Discovery BoxJeremiah 52:5-34
Context52:5 The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year. 52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month 1 the famine in the city was so severe the residents 2 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. 3 (The Babylonians had the city surrounded.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. 4 52:8 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, 5 and his entire army deserted him. 52:9 They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah 6 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. 7 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 8 day of the fifth month, 9 in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard 10 who served 11 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. 52:15 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took into exile some of the poor, 12 the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the craftsmen. 52:16 But he 13 left behind some of the poor 14 and gave them fields and vineyards.
52:17 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the temple of the Lord, as well as the movable stands and the large bronze basin called the “The Sea.” 15 They took all the bronze to Babylon. 52:18 They also took the pots, shovels, 16 trimming shears, 17 basins, pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests. 18 52:19 The captain of the royal guard took the gold and silver bowls, censers, 19 basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and vessels. 20 52:20 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple (including the two pillars, the large bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” and the movable stands 21 ) was too heavy to be weighed. 52:21 Each of the pillars was about 27 feet 22 high, about 18 feet 23 in circumference, three inches 24 thick, and hollow. 52:22 The bronze top of one pillar was about seven and one-half feet 25 high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate-shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its pomegranate-shaped ornaments was like it. 52:23 There were ninety-six pomegranate-shaped ornaments on the sides; in all there were one hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments over the latticework that went around it.
52:24 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 26 52:25 From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens 27 for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city. 52:26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 52:27 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed 28 at Riblah in the territory of Hamath.
So Judah was taken into exile away from its land. 52:28 Here is the official record of the number of people 29 Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, 30 3,023 Jews; 52:29 in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 31 832 people from Jerusalem; 52:30 in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, 32 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4,600 people went into exile.
52:31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth 33 day of the twelfth month, 34 Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned 35 King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. 52:32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than 36 the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 52:33 Jehoiachin 37 took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. 52:34 He was given daily provisions by the king of Babylon for the rest of his life until the day he died.
[52:6] 1 sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586
[52:6] 2 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
[52:7] 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.
[52:7] 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 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.
[52:8] 5 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[52:9] 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.
[52:11] 7 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] 8 tn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 25:8 has “seventh.”
[52:12] 9 sn The tenth day of the month would have been August 17, 586
[52:12] 10 tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2 and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.
[52:12] 11 tn Heb “stood before.”
[52:15] 12 tn Heb “poor of the people.”
[52:16] 13 tn Heb “Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard.” However, the subject is clear from the preceding and modern English style would normally avoid repeating the proper name and title.
[52:16] 14 tn Heb “poor of the land.”
[52:17] 15 sn For discussion of the items listed here, see the study notes at Jer 27:19.
[52:18] 16 sn These shovels were used to clean the altar.
[52:18] 17 sn These trimming shears were used to trim the wicks of the lamps.
[52:18] 18 tn Heb “with which they served (or “fulfilled their duty”).”
[52:19] 19 sn The censers held the embers used for the incense offerings.
[52:19] 20 sn These vessels were used for drink offerings.
[52:20] 21 tc The translation follows the LXX (Greek version), which reflects the description in 1 Kgs 7:25-26. The Hebrew text reads, “the twelve bronze bulls under the movable stands.” הַיָּם (hayyam, “The Sea”) has been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton; note that the following form, הַמְּכֹנוֹת (hammÿkhonot, “the movable stands”), also begins with the article.
[52:21] 22 tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” A “cubit” was a unit of measure, approximately equivalent to a foot and a half.
[52:21] 23 tn Heb “twelve cubits.” A “cubit” was a unit of measure, approximately equivalent to a foot and a half.
[52:21] 24 tn Heb “four fingers.”
[52:22] 25 tn Heb “five cubits.” A “cubit” was a unit of measure, approximately equivalent to a foot and a half.
[52:24] 26 sn See the note at Jer 35:4.
[52:25] 27 tn Heb “men, from the people of the land” (also later in this verse).
[52:27] 28 tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”
[52:28] 29 tn Heb “these are the people.”
[52:28] 30 sn This would be 597
[52:29] 31 sn This would be 586
[52:30] 32 sn This would be 581
[52:31] 33 sn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 25:28 has “twenty-seventh.”
[52:31] 34 sn The twenty-fifth day would be March 20, 561
[52:31] 35 tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”
[52:32] 36 tn Heb “made his throne above the throne of
[52:33] 37 tn The subject is unstated in the Hebrew text, but Jehoiachin is clearly the subject of the following verb.
