Jeremiah 52
52
The Fall of Jerusalem
1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king. He reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, of Libnah. # 52:1 Libnah, a town in Judah, was on the border between Judah and Philistia. 2He did what was displeasing in the sight of Yahweh, just as King Jehoiakim had done. 3Yahweh became so angry with the people of Jerusalem and Judah that he banished them from the land. # 52:3 Or “drove them from before his face.”
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to it. # 52:4 Jerusalem fell in July of 586 BC. Since the months of the year would have been counted from spring (March/April), the siege of Jerusalem began in January two years before. 5After the city had been surrounded for a year and half, # 52:5 Or “After Zedekiah had been king ten years, on the ninth day of the fourth month,” which was equal to about a year and half of the siege of Jerusalem. they broke through the city walls. # 52:5 Chapter 39 also gives a detailed account of the fall of Jerusalem. After the fall of the city (see 39:1–3), Zedekiah was captured and punished (see 39:4–10). See also 2 Kings 25:1–12. 6On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was nothing left to eat. 7That was when the Babylonians broke through the city wall. That same night, Zedekiah and his soldiers tried to escape through the gate between the two walls near the royal garden even though they knew the enemy had the city surrounded. They fled toward the Jordan Valley, 8but the Babylonians pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army deserted him there and fled. 9The Babylonians captured him and brought him to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was based at the town of Riblah in the territory of Hamath, # 52:9 Riblah was on the Orontes River north of Israel in Syria. Hamath was an important town also located on the Orontes River. where he passed sentence on Zedekiah. 10Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah’s sons slaughtered at Riblah, and Zedekiah was forced to watch their execution. The king of Babylon also executed all the officials of Judah. 11Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with chains. Then they dragged him off blinded to distant Babylon and put him in prison till the day of his death.
The Destruction of the Temple
12In the nineteenth year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon, on the tenth day of the fifth month of that year, the field general # 52:12 Or “the chief executioner.” Nebuzaradan, who served the king, entered Jerusalem. 13He burned down the temple of Yahweh, the royal palace, and all the homes of the wealthy of Jerusalem, and other buildings went up in flames. 14The Babylonians under the command of Nebuzaradan demolished all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.
15Nebuzaradan, the field general, took as prisoners some of the poor who were left behind in Jerusalem, together with the skilled workers and the deserters who had gone over to him. 16But he also left behind some of the extremely poor people in the land of Judah. They owned nothing, but he gave them vineyards and fields of their own.
17The Babylonians took everything of value from the temple of Yahweh. They smashed the bronze pillars and confiscated the wheeled stands and the bronze laver. Everything made of bronze they carried off to Babylon. 18They also took the ash pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the incense bowls, and all the bronze vessels that had been used in worship. 19The field general took away every small bowl, the censers, # 52:19 That is, fire pans used for carrying live coals. the sprinkling bowls, the ash containers, the lampstands, the ladles, and the saucers # 52:19 Or “bowls used for pouring out wine offerings.” —everything that was made of gold or silver. 20But the two pillars, the one sea and the twelve bronze bulls on their movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the temple of Yahweh, were too heavy to weigh. 21Both pillars were identical, and each stood eighteen cubits high. # 52:21 This is about twenty-seven feet (eight meters). Their circumference was twelve cubits, # 52:21 About eighteen feet (five meters). and they were four fingers thick # 52:21 About three inches (eight centimeters). and hollow inside. 22On top of each column was a large section of bronze; its height was over five cubits, # 52:22 About seven feet (two meters). and all around it were filigree and pomegranates, all in bronze. 23There was a total of one hundred pomegranates on the filigree all around, and ninety-six were visible from the ground.
The People of Judah Deported to Babylon
24Nebuzaradan, the field general, arrested Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, # 52:24 That is, he was next in line to be the high priest. and other temple officials. # 52:24 Or “the three guardians of the threshold.” 25In the city he arrested an official who was in command of the fighting men, seven of the king’s closest associates, # 52:25 Or “seven men who saw the king’s face.” who were discovered in the city, the secretary to the army commander responsible for mustering the troops, and sixty men of distinction. 26The field general took these men and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27At Riblah, in the territory of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them executed. And so, the people of Judah were taken into exile.
28Here is the record of the number of those deported by Nebuchadnezzar in the seventh year of his reign: # 52:28 That is, 598–597 BC. Verses 28–30 refer to three separate groups of exiles. The first group was taken away with King Jehoiachin, the second at the end of Zedekiah’s reign, and the third some years later. 3,023 men from Judah. 29In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, # 52:29 That is, 587–586 BC. he deported 832 persons from Jerusalem. 30In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, # 52:30 That is, 582–581 BC. Nebuzaradan, the field general, deported 745 Judeans. In all, 4,600 persons were deported. # 52:30 This total number is much smaller than the number listed in 2 Kings 24:14–16. The common explanation is that the numbers listed here are only the men while the numbers listed in 2 Kings included women and children.
31Thirty-seven years after King Jehoiachin was taken away as a prisoner, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of that year, King Evil-merodach # 52:31 Evil-merodach means “Man of [the god] Marduk.” of Babylon showed kindness to Jehoiachin by releasing him from prison. This was in Evil-merodach’s first year as king. 32The king of Babylon treated Jehoiachin kindly and gave him a position of honor above the other kings. 33So Jehoiachin laid aside his prison clothes and, for the rest of his life, always ate at the king’s table. 34At the command of the king of Babylon, everything that he needed was given to him each day until his death.
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Jeremiah 52: TPT
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