1
Yirmeyahu led the obedient portion of the people out from Bavel in a new exodus.
2
They traveled toward Yerushalayim with hope, carrying the memory of judgment and mercy together.
3
Before entering the city, the command concerning foreign spouses was repeated.
4
Those who had separated from the foreign unions entered with the returning people.
5
A number refused and declared that they would not abandon their wives and children.
6
Yirmeyahu told them that they could not enter Yerushalayim while refusing the command by which the returning assembly was being ordered.
7
They turned back toward Bavel.
8
But the Babylonians also rejected them, because they had already departed with the people and no longer belonged fully to the life they had left.
9
Shut out from both communities, they settled in another region.
10
The long tradition makes them the ancestors of the Samaritans.
11
This explanation is a literary etiology rather than reliable historical reconstruction of Samaritan origins.
12
The narrative uses their exclusion to emphasize obedience, communal boundaries, and the cost of refusing the terms of return.
13
Yirmeyahu entered the restored city with the people who had listened.
14
Baruk and Avimelekh rejoiced to see the exiles return.
15
The fresh figs that had survived the exile became a sign fulfilled before their eyes.
16
Yerushalayim again received her children.
17
The people gave thanks to Yahuah for bringing them from captivity.
18
The restoration was not presented as proof that the exile had been unreal; rather, the pain of judgment became the ground upon which mercy was newly understood.
19
The Jewish narrative could substantially conclude here with restoration, renewed obedience, and separation from the life of exile.
20
The transmitted long form, however, continues with a Christianized vision and martyrdom of Yirmeyahu.