What does Jeremias Chapter 21 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Sedecias’s inquiry receives an announced siege outcome. Remaining and fleeing are assigned particular outcomes. Royal judgment and oppression precede opposing fire imagery.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 21 begins with Sedecias sending Phassur son of Melchias and the priest Sophonias son of Maasias to inquire concerning Nabuchodonosor's war, hoping wonderful works might cause withdrawal. This Phassur's father differs from the son of Emmer in the preceding chapter. The reply announces turned-back weapons and gathering in the city's midst, followed by the Lord's own fighting with outstretched hand, strong arm, anger and indignation. Men and beasts suffer great pestilence.

Sedecias, servants and surviving people who escaped pestilence, sword and famine are delivered to Babylon's king, enemies and seekers of their lives, without pity or mercy. A way of life and death is set before the people: remaining means sword, famine or pestilence; going out and fleeing to besieging Chaldeans means living with life as spoil. The city is given to the king and burned. This particular announced outcome is not made a universal military surrender guarantee.

The house of David must judge in the morning and rescue the oppressed from violent hands, lest wrath-fire burn without quenching. Those called valley-dwellers and rock of the plain ask who can enter their houses; the Lord opposes and visits according to deeds, kindling forest-fire that consumes surroundings. The edition separately explains Jerusalem's rock and deep valley. Unstated patriotic motives, temple prestige and city-quarter identifications are not supplied.

The story inside

Opening: Sedecias’s inquiry receives an announced siege outcome. Development: Remaining and fleeing are assigned particular outcomes. Conclusion: Royal judgment and oppression precede opposing fire imagery.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Sedecias’s inquiry receives an announced siege outcome.
2
Remaining and fleeing are assigned particular outcomes.
3
Royal judgment and oppression precede opposing fire imagery.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 86081–86087
21:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when king Sedecias sent unto him Phassur, the son of Melchias, and Sophonias, the son of Maasias the priest, saying: 21:2. Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon maketh war against us: if so be the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, that he may depart from us.
Lines 86091–86110
21:4. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, and with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans, that besiege you round about the walls: and I will gather them together in the midst of this city. 21:5. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand, and with a strong arm, and in fury, and in indignation, and in great wrath. 21:6. And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, men and beasts shall die of a great pestilence. 21:7. And after this, saith the Lord, I will give Sedecias the king of Juda, and his servants, and his people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, and the sword, and the famine, into the hand of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword, and he shall not be moved to pity, nor spare them, nor shew mercy to them.
Lines 86112–86118
21:8. And to this people thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. 21:9. He that shall abide in this city, shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that shall go out and flee over to the Chaldeans, that besiege you, shall live, and his life shall be to him as a spoil.
Lines 86127–86138
21:12. O house of David, thus saith the Lord: Judge ye judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is oppressed by violence out of the hand of the oppressor: lest my indignation go forth like a fire, and be kindled, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your ways. 21:13. Behold I come to thee that dwellest in a valley upon a rock above a plain, saith the Lord: and you say: Who shall strike us and who shall enter into our houses? To thee that dwellest, etc.... He speaks to Jerusalem, confiding in the strength of her situation upon rocks, surrounded with a deep valley.
Lines 86140–86142
21:14. But I will visit upon you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof: and it shall devour all things round about it.