Jeremiah 40:1–6, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Jeremiah 40:1–6
Jeremiah Chooses to Remain with Gedaliah
A chained prophet is offered a road and chooses the wreckage
Nebuzaradan finds Jeremiah bound among the captives at Ramah and looses him. The captain then explains the fall as the LORD's work because the people sinned. That speech is an occupier's theology, not a neutral briefing and not a license to treat a people's catastrophe as their ethnic fate. Jeremiah is given a choice: go with the captain to Babylon under protection, or remain. He is not a mascot for later migration policy.
He stays and is sent to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, to live among the remnant left in the land. The word that announced the city's ruin now has to inhabit the ruin. Release here is not a prize for being right. It is a return to neighbors who have lost homes, kin, and a capital, and who still have to eat.
How this should shape us
When disaster has already fallen, do not baptize an empire's explanation as if it were the whole truth. Stay with the people who must live in the wreckage unless a real call takes you elsewhere. Do not turn Jeremiah's remaining into a rule that every threatened household must stay put.
Teach it back
Explain Jeremiah 40:1–6 in your own words. Name its place in Jeremiah, one source-controlled observation, one uncertainty, one enduring truth, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do responsible readings differ?
Best judgment: The guard captain's theology is a character's speech, not neutral history, and Jeremiah's choice is not a universal migration rule.
How certain? strongResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Jeremiah 40:1–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jer.xml, OSIS 40:1–6
Supports: Verse-level controls for Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, names, textual problems, and material translation alternatives.
Official NET Bible Jeremiah PDF, pp. 1258-1459, translator, study, and textual notes attached to Jeremiah 40:1–6
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with ancient-to-modern limits.
Enter the Bible Jeremiah course, Outline and Bible in the World: post-fall community, Egypt migration, trauma, and Baruch; applied to Jeremiah 40:1–6
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and explicit composition questions.
Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jeremiah Part 3 study guide, pp. 1-6: Jeremiah 36, Baruch, scroll rewriting, composition, and final form; applied to Jeremiah 40:1–6
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Jeremiah 40:1–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Jeremiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2; fixed commit
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jer.xml, OSIS 40:1–6
Open the fixed Hebrew Jeremiah file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Jeremiah with Translator, Textual, and Study Notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; official eBible PDF distribution, NET Bible Second Edition; official PDF accessed 2026
Supports: Verse-level controls for Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, dates, names, textual problems, and material translation alternatives.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Jeremiah PDF, pp. 1258-1459, translator, study, and textual notes attached to Jeremiah 40:1–6
Open the official NET Jeremiah PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Jeremiah: Summary, Outline, Background, Introductory Issues, Themes, and Bible in the World
Terence E. Fretheim and Michael Chan
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current public course accessed 2026
Supports: Reader-oriented historical, literary, theological, and pastoral synthesis with ancient-to-modern limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Jeremiah course, Outline and Bible in the World: post-fall community, Egypt migration, trauma, and Baruch; applied to Jeremiah 40:1–6
Open the Enter the Bible Jeremiah course ↗open university study guide series
Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Jeremiah Parts 1-3 Study Guides
Joel S. Baden and Jacqueline Vayntrub
Yale Bible Study, 2024
Supports: Current university-level literary-historical synthesis and explicit composition questions.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jeremiah Part 3 study guide, pp. 1-6: Jeremiah 36, Baruch, scroll rewriting, composition, and final form; applied to Jeremiah 40:1–6
Open the Yale Jeremiah and Ezekiel course ↗