This chapter continues the narrative begun at 41:4. The remnant leaders asked Jeremiah to obtain the Lord's word concerning their proposed flight to Egypt (vv. 1-6).
42:1-3 Then Johanan and his fellow leaders of the refugees asked Jeremiah to pray for them, as few as they were, that the Lord would tell them what to do. Zedekiah had made a similar request of Jeremiah and then chose to go against what the Lord commanded (37:3).
Many expositors believe that the remnant had already determined to proceed on to Egypt and simply wanted Yahweh's blessing (cf. 43:1-3). I tend to think their request was sincere in view of their words and the Lord's reply. It seems to me that if they had already decided to leave the land the Lord would have responded to them more strongly as hypocrites instead of as people who were in the process of making a decision.
42:4 Jeremiah agreed to seek the Lord's guidance and to report what He said to the remnant.
42:5-6 The people promised three times that they would obey the Lord, the faithful and true witness, in all that He told them to do so things would go well for them.
Jeremiah obtained and reported the Lord's message to the remnant camped near Bethlehem (vv. 7-22).
42:7-8 After 10 days word came back to Jeremiah from Yahweh, so he assembled all the people to tell them God's will. Perhaps the Lord waited this long to respond to see if the people would wait for His word or proceed on to Egypt without it.
42:9-10 The Lord told the people, in classic covenant terminology, that if they remained in the land He would build them up and plant them firmly (cf. 1:10; 24:6; 31:28; Deut. 28). He would also mitigate His punishment of them for their former disobedience that had resulted in the Babylonian invasion (cf. 18:18).
42:11-12 The Lord told them not to fear Nebuchadnezzar because He, the ultimate sovereign, would be with them to save and deliver them from Nebuchadnezzar's hand. Yahweh would have compassion on the people and cause Nebuchadnezzar to have compassion on them and allow them to stay in their land.
42:13-16 However if the people decided to leave the land and not listen to the Lord's voice, if they chose to go to Egypt where they thought they would be safe and have plenty of food, they would surely die by the sword, famine, and disease there. The Lord made His will very clear to the remnant. None of them would survive the calamity He would bring on them.
"Just as Yahweh's sovereignty can insure the safety of the faithful against repercussions from the king of Babylon, so will the judgment of Yahweh reach even to Egypt."516
42:18 As the Lord had dealt with the people of Judah and Jerusalem in the invasion, so He would deal with the remnant if they went to Egypt. He would pour out His wrath on them when they entered Egypt, they would become a terrible object lesson to others, and they would never return to the Promised Land.
42:19-20 Jeremiah added that his hearers should understand that the Lord was clearly telling them not to go to Egypt. He also reminded them that they had asked him to secure God's directions for them in prayer and had promised to do whatever He commanded.
42:21-22 The prophet sensed by the people's reaction that they were not going to obey, so he warned them again that they would die in Egypt if they went there.
The leaders of the remnant rejected the Lord's direction (43:1-7).
43:1-3 As soon as Jeremiah had finished telling the remnant what God's will was, Azariah, Johanan, and other arrogant men among them accused Jeremiah of lying to them. They claimed that Baruch was the source of the advice Jeremiah had given them rather than Yahweh. They believed that Baruch wanted the Chaldeans to slay or exile them. Baruch was Jeremiah's scribe, and both men were loyal to Yahweh (cf. ch. 45). Perhaps these opponents felt that Baruch was unduly influencing the prophet.
"Here is a good example of a man [Azariah] who was so persuaded that his own wrong views were right that his mind was completely closed to any other possibility--an age-old phenomenon."517
43:4 Johanan, the guerrilla commanders, and all the refugees did not obey Yahweh's instruction to stay in the land. All the people in view here must be all the people in this group of Judahites near Bethlehem, not all the people still in the land. Many Judeans remained in the land and did not go to Egypt. Here was a final moment of opportunity for the Judahites still in the land, but they continued to reject the Lord's word.
43:5-7 These leaders took this remnant, which included Jews who had returned to the land from neighboring countries, Jews whom the Babylonians had left in the land, Jeremiah, and Baruch, and proceeded on to Egypt. They stopped at Tahpanhes (Gr. Daphne; cf. 2:16), an Egyptian frontier town in the northeastern Nile Delta region on the road from Canaan, perhaps to obtain permission to settle in the land.518They did this in disobedience to the Lord. Note the continued emphasis on the people's disobedience throughout this whole chapter.
"Think of it! Abraham's descendants returned to Egypt long after their liberation from it. With great suffering they had been delivered from their bondage in Egypt only to return there a defeated and hopeless remnant nearly nine hundred years later . . ."519
It is difficult to tell whether Jeremiah went with them as a prisoner or by his own choice. It seems unlikely that this group of rebels against God's messages through Jeremiah would have forced him (and Baruch) to accompany them knowing that he would continue to be a thorn in their side. If Jeremiah went to Egypt by his own choice, he must have done so convinced that Yahweh wanted him to be His voice among the rebels. He could not have gone to escape danger and have been faithful to his Lord. Most of the commentators speculate that he did not go voluntarily (cf. 32:6-15; 40:1-6; 42:13-18).
