2 Kings 25:4-10

25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, ¹  and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. ²  They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. ³  (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ⁴  25:5 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, ⁵  and his entire army deserted him. 25:6 They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, ⁶  where he ⁷  passed sentence on him. 25:7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. ⁸  The king of Babylon ⁹  then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar Destroys Jerusalem

25:8 On the seventh ¹⁰  day of the fifth month, ¹¹  in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard ¹²  who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem. ¹³  25:9 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house. ¹⁴  25:10 The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.

2 Kings 25:2

25:2 The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

2 Kings 1:1

Elijah Confronts the King and His Commanders

1:1 After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel. ¹⁵ 

Nehemiah 2:3

2:3 I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors ¹⁶  lies desolate and its gates destroyed ¹⁷  by fire?”

Nehemiah 2:17

2:17 Then I said to them, “You see the problem that we have: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned. Come on! Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that this reproach will not continue.”

Isaiah 1:7

1:7 Your land is devastated,

your cities burned with fire.

Right before your eyes your crops

are being destroyed by foreign invaders. ¹⁸ 

They leave behind devastation and destruction. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 24:10-12

24:10 The ruined town ²⁰  is shattered;

all of the houses are shut up tight. ²¹ 

24:11 They howl in the streets because of what happened to the wine; ²² 

all joy turns to sorrow; ²³ 

celebrations disappear from the earth. ²⁴ 

24:12 The city is left in ruins; ²⁵ 

the gate is reduced to rubble. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 4:7

4:7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair ²⁷ 

the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. ²⁸ 

He is coming out to lay your land waste.

Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.

Jeremiah 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ²⁹ 

“I will make Jerusalem ³⁰  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ³¹ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Lamentations 1:1

The Prophet Speaks:

א (Alef) ³² 

1:1 ³³ Alas! ³⁴  The city once full of people ³⁵ 

now sits all alone! ³⁶ 

The prominent ³⁷  lady among the nations

has become a widow! ³⁸ 

The princess ³⁹  who once ruled the provinces ⁴⁰ 

has become ⁴¹  a forced laborer! ⁴² 

Lamentations 2:7

ז (Zayin)

2:7 The Lord ⁴³  rejected ⁴⁴  his altar

and abhorred his temple. ⁴⁵ 

He handed over to the enemy ⁴⁶ 

her palace walls;

the enemy ⁴⁷  shouted ⁴⁸  in the Lord’s temple

as if it were a feast day. ⁴⁹ 

Ezekiel 6:6

6:6 In all your dwellings, the cities will be laid waste and the high places ruined so that your altars will be laid waste and ruined, your idols will be shattered and demolished, your incense altars will be broken down, and your works wiped out. ⁵⁰ 

Ezekiel 21:15

21:15 So hearts melt with fear and many stumble.

At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter.

Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!

Micah 3:12

3:12 Therefore, because of you, ⁵¹  Zion will be plowed up like ⁵²  a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the Temple Mount ⁵³  will become a hill overgrown with brush! ⁵⁴ 

[25:4]  ¹ tn Heb “the city was breached.”

[25:4]  ² tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.

[25:4]  ³ 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.

[25:4]  ⁴ 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 Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

[25:5]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[25:6]  ⁶ 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.

[25:6]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text has the plural form of the verb, but the parallel passage in Jer 52:9 has the singular.

[25:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”

[25:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:8]  ¹⁰ tn The parallel account in Jer 52:12 has “tenth.”

[25:8]  ¹¹ sn The seventh day of the month would have been August 14, 586 b.c. in modern reckoning.

[25:8]  ¹² tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2, and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.

[25:8]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and every large house he burned down with fire.”

[1:1]  ¹⁵ sn This statement may fit better with the final paragraph of 1 Kgs 22.

[2:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 5).

[2:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “devoured” or “eaten” (so also in Neh 2:13).

[1:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “As for your land, before you foreigners are devouring it.”

[1:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and [there is] devastation like an overthrow by foreigners.” The comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like, as”) has here the rhetorical nuance, “in every way like.” The point is that the land has all the earmarks of a destructive foreign invasion because that is what has indeed happened. One could paraphrase, “it is desolate as it can only be when foreigners destroy.” On this use of the preposition in general, see GKC 376 §118.x. Many also prefer to emend “foreigners” here to “Sodom,” though there is no external attestation for such a reading in the mss or ancient versions. Such an emendation finds support from the following context (vv. 9-10) and usage of the preceding noun מַהְפֵּכָה (mahpekhah, “overthrow”). In its five other uses, this noun is associated with the destruction of Sodom. If one accepts the emendation, then one might translate, “the devastation resembles the destruction of Sodom.”

