2 Raja-raja 25:1-21

25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside ¹  it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ²  25:2 The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year. 25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month ³  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ⁴  had no food. 25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, ⁵  and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. ⁶  They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. ⁷  (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ⁸  25:5 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, ⁹  and his entire army deserted him. 25:6 They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, ¹⁰  where he ¹¹  passed sentence on him. 25:7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. ¹²  The king of Babylon ¹³  then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar Destroys Jerusalem

25:8 On the seventh ¹⁴  day of the fifth month, ¹⁵  in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard ¹⁶  who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem. ¹⁷  25:9 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house. ¹⁸  25:10 The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem. 25:11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹⁹  25:12 But he ²⁰  left behind some of the poor of the land and gave them fields and vineyards.

25:13 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the Lord’s temple, as well as the movable stands and the big bronze basin called the “The Sea.” ²¹  They took the bronze to Babylon. 25:14 They also took the pots, shovels, ²²  trimming shears, ²³  pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests. ²⁴  25:15 The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers ²⁵  and basins. 25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” ²⁶  and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed. 25:17 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet ²⁷  high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet ²⁸  high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.

25:18 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five ²⁹  of the king’s advisers ³⁰  who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens ³¹  for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city. 25:20 Nebuzaradan, captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 25:21 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed ³²  at Riblah in the territory ³³  of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.

Yeremia 39:1-10

39:1 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it. The siege began in the tenth month of the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah. ³⁴  39:2 It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ³⁵  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, ³⁶  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters ³⁷  in the Middle Gate. ³⁸  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. ³⁹  Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ⁴⁰  39:5 But the Babylonian ⁴¹  army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho ⁴²  and captured him. ⁴³  They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah ⁴⁴  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 ⁴⁵  to be led off to Babylon. 39:8 The Babylonians ⁴⁶  burned down the royal palace, the temple of the Lord, and the people’s homes, ⁴⁷  and they tore down the wall of Jerusalem. ⁴⁸  39:9 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, ⁴⁹  took captive the rest of the people who were left in the city. He carried them off to Babylon along with the people who had deserted to him. ⁵⁰  39:10 But he ⁵¹  left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing. He gave them fields and vineyards at that time.

Yeremia 52:28-30

52:28 Here is the official record of the number of people ⁵²  Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, ⁵³  3,023 Jews; 52:29 in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, ⁵⁴  832 people from Jerusalem; 52:30 in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, ⁵⁵  Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4,600 people went into exile.

[25:1]  ¹ tn Or “against.”

[25:1]  ² sn This would have been Jan 15, 588 b.c. The reckoning is based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring (Nisan = March/April).

[25:3]  ³ tn The MT has simply “of the month,” but the parallel passage in Jer 52:6 has “fourth month,” and this is followed by almost all English translations. The word “fourth,” however, is not actually present in the MT of 2 Kgs 25:3.

[25:3]  sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[25:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “the people of the land.”

[25:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “the city was breached.”

[25:4]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.

[25:4]  ⁷ 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.

[25:4]  ⁸ 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 Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.

[25:5]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[25:6]  ¹⁰ 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.

[25:6]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text has the plural form of the verb, but the parallel passage in Jer 52:9 has the singular.

[25:7]  ¹² tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”

[25:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:8]  ¹⁴ tn The parallel account in Jer 52:12 has “tenth.”

[25:8]  ¹⁵ sn The seventh day of the month would have been August 14, 586 b.c. in modern reckoning.

[25:8]  ¹⁶ tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2, and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.

[25:8]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and every large house he burned down with fire.”

[25:11]  ¹⁹ tc The MT has “the multitude.” But הֶהָמוֹן (hehamon) should probably be emended to הֶאָמוֹן (he’amon).

[25:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the captain of the royal guard.” However, the subject is clear from the preceding and contemporary English style would normally avoid repeating the proper name and title.

[25:13]  ²¹ sn See the note at 1 Kgs 7:23.

[25:14]  ²² sn These shovels were used to clean the altar.

[25:14]  ²³ sn These were used to trim the wicks.

[25:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “with which they served [or, ‘fulfilled their duty’].”

[25:15]  ²⁵ sn These held the embers used for the incense offerings.

[25:16]  ²⁶ tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.

[25:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.

[25:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “three cubits.” The parallel passage in Jer 52:22 has “five.”

[25:19]  ²⁹ tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”

[25:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”

[25:19]  ³¹ tn Heb “the people of the land.”

[25:21]  ³² tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”

[25:21]  ³³ tn Heb “land.”

[39:1]  ³⁴ sn 2 Kgs 25:1 and Jer 52:4 give the more precise date of the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year which would have been Jan 15, 588 b.c. The reckoning is based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring (Nisan = March/April).

[39:2]  ³⁵ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[39:3]  ³⁶ 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]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ 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.

[39:3]  sn The identification of the location of the Middle Gate is uncertain since it is mentioned nowhere else in the OT.

[39:4]  ³⁹ 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]  ⁴⁰ 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]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:5]  ⁴² map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[39:5]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ 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]  ⁴⁵ 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]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Chaldean.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:8]  ⁴⁷ 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 Lord” and reads merely “house of the people.” The text here is probably corrupt. It reads וְאֶת־בֵּית הָעָם (vÿ’et-bet ha’am, “and the house of the people”), which many explain as a collective use of בַּיִת (bayit). However, no parallels are cited by any of the commentaries, grammars, or lexicons for such a use. It is more likely that the words יְהוָה וְאֶת־בָּתֵּי (yÿhvah vÿ’et-bate) have fallen out of the text due to similar beginnings. The words וְאֶת־בֵּית יהוה (vÿ’et-bet yhwh) are found in the parallel texts cited in the marginal note. The Greek version is no help here because vv. 4-13 are omitted, probably due to the similarities in ending of vv. 3, 13 (i.e., homoioteleuton of מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל, melekh bavel).

[39:8]  ⁴⁸ 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.

[39:9]  ⁴⁹ tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2 and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.

[39:9]  ⁵⁰ tc The translation is based on an emendation of the text which leaves out “the rest of the people who were left” as a double writing of the same phrase at the beginning of the verse. Some commentators emend the phrase “the rest of the people who were left” (הַנִּשְׁאָרִים וְאֶת יֶתֶר הָעָם, hannish’arim vÿ’et yeter ha’am) to read “the rest of the craftsmen who were left” (וְאֶת יֶתֶר הָאָמוֹן הַנִּשְׁאָרִים, vÿ’et yeter ha’amon hannish’arim) on the basis of the parallel in Jer 52:15 (which does not have הַנִּשְׁאָרִים, hannish’arim). However, it is easier to explain the phrase as a dittography of the phrase at the beginning (which is exactly the same except הָעִיר [ha’ir] follows it). The text is redundant because it refers twice to the same group of people. The Hebrew text reads: “And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to him and the rest of the people Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon.” The text has also been divided up to create two shorter sentences to better conform with contemporary English style.

[39:10]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard.” However, the subject is clear from the preceding and contemporary English style would normally avoid repeating the proper name and title.

[52:28]  ⁵² tn Heb “these are the people.”

[52:28]  ⁵³ sn This would be 597 b.c.

[52:29]  ⁵⁴ sn This would be 586 b.c.

[52:30]  ⁵⁵ sn This would be 581 b.c.