Deeper Commentary
Jeremiah 52:2 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according
to all that Jehoiakim had done-
The implication is that he was intended to have learnt from the fate
of Jehoiakim his half brother, but instead he acted just the same. God
also brings people into our lives so that we might learn from their life
path and destiny. We never specifically read of Zedekiah worshipping
idols, and he hardly comes over as the worst of Judah's kings, but his
"evil" was in the weakness of character which he displayed when faced with
God's demand for him to submit to Nebuchadnezzar.
Jeremiah 52:3 For through the anger of Yahweh it happened in Jerusalem and
Judah, until He had cast them out from His presence, that Zedekiah
rebelled against the king of Babylon-
Zedekiah's rebellion was purely of his own device. But he is
described here as rebelling "through the anger of Yahweh"; God intended to
pour out His wrath, and so His hand was in the rebellion of Zedekiah,
using that man's freewill decisions although through Jeremiah pleading
with him not to go that way. We marvel at the perfect balance and intimate
involvement in the psychology and decision making of people.
Jeremiah 52:4 It happened 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 encamped against it; and
they built forts against it round about-
These forts had been portrayed and 'built' by Ezekiel when he drew
them upon a tile in an acted parable (Ez. 4:1-3). Had the earlier exiles
in Babylon repented, then this would not have happened. Likewise if
Zedekiah had repented, it would not have happened. We see here how God
doesn't just let things happen in a disinterested way, allowing natural
forces to take their course. What happened was so avoidable; Zedekiah's
weakness could have been cancelled out, as it were, by the repentance of
the exiles with Ezekiel. And their refusal to repent could have been
cancelled out by Zedekiah's repentance. Or if both of these elements
failed, had the wealthy rulers of Jerusalem really let their slaves go
free and not re-enslaved them, the siege could have been lifted. And there
were other such factors and potential possibilities. Stubborn, proud
refusal to bow our heads in repentance precludes so much from happening,
and allows so much judgment to come which could have been averted.
Jeremiah 52:5 So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king
Zedekiah-
Jer. 39:1,2 allows us to conclude that the city was besieged for
exactly 18 months.
Jeremiah 52:6 In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the
famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people
of the land-
Jeremiah had earlier prophesied that many would die from famine and
plague during the siege. It was by special grace that Jeremiah in prison
was given bread right up to the day that Jerusalem fell.
Jeremiah 52:7 Then a breach was made in the city-
Jeremiah 52:8 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-
The allusion is to how an Israel who broke covenant with their God
would surely be overtaken by curses and judgment (Dt. 28:15). As his
pursuers closed the distance between them and him, with him unable to
gather more speed nor find a suitable place to run, now completely alone
and without his bodyguards, he was a living exemplification of how Divine
judgment will catch up with every man. He would then have dearly wished he
had had the humility to listen to Jeremiah's pleas for repentance and
submission. And he there was and is the exemplification of every man
condemned before God.
Jeremiah 52:9 Then they took the king and carried him up to the king of
Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgement on him-
Jeremiah 52:10 The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his
eyes: he killed also all the princes of Judah in Riblah- We wonder
why Zedekiah was spared but his sons were not. I will suggest on :11 that
he later repented, even though he refused to repent and humble himself
before God's word when he ought to have done. His sons presumably were
foreknown that they would not repent, and so they were slain. Perhaps
seeing their deaths made Zedekiah realize that they were dying because he
had not repented when he ought to have done; for it was his lack of
repentance earlier which, he was told, would bring about the death of
women and children. We may just possibly have some window here onto the
terrible problem of the death of children.
Jeremiah 52:11 He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon
bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and imprisoned him until
the day of his death- LXX "in the mill", as if he was in hard labour,
now blinded, exactly like Samson (Jud. 16:21), and as the young men were
made to (Lam. 5:13). And the similarities continued, in that it seems
Zedekiah likewise did finally repent.
