THE SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF JEREMIAH
2. The External Socio-political Influence upon Judah
2.3. The Internal Socio-political Situation within Judah
2.3.2. The Social Situation during the Time of Jeremiah
Jeremiah‟s life23 is located at a time during which Assyria was facing serious widespread rebellions in Syria-Palestine, Anatolia, and Babylonia (Oates 1991:180).
In Manasseh‟s time, Judah participated in rebellions against Assyria. These rebellions failed to overthrow the latter. As a result, Judah was reduced from a satellite to a vassal State (Walsh and Begg 2005:184). Assyria managed to secure its position regarding its political, economic and religious control over Judah. Manasseh, the Judean king, had no choice but to follow Assyrian policy. At that time, the Assyrian non-Yahwistic religion became a cultic tradition in Zion-Jerusalem (2005:184). This situation created conflicts among the Judean people because of their Yahwistic faith
22 Kingdom of Solomon, <http://moses.creighton.edu/simkins/student/aJudah01/solom.htm/>
[Accessed July 28, 2005].
23 As Brueggemann points out, “Jeremiah lived at the time of the turning points in the public life of the known world of the Near East. His ministry covered the struggles of the rising and falling of empires.
He witnessed the fall of Assyria and observed the desperate attempts of Egypt and Assyria to hold on to cruel power and saw them fail at Carchemesh. He watched the relentless and haughty rise of Babylon as the new power before whom all trembled. He knew profoundly that everything was loose and being shaken and that the agent of such rising and falling was none other than Yhwh” (2006:10).
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(Roberts 1987:377-378). This socio-religious policy continued through to the time of Amon (642-640 BCE), Manasseh‟s son. As a result, Amon was assassinated by his own people, only two years after he had succeeded his father on the throne (2 Kings 21:23).
Josiah (640-609 BCE), Amon‟s son, succeeded his father, being placed on the throne by the pro-Amon Judean people. The Assyrian leadership was busy with the Babylonian rebellion under Shamash-shum-ukin at the end of the seventh century BCE (Mitchell 1991:375). Egyptian influence in Syria-Palestine had become more evident. It had an impact on Judean policy as well. Ashurbanipal died in 627 BCE, after which Babylonia began a campaign to gain independence from Assyria. On Necho (610-594 BCE) did not interfere with Judah‟s internal affairs. Instead, he was advancing to assist the Assyrians against the rising power of Babylon (Walsh and Begg 2005:185). As a result, Judah had complete control over its administrative system and policy. This enabled Josiah to reform religious life in Zion-Jerusalem.
This reform began with the discovery of the Book of the Law in the temple (Blenkinsopp 2005:101). This book has been identified with the law document which referred to God‟s instructions, torah (Deut. 17:18). As Boardman argues:
Opinions have differed concerning what proportion of the existing Deuteronomy constituted the Book of the Law in Josiah‟s time: whether only parts, or substantially the whole. This question is associated also with that of the origin and authorship of Deuteronomy, concerning which views range from the time of Moses in the thirteenth century BCE to the post-Exilic period in the fifth or fourth century BCE (1991:388).
The Book of the Law was accepted as authoritative and was used in Josiah‟s religious reform (Rofé 2002:97-98). Its discovery led Josiah to impose upon the Judeans the practice of its instructions towards God. This turned the people back to Yahweh and restored their relationship with him (Nürnberger 2002:213-214). Josiah‟s reformation proved that even under Egyptian control over Judah, religion and socio-political life were still indistinguishable.
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When Jehoahaz came to office (having succeeded his father Josiah in 609 BCE) his reign lasted only three months. Necho of Egypt did not approve of the Judeans‟ choice regarding their king on the throne. He therefore took Jehoahaz into Exile and replaced him with his brother Jehoiakim (608-598 BCE) (Schniedewind 2004:150). The pro- Egyptian Jehoiakim, taxed the Judean population in the form of silver and gold to pay tribute to Egypt instead of using the temple‟s treasury as did the previous monarchs (Larue 1969:47; Schniedewind 2004:151).
Under Babylon, Judah was a vassal State, which meant that its internal affairs were dependent upon and strictly controlled by the great Empire of the day (Wehmeier 2000:1437). An Egyptian victory stimulated the second revolt in Judah (590 BCE), and produced the strong hope that Egypt would soon liberate them from Babylonian control. In 595 BCE, Pharaoh Psammetichus II began a campaign against Nubia and prevailed in battle. To celebrate this victory, a festival was held during which Zedekiah made a pact with Egypt, offering it military support with the promise that Judah would break its alliance with Babylon (Ezek. 17:12-15). The Lachish Ostraca describe this diplomatic agreement between Judah and Egypt (Wiseman 1991:234).24 When Egypt failed to defeat Babylon, the latter sacked Jerusalem. The economy of Judah, especially Zion-Jerusalem, was left devastated. Zion-Jerusalem was destroyed and its State and religious leaders executed and its citizens exiled. Politics in Judah declined rapidly as a result of these executions and the taking into Exile of the Judean leadership and upper classes by Babylon (Pakkala 2006:444).
A non-Davidic king, Gedaliah, was enthroned by the Babylonians to rule over Judah after Zedekiah was captured, blinded and taken to Babylon (Mitchell 1991:407;
Wiseman 1991:235). He was a native official from Judah, who it seems already had held office under Josiah and Jehoiakim (2 Kings 22:12, 14; Jer. 26:24). We may assume from 2 Kings 25:24 that Gedaliah was submissive to the Babylonians and advised his compatriots to adopt the same attitude (Herrmann 1975:291). At that moment a real tension arose between the governorship of Gedaliah tolerated by Jeremiah but opposed by Ishmael and his group (Seitz 1985:79). Gedaliah‟s reign did
24 Babylonian Domination, <http://moses.creighton.edu/simkins/student/aJudah01/babylon.htm/>
[Accessed July 28, 2005].
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not last long. It ended in his assassination by Ishmael, a Davidic family member, who tried to reinstate Davidic rule to the Judean throne. But Ishmael was opposed by the Judean population and officials who did not want another war. His plan failed and he too fled into exile in Egypt (Dumbrell 2002:103).25
These events affected the Judean people who were distressed and felt “sorrow and insecurity in their life” (Mavinga 2008:249). In this regard, some Judeans who had remained in the land preferred to take refuge in Egypt. Jeremiah was forced to go with them. This underlines a difficult time experienced both by those being brought to Babylon and those staying in the land (Seitz 1985:83-84).