Jeremiah 42 Study Notes

42:1-3 The commanders and all the people came to Jeremiah to pray for guidance on what to do. They wanted Jeremiah to plead to the Lord your God so he would direct them. The prophet agreed to do so. How Jeremiah reached this group—or whether he had been living in Mizpah when Ishmael’s attack happened—is not revealed. This Jezaniah is not the same as the Jezaniah of 40:8, but he is the same as the Azariah of 43:2; the Greek Septuagint reads Azariah in both 42:1 and 43:2. Then as now, men were known by more than one name, as did King Uzziah (aka Azariah, 2Kg 15:1). Hoshaiah may be the same man mentioned in the Lachish Letters, inscribed potsherds that tell about the last moments before the city’s fall to Nebuchadnezzar.

42:4-6 Three times the people affirmed that they would do whatever the Lord told Jeremiah. They would certainly (lit “yes, indeed”) obey the Lord.

42:7-9 Jeremiah was unwilling to speak until he had the Lord’s answer, so it took ten days. This must have caused more jitters about reprisals from the Babylonians. Perhaps the delay was part of God’s test of the people. Would they be willing to wait for the Lord’s answer despite their anxiety?

42:8-12 Once again Jeremiah delivered an unpopular message. God said he would not uproot them if they stayed in the land. This message disappointed them, for they wished to flee to Egypt rather than remain. God decided to relent concerning the disaster that he had brought on Judah (v. 10). This does not mean God changed his being, character, person, or purpose. The Hebrew verb is niham (“to be sorry,” “to regret,” “to relent”), which here means God “grieves” over Judah and changes his actions due to a change in Judah’s response now that judgment had been meted out in the fall of Jerusalem. This verb with this meaning also occurs in 4:18; 18:8,10; 26:3,13,19 (see note at 18:7-10).

42:13-17 If the remnant of Judah’s citizens trusted in humans and not in God, terrifying consequences awaited them in Egypt—sword . . . famine, and death. Though Egypt was defeated at the battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, she had not experienced warfare in her own country; indeed, Egypt was the only country that had escaped this scourge. Judah had experienced war almost constantly since the battle of Megiddo in 609 BC when King Josiah was killed. The remnant of Judah are those who remained after the city’s fall in 587 BC.

42:18-22 The disobedient refugees would become an example for cursing, scorn, execration, and disgrace, just as Dt 28:68 predicted. They would experience exactly what they were trying to avoid by going to Egypt. The survivors in that land would suffer the same horrors for their disobedience that their relatives and friends had suffered in Judah for their disobedience. Their duplicity in asking for guidance but then refusing to obey it shows that they had gone astray at the cost of their lives. This is a fatal mistake! The trio of judgments is sounded once more: sword, famine, and plague (cp. vv. 16-17; 14:12).