Jeremiah 40:1-10 - Jeremiah turned to go

40:1-6

Initially Jeremiah had been bound up in chains with the rest of the Jews bound for exile, but Nebuzaradan had found him and released him.  The commander seemed to have a better spiritual understanding than the people of Jerusalem had, and better than the religious leaders had. The commander gave Jeremiah the option of coming to Babylon, and promised that he would be looked after. But he also gave Jeremiah the choice of staying in Judah. He probably found it difficult to understand why anyone would want to stay in Jerusalem, as the place was now a wreck. Jeremiah chose to stay, and the commander urged him to go to Gedaliah, who had been appointed to look after Judah. He then gave him provisions and let him go. So Jeremiah stayed with the people who were left behind in Judah.

40:7-10

The people in the land needed to adapt to the new situation, and were understandably concerned about how things would go now. The army officers went to the new “boss”, Gedaliah, though he was acting on behalf of the Babylonians. Gedaliah sought to assure the people that things would go well with them if they served the Babylonians. Remember that Jeremiah had earlier told the exiles to serve the Babylonians, and seek the well being of Babylon.