Haftorah Parashat Bo
Yirmiyahu 46;13-28
Two Prophets Reacting to the Same Event
This week’s haftarah, from the book of Yirmiyahu, is dated by the prophet to just about the same time as in last week’s haftarah, although that one was by Yehezkel. Apparently, Nevuchadnezzar’s conquest of Egypt stimulated both Yehezkel and Yirmiyahu, living hundreds of miles apart—Yehezkel is in Bavel and Yirmiyahu still in Israel—to prophecy.
That fact alone raises the question of how naturalistically we view prophecy. Some views of Judaism think of prophecy as mostly a function of the prophet’s personal perfection. For such views—Rambam seems close to this one—if a person achieves the requisite personal perfections and God does not choose to intervene to interrupt the flow of prophecy, prophecy comes. In this view, prophecy is a metaphysical events that is nonetheless part of the makeup of the world (we live in an age that denies that such events exist, but Judaism certainly disagrees with that).
For those who view prophecy that way, our two haftarot suggest that both Yehezkel and Yirmiyahu were so moved by Bavel’s conquest of Egypt as to experience a prophetic event. Since prophecy depends on the prophet’s readiness for it, we would have to say that this event made a strong enough impression to spur their words.
On the other hand, if you see prophecy as mostly God-driven—that God decides who gets prophecy and when, although there may be minimum standards for who God would speak to in this way—we would need to understand these two prophecies as reflecting God’s interest in “getting the word out” about His perspective of the events. Either way, the conquest of Egypt was clearly repercussive, a world-shaking event that reflected a change in the very fabric of God’s relationship with the world. We saw some of what that was about last week, but Yirmiyahu will help us flesh it out further.
Note also that while these prophecies seem relevant to us because of their parallelism to our Torah readings (the Exodus, the Egyptians failure to understand the need to listen to God, with its parallels in the time of our prophets), they are less obviously explainable in their original context. The Jewish people are about to themselves go into exile, the Beit haMikdash is about to be destroyed, and Hashem is taking time to hearken back to the mistakes Egypt had made and continues to make. At a basic level, it reminds us of Egypt’s permanent role as reminder of the Exodus and its message of the supremacy of God in the world.
One Voice, Two Messages
For all that their prophecies reflect the words of the One True God—whose Unity means that the messages must somehow come together into one whole—the two neviim appear to have absorbed God’s message slightly differently. In last week’s haftarah, Yehezkel focused on Egypt itself, her overweening view of herself, and the comeuppance headed her way. That it would be Nevuchadnezzar who served as the vehicle of that destruction was only mentioned briefly at the end, and is linked to the reward he deserves for destroying Tsor.
In that picture, the focus is on God striking down those who take too great a role for themselves in history, while denying or ignoring God, such as Egypt and Tsor.
For Yirmiyahu, on the other hand, the conquest is central, providing that date for the prophecy; Yirmiyahu also relates his words to the Egyptians back to the Jews, encouraging them by saying that God will not abandon them, that they need not fear the kind of outcome that Egypt is getting.
I think the difference between the prophecies stems from where the two neviim were living—where you stand depends on where you sit. Yehezkel, already in Bavel, was necessarily removed from events in Egypt; they might be interesting on the scale of world events, but not urgently or directly important to him.
For Yirmiyahu, though, the fall of Egypt was a significant step towards the Destruction itself, taking away one of the political and military allies some Jews had been relying on. He elsewhere also mentions that the Jews repeatedly turned to Egypt for assistance with attackers, that instead of seeing Egypt as an ancient enemy, Jews of the eighth through fifth centuries saw them as a source of salvation. For Yirmiyahu, their defeat drives home a point about allies and who can truly protect us much more than some philosophical idea about world control.
The Whole Message May Take More than One Sitting
Why would God have both (or, for those who see prophecy more naturalistically, why would there be value in seeing both perspectives of the event)? Realizing that Egypt was both a world power whose attitudes challenged the Jewish monotheistic picture and also an ally who more directly tempted the Jews not to see Hashem as their sole source of ultimate salvation, we can see where each prophet’s message would have value, in particular for the audience who might first hear it.
In Bavel, where the question of allies for the remaining Jews in Israel had long ago ceased to be at the top of the agenda, the fate of Egypt took on a more theoretical interest, as a question of where and how God’s rule would be revealed.
In Yehudah, where the defeat of Egypt dashed many actual hopes and brought the destruction of the Jewish commonwealth and its Temple one step closer, the event would carry a different weight and impact on Yirmiyahu’s listeners more personally and more distressingly.
Tragedies close to us engage us emotionally more strongly and deeply, so that seeing Egypt lose to Nevuchadnezzar could inspire complete despair (hence Yirmiyahu’s care in reminding the Jews not to fear, because God is with them), but might also have us miss the forest; seeing it from afar, as Yehezkel did, allowed him to point out its cosmic and historic significance.
Hence the two haftarot give us both immediate and general perspective of Egypt, thus also enriching our understanding of the Exodus, redemption, and its multiple meanings for Jewish history. Shabbat Shalom.
[13] The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.
[14] Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee.
[15] Why are thy valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.
[16] He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
[17] They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.
[18] As I live, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
[19] O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.
[20] Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.
[21] Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation.
[22] The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
[23] They shall cut down her forest, saith the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.
[24] The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
[25] The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:
[26] And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.
[27] But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
[28] Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.