Discovery BoxEzekiel 24:26
Context24:26 On that day a fugitive will come to you to report the news. 1
Ezekiel 24:2
Context24:2 “Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege 2 to Jerusalem 3 this very day.
Ezekiel 24:4-7
Context24:4 add the pieces of meat to it,
every good piece,
the thigh and the shoulder;
fill it with choice bones.
24:5 Take the choice bone of the flock,
heap up bones under it;
boil rapidly,
and boil its bones in it.
24:6 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:
Woe to the city of bloodshed,
the pot whose rot 4 is in it,
whose rot has not been removed 5 from it!
Empty it piece by piece.
No lot has fallen on it. 6
24:7 For her blood was in it;
she poured it on an exposed rock;
she did not pour it on the ground to cover it up with dust.
Ezekiel 24:2
Context24:2 “Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege 7 to Jerusalem 8 this very day.
Ezekiel 36:17-21
Context36:17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel was living on their own land, they defiled it by their behavior 9 and their deeds. In my sight their behavior was like the uncleanness of a woman having her monthly period. 36:18 So I poured my anger on them 10 because of the blood they shed on the land and because of the idols with which they defiled it. 11 36:19 I scattered them among the nations; they were dispersed throughout foreign countries. In accordance with their behavior and their deeds I judged them. 36:20 But when they arrived in the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name. It was said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, yet they have departed from his land.’ 36:21 I was concerned for my holy reputation 12 which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they went.
Jeremiah 39:2-8
Context39:2 It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. 13 On that day they broke through the city walls. 39:3 Then Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, 14 and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters 15 in the Middle Gate. 16 39:4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape. They departed from the city during the night. They took a path through the king’s garden and passed out through the gate between the two walls. 17 Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. 18 39:5 But the Babylonian 19 army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho 20 and captured him. 21 They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah 22 in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there. 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. 39:7 Then he had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains 23 to be led off to Babylon. 39:8 The Babylonians 24 burned down the royal palace, the temple of the Lord, and the people’s homes, 25 and they tore down the wall of Jerusalem. 26
Jeremiah 52:4-14
Context52:4 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it. 27 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. 28 52:5 The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year. 52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month 29 the famine in the city was so severe the residents 30 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. 31 (The Babylonians had the city surrounded.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. 32 52:8 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, 33 and his entire army deserted him. 52:9 They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah 34 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. 35 Then the king of Babylon had him led off to Babylon and he was imprisoned there until the day he died.
52:12 On the tenth 36 day of the fifth month, 37 in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard 38 who served 39 the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem. 52:13 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house. 52:14 The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.
[24:26] 1 tn Heb “to make the ears hear.”
[24:2] 2 tn Heb “lean on, put pressure on.”
[24:2] 3 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[24:6] 5 tn Heb “has not gone out.”
[24:6] 6 tn Here “lot” may refer to the decision made by casting lots; it is not chosen at all.
[24:2] 7 tn Heb “lean on, put pressure on.”
[24:2] 8 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[36:18] 10 sn See Ezek 7:8; 9:8; 14:19; 20:8, 13, 21; 22:22; 30:15.
[36:18] 11 sn For the concept of defiling the land in legal literature, see Lev 18:28; Deut 21:23.
[39:2] 13 sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586
[39:3] 14 tn English versions and commentaries differ on the number of officials named here and the exact spelling of their names. For a good discussion of the options see F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations (NAC), 341, n. 71. Most commentaries follow the general lead of J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 243) as the present translation has done here. However, the second name is not emended on the basis of v. 13 as Bright does, nor is the second Nergal-Sharezer regarded as the same man as the first and the information on the two combined as he does. The first Nergal-Sharezer is generally identified on the basis of Babylonian records as the man who usurped the throne from Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Awel-Marduk or Evil-Merodach as he is known in the OT (Jer 52:31; 2 Kgs 25:27). The present translation renders the two technical Babylonian terms “Rab-Saris” (only in Jer 39:3, 13; 2 Kgs 18:17) and “Rab-Mag” (only in Jer 39:3, 13) as “chief officer” and “high official” without knowing precisely what offices they held. This has been done to give the modern reader some feeling of their high position without specifying exactly what their precise positions were (i.e., the generic has been used for the [unknown] specific).
[39:3] 15 tn Heb “sat.” The precise meaning of this phrase is not altogether clear, but J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 243) is undoubtedly correct in assuming that it had to do with setting up a provisional military government over the city.
[39:3] 16 tn The Hebrew style here is typically full or redundant, giving a general subject first and then listing the specifics. The Hebrew text reads: “Then all the officers of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate, Nergal-Sharezer…and all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.” In the translation the general subject has been eliminated and the list of the “real” subjects used instead; this eliminates the dashes or commas typical of some modern English versions.
[39:4] 17 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.
[39:4] 18 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.
[39:5] 19 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
[39:5] 20 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[39:5] 21 sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.
[39:5] 22 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.
[39:7] 23 tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.
[39:8] 24 tn Heb “Chaldean.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
[39:8] 25 tc The reading here is based on an emendation following the parallels in Jer 52:13 and 2 Kgs 25:9. The Hebrew text here does not have “the temple of the
[39:8] 26 sn According to the parallels in 2 Kgs 25:8-9; Jer 52:12-13 this occurred almost a month after the wall was breached and Zedekiah’s failed escape. It took place under the direction of Nebuzaradan, the captain of the king’s special guard who is mentioned in the next verse.
[52:4] 28 sn This would have been January 15, 588
[52:6] 29 sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586
[52:6] 30 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
[52:7] 31 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.
[52:7] 32 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.
[52:8] 33 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[52:9] 34 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.
[52:11] 35 tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.
[52:12] 36 tn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 25:8 has “seventh.”
[52:12] 37 sn The tenth day of the month would have been August 17, 586
[52:12] 38 tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2 and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.
