Jeremiah 21:1–10

THE WORD CAME to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: 2“Inquire now of the LORD for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.”

3But Jeremiah answered them, “Tell Zedekiah, 4‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city. 5I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath. 6I will strike down those who live in this city—both men and animals—and they will die of a terrible plague. 7After that, declares the LORD, I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the people in this city who survive the plague, sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.’

8“Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the LORD says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. 9Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; he will escape with his life. 10I have determined to do this city harm and not good, declares the LORD. It will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.’

Original Meaning

READERS ARE PROVIDED here with a date in Judah’s anguished history—one of the few dates given in the first half of the book. Zedekiah is king—the first reference to the last king of Judah since the superscription to the book (1:3)—and the date is ca. 588 B.C. With the Babylonian army surrounding Jerusalem, a royal official named Pashhur the son of Malkijah and a priest named Zephaniah are sent to Jeremiah for him to inquire of the Lord. Perhaps God will work one of his “wonders,” so that the Babylonians will withdraw. There is, of course, historical precedent for this hope. In a previous century God had sent a judging angel among the besieging Assyrians (2 Kings 18–19; Isa. 36–39).

The name of one of the officials (Pashhur) is the same as that of the priest in Jeremiah 20, although they are two different people. In the proximity of the two accounts, readers will find something of the catchword principle at work in the compilation of Jeremiah’s book. The two episodes are collected together through the common name of Pashhur rather than because they necessarily follow each other chronologically in Jeremiah’s public acts.

Pashhur and Zephaniah ask Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord and to intercede for the nation. This is something that King Zedekiah would seek from Jeremiah on more than one occasion (37:3; 38:14). The Lord’s reply is full of the judgmental language seen in virtually every previous chapter. What is new (for those reading through Jeremiah) is a specific reference to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the specifics of the siege of Jerusalem. Babylon itself is mentioned specifically for the first time only in the previous chapter (20:4–6). Elsewhere the agent of judgment to come was merely described as the foe or enemy from the north.

According to the divine oracle, God will not war against the Babylonian army but against Judah for its faithlessness and wickedness. Yes, God is a valiant warrior, but the enemy at the moment is Judah, not Babylon! The fall of the city, therefore, is certain. God’s resolve to judge the city is described in Hebrew as “the setting of his face,” an idiom for single-minded determination (21:10). The NIV paraphrases accurately with its rendering of God’s “determination” to judge the city.

Jeremiah mediates part of God’s reply to the state officials in language reminiscent of Deuteronomy 30:11–20. In Deuteronomy Moses set before the people “life and prosperity” or “death and destruction.” Jeremiah spoke similarly in a previous context with reference to curse or blessing as part of the “two-way” formulation of wisdom theology (Jer. 17:5–13). Now Jeremiah tells the people that God is setting before them the way of life and death (21:8–9). Death is the fate of those who stay in the city; those who leave and are taken captive by the Babylonians will escape with their lives.1 Ominously, there is no call for repentance in the text of the divine oracle. God is on the side of the Babylonians for the historical moment, and the best that can be done for the Judeans is to convince them to capitulate to the Babylonians and thereby save their lives. There is specific reference to the destruction of Jerusalem by fire.

Bridging Contexts

TWO WAYS. The allusion in 21:9 to the covenant proclamation of Deuteronomy 30:19—“I have set before you life and death”—helps modern readers set the announcement of Jerusalem’s doom in a broader biblical context. The inhabitants of Jerusalem have a choice of “ways” set before them. Thus, the terrible announcement of doom is placed in the context of covenantal faith with its requirement of obedience and its acknowledgment that judgment will come on the disobedient. In this hour of crisis, Judah is reminded by a prophet like Moses that it is not the only generation of God’s people to face hard choices or to see the bitter fruit of wrong decisions.

The New Testament picks up on this pattern of the two ways. Jesus’ admonition about the way of life and the way of destruction (Matt. 7:13–14) follows the pattern exactly. It was even delivered at a time and place that reminds us of Moses—at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, delivered by the new and greater Moses. A bridge between then and now can be built on the typological correspondence of God’s people from generation to generation; for in every generation there is the call to exercise obedience to the Lord, who brought it into existence. Each generation, as with each believer, ought to embark on the right way and avoid the wrong path.

God as warrior. The language of God as warrior in Jer. 21:5–6 also evokes in hearers a broader biblical context. In defeating Pharaoh and subsequently the Canaanites in the Promised Land, God revealed himself as a warrior on behalf of his people—a God who is “mighty to save,” according to the great confession of Zephaniah 3:17.2 There is, however, no partiality with God in judging iniquity. God can enter the fight against his own people, employing the Babylonians and their mighty king in the historical process to effect temporal judgment.

Contemporary Significance

THE WAY THAT LEADS TO LIFE. Christians may see in Jeremiah’s hard words here an example of the “razor edge” of biblical theism. God fights against the powers of evil and corruption—and as with every fight, the results are not pretty. God will fight the powers of evil when they oppress his people, but God can also use the powers of evil in this world to judge his people. God is not indifferent to the sins of his people.

It is a remarkable word, therefore, that in the midst of hard words about Judah’s doom the prophet in God’s name sets forth a way of life and a way of death. In spite of the harsh language, annihilation of his people is not God’s goal no matter how much it appears to be a necessary option. Historical judgment can be combined with the saving of a remnant, and they can become the seeds of renewal and hope. What is spoken here to the inhabitants is repeated in Jer. 38:2. It is spoken again to Jeremiah and to Baruch (38:19; 45:5)—two people who would witness divine judgment, but also two people whose work would spawn spiritual renewal among the survivors of the Babylonian onslaught.

The book of Jeremiah and the ongoing faith of the exilic communities are the evidence that these two were successful. By God’s grace they found that the way to life came as a gift. In a paradox known to the faithful, the way to life is found in the giving over of one’s life to the Lord. The way to life is a gift of God whose timing cannot be forced. It is often found only after several alternate routes have proved incorrect. Such is the life of faith! There is a sense in which the whole book of Jeremiah is a long commentary on the way of life and the way of death.

Wherever there is judgment and tragedy among God’s people, there will also be signs of hope for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. How hard it can be to hear what the Spirit is saying in the midst of peril. The church cannot depend on its own resources but finally must implore the Lord to open their hearts in time to the way that leads to life.