Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 39-41.

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Today’s passage begins by showing us that Jeremiah’s prophecy concerning King Zedekiah was fulfilled.  I do not really have any spiritual lessons from today’s passage.  I do however have some questions.  The passage tells us that after the fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was released to go where he wished.  It tells us that Jeremiah went and lived with Gedaliah at Mizpah.  Then it says that, after killing Gedaliah, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah.  Further, it tells us that he killed most of a group of pilgrims who passed by on their way to Jerusalem.  Which leads me to wonder why Ishmael did not kill Jeremiah.  I know that God was protecting Jeremiah, but what was Ishmael thinking?

Which brings me to another point which I do not fully understand.  The passage tells us that there were eighty men bringing grain offerings and incense to present at the temple, but the temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians.  And it had been long enough ago at this point that everyone would have known this to be true.  This suggests to me that the Jews continued to offer sacrifices in Jerusalem in the ruins of the temple.  I want to note that some of these men came from Samaria.  I had thought that those who lived in the areas which had been part of the Northern Kingdom had begun worshiping at Mount Gerizim after the fall of the Northern Kingdom to Assyria (with a few sporadic exceptions).  This suggests that the practice of regularly worshiping at Mount Gerizim began sometime after the time of this passage.

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