from Migdol and Tachpanches to Nof and Patros. The book that began with the call to uproot and to plant ends its narrative of the remnant with the uprooted community planted, against God’s word, in the very land from which Israel had once been redeemed.

פרק מ״ג · Chapter 43

פסוק א׳ · Verse 1

Hebrew:

וַיְהִי֩ כְּכַלּ֨וֹת יִרְמְיָ֜הוּ לְדַבֵּ֣ר אֶל־כׇּל־הָעָ֗ם אֶת־כׇּל־דִּבְרֵי֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיהֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֧ר שְׁלָח֛וֹ יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיהֶ֖ם אֲלֵיהֶ֑ם אֵ֥ת כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֖ים הָאֵֽלֶּה׃ {ס}         

English:

When Jeremiah had finished speaking all these words to all the people—all the words of the ETERNAL their God, with which the ETERNAL their God had sent him to them—

פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2

Hebrew:

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר עֲזַרְיָ֤ה בֶן־הוֹשַֽׁעְיָה֙ וְיוֹחָנָ֣ן בֶּן־קָרֵ֔חַ וְכׇל־הָאֲנָשִׁ֖ים הַזֵּדִ֑ים אֹמְרִ֣ים אֶֽל־יִרְמְיָ֗הוּ שֶׁ֚קֶר אַתָּ֣ה מְדַבֵּ֔ר לֹ֣א שְׁלָחֲךָ֞ יְהֹוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֵ֙ינוּ֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר לֹא־תָבֹ֥אוּ מִצְרַ֖יִם לָג֥וּר שָֽׁם׃

English:

Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The ETERNAL our God did not send you to say, ‘Don’t go to Egypt and sojourn there’!

פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3

Hebrew:

כִּ֗י בָּרוּךְ֙ בֶּן־נֵ֣רִיָּ֔ה מַסִּ֥ית אֹתְךָ֖ בָּ֑נוּ לְמַ֩עַן֩ תֵּ֨ת אֹתָ֤נוּ בְיַֽד־הַכַּשְׂדִּים֙ לְהָמִ֣ית אֹתָ֔נוּ וּלְהַגְל֥וֹת אֹתָ֖נוּ בָּבֶֽל׃

English:

It is Baruch son of Neriah who is inciting you against us, so that we will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans to be killed or to be exiled to Babylon!”

פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4

Hebrew:

וְלֹא־שָׁמַע֩ יוֹחָנָ֨ן בֶּן־קָרֵ֜חַ וְכׇל־שָׂרֵ֧י הַחֲיָלִ֛ים וְכׇל־הָעָ֖ם בְּק֣וֹל יְהֹוָ֑ה לָשֶׁ֖בֶת בְּאֶ֥רֶץ יְהוּדָֽה׃

English:

So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and the rest of the people did not obey GOD’s command to remain in the land of Judah.

פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5

Hebrew:

וַיִּקַּ֞ח יוֹחָנָ֤ן בֶּן־קָרֵ֙חַ֙ וְכׇל־שָׂרֵ֣י הַחֲיָלִ֔ים אֵ֖ת כׇּל־שְׁאֵרִ֣ית יְהוּדָ֑ה אֲשֶׁר־שָׁ֗בוּ מִכׇּל־הַגּוֹיִם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נִדְּחוּ־שָׁ֔ם לָג֖וּר בְּאֶ֥רֶץ יְהוּדָֽה׃

English:

Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers took the entire remnant of Judah—those who had returned from all the countries to which they had been scattered and had sojourned in the land of Judah,

פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6

Hebrew:

אֶֽת־הַ֠גְּבָרִ֠ים וְאֶת־הַנָּשִׁ֣ים וְאֶת־הַטַּף֮ וְאֶת־בְּנ֣וֹת הַמֶּ֒לֶךְ֒ וְאֵ֣ת כׇּל־הַנֶּ֗פֶשׁ אֲשֶׁ֤ר הִנִּ֙יחַ֙ נְבוּזַרְאֲדָ֣ן רַב־טַבָּחִ֔ים אֶת־גְּדַלְיָ֖הוּ בֶּן־אֲחִיקָ֣ם בֶּן־שָׁפָ֑ן וְאֵת֙ יִרְמְיָ֣הוּ הַנָּבִ֔יא וְאֶת־בָּר֖וּךְ בֶּן־נֵרִיָּֽהוּ׃

