Nebuchadnezzar establishes Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the people left in the land to be vinedressers and laborers. This Ahikam had saved Jeremiah in the days of Jehoiakim, when even as Urijah the prophet, he had prophesied against Jerusalem (Jer. 26:24). No doubt this action had had its influence upon the king of Babylon, who respected and protected Jeremiah. Gedaliah dwelt at Mizpah, a strong city that Asa, king of Judah, had built with the stones of Ramah (1 Kings 15:22). It was there that Jeremiah went, and there all those from the surrounding regions who had escaped together with the poor people that were left came to seek the protection of Gedaliah, this noble lieutenant of the king of Babylon. He reassured the people, swearing to them that they had nothing to fear in accepting their servitude to the Chaldeans.
For this poor remnant there was a respite of several months. They gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance (Jer. 40:12). The worship of the Lord even seems to have been held in honor again, now at a time when the temple had been completely destroyed and ruined. At least there was a “house of Jehovah” to which those who mourned over Israel’s condition could go up. The captains of the forces that remained gathered around Gedaliah, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah of the royal seed at their head. This latter, however, came with evil purposes, sent by Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, and pushed, no doubt, by his own ambition. Gedaliah warned by Johanan, one of the captains, of the treachery being planned, refused to believe it and to have part in the murder of Ishmael (Jer. 40:13-16). Ishmael smote him in a cowardly manner, thus for the last time rebelling against the king of Babylon’s authority. He massacred the governor’s followers and the Chaldean warriors who were found there. On the second day he killed the men who, perhaps ignorant and not free from heathen practices but with broken hearts, had come to seek the Lord; and led captive all the remainder of the people who were at Mizpah along with the king’s daughters to the Ammonites (Jer. 41:4-10). Johanan and the captains of the forces followed him, found him near the waters of Gibeon, defeated him, and recovered the captives from him, while he succeeded in escaping with eight men and going to Baalis.
These delivered captives, filled with apprehension and wanting to go to Egypt, consult the Lord through Jeremiah to secure an answer according to their desires, but in fact they had decided to disobey if this answer would not be favorable to their purpose. The prophet solemnly warned them. If they would stay, this would be their salvation, for blessing always accompanies the accepting of God’s judgment when the soul humbly submits and in spite of everything counts upon him to bless. To go down to Egypt where they thought they would find security would be to go on to inevitable judgment (Jer. 42).
In their pride the leaders do not want to accept humiliation, and they treat the word of God as a lie. Is it not always so when God presents His word which condemns the world and the will of man to souls who have chosen the world and their own self will? In face of the most clear sentence they say: “Thou speakest falsely; Jehovah our God hath not sent thee to say” this (Jer. 43:2). Thus they do not listen to the word of the Lord. Obstinate in their purpose to the end, they revolt against God and take with them Jeremiah and faithful Baruch, not wanting to leave behind these witnesses to their disobedience and of their unbelief. They forget only one thing, that they are carrying with them the Word that condemns them. Jeremiah continues to the end in his faithful exercise of the gift of prophecy that God had entrusted to him. At Tahpanhes, just as at Jerusalem, he is a witness of the true God. He announces the future invasion of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, who at that time would remember these revolts (Jer. 43).
These wretched folk begin again to serve other gods in the land of Egypt to which they had fled. Their state is described to us in these words: “They are not humbled unto this day, neither have they feared nor walked in My law, nor in My statutes which I set before you and before your fathers” (Jer. 44:10). So God declares that of all those who had gone down to Egypt, except for “a very small company” that would escape (Jer. 44:28), “none of the remnant” should “escape or remain, so as to return into the land of Judah” (Jer. 44:14).
The people openly declare their will to continue sacrificing “to the queen of the heavens,” and attribute to her the prosperity which they had formerly enjoyed at Jerusalem (Jer. 44:17-18). The predicted calamity overtakes them in Egypt, the Lord delivering Pharaoh-hophra into the hands of the king of Babylon (Jer. 44:30)