Jer. 21:7; 27:13 had prophesied that Zedekiah would be
slain by the sword of Nebuchadnezzar when Jerusalem fell.
Jeremiah 52:12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month,
which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of
Babylon, into Jerusalem- 2 Kings 25:8 says on the seventh day of the
month. It could be that he arrived on the seventh day, and burnt the
houses and temple (:13) on the tenth day. I suggested on :1 that the Kings
record has been as it were copied and pasted into this appendix to
Jeremiah, so we could have here a simple error in copying.
Jeremiah 52:13 and he burned the house of Yahweh, and the king’s house;
and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he with
fire-
Jeremiah 52:14 All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of
the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around- We noted
in the prophecies of Jer. 50 and Jer. 51 a special emphasis upon the
breaking down of the walls of Babylon because of what they had done to
Jerusalem, i.e. breaking down her walls. But we also observed on Jer.
51:44 that when the Medes took Babylon, the walls weren't broken down, and
in fact they were only broken down bit by bit over the course of many
years. So the main fulfilment of this must yet be future. Vengeance or
"recompense" was not fully taken by God upon Babylon for what they did to
Israel because Israel had not repented, recognizing that actually those
judgments had been rightfully deserved by their gross sins.
Jeremiah 52:15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away
captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who
were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of
Babylon, and the residue of the multitude- Or as AVmg. "residue of
the artificers" or workmen. I suggested elsewhere that these may have been
those skilled in building the defences; or it could refer to those who
were the makers of idols. See on Jer. 10:18.
Jeremiah 52:16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the
poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers- This was
probably the majority of the population.
The Babylonians, unlike the Assyrians, didn't practice mass deportations.
They removed the leadership of subjected peoples, and appointed locals as
the leaders under their control. This is what they did to Judah, taking
the royal family and priesthood into captivity, and establishing Gedaliah
as puppet governor (Jer.
40: 7; 2 Kings 25:2) along with some local Jewish "elders" (Lam. 5:12),
with Mizpeh rather than Jerusalem as the capital. Ezra 9:7 is clear
that it was "our kings and our priests
[who] have been delivered" into captivity. The Babylonians saw no economic
purpose in bringing masses of unskilled peasant farmers into captivity in
their cities. It's been estimated that at least 90% of Judah were peasant
farmers; and these, the impoverished masses, were left in the land and not
deported (Jer. 52:16; 2 Kings 25:12). See on Ez. 11:15.
The Babylonian policy regarding deportation and management of conquered
lands is described in N.P. Lemche,
Ancient Israel: A New History of Israelite Society (Sheffield: JSOT,
1988) and D.L. Smith, The Religion
of the Landless: The Social Context of the Babylonian Exile
(Bloomington, IN: Meyer Stone, 1989). God did not therefore scatter all
the people quite as He intended. There is archaeological evidence for
continued agricultural activity in the land after the deportations. And
Jer. 41:5 seems to speak of men coming to the Jerusalem temple from
Shechem and Shiloh, in the ten tribe area, in order to offer grain
offerings at the site of the temple. Presumably the altar had been
destroyed, hence no animal sacrifices are mentioned. It has been suggested
that the book of Lamentations was written as part of a temple ritual or at
least material to be recited at the site of the temple.
Jeremiah 52:17 The Chaldeans broke the pillars of brass that were in the
house of Yahweh, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the house
of Yahweh they broke in pieces and carried all of their brass to Babylon-
The breaking in pieces was likely for ease of transportation. But it
also symbolized the ending of the temple system. Israel had broken the
covenant, and the only way back to God was to be through repentantly
accepting His new covenant, as explained on Jer. 31.
Jeremiah 52:18 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers,
the basins, the spoons and all the vessels of brass with which they
ministered- These things were kept in Babylon and then sent back with
the exiles, by the special decree of Cyrus. The new covenant offered to
Israel at the time in Jer. 31 was not a repeat of the law of Moses, but it
did include similar rituals. The worship system of Ez. 40-48 was command
more than prediction, and it utilized these vessels.