English:

men, women, and children; and the daughters of the king and all the people whom Nebuzaradan the chief of the guards had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan, as well as the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah—

פסוק ז׳ · Verse 7

Hebrew:

וַיָּבֹ֙אוּ֙ אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם כִּ֛י לֹ֥א שָׁמְע֖וּ בְּק֣וֹל יְהֹוָ֑ה וַיָּבֹ֖אוּ עַד־תַּחְפַּנְחֵֽס׃ {ס}         

English:

and they went to Egypt. They did not obey GOD. They arrived at Tahpanhes,

פסוק ח׳ · Verse 8

Hebrew:

וַיְהִ֤י דְבַר־יְהֹוָה֙ אֶֽל־יִרְמְיָ֔הוּ בְּתַחְפַּנְחֵ֖ס לֵאמֹֽר׃

English:

and the word of GOD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes:

פסוק ט׳ · Verse 9

Hebrew:

קַ֣ח בְּיָדְךָ֞ אֲבָנִ֣ים גְּדֹל֗וֹת וּטְמַנְתָּ֤ם בַּמֶּ֙לֶט֙ בַּמַּלְבֵּ֔ן אֲשֶׁ֛ר בְּפֶ֥תַח בֵּית־פַּרְעֹ֖ה בְּתַחְפַּנְחֵ֑ס לְעֵינֵ֖י אֲנָשִׁ֥ים יְהוּדִֽים׃

English:

Get yourself large stones, and embed them in mortar in the brick structure at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes, with some Judeans looking on.

פסוק י׳ · Verse 10

Hebrew:

וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵיהֶ֡ם כֹּה־אָמַר֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה צְבָא֜וֹת אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל הִנְנִ֤י שֹׁלֵ֙חַ֙ וְ֠לָקַחְתִּ֠י אֶת־נְבוּכַדְרֶאצַּ֤ר מֶֽלֶךְ־בָּבֶל֙ עַבְדִּ֔י וְשַׂמְתִּ֣י כִסְא֔וֹ מִמַּ֛עַל לָאֲבָנִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֣ר טָמָ֑נְתִּי וְנָטָ֥ה אֶת־[שַׁפְרִיר֖וֹ] (שפרורו) עֲלֵיהֶֽם׃

English:

And say to them: “Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am sending for My servant King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded. He will spread out his pavilion over them.

פסוק י״א · Verse 11

Hebrew:

(ובאה) [וּבָ֕א] וְהִכָּ֖ה אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲשֶׁ֧ר לַמָּ֣וֶת לַמָּ֗וֶת וַאֲשֶׁ֤ר לַשְּׁבִי֙ לַשֶּׁ֔בִי וַאֲשֶׁ֥ר לַחֶ֖רֶב לֶחָֽרֶב׃

English:

He will come and attack the land of Egypt, delivering Those destined for the plague, to the plague, Those destined for captivity, to captivity, And those destined for the sword, to the sword.

פסוק י״ב · Verse 12

Hebrew:

וְהִצַּ֣תִּי אֵ֗שׁ בְּבָתֵּי֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י מִצְרַ֔יִם וּשְׂרָפָ֖ם וְשָׁבָ֑ם וְעָטָה֩ אֶת־אֶ֨רֶץ מִצְרַ֜יִם כַּֽאֲשֶׁר־יַעְטֶ֤ה הָרֹעֶה֙ אֶת־בִּגְד֔וֹ וְיָצָ֥א מִשָּׁ֖ם בְּשָׁלֽוֹם׃

English:

And I will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn them down and carry them off. He shall wrap himself up in the land of Egypt, as a shepherd wraps himself up in his garment. And he shall depart from there in safety.

פסוק י״ג · Verse 13

Hebrew:

וְשִׁבַּ֗ר אֶֽת־מַצְּבוֹת֙ בֵּ֣ית שֶׁ֔מֶשׁ אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם וְאֶת־בָּתֵּ֥י אֱלֹהֵֽי־מִצְרַ֖יִם יִשְׂרֹ֥ף בָּאֵֽשׁ׃ {פ}

English:

He shall smash the obelisks of the Temple of the Sun that is in the land of Egypt, and he shall burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.”

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