2 Kings 12:18

12:18 King Jehoash of Judah collected all the sacred items that his ancestors Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, had consecrated, as well as his own sacred items and all the gold that could be found in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He sent it all ¹  to King Hazael of Syria, who then withdrew ²  from Jerusalem.

2 Kings 16:8

16:8 Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that were ³  in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as tribute ⁴  to the king of Assyria.

2 Kings 18:15-16

18:15 Hezekiah gave him all the silver in ⁵  the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace. 18:16 At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts which he had plated ⁶  and gave them to the king of Assyria.

2 Kings 24:13

24:13 Nebuchadnezzar ⁷  took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned.

2 Kings 25:13-17

25:13 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the Lord’s temple, as well as the movable stands and the big bronze basin called the “The Sea.” ⁸  They took the bronze to Babylon. 25:14 They also took the pots, shovels, ⁹  trimming shears, ¹⁰  pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests. ¹¹  25:15 The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers ¹²  and basins. 25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” ¹³  and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed. 25:17 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet ¹⁴  high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet ¹⁵  high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.

Jeremiah 50:28

50:28 Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon.

They are coming to Zion to declare there

how the Lord our God is getting revenge,

getting revenge for what they have done to his temple. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 51:11

51:11 “Sharpen ¹⁷  your arrows!

Fill your quivers! ¹⁸ 

The Lord will arouse a spirit of hostility in ¹⁹  the kings of Media. ²⁰ 

For he intends to destroy Babylonia.

For that is how the Lord will get his revenge –

how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians’ destruction of his temple. ²¹ 

Daniel 5:2-3

5:2 While under the influence ²²  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ²³  had confiscated ²⁴  from the temple in Jerusalem ²⁵  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ²⁶  5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ²⁷  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ²⁸  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them.

[12:18]  ¹ tn The object (“it all”) is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:18]  ² tn Heb “went up.”

[16:8]  ³ tn Heb “that was found.”

[16:8]  ⁴ tn Or “bribe money.”

[18:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “that was found.”

[18:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “At that time Hezekiah stripped the doors of the Lord’s temple, and the posts which Hezekiah king of Judah had plated.”

[24:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:13]  ⁸ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 7:23.

[25:14]  ⁹ sn These shovels were used to clean the altar.

[25:14]  ¹⁰ sn These were used to trim the wicks.

[25:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “with which they served [or, ‘fulfilled their duty’].”

[25:15]  ¹² sn These held the embers used for the incense offerings.

[25:16]  ¹³ tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.

[25:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

[25:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “three cubits.” The parallel passage in Jer 52:22 has “five.”

[50:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Hark! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, vengeance for his temple.” For the meaning “Hark!” for the noun קוֹל (qol) see BDB 877 s.v. קוֹל 1.f and compare the usage in Jer 10:22. The syntax is elliptical because there is no main verb. The present translation has supplied the verb “come” as many other English versions have done. The translation also expands the genitival expression “vengeance for his temple” to explain what all the commentaries agree is involved.

[51:11]  ¹⁷ sn The imperatives here and in v. 12 are directed to the soldiers in the armies of the kings from the north (here identified as the kings of Media [see also 50:3, 9; 51:27-28]). They have often been addressed in this prophecy as though they were a present force (see 50:14-16; 50:21 [and the study note there]; 50:26, 29; 51:3) though the passage as a whole is prophetic of the future. This gives some idea of the ideal stance that the prophets adopted when they spoke of the future as though already past (the use of the Hebrew prophetic perfect which has been referred to often in the translator’s notes).

[51:11]  ¹⁸ tn The meaning of this word is debated. The most thorough discussion of this word including etymology and usage in the OT and Qumran is in HALOT 1409-10 s.v. שֶׁלֶט, where the rendering “quiver” is accepted for all the uses of this word in the OT. For a more readily accessible discussion for English readers see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:422-23. The meaning “quiver” fits better with the verb “fill” than the meaning “shield” which is adopted in BDB 1020 s.v. שֶׁלֶט. “Quiver” is the meaning adopted also in NRSV, REB, NAB, and NJPS.

[51:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “The Lord has stirred up the spirit of…” The verb is rendered here as a prophetic perfect. The rendering “arouse a spirit of hostility” is an attempt to render some meaning to the phrase and not simply ignore the word “spirit” as many of the modern English versions do. For a fuller discussion including cross references see the translator’s note on v. 1.

[51:11]  ²⁰ sn Media was a country in what is now northwestern Iran. At the time this prophecy was probably written they were the dominating force in the northern region, the most likely enemy to Babylon. By the time Babylon fell in 538 b.c. the Medes had been conquered and incorporated in the Persian empire by Cyrus. However, several times in the Bible this entity is known under the combined entity of Media and Persia (Esth 1:3, 4, 18, 19; 10:2; Dan 5:28; 6:8, 12, 15; 8:20). Dan 5:31 credits the capture of Babylon to Darius the Mede, which may have been another name for Cyrus or the name by which Daniel refers to a Median general named Gobryas.

[51:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “For it is the vengeance of the Lord, vengeance for his temple.” As in the parallel passage in 50:28, the genitival construction has been expanded in the translation to clarify for the English reader what the commentaries in general agree is involved.

[5:2]  ²² tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

[5:2]  ²³ tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

[5:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ²⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ²⁶ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

[5:3]  ²⁷ tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.

[5:3]  ²⁸ tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”