Jeremiah, almost over and out. But what is his final word? How does this perennial prophecy echo these turbulent days?
The Book of Jeremiah ends with one last dramatic gesture - a performance of a violent vision that brings visuals and words together, moving the scene from Jerusalem to Babylon. Just as one fell, so will the other.
Jeremiah ends his prophecies with one last future fantasy - an image of the defeated superpower - Babylon. Every empire eventually falls and to illustrate the future fate of Babylon, Jeremiah sends Seraya, a trusted messenger from among the last scribes of Jerusalem, to perform an act on the bank of the Euphrates, in the presence of a few refugees from Jerusalem, including the blinded king Zedekiah and his last loyal courtiers. Seraya carries with him a scroll - on which Jeremiah’s final prophecies of Babylon’s doom are clearly outlined, and he is instructed to read them aloud and then perform this public gesture:
וְהָיָה֙ כְּכַלֹּ֣תְךָ֔ לִקְרֹ֖א אֶת־הַסֵּ֣פֶר הַזֶּ֑ה תִּקְשֹׁ֤ר עָלָיו֙ אֶ֔בֶן וְהִשְׁלַכְתּ֖וֹ אֶל־תּ֥וֹךְ פְּרָֽת׃
וְאָמַרְתָּ֗ כָּ֠כָה תִּשְׁקַ֨ע בָּבֶ֤ל וְלֹֽא־תָקוּם֙ מִפְּנֵ֣י הָרָעָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י מֵבִ֥יא עָלֶ֖יהָ וְיָעֵ֑פוּ עַד־הֵ֖נָּה דִּבְרֵ֥י יִרְמְיָֽהוּ׃
And when you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and hurl it into the Euphrates. And say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink and never rise again, because of the disaster that I will bring upon it.
Thus far the words of Jeremiah.”
Jeremiah 51:53-64
Jeremiah never got to witness his final farewell, this prophetic performance that may have even been some sort of dark magical gesture. We will never know how he died or where. There is some rumored tomb in the northern part of Israel that feels quite dubious.
These were his last words - written, drowned, but remembered.
His words remain his legacy.
The generations that followed his footsteps kept adding legends and stories that preserve his memory and add odd layers that make him into a more mythical character than he may have been.
One of those accounts, worthy to end with, describes his intimate relationship with the Divine, in the tragic context of the final chapter of the destruction that both the Divine Source and God’s human agent tried so hard to prevent. The Midrash on Lamentations tells this heartbreaking tale:
“The Blessed Holy One said to the angels: “Let us descend, I and you, so that we may see what the enemies have done to the temple, my Holy Home.
Right away they went there - with the prophet Jeremiah leading the way. When seeing the destroyed temple, the Holy Blessed One said: “This indeed is my house, and my resting place, into which the enemies have entered and done as they pleased.
At that moment, the Holy One blessed be, was weeping and said: Woe upon Me for My Temple! My children, where are you? My priests, where are you? My beloved, where are you? What could I do for you? I warned you but you did not repent.
The Holy One blessed be He said to Jeremiah: ‘Today I am like a person who had an only son, made a wedding canopy for him, and he died inside his wedding canopy; do you not feel pain for Me or for My son? Go and call Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses from their graves, as they know how to weep.’
Midrash Lamentation Rabbah, Opening/24
The tears remain, dissolving the prophetic words. One more chapter remains, a historical coda, as we bid the weeping prophet of wrath, a grateful and tearful farewell.
Wishing all of us hope and healing, patience and peace.
Image: Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem by Rembrandt, 1630
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