larshaukeland

Seraiah the quartermaster (Jeremiah 51)

A seal acquired on the antiquities market reads “Belonging to Seraiah (son of) Neriah”. This Seriah is known from the Biblical text. His lineage is given as “son no Neriah, the son of Mahseiah (Jeremiah 51:59). This is the same lineage as that of Baruch, Jermiah’s secretary (32:12), indicating that Seriah was Baruch’s brother.

Seraiah was the royal quartermaster during the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah from 597 to 586 B.C. (51:59). In Zedekiah’s fourth year (594 B.C.) Seraiah accompanied the king on a mission to Babylon, possibly to reaffirm Judah’s loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king. The trip would have taken months each way (Ezra 7:9, 8:31). Just five ears later Zedekiah revolted, resulting in the downfall of the kingdom.

God revealed to Jeremiah His coming judgement of Babylon (Jeremiah 50-51), and the prophecy was recorded on a scroll (51:60). Jeremiah took advantage of Seraiah’s journey by requesting that he take the scroll with him and read it aloud in Babylon, after which he was to cast it into the Euphrates River to illustrate Babylon’s coming fate (51:61-64). Jeremiah’s prophecies came to pass 55 years later when Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.