350 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
shipwrights, carpet-makers(?), brewers, bakers, fishermen, sailors, clerks, boat-
house-keepers, and scribes (Eph<al 1978: 78; cf. ANET^3 293 ).
- by the hand ofElasah son ofShaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom
Zedekiah, king ofludah, sent to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in Babylon.
Zedekiah is on the throne, but to what extent his rule is established is anyone's
guess. The present embassy is sent on official business, probably to deliver trib-
ute and reaffirm Judah's loyalty to the Babylonian king. During these years,
revolts and rumors of revolt challenged Nebuchadnezzar's rule-both in Baby-
lon and in the newly acquired western provinces (see Notes for 27:1 and 27:3).
This letter, which is hand-carried by Elasah and Gemariah, is destined not for
Nebuchadnezzar or anyone in Babylonian officialdom but for the community
of Judahite exiles. Another embassy went to Babylon in Zedekiah's fourth year,
i.e., 594/3, perhaps for the same purpose, and on this occasion Jeremiah
availed himself of the opportunity to send along with Seraiah ben Neriah a
scroll predicting Babylon's eventual demise (51:59-64).
Elasah son of Shaphan. A member of the important Shaphan scribal family
(2 Kgs 22:8-20). Two brothers of Elasah held influential positions during
Jehoiakim's reign: Ahikam, who protected Jeremiah after his trial of 609 B.C.
(26:24), and Gemariah, who had a Temple chamber (library) and was one of
those urging Jehoiakim not to burn Jeremiah's scroll (36:10-12, 25). A son of
Gemariah, Micaiah, was also connected with the Temple library at this time
(36:11-13). After the destruction of Jerusalem, Gedaliah son of Ahikam and
grandson of Shaphan was appointed governor over Judah ( 40: 5 ), and it was into
his care that Jeremiah was entrusted once he had gained his freedom (39: 11-
14). Because of Jeremiah's close ties with the Shaphan family all during his life,
it is not too much to suggest, as some have done (Peake; Muilenburg l 970a;
Jones), that a friendship with Jeremiah played some part in Elasah's hand-carry-
ing this letter to Babylon. For a line of the scribal family of Shaphan, seep. 299.
Gemariah son of Hilkiah. Of this Gemariah we know nothing other than
what is reported here. There is no indication that he was a brother to Jere-
miah, whose father was also named Hilkiah ( l:l). Possibly he was a son of
Hilkiah, the high priest, who found the Temple law-book in 622 B.C. and fig-
ured prominently in the Josianic Reform. This latter Hilkiah and Shaphan,
the scribe, were contemporaries (2 Kings 22). On the name "Gemariah," see
Appendix I.
Nebuchadnezzar. The LXX omits the name here and in v 21 (see Appendix VI).
- to all the exiles whom I exiled. The LXX omits "all" (kol), which can per-
haps be attributed to haplography (homoeoteleuton: l ... l). Volz and Ru-
dolph emend with the Syriac to a third-person verb, "who have been exiled,"
saying that the shift from third to first person is awkward. But in expanded
"thus said Yahweh" formulas, a divine 'T' is perfectly acceptable; see 23:2a:
"who shepherd my people"; 25:8: "you have not listened to my words"; 29:21:
"who are prophesying a lie to you in my name"; and 29:3 l: "when I, I did not
send him." A first-person verb occurs here in both the MT and LXX and should
therefore be retained (Bright; Holladay; McKane).
