Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 45-48.

There are two parts to today’s passage.  The first, and shorter, portion, is Jeremiah’s prophecy to his assistant and scribe, Baruch.  Baruch apparently had ambitions to do great things, as he came from the aristocracy of Judah.  Jeremiah gave him a prophecy from God telling him that such things were not a possibility in his time on this earth, but that God would ensure that he escaped with his life from the various situations in which he found himself (this was apparently a reference to the persecution Baruch and Jeremiah faced, the fall of Jerusalem, and the murder of the Babylonian governor).

The rest of the passage consists of various prophecies against Judah’s neighbors.  When I have thought about it, I have always thought of these prophecies as being made after Jeremiah was taken to Egypt.  As I read today, I realized that these were probably prophecies made earlier in Jeremiah’s career.  For example, it strikes me that the prophecy regarding Egypt was likely made before the Battle of Carchemish.  I realized that the reference made to the Battle of Carchemish here was an editorial comment by the scribe (probably Baruch) telling us that this prophecy started to be fulfilled with Pharaoh’s loss at Carchemish.  Secular biblical scholars often point to Jeremiah’s prophecies concerning Nebuchadnezzar invading Egypt and state that they were not fulfilled.  Interestingly, I discovered over the last few days that Nebuchadnezzar, despite being the longest reigning king of Babylon is also the least documented of Babylonian kings.  This lack of Babylonian documentation about Nebuchadnezzar’s reign means that all we know about his military exploits is that the Babylonian Empire at the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was no larger than during the reign of his father.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.