Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 52:1 - 52:15

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 52:1 - 52:15


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Circumstances Attending the Capture of Jerusalem

v. 1. Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, when Nebuchadnezzar made him a tributary ruler over Judah, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. Note that the entire account of the chapter is parallel and, in part, supplementary to the narrative of 2Ki_24:18 to 2Ki_25:7 and Jer_39:1-7.

v. 2. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
Cf 2Ch_36:11-13.

v. 3. For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah,
His wrath over their idolatry causing Him to cast them from His presence and to permit the rebellion of Zedekiah, which resulted in the final overthrow of the southern kingdom, till He had cast them out from His presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

v. 4. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem and pitched against it,
establishing the camp of the besieging army, and built forts against it round about, very likely towers of wood used for purposes of observation and as foundations for casting missiles into the city.

v. 5. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

v. 6. And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city,
reaching a height which made conditions very serious, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

v. 7. Then the city was broken up,
the enemies penetrating through the outer line of defenses, and all the men of war fled and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now, the Chaldeans were by the city round about;) and they went by the way of the plain, down toward the lowlands of the Jordan, near Jericho. Jer_39:4-7.

v. 8. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him,
for in a panic, as they were, there was no thought of real resistance.

v. 9. Then they took the king and carried him up unto the king of Babylon, to Riblah, in the land of Harrath,
where Nebuchadnezzar had meanwhile established his headquarters, leaving the taking of Jerusalem to one of his generals, Nebuzar-adan, where he gave judgment upon him, for perjury and rebellion.

v. 10. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah,
because they had agreed to, and promoted, the rebellion of Zedekiah.

v. 11. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains,
which meant the extremity of humiliation, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death, literally, "in the house of visitations," in penal servitude, which may have been a little less dishonorable than incarceration, for which reason he may also have had an honorable burial. Jer_34:1-5.

v. 12. Now, in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard,
one of the chief officers of the Chaldean king, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, or, having started from Riblah on the seventh, he actually reached Jerusalem on the tenth, 2Ki_25:8,

v. 13. and burned the house of the Lord,
the magnificent Temple of Solomon, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men, all the prominent buildings of the city, burned he with fire;

v. 14. and all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the guard brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about,
so that all its fortifications were demolished down to the very foundations.

v. 15. Then Nebuzar-adan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive certain of the poor of the people and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. Jer_39:9. Thus the capture of the city was effected in exact agreement with the prophecy of the Lord against Jerusalem.