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Yirmiyahu chapter 43.
"And it came to pass, when Yirmiyahu had finished speaking to all the people all the words of Hashem their God, which Hashem their God had sent him to them, all these words." When Yirmiyahu finished speaking to all the people all the words of Hashem their God which Hashem their God had sent to them. What is the addition here? What is he trying to say? "All these words." The Malbim says that at first glance, from the end of his words, it might seem as if the warning he was giving them was not from Hashem. The final part where he tells them, know that you will suffer trouble and disaster if you go down to Egypt, this could seem like a threat of Yirmiyahu's own. The verse tells you no, all the words of Hashem their God which Hashem their God had sent to them, all these words. He tells them, know that everything here is from Hashem. Even the warning about what will happen to them in Egypt, that too is from Hashem. Not only the command to remain in the land, but even what will happen to you if you do not remain, that too is from Hashem.
And even though there is something here that depends on a person's free choice, and they could choose good or choose evil, when they hear the words, in truth he understands that they have decided in their hearts not to remain here. Indeed you still have the choice, perhaps, to remain here, but he understands that you have already resolved not to stay. And therefore let us see that they tell him this explicitly afterward. The prophet prefaces by saying that all, all these words, Hashem sent everything. And they say to him: "And Azariah son of Hoshaiah spoke, and Yochanan son of Kareach, and all the insolent men, saying to Yirmiyahu, You speak falsehood; Hashem our God did not send you to say, Do not come to Egypt to sojourn there." This command you speak of, not to go to Egypt, is not from Hashem. What you told us, to remain here, we believe is from Hashem. But who says that going to Egypt is not good? That is not from Hashem, that you have now added from your own heart. You speak falsehood; Hashem our God did not send you to say, Do not come to Egypt to sojourn there.
"For Baruch son of Neriah incites you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, to put us to death and to exile us to Babylon." They say to him: apparently you heard the words of Baruch son of Neriah, for Baruch son of Neriah would come and go among the people, and you heard Baruch son of Neriah say, you know, I heard from the people that they are planning to go down to Egypt. And he apparently incites you to come and warn us not to go down to Egypt. And they say: by nature, surely Nebuchadnezzar will come here and take vengeance on us. So how could it be that Hashem would command us not to save ourselves? Could such a thing enter one's mind? For where is salvation according to nature? In Egypt. How could Hashem tell us, no, remain in the place of danger? Especially since remaining in a place of danger requires a miracle. And Hashem always commands a person not to rely on miracles, but to act according to the way of nature. So it cannot be that Hashem would do such a thing to us, telling us to remain in the place of danger and to be careful not to go down to Egypt, which is a safe haven. Therefore they did not believe him, they did not believe him.
"So Yochanan son of Kareach and all the commanders of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of Hashem to dwell in the land of Yehudah." Yochanan son of Kareach, who was the head, and all the commanders of the forces did not heed Yirmiyahu's words; they were not willing to remain in the land of Yehudah. "And Yochanan son of Kareach and all the commanders of the forces took all the remnant of Yehudah who had returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to sojourn in the land of Yehudah." That is to say, there were already some who had been exiled but who returned to their land, returned here. Why does it emphasize the land of Yehudah? Because all the rest of the land of Israel is now already a desolate place. The land of Israel is desolate. For from the moment they exiled Samaria and the ten tribes, there were no inhabitants there, and if there were, they were Kutim and all kinds of peoples that Nebuchadnezzar brought here. But the gathering and settlement of the people of Israel was mainly in the land of Yehudah.
"The men and the women and the children and the king's daughters and every soul that Nebuzaradan the chief of the guards had left with Gedaliah son of Achikam son of Shaphan," that is, with Gedaliah son of Achikam son of Shaphan, "and Yirmiyahu the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah. And they came to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of Hashem, and they came as far as Tachpanches." They came to the land of Egypt, says the Malbim, and thereby it came about that the curse was fulfilled in them. The final curse in Mishneh Torah: "And Hashem will bring you back to Egypt in ships." And why in truth were they brought there? Because it was a punishment for their earlier sins, for they had angered the Creator of the world through idolatry and forbidden relations and bloodshed, all the transgressions of the First Temple period. And now they go down to Egypt, thinking that there they will have rest and inheritance.
But notice, Yirmiyahu goes down with them too. For Yirmiyahu came to accompany them, to give them prophecies, to be near them. "And the word of Hashem came to Yirmiyahu in Tachpanches, saying: Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in the mortar in the brickwork which is at the entrance of Pharaoh's house in Tachpanches, in the sight of Jewish men." Take great stones and hide them in the mortar. What is "melet" (mortar)? Listen to what Rashi says. Listen to what Rashi says. "Melet" is not what we have today, where you buy a bag of cement. Rashi says: "hide them in mortar," the mem here is a falling root letter in the word. Like makom (place), maamad (position), maaseh (deed). When I say maaseh, what is the root? Asah. When I say maamad, what is the root? Amod, right? So too here, when I say melet, he says the root is lat. The mem is like, it is a falling root letter, meaning it is not part of the root. So here too, it is from the expression "he wrapped (vayalet) his face in his mantle." What does lat mean? He concealed, right. Where was the sword of Goliath? With Achimelech son of Achituv there in the Mishkan, where was it? "Behold it is wrapped (lutah) in a cloth." Right? Wrapped in a cloth, it was covered in a cloth. We see that the matter of lamed, tet, heh is from the language of covering.
