Jeremiah 52
52
Jerusalem Is Captured
(2 Kings 24.18—25.30; 2 Chronicles 36.11-21)
1Zedekiah was 21 years old when he was appointed king of Judah,#52.1 appointed king of Judah: By Nebuchadnezzar (see 37.1). and he ruled from Jerusalem for eleven years.#52.1 he ruled … years: Ruled 598–586 b.c. His mother Hamutal was the daughter of Jeremiah from the town of Libnah.#52.1 Jeremiah from the town of Libnah: Not the same Jeremiah as the author of this book (see 1.1). 2Zedekiah disobeyed the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done, 3and it was Zedekiah who finally rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.#52.3 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2.
The people of Judah and Jerusalem had made the Lord so angry that he finally turned his back on them. That's why horrible things were happening there.
4 #
Ez 24.2. In Zedekiah's ninth year as king, on the tenth day of the tenth month,#52.4 tenth month: See the note at 39.1-3. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia led his entire army to attack Jerusalem. The troops set up camp outside the city and built ramps up to the city walls.
5-6After a year and a half,#52.5,6 After a year and a half: Jerusalem was captured in 586 b.c. all the food in Jerusalem was gone. Then on the ninth day of the fourth month,#52.5,6 fourth month: See the note at 39.1-3. 7#Ez 33.21. the Babylonian troops broke through the city wall. That same night, Zedekiah and his soldiers tried to escape through the gate near the royal garden, even though they knew the enemy had the city surrounded. They headed toward the Jordan River valley, 8but the Babylonian troops caught up with them near Jericho. The Babylonians arrested Zedekiah, but his soldiers scattered in every direction. 9Zedekiah was taken to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where Nebuchadnezzar put him on trial and found him guilty. 10Zedekiah's sons and the officials of Judah were killed while he watched, 11#Ez 12.13. then his eyes were poked out. He was put in chains, then dragged off to Babylon and kept in prison until he died.
12Jerusalem was captured during Nebuchadnezzar's nineteenth year as king of Babylonia.
About a month later,#52.12 About a month later: Hebrew “On the seventh day of the fifth month.” Nebuchadnezzar's officer in charge of the guards arrived in Jerusalem. His name was Nebuzaradan, 13#1 K 9.8. and he burned down the Lord's temple, the king's palace, and every important building in the city, as well as all the houses. 14Then he ordered the Babylonian soldiers to break down the walls around Jerusalem. 15He led away the people left in the city, including everyone who had become loyal to Nebuchadnezzar, the rest of the skilled workers,#52.15 the rest of the skilled workers: Nebuchadnezzar had taken away some of the skilled workers eleven years before (see 2 Kings 24.14-16). and even some of the poor people of Judah. 16Only the very poorest were left behind to work the vineyards and the fields.
17-20 #
1 K 7.15-47. Nebuzaradan ordered his soldiers to go to the temple and take everything made of gold or silver, including bowls, fire pans, sprinkling bowls, pans, lampstands, dishes for incense, and the cups for wine offerings. The Babylonian soldiers took all the bronze things used for worship at the temple, including the pans for hot ashes, and the shovels, lamp snuffers, sprinkling bowls, and dishes for incense. The soldiers also took everything else made of bronze, including the two columns that stood in front of the temple, the large bowl called the Sea, the twelve bulls that held it up, and the movable stands.#52.17-20 the large bowl called the Sea, the twelve bulls that held it up, and the movable stands: One ancient translation; Hebrew “the large bowl called the Sea, and the twelve bulls under the movable stands.” The soldiers broke these things into pieces so they could take them to Babylonia. There was so much bronze that it could not be weighed. 21For example, the columns were about 8 meters high and 5.5 meters around. They were hollow, but the bronze was about 75 millimeters thick. 22Each column had a bronze cap over 2 meters high that was decorated with bronze designs. Some of these designs were like chains and others were like pomegranates.#52.22 pomegranates: A small red fruit that looks like an apple. 23There were 96 pomegranates evenly spaced#52.23 evenly spaced: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. around each column, and a total of 100 pomegranates were located above the chains.
24Next, Nebuzaradan arrested Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah his assistant, and