Yeremia 21:7

21:7 Then ¹  I, the Lord, promise that ²  I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and any of the people who survive the war, starvation, and disease. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will slaughter them with the sword. He will not show them any mercy, compassion, or pity.’

Yeremia 38:18

38:18 But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians ³  and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from them.’” ⁴ 

Yeremia 38:23

38:23 “All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. ⁵  You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the ⁶  king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” ⁷ 

Yeremia 39:5-7

39:5 But the Babylonian ⁸  army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho ⁹  and captured him. ¹⁰  They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah ¹¹  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 ¹²  to be led off to Babylon.

Yeremia 52:9

52:9 They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah ¹³  in the territory of Hamath and he passed sentence on him there.

[21:7]  ¹ tn Heb “And afterward.”

[21:7]  ² tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[38:18]  ³ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “will not escape from their hand.”

[38:18]  sn Zedekiah held out this hope of escape until the end and attempted to do so but was unsuccessful (cf. 39:4-5).

[38:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.

[38:23]  ⁷ tc This translation follows the reading of the Greek version and a few Hebrew mss. The majority of the Hebrew mss read “and you will burn down this city.” This reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and English versions. Few of the commentaries, however, bother to explain the fact that the particle אֶת (’et), which normally marks the accusative object, is functioning here as the subject. For this point of grammar see BDB 85 s.v. I אֵת 1.b. Or this may be another case where אֵת introduces a new subject (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת 3.α and see usage in 27:8; 36:22).

[39:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:5]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[39:5]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.

[52:9]  ¹³ 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.