[24:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the city of chaos” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV). Isaiah uses the term תֹּהוּ (tohu) rather frequently of things (like idols) that are empty and worthless (see BDB 1062 s.v.), so the word might characterize the city as rebellious or morally worthless. However, in this context, which focuses on the effects of divine judgment, it probably refers to the ruined or worthless condition in which the city is left (note the use of the word in Isa 34:11). For a discussion of the identity of this city, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In the context of universal judgment depicted in Isa 24, this city represents all the nations and cities of the world which, like Babylon of old and the powers/cities mentioned in chapters 13-23, rebel against God’s authority. Behind the stereotypical language one can detect various specific manifestations of this symbolic and paradigmatic city, including Babylon, Moab, and Jerusalem, all of which are alluded or referred to in chapters 24-27.

[24:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “every house is closed up from entering.”

[24:11]  ²² tn Heb “[there is] an outcry over the wine in the streets.”

[24:11]  ²³ tn Heb “all joy turns to evening,” the darkness of evening symbolizing distress and sorrow.

[24:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the joy of the earth disappears.”

[24:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and there is left in the city desolation.”

[24:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and [into] rubble the gate is crushed.”

[4:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “A lion has left its lair.” The metaphor is turned into a simile for clarification. The word translated “lair” has also been understood to refer to a hiding place. However, it appears to be cognate in meaning to the word translated “lair” in Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38, a word which also refers to the abode of the Lord in Ps 76:3.

[4:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “his place.”

[9:11]  ²⁹ tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:11]  ³⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

[1:1]  ³² sn Chapters 1-4 are arranged in alphabetic-acrostic structures; the acrostic pattern does not appear in chapter 5. Each of the 22 verses in chapters 1, 2 and 4 begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, while the acrostic appears in triplicate in the 66 verses in chapter 3. The acrostic pattern does not appear in chapter 5, but its influence is felt in that it has 22 verses, the same as the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. For further study on Hebrew acrostics, see W. M. Soll, “Babylonian and Biblical Acrostics,” Bib 69 (1988): 305-23; D. N. Freedman, “Acrostic Poems in the Hebrew Bible: Alphabetic and Otherwise,” CBQ 48 (1986): 408-31; B. Johnson, “Form and Message in Lamentations,” ZAW 97 (1985): 58-73; K. C. Hanson, “Alphabetic Acrostics: A Form Critical Study,” Ph.D. diss., Claremont Graduate School, 1984; S. Bergler, “Threni V – Nur ein alphabetisierendes Lied? Versuch einer Deutung,” VT 27 (1977): 304-22; E. M. Schramm, “Poetic Patterning in Biblical Hebrew,” Michigan Oriental Studies in Honor of George S. Cameron, 175-78; D. N. Freedman, “Acrostics and Metrics in Hebrew Poetry,” HTR 65 (1972): 367-92; N. K. Gottwald, “The Acrostic Form,” Studies in the Book of Lamentations, 23-32; P. A. Munch, “Die alphabetische Akrostichie in der judischen Psalmendicthung,” ZDMG 90 (1936): 703-10; M. Löhr, “Alphabetische und alphabetisierende Lieder im AT,” ZAW 25 (1905): 173-98.

[1:1]  ³³ tc The LXX and Vulgate (dependent on the LXX) include a preface that is lacking in the MT: “And it came to pass after Israel had been taken captive and Jerusalem had been laid waste, Jeremiah sat weeping and lamented this lament over Jerusalem, and said….” Scholars generally view the preface in the LXX and Vulgate as a later addition, though the style is Hebrew rather than Greek.

[1:1]  ³⁴ tn The adverb אֵיכָה (’ekhah) is used as an exclamation of lament or desperation: “How!” (BDB 32 s.v.) or “Alas!” (HALOT 40 s.v. 1.e). It is often the first word in laments (Isa 1:21; Jer 48:17; Lam 1:1; 2:1; 4:1, 2). Like the less emphatic exclamation אֵיךְ (’ekh, “Alas!”) (2 Sam 1:19; Isa 14:4, 12; Ezek 26:17), it is used in contexts of lament and mourning.

[1:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “great of people.” The construct רַבָּתִי עָם (rabbati ’am, “great of people”) is an idiom for large population: “full of people, populous” (BDB 912-13 s.v. I רַב; HALOT 1172 s.v. 7.a). The hireq-campaginis ending on רַבָּתִי (rabbati), from the adjective רַב (rav, “great”), is a remnant of the old genitive-construct case (GKC 253 §90.l). By contrast to the first half of the line, it is understood that she was full of people formerly. רַבָּתִי עָם (rabbati ’am) may also be construed as a title.

[1:1]  ³⁶ tn The noun בָּדָד (badad, “isolation, alone”) functions as adverbial accusative of state. After verbs of dwelling, it pictures someone sitting apart, which may be linked to dwelling securely, especially of a city or people (Num 23:9; Deut 33:28; Jer 49:31; Ps 4:8 [HT 9]), or to isolation (Lev 13:46; Jer 15:17; 3:28). Applied to personified Jerusalem, it contrasts a possible connotation of dwelling securely, instead stating that Lady Jerusalem is abandoned and connoting that the city is deserted.

