Isaiah 14:16

14:16 Those who see you stare at you,

they look at you carefully, thinking: ¹ 

“Is this the man who shook the earth,

the one who made kingdoms tremble?

Jeremiah 32:24

32:24 Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ²  in order to capture it. War, ³  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ⁴  who are attacking it. ⁵  Lord, ⁶  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 33:4

33:4 For I, the Lord God of Israel, have something more to say about the houses in this city and the royal buildings which have been torn down for defenses against the siege ramps and military incursions of the Babylonians: ⁸ 

Jeremiah 52:4-7

52:4 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it. ⁹  They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah. ¹⁰  52:5 The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year. 52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ¹¹  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ¹²  had no food. 52:7 They broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. ¹³  (The Babylonians had the city surrounded.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn The word “thinking” is supplied in the translation in order to make it clear that the next line records their thoughts as they gaze at him.

² tn Heb “Siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it.”

³ tn Heb “sword.”

⁴ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

⁵ tn Heb “And the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it because of the sword, starvation, and disease.” The verb “has been given” is one of those perfects that view the action as good as done (the perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect).

⁶ tn The word “Lord” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation as a reminder that it is he who is being addressed.

⁷ tn Heb “And what you said has happened and behold you see it.”

⁸ tn Heb “the sword.” The figure has been interpreted for the sake of clarity.

⁹ tn Or “against.”

¹⁰ sn This would have been January 15, 588 b.c. The reckoning is based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring (Nisan = March/April).

¹¹ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

¹² tn Heb “the people of the land.”

¹³ sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.

¹⁴ sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.