So what is written, "and hide them in mortar," the mortar here means something that covers with it. The concealment of the wrap, right. By the way, whoever knows the depth of things, Lot himself was called Lot because he would do his deeds in concealment. In relation to Avraham he appeared as if righteous and upright, but where was his aspiration to reach? To Sodom. With whom did he see himself building his life? With the wicked of Sodom, while he himself was a judge over them. Therefore he was called Lot, for he would cover his ways. With Avraham he appeared, as it were, righteous, but afterward his true character behind the mask was revealed.
He tells him: these great stones, hide them in the mortar, meaning that same covering material, in the brickwork which is at the entrance of Pharaoh's house. What is the brickwork (malben)? The malben was a place made of bricks. Which is at the entrance of Pharaoh's house in Tachpanches, in the sight of Jewish men. What is the point here? Why does he need to perform an action? Since when has Yirmiyahu become a builder? Could he not simply be given an ordinary prophecy?
"And say to them: Thus said Hashem of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am sending and I will take Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal canopy over them." Nebuchadnezzar, you thought the story with him was over? He will come here. Above these stones he will set his throne. These stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal canopy over them, his tent, yes, his royal canopy, he will spread his tent over them. "And he will come and strike the land of Egypt: those destined for death to death, those for captivity to captivity, and those for the sword to the sword. And I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive, from the language of captivity, and he will wrap himself in the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there in peace."
He will take all the spoil of the land of Egypt, just as a shepherd would wrap himself in his garment, take the coat, place it on his shoulder and go. So Nebuchadnezzar will come, burn the idolatrous temples of Egypt, take the people there captive, and take all the spoil of Egypt like a shepherd who slings it over his shoulder, so he will load all the spoil of Egypt onto his shoulder. "And he will shatter the pillars of Beit Shemesh which are in the land of Egypt, and the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with fire."
"The pillars of Beit Shemesh which are in the land of Egypt." Rashi says: these are the altars made by those who converted in the days of Chizkiyahu, the captives of Sennacherib, whom he had led from Kush and from Egypt before Jerusalem on the day of his downfall. They made pillars there. It is written there: "On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing to Hashem of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction." What is the City of Destruction? Targum Yonatan renders: the city of Beit Shemesh, which is destined to be destroyed, will be called one of them. The city built by those who converted in the days of Chizkiyahu, when they saw the great downfall of Sennacherib and the great victory of Chizkiyahu through the angel of Hashem, they built themselves cities in Egypt and would speak the language of Canaan, and they had places, their pillars, where they worshiped.
What is it that allows us to call Nebuchadnezzar "servant of Hashem," really, as if what... good. What allows one to be called a servant of Hashem, it is written about Cyrus with an even stronger expression. What is written about Cyrus? "My anointed one." Would it occur to you that he is the Messiah? What is the meaning of this? "Servant of Hashem" means that when I use you to bring My will to light, you are in the aspect of My servant. You do... as opposed to "Moshe My servant" as well... good, only the difference is who uses whom. Moshe Rabbeinu made himself into a servant of Hashem. He nullified his own will to Hashem, blessed be He, so he is called the servant of Hashem. And on the other hand, Nebuchadnezzar is a tool and a rod in the hand of Hashem, and he actually does the will of Hashem. We do not mean to say that Nebuchadnezzar will receive reward because he fulfilled the will of God, but rather he is like a rod in the hand of the Creator of the world. "Woe, Assyria, the rod of My anger," exactly so. Therefore he is called "My servant," he is the one who carries out My will.
Now I asked you a question, why was it necessary to perform this whole display with the brickwork and the mortar and the great stones? Seemingly, why was it not enough simply to deliver a prophecy? So we explained in the past, as the Ramban says, and I also mention it in the book, that a prophecy in which the prophet performs some sign or wonder, the meaning is not a sign or wonder in the sense of an unnatural marvel, but rather that he adds a physical action, and the physical action brings down the spiritual chain of events so that it will not remain in the category of "Hashem, Your word stands in the heavens," but rather it becomes something whose taking effect began here on earth. It has already, as it were, begun to be fulfilled, a taking hold of this action occurred here on earth as well. And once the effect of the action on earth has already begun in some measure, this thing will never be nullified. That is to say, it is like a prophecy from which there is no reversal.
Even though it is a negative thing. From a bad prophecy Hashem may retract, from a good one Hashem does not retract. But a bad prophecy in which the prophet performed some physical activity here, this will not be nullified. As we saw, there are all kinds of prophecies in which the prophet would perform physical acts, like taking a bottle and throwing it into the water, or as it is said there to Yehoram, "the arrow of Hashem's deliverance against Aram," yes, where he told him to shoot the arrows toward Aram, as Elisha told him. All these things are essentially a bringing down of the matter from a theoretical spiritual reality to a practical physical reality. And then the Ramban says this thing will certainly be fulfilled. It, as it were, establishes the matter. And based on this, the false prophets too would act in order to justify their words. "And Zedekiah son of Kenaanah made himself horns of iron, and said, With these you shall gore Aram." Why did Zedekiah son of Kenaanah need to make horns of iron? He was a false prophet, but he wanted to prove that what I am telling you is true, so he went and did it, saying, behold, Hashem told me to make horns, and he placed these horns on his head and said Hashem said with these you shall gore Aram. As if to take it out of the abstract reality of prophecy into a practical, fulfilling reality, as if to prove that this thing would be fulfilled. Only there it was all falsehood. We are speaking of true prophecy, that when it is brought down to the world of action, it means that the thing is destined to come to pass.