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Jeremiah 40
Jeremiah 40
← chapter 39 chapter 41 →
	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

Jeremiah 40 is the fortieth 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 44.^[1] Chapter 40 recounts that Jeremiah chose to remain in Judah and that the occupying Babylonians appointed Gedaliah as governor.

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 16 verses.

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.^[2]

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).^[2]

Hebrew, Vulgate, English	Rahlfs' LXX (CATSS)
40:1-16	47:1-16
33:1-13	40:1-13
33:14-26	none

Textual witnesses

Some early 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).^[3]

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; ${\mathfrak {G}}$ ^B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: ${\mathfrak {G}}$ ^S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\mathfrak {G}}$ ^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; ${\mathfrak {G}}$ ^Q; 6th century).^[4]

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.^[5] Jeremiah 40 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} 40:1-6 {P} 40:7-12 {S} 40:13-16 {P}

Jeremiah remains in Judah (40:1–6)

Verses 1-6 retell the narrative in 39:11–14 about the release of Jeremiah with additional details.^[6]

Verse 1

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon. (KJV)^[7]

When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, "The LORD your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the LORD has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the LORD and did not obey him.

Cross reference: Jeremiah 39:14

Jeremiah was released into the protection of Gedaliah.^[8]

Gedaliah governs in Judah (40:7–16)

Verse 7

And when all the captains of the armies who were in the fields, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women, children, and the poorest of the land who had not been carried away captive to Babylon,^[9]

Cross reference: Jeremiah 39:10.^[10]
"Made ... governor in": in Hebrew literally, "set him over/made him overseer over” (cf. Genesis 39:4–5).^[11]