Chapter Fifty-Two
1–34. The destruction of Jerusalem and the change in the status of the captive king Jeconiah.
Jer 52:1-34. In fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecies, Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans and destroyed, its inhabitants were partly exiled and partly killed, the temple was burned, and all its furnishings, partly in broken form, were carried off to Babylon. At the end of the chapter there is mention of a favorable change in the status of the captive king of Judah, Jeconiah.
Jeremiah 52:1. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years; the name of his mother was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. This chapter, forming an appendix to the Book of Jeremiah, stands in no direct connection with the preceding chapters of the book. In content, it appears nearly identical to the last section of the Fourth Book of Kings (2 Sam 24:18 – 2 Sam 25:30). Only instead of what is found in 2 Sam 25:22-26, in Jeremiah there is inserted, from an unknown source, a list of the Judahites led away by Nebuchadnezzar (vv. Jer 2:8-30).
Jeremiah 52:2. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done; Jeremiah 52:3. therefore the wrath of the Lord came upon Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence; and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. These verses are not in the LXX translation. The explanation is found in 2 Sam 24:18-20. Jer 52:4-11 present nearly a repetition of 2 Sam 25:1-8. The explanation is found there.
Jeremiah 52:6. In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, famine in the city became severe, and there was no bread for the people of the land. The reference to the fourth month is absent both in the Book of Kings and in the LXX, though it was necessary to say which month the ninth day pertained to.
Jeremiah 52:7. A breach was made in the city, and all the soldiers fled and went out of the city by night through the gate between two walls, beside the king’s garden, and took the road toward the plain; the Chaldeans were surrounding the city. In Jeremiah the account is more detailed, stating that the entire garrison of Jerusalem participated in the flight with Zedekiah (compare 2 Sam 25:4).
Jeremiah 52:10. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also slew all the princes of Judah in Riblah. Jeremiah 52:11. And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with bronze chains; and the king of Babylon carried him to Babylon and put him in a guardhouse until the day of his death. In Jeremiah the account is fuller than 2 Sam 25:7. “House of the guard” is more precisely, from the Hebrew: “a correction house,” where, probably, Zedekiah along with other prisoners was to grind flour, as Samson once did (Judg 16:21). This is indicated by the LXX translation: “a house of the millstone.”
Jeremiah 52:12. In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. Jeremiah 52:13. And he burned the house of the Lord, and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the great houses he burned with fire. Jeremiah 52:14. And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. Jeremiah 52:15. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people that remained in the city, the defectors who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the common people. Jeremiah 52:16. But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left some of the poor of the land to work in the vineyards and in the fields. Verses 12–16 are a repetition of 2 Sam 25:8-12; 2 Sam 25:8 indicates that the arrival of Nebuzaradan and the burning of the temple took place on the seventh day of the fifth month, while Jeremiah assigns both to the tenth day. Which date is correct is scarcely possible to determine.
Jeremiah 52:17. And the bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried all their bronze to Babylon. And following verses through verse 23 – compare 2 Sam 25:13 and following. In Jeremiah everything here is presented more fully than in 4 Kings.
Jeremiah 52:18. And the basins, and the shovels, and the wick trimmers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the bronze vessels that were used in the service of the temple, they took away; Jeremiah 52:19. and the bowls, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the incense holders, and the cups – whatever was gold in gold and whatever was silver in silver the captain of the guard took; Both verses mention bowls, but this is not a repetition: in one case the bowls are meant to be bronze, in the other gold and silver. It may be assumed that after Nebuchadnezzar took the temple vessels in 597 BC at the exile of Jeconiah (2 Sam 24:13), such vessels were made anew in a short time.
Jeremiah 52:20. Also the two pillars, one sea, and twelve bronze oxen that served as stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord – the bronze of all these things could not be weighed. “The twelve bronze oxen.” This expression is not in 2 Sam 25:16. It was taken by someone from 1 Sam 7:23-26 and, moreover, inappropriately, since these oxen were already given as tribute to the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser in the time of Ahaz (2 Sam 16:17). One should read: “sea and (ten) stands.”
Jeremiah 52:23. Pomegranates were on the sides, ninety-six in number; all the pomegranates around the lattice numbered a hundred. This specification is not in 4 Kings.
Jeremiah 52:24. The captain of the guard also took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and three keepers of the threshold. Jeremiah 52:25. And from the city he took one eunuch who was chief officer over the soldiers, and seven men of those who stood in the king’s presence, who were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land who were found in the city. Jeremiah 52:26. And Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. Jeremiah 52:27. And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land. These verses are similar to 2 Sam 25:18 and following.
Jeremiah 52:28. This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Judahites; Jeremiah 52:29. in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; Jeremiah 52:30. in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive the Judahites, seven hundred and forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred. These verses, which are absent from 4 Kings and even from the LXX, establish that four thousand six hundred Judahites were led away captive by Nebuchadnezzar. Here there are some chronological inaccuracies. Namely, the first deportation (under Jeconiah) of Judahites is assigned to the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, consequently to 597 BC, while in 4 Kings it is assigned to the eighth year. Which account is correct is difficult to say. Recent commentators do not even consider it possible to see in Jeremiah a reference to the captivity of Jeconiah, and read instead of “the seventh year” – “the seventeenth year,” consequently they have in mind the captivity of Judahites under Zedekiah, in the tenth year of his reign. Furthermore, verse 30 refers to some deportation of Judahites, numbering seven hundred and forty-five persons, which took place in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem. No account of any such case is known from other sources, and it seems strange that there would be a deportation of Judahites from the already-destroyed Jerusalem. One can only suppose that here a particular reckoning of the years of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign is being used.
Jeremiah 52:31. In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and brought him out of the prison house. Jeremiah 52:32. And he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon; Jeremiah 52:34. And an allowance was given him, a regular allowance by the king of Babylon, day by day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life. The explanations are found in 2 Sam 25:27-30. * * * Jeconiah.