[1:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “great.” The adjective רַב (rav, “great”) is used in reference to a position of prominence, leadership (Ps 48:3; Dan 11:3, 5) or strength (Isa 53:12; 63:1; 2 Chr 14:10) (BDB 913 s.v. 2.b; HALOT 1172 s.v. 6). The hireq-campaginis ending on רַבָּתִי (rabbati) from the adjective רַב (rav, “great”) is a remnant of the old genitive-construct case (GKC 253 §90.l). This adjective is the same word mentioned at the beginning of the verse in the phrase “full of people.” These may also be construed as epithets.

[1:1]  ³⁸ tn The kaf (כּ) prefixed to אַלְמָנָה (’almanah, “widow”) expresses identity (“has become a widow”) rather than comparison (“has become like a widow”) (see HALOT 453 s.v. 1; BDB 454 s.v. כְּ 1.d). The construction emphasizes the class of widowhood.

[1:1]  ³⁹ tn The noun שָׂרָתִי (sarati, “princess”) is in construct with the following noun. The hireq-campaginis ending on שָׂרָתִי (sarati) is a remnant of the old genitive-construct case (GKC 253 §90.l).

[1:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “princess among the provinces.” The noun מְדִינָה (mÿdinah) is an Aramaic loanword which refers to an administrative district or province in the empire (e.g., Ezek 19:8; Dan 8:2) (BDB 193 s.v. 2; HALOT 549 s.v.).

[1:1]  ⁴¹ tn Following the verb הָיָה (hayah, “to be”), the preposition ל (lamed) designates a transition into a new state or condition: “to become” (BDB 512 s.v. לְ 4.a; e.g., Gen 2:7; 1 Sam 9:16; 15:1).

[1:1]  ⁴² tn The noun מַס (mas) means “forced labor, corveé slave, conscripted worker.” It refers to a subjugated population, subject to forced labor and/or heavy taxes (Gen 49:15; Exod 1:11; Deut 20:11; Josh 16:10; 17:13; Judg 1:28, 30, 33, 35; 1 Kgs 5:28; 9:15, 21; 12:18; 2 Chr 10:18; Isa 31:8; Lam 1:1).

[2:7]  ⁴³ tc The MT reads אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “the Lord”) here rather than יהוה (YHWH, “the Lord”), which occurs near the end of this verse. See the tc note at 1:14.

[2:7]  ⁴⁴ tn The Heb verb זָנַח (zanakh) is a rejection term often used in military contexts. Emphasizing emotion, it may mean “to spurn.” In military contexts it may be rendered “to desert.”

[2:7]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “His sanctuary.” The term מִקְדָּשׁוֹ (miqdasho, “His sanctuary”) refers to the temple (e.g., 1 Chr 22:19; 2 Chr 36:17; Ps 74:7; Isa 63:18; Ezek 48:21; Dan 8:11) (BDB 874 s.v. מִקְדָּשׁ).

[2:7]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “He delivered into the hand of the enemy.” The verb הִסְגִּיר (hisgir), Hiphil perfect 3rd person masculine singular from סָגַר (sagar), means “to give into someone’s control: to deliver” (Deut 23:16; Josh 20:5; 1 Sam 23:11, 20; 30:15; Job 16:11; Pss 31:9; 78:48, 50, 62; Lam 2:7; Amos 1:6, 9; Obad 14).

[2:7]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “they.”

[2:7]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “they gave voice” (קוֹל נָתְנוּ, kol natno). The verb נָתַן (natan, “to give”) with the noun קוֹל (kol, “voice, sound”) is an idiom meaning: “to utter a sound, make a noise, raise the voice” (e.g., Gen 45:2; Prov 2:3; Jer 4:16; 22:20; 48:34) (HALOT 734 s.v. נתן 12; BDB 679 s.v. נָתַן 1.x). Contextually, this describes the shout of victory by the Babylonians celebrating their conquest of Jerusalem.

[2:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “as on the day of an appointed time.” The term מוֹעֵד (mo’ed, “appointed time”) refers to the religious festivals that were celebrated at appointed times in the Hebrew calendar (BDB 417 s.v. 1.b). In contrast to making festivals neglected (forgotten) in v 6, the enemy had a celebration which was entirely out of place.

[6:6]  ⁵⁰ tn The Hebrew verb translated “wiped out” is used to describe the judgment of the Flood (Gen 6:7; 7:4, 23).

[3:12]  ⁵¹ tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.

[3:12]  ⁵² tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).

[3:12]  ⁵³ tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[3:12]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”