Jeremiah 41:17

41:17 They set out to go to Egypt to get away from the Babylonians, ¹  but stopped at Geruth Kimham ²  near Bethlehem. ³ 

Jeremiah 52:6

52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ⁴  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ⁵  had no food.

Jeremiah 52:33

52:33 Jehoiachin ⁶  took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.

[41:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[41:17]  ² sn Geruth Kimham is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible and its precise location is unknown. Many commentators relate the second part of the name to the name of the son of David’s benefactor when he fled from Absalom (2 Sam 19:38-39) and see this as a reference to an estate that David assigned this son as reward for his father’s largess. Gibeon was about six miles northwest of Jerusalem and Benjamin is approximately the same distance southwest of it. Hence, the people mentioned here had not traveled all that far.

[41:17]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[52:6]  ⁴ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[52:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the people of the land.”

[52:33]  ⁷ tn The subject is unstated in the Hebrew text, but Jehoiachin is clearly the subject of the following verb.