Discovery Box2 Kings 25:16-30
Context25:16 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,” 1 and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed. 25:17 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet 2 high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet 3 high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.
25:18 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five 4 of the king’s advisers 5 who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens 6 for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city. 25:20 Nebuzaradan, captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 25:21 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed 7 at Riblah in the territory 8 of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.
25:22 Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor over the people whom he allowed to remain in the land of Judah. 9 25:23 All of the officers of the Judahite army 10 and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to govern. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite. 25:24 Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. 11 He said, “You don’t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.” 25:25 But in the seventh month 12 Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, 13 came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, 14 as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. 25:26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for 15 Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.
25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh 16 day of the twelfth month, 17 King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned 18 King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him 19 from prison. 25:28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than 20 the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 25:29 Jehoiachin 21 took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. 25:30 He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died. 22
[25:16] 1 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] 2 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] 3 tn Heb “three cubits.” The parallel passage in Jer 52:22 has “five.”
[25:19] 4 tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”
[25:19] 5 tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”
[25:19] 6 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
[25:21] 7 tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”
[25:22] 9 tn Heb “And the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon left, he appointed over them Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan.”
[25:23] 10 tn Heb “of the army.” The word “Judahite” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[25:24] 11 tn The words “so as to give them…some assurance of safety” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[25:25] 12 sn It is not altogether clear whether this is in the same year that Jerusalem fell or not. The wall was breached in the fourth month (= early July; Jer 39:2) and Nebuzaradan came and burned the palace, the temple, and many of the houses and tore down the wall in the fifth month (= early August; Jer 52:12). That would have left time between the fifth month and the seventh month (October) to gather in the harvest of grapes, dates and figs, and olives (Jer 40:12). However, many commentators feel that too much activity takes place in too short a time for this to have been in the same year and posit that it happened the following year or even five years later when a further deportation took place, possibly in retaliation for the murder of Gedaliah and the Babylonian garrison at Mizpah (Jer 52:30). The assassination of Gedaliah had momentous consequences and was commemorated in one of the post exilic fast days lamenting the fall of Jerusalem (Zech 8:19).
[25:25] 13 tn Heb “[was] from the seed of the kingdom.”
[25:25] 14 tn Heb “and they struck down Gedaliah and he died.”
[25:26] 15 tn Heb “arose and went to.”
[25:27] 16 sn The parallel account in Jer 52:31 has “twenty-fifth.”
[25:27] 17 sn The twenty-seventh day would be March 22, 561
[25:27] 18 tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”
[25:27] 19 tn The words “released him” are supplied in the translation on the basis of Jer 52:31.
[25:28] 20 tn Heb “made his throne above the throne of.”
[25:29] 21 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:30] 22 tc The words “until the day he died” do not appear in the MT, but they are included in the parallel passage in Jer 52:34. Probably they have been accidentally omitted by homoioteleuton. A scribe’s eye jumped from the final vav (ו) on בְּיוֹמוֹ (bÿyomo), “in his day,” to the final vav (ו) on מוֹתוֹ (moto), “his death,” leaving out the intervening words.
