43:1 Jeremiah finished telling all the people all these things the Lord their God had sent him to tell them.

 

In the last chapter, Jeremiah told the people to remain in Judah, but not to go to Egypt. Jeremiah 43-51 contained the written prophecies of Jeremiah’s last days in Egypt.

 

43:2 Then Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and other arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! The Lord our God did not send you to tell us, ‘You must not go to Egypt and settle there.’ 

 

The people did not want to hear that they were to stay in Judah.  Azariah raised up some arrogant men and accused Jeremiah of lying. Those who faithfully teach the Word of God will usually receive similar opposition in their local churches.

 

43:3 But Baruch son of Neriah is stirring you up against us. He wants to hand us over to the Babylonians so that they will kill us or carry us off into exile in Babylon.” 

 

Baruch was the faithful secretary of Jeremiah. The people accused Baruch of devising a plot to betray the people over to Babylon.

 

43:4 So Johanan son of Kareah, all the army officers, and all the rest of the people did not obey the Lord’s command to stay in the land. 

 

The people did not listen to Jeremiah. They left Jerusalem and traveled to Egypt. They had now left God’s protection and entered into God’s judgment.

 

43:5 Instead Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led off all the Judean remnant who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered.

 

Some of the people from Judah returned from foreign lands and returned to Israel. The army officers forced these people to march to Egypt with them.

 

43:6 They also led off all the men, women, children, and royal princesses that Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, had left with Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan. This included the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah. 

 

Jeremiah and his secretary were forced to march into Egypt.

 

43:7 They went on to Egypt because they refused to obey the Lord, and came to Tahpanhes. 

 

Tahpanhes was near Goshen. Moses had marched the Israelites out of Tahpanhes over 900 years earlier. Now, they returned to their original place of Egyptian slavery.

 

43:8 At Tahpanhes the Lord spoke to Jeremiah.

 

Even though Jeremiah was transported to Egypt against his will, Jehovah still spoke through his prophet.

 

43:9 “Take some large stones and bury them in the mortar of the clay pavement at the entrance of Pharaoh’s residence here in Tahpanhes. Do it while the people of Judah present there are watching.

 

Jeremiah was commanded to bury large stones underneath the governmental office (not the residence) of the Pharaoh.

 

43:10 Then tell them, ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, “I will bring my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will set his throne over these stones which I have buried. He will pitch his royal tent over them. 

 

Nebuchadnezzar would march to Tahpanhes and place his military tent directly over the stones in which Jeremiah had buried.

 

43:11 He will come and attack Egypt. Those who are destined to die of disease will die of disease. Those who are destined to be carried off into exile will be carried off into exile. Those who are destined to die in war will die in war.

 

The Jews should have listened to Jeremiah and stayed in Jerusalem. King Nebuchadnezzar was going to march to Egypt and defeat them as well. The Jews who go to Egypt would either die in battle, die of disease, or be carried off into captivity to Babylon.

 

43:12 He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt. He will burn their gods or carry them off as captives. He will pick Egypt clean like a shepherd picks the lice from his clothing. He will leave there unharmed.

 

King Nebuchadnezzar would set the temples of the Egyptian gods on fire. He would take the idols to Babylon, showing that they were not gods. Nebuchadnezzar would place his shepherd’s coat over Egypt, claiming the nation as his own. The Egyptians worshiped lice, so they would be nothing but lice on Nebuchadnezzar’s jacket. The Egyptians would be picked off like lice and thrown to the ground, left to die.

 

43:13 He will demolish the sacred pillars in the temple of the sun in Egypt and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.” ’ ” 

 

The temple of the sun was probably a reference to the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, which means “the city of the sun.” This would be the Temple of Ra, the sun god. Moses attacked the chief god of Egypt with his ninth plague of darkness. This temple was the very center of Egyptian idolatry and the worship of foreign gods. Heliopolis was going to be destroyed. All of the Egyptian temples would be destroyed by fire.

 

Josephus, a first century historian, wrote a book called “The Antiquities of the Jews.”  He recorded how this prophecy was fulfilled by King Nebuchadnezzar in 581 B.C. This incident occurred about five years after the Jews had fled to Egypt against the advice of Jeremiah. 

 

Josephus wrote, “Nebuchadnezzar fell upon Egypt to overthrow it. He slew the king that then reigned and set up another. He took those Jews who were captive there and led them to Babylon and such was the end of the nation of the Hebrews.”

 

Even secular history backs up the prophetic Word of God.