1 Samuel 2:29-36

2:29 Why are you ¹  scorning my sacrifice and my offering that I commanded for my dwelling place? ²  You have honored your sons more than you have me by having made yourselves fat from the best parts of all the offerings of my people Israel.’

2:30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘I really did say ³  that your house and your ancestor’s house would serve ⁴  me forever.’ But now the Lord says, ‘May it never be! ⁵  For I will honor those who honor me, but those who despise me will be cursed! 2:31 In fact, days are coming when I will remove your strength ⁶  and the strength ⁷  of your father’s house. There will not be an old man in your house! 2:32 You will see trouble in my dwelling place! ⁸  Israel will experience blessings, ⁹  but there will not be an old man in your ¹⁰  house for all time. ¹¹  2:33 Any one of you that I do not cut off from my altar, I will cause your ¹²  eyes to fail ¹³  and will cause you grief. ¹⁴  All of those born to your family ¹⁵  will die in the prime of life. ¹⁶  2:34 This will be a confirming sign for you that will be fulfilled through your two sons, ¹⁷  Hophni and Phinehas: in a single day they both will die! 2:35 Then I will raise up for myself a faithful priest. He will do what is in my heart and soul. I will build for him a secure dynasty ¹⁸  and he will serve my chosen one for all time. ¹⁹  2:36 Everyone who remains in your house will come to bow before him for a little money ²⁰  and for a scrap of bread. Each will say, ‘Assign me to a priestly task so I can eat a scrap of bread.’”

Jeremiah 39:6

39:6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon also had all the nobles of Judah put to death.

Jeremiah 52:9-11

52:9 They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah ²¹  in the territory of Hamath and he passed sentence on him there. 52:10 The king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. He also had all the nobles of Judah put to death there at Riblah. 52:11 He had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains. ²²  Then the king of Babylon had him led off to Babylon and he was imprisoned there until the day he died.

Jeremiah 52:24-27

52:24 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. ²³  52:25 From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ²⁴  for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city. 52:26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 52:27 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed ²⁵  at Riblah in the territory of Hamath.

So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.

¹ tc The MT has a plural “you” here, but the LXX and a Qumran ms have the singular. The singular may be the correct reading; the verb “you have honored” later in the verse is singular even in the MT. However, it is more probable that the Lord here refers to Eli and his sons. Note the plural in the second half of the verse (“you have made yourselves fat”).

² tn Heb “which I commanded, dwelling place.” The noun is functioning as an adverbial accusative in relation to the verb. Since God’s dwelling place/sanctuary is in view, the pronoun “my” is supplied in the translation.

³ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

⁴ tn Heb “walk about before.”

⁵ tn Heb “may it be far removed from me.”

⁶ tn Heb “chop off your arm.” The arm here symbolizes strength and activity.

⁷ tn Heb “arm.”

⁸ tn Heb “you will see [the] trouble of [the] dwelling place.” Since God’s dwelling place/sanctuary is in view, the pronoun is supplied in the translation (see v. 29).

⁹ tn Heb “in all which he does good with Israel.”

¹⁰ tc The LXX and a Qumran manuscript have the first person pronoun “my” here.

¹¹ tn Heb “all the days.”

¹² tc The LXX, a Qumran ms, and a few old Latin mss have the third person pronominal suffix “his” here.

¹³ tn Heb “to cause your eyes to fail.” Elsewhere this verb, when used of eyes, refers to bloodshot eyes resulting from weeping, prolonged staring, or illness (see Lev 26:16; Pss 69:3; 119:82; Lam 2:11; 4:17).

¹⁴ tn Heb “and to cause your soul grief.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “and all the increase of your house.”

¹⁶ tc The text is difficult. The MT literally says “they will die [as] men.” Apparently the meaning is that they will be cut off in the prime of their life without reaching old age. The LXX and a Qumran ms, however, have the additional word “sword” (“they will die by the sword of men”). This is an easier reading (cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT), but that fact is not in favor of its originality.

¹⁷ tn Heb “and this to you [is] the sign which will come to both of your sons.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “house.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “and he will walk about before my anointed one all the days.”

²⁰ tn Heb “a piece of silver” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

²¹ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

²² tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.

²³ sn See the note at Jer 35:4.

²⁴ tn Heb “men, from the people of the land” (also later in this verse).

²⁵ tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”