Jeremiah 44

Jeremiah 44 is the forty-fourth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter is part of a narrative section consisting of chapters 37 to the present one.[1] Chapters 42-44 describe the emigration to Egypt involving the remnant who remained in Judah after much of the population was exiled to Babylon.[2] The Jerusalem Bible describes this chapter as "the last episode of Jeremiah's ministry".[3]

For Jeremiah 44 in the Septuagint, see Jeremiah 37.

Jeremiah 44
← chapter 43 chapter 45 →
A high resolution scan of the Aleppo Codex showing the Book of Jeremiah (the sixth book in Nevi'im).
Book	Book of Jeremiah
Hebrew Bible part	Nevi'im
Order in the Hebrew part	6
Category	Latter Prophets
Christian Bible part	Old Testament
Order in the Christian part	24

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 30 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some ancient manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008).[4] Some fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, i.e., 2QJer (2Q13; 1st century CE[5]), with extant verses 1‑3, 12‑14.[6][7]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (with a different chapter and verse numbering), made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^Q; 6th century).[8]

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.[9] Jeremiah 44 is a part of the "Sixteenth prophecy (Jeremiah 40-45)" in the section of Prophecies interwoven with narratives about the prophet's life (Jeremiah 26-45). {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.

{P} 44:1-6 {S} 44:7-10 {S} 44:11-14 {P} 44:15-19 {S} 44:20-23 {S} 44:24-25 {S} 44:26-29 {P} 44:30 {S}

Verse numbering

The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text (Hebrew), and Vulgate (Latin), in some places differs from that in the Septuagint (LXX, the Greek Bible used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and others) according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.[10]

The order of Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study (CATSS) based on Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta (1935) differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition (1957) in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs' edition (=CATSS).[10]

Hebrew, Vulgate, English	Rahlfs' LXX (CATSS)
44:1-30	51:1-30
37:1-21	44:1-21

Verse 1

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, (KJV)[11]

This is Jeremiah's final message to the Judeans living in various places in Egypt.[12] Pathros refers to Upper Egypt; Noph is the same as Memphis, in Lower Egypt. Tahpanhes was the border point first reach by the migrant community coming from occupied Judah (Jeremiah 43:7), and therefore the Jerusalem Bible suggests that this introduction to Jeremiah's final prophecy "represents [a] discourse as addressed to the whole Jewish diaspora in Egypt".[13]

Verse 30

The head of Hophra (Apries), Louvre.

"Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.'" (KJV)[14]

The same way Yahweh handed Zedekiah over to Nebuchadnezzar II (Jeremiah 39:5-7), Pharaoh Hophra (or Apries) (Hebrew: חפרע‎ Ḥāp̄əra‘) would be handed over to his enemies.[15] Hophra is the fourth king (counting from Psamtik I) of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt, ruling 589-570 BCE.[16] His name is written as Ουαφρη[ς], Ouaphre[s] in the Greek Old Testament,[17] Ancient Greek: Ἁπρίης Apries by Herodotus (ii. 161) and Diodorus (i. 68), or Waphres by Manetho, who correctly records that he reigned for 19 years.[18] He forged an alliance with Zedekiah to rebel against Babylon (Jeremiah 37:5), sending an army in the summer of 588 BC, but that action failed to prevent the fall of Jerusalem in July 587 BCE.[19] In 570 BC Hophra was forced to rule together as co-regents with Amasis (or Ahmosis/Ahmose II), but three years later Hophra was overthrown and executed, while Amasis continued to be a sole ruler until his death in 526 BCE.[15]

See also

Egypt Israel Jerusalem Migdol Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon

Noph Pathros Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt Tahpanhes Zedekiah king of Judah

• Related Bible part: Jeremiah 42, Jeremiah 43, Jeremiah 45

References

1. Coogan 2007, pp. 1137-1138 Hebrew Bible.
2. O'Connor 2007, p. 520.
3. Jerusalem Bible (1966), Heading at Jeremiah 44:1
4. Würthwein 1995, pp. 35-37.
5. Sweeney, Marvin A. (2010). Form and Intertextuality in Prophetic and Apocalyptic Literature. Forschungen zum Alten Testament. 45 (reprint ed.). Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 66. ISBN 9781608994182. ISSN 0940-4155.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
6. Fitzmyer, Joseph A. (2008). A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 26. ISBN 9780802862419. Retrieved February 15, 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
7. Ulrich, Eugene, ed. (2010). The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants. Brill. pp. 580. ISBN 9789004181830. Retrieved May 15, 2017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
8. Würthwein 1995, pp. 73-74.
9. As reflected in the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 edition of the Hebrew Bible in English.
10. CCEL - Brenton Jeremiah Appendix
11. Jeremiah 44:1 King James
12. O'Connor 2007, p. 521.
13. Jerusalem Bible (1966), Footnote a at Jeremiah 44
14. Jeremiah 44:30 NKJV
15. Huey 1993, p. 370.
16. Thompson 1980, p. 25.
17. Cf. Christoffer Theis, Sollte Re sich schämen? Eine subliminale Bedeutung von עפרח in Jeremia 44,30, in: UF 42 (2011), S. 677–691 for the writing of this particular name.
18. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Apries" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
19. Thompson 1980, pp. 25-26.

Sources

• Coogan, Michael David (2007). Coogan, Michael David; Brettler, Marc Zvi; Newsom, Carol Ann; Perkins, Pheme (eds.). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, Issue 48 (Augmented 3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195288810.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Huey, F. B. (1993). The New American Commentary - Jeremiah, Lamentations: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture, NIV Text. B&H Publishing Group. ISBN 9780805401165.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• O'Connor, Kathleen M. (2007). "23. Jeremiah". In Barton, John; Muddiman, John (eds.). The Oxford Bible Commentary (first (paperback) ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 487–533. ISBN 978-0199277186. Retrieved February 6, 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Thompson, J. A. (1980). A Book of Jeremiah. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (illustrated, revised ed.). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 9780802825308.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Würthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament. Translated by Rhodes, Erroll F. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Retrieved January 26, 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

Jewish

• Jeremiah 44 Hebrew with Parallel English

Christian

• Jeremiah 44, English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate