Yirmiyahu 40: Yirmiyahu’s Freedom, Gedaliah’s Leadership, and a Deadly Plot

(16 Pesukim)

1. Yirmiyahu’s Release and Freedom of Choice (40:1–6)

After the fall of Jerusalem, Yirmiyahu was among the captives taken to Ramah in chains and taken from Ramah into exile in Babylon.
Nebuzaradan, the chief executioner, recognized him and released him from his chains and acknowledged that the disaster had come because the people sinned against the Lord and did not obey His voice.
Nebuzaradan offered Yirmiyahu the choice to go to Babylon, where he would be personally cared for by him, or remain in Judah where he was equally free to remain anywhere in the land that he preferred.
While Yeremiah hesitated, he was advised to go to Gedalya son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the cities of Judah, and to live among the people there—or to go anywhere else he considered right. The choice was entirely his, with no restrictions placed on him.
Yeremiah chose to stay, and Nebuzaradan treated him with exceptional courtesy, giving him provisions and a gift before sending him on his way to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah.
Yirmiyahu lived among the remnant of the people who remained in Judah.

Gedaliah was appointed governor over the cities of Judah by the king of Babylon. He had been entrusted with the men, women, and children, and others of the impoverished of the land, from those who were not exiled to Babylon.
When the remaining army officers and their men who were dispersed in the field heard of this, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, in the portion of Benjamin, north of Jerusalem. Among those who arrived included Yishmael son of Netanya, and Yohanan and Yonatan sons of Kare’ah, and Seraya son of Tanhumet, and the sons of Efai the Netofatite, and Yezanya son of the Maakhatite, they and their men.
Gedaliah reassured them, urging them not to fear serving the Babylonians. He promised that if they settled in the land and served the king of Babylon, it would go well with them.
Gedaliah explained that he would remain in Mizpah to represent the people before the Babylonians, while they should gather wine, figs, and oil and live in the towns they had occupied.

News spread to Jews living in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other lands that a remnant had been left in Judah under Gedaliah’s leadership. Many returned from exile and came to Mizpah.
They settled in Judah and gathered large quantities of wine and dried figs, signaling a brief period of stability and abundance for the survivors.

Yochanan son of Kareah and other army officers came to Gedaliah and warned him that Baalis, the king of Ammon, had sent Yishmael son of Nethaniah to assassinate him.
Gedaliah refused to believe the report.
Yochanan even offered Gedaliah to secretly kill Yishmael in order to prevent the murder and to prevent the scattering of the remnant of Judah. “Why should he smite you mortally, and all of Judah who gathered to you will be dispersed, and the remnant of Judah will be lost?”
Gedaliah forbade him from killing Yishmael, insisting that Yochanan’s claim was false.