Jeremiah & Lamentations (TOTC) by Hetty Lalleman

Author:Hetty Lalleman [Lalleman, Hetty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783592531
Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
Published: 2009-06-18T16:00:00+00:00

26:20–24. The fate of another prophet

This parenthetical passage shows the misfortune which overtook one of Jeremiah’s spiritual allies. Uriah ben Shemaiah, an otherwise unknown individual, lived in Kirjath-jearim, identified with Kuriet el-Enab, located nine miles west of Jerusalem on the road to Jaffa. It was originally a Gibeonite city (Josh. 9:17), where the ark was deposited for twenty years (1 Sam. 7:2). Having prophesied much as Jeremiah had done, Uriah (Urijah) fled to Egypt, thus conveying the impression of sedition, which was a capital offence. Had he stood his ground like Jeremiah, his fate might well have been different. Elnathan (22) is mentioned again in 36:12, 25. The patronymic Achbor was fairly common in the seventh century BC. If he was identical with the man named in 2 Kings 24:8, he would be Jehoiakim’s father-in-law, and thus the proper court official to proceed with Uriah’s extradition. International treaties often contained extradition clauses, and this was doubtless part of the vassalage terms imposed by Egypt. Torczyner identified Uriah with the anonymous prophet mentioned in Ostracon III from Lachish,27 but the reference is too vague to permit proper identification. Uriah’s corpse was finally flung into the Kidron valley (cf. 2 Kgs 23:6). Though Jeremiah was utterly sincere, he still needed support from Ahikam ben Shaphan (24) to escape death. This insertion was evidently the work of Baruch, and contrasted the fate of the two contemporary prophetic figures. Ahikam had been a member of the deputation sent by Josiah to the prophetess Huldah (2 Kgs 22:12ff.; 2 Chr. 34:20), and was the father of Gedaliah, the governor of Judah appointed by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kgs 25:22; Jer. 39:14). Whether Ahikam was the son of the court official known as Shaphan (2 Kgs 22:12) is not clear from MT.

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