Jeremiah 52:19 The captain of the guard took away the cups, the fire pans,
the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons and the bowls; that which
was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver- We get
the impression that an orderly inventory was kept, with the vessels
divided up according to their metal.
Jeremiah 52:20 They took the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve
bronze bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made for
the house of Yahweh. The brass of all these vessels was without weight-
Although as noted on :21, the gold and silver was apparently weighed,
and the bronze pillars measured.
Jeremiah 52:21 As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was
eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and its
thickness was four fingers. It was hollow- It seems the Babylonians
weighed the gold and silver and also noted the height and diameter of the
pillars. When the vessels were returned to the temple they were also
weighed. There is the impression given that the temple was not pillaged in
a wanton way.
Jeremiah 52:22 A capital of brass was on it; and the height of the one
capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all
around, all of brass: and the second pillar also had like these, and
pomegranates-
Jeremiah 52:23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the
pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around-
Jeremiah 52:24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest-
An ancestor of Ezra (Ezra 7:1).
Jeremiah 52:25 And out of the city he took an officer who was set over the
men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found
in the city- Five men in 2 Kings 25:19. 'The seven who saw the king's
face' was likely a technical term for his immediate courtiers or
politburo, although they may have only numbered five men.
Jeremiah 52:26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought
them to the king of Babylon to Riblah- They were obviously seen as
representative of the civil and religious leadership of Judah. It was
deemed that they needed to be killed so that there was no leadership left;
but this then makes it all the more amazing that Zedekiah was not killed
as God had said he would be. It would seem that he was the logical one to
die. We recall how when the Medes took Babylon, there was little bloodshed
but king Belshazzar was slain. All this was to highlight to Zedekiah the
amazing grace of his survival, and it seemed he did respond in repentance
(see on :11).
Jeremiah 52:27 The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at
Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his
land- See on :26. I noted on :16 that perhaps the majority of
Judah remained in the land. For most of the population were the poor
masses. But the exile and destruction of the leadership is seen as "Judah"
being carried away captive. But perhaps the phrase is used in order to
connect with the description of the ten tribe kingdom being carried away
captive out of his land (Am. 7:11,17; 2 Kings 17:23). It was as if
to put a final end to Judah's supposition that was somehow morally better
than Israel. They shared an identical judgment.
Jeremiah 52:28 This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away
captive: in the seventh year three thousand and twenty-three Jews-
Jeremiah 52:29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away
captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons- These
are
Jeremiah 52:30 in the twenty third year of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuzaradan the
captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and
forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand six hundred-
This deportation is not recorded elsewhere, although Josephus (Antiquities
10.9. 7) says that "Nebuchadnezzar in his 23rd year carried on
considerable warlike operations in the direction of Palestine and in
Egypt, carrying off Jews from that country to Babylon".
Jeremiah 52:31 It happened in the thirty seventh year of the captivity of
Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty fifth day of
the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his
reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him
forth out of prison- Lifting up the head out of prison recalls Joseph
(Gen. 40:13,20); for the similarities with Joseph, see on :33.
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- There is no reason
given for this amazing grace toward Jehoiachin, who would have been
considered the legitimate king of Judah. The lack of explanation is
perhaps to simply highlight that it was indeed pure grace. He may well
have repented, but that is not mentioned. We get the impression that God
pitied His people in their well deserved captivity- simply because He so
loved them.
Jeremiah 52:33 and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread
before him continually all the days of his life- See on :34. The
change of garments by the king would have recalled the experience of
Joseph in Gen. 41:14. But Jehoiachin had not had the spirituality of
Joseph, and he would have reflected upon that truth; and thereby perceived
yet more the huge grace being shown him. We too may experience blessings
which we are totally unworthy of, just so that we bow our heads in marvel
at God's grace.
Jeremiah 52:34 and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance
given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his
death, all the days of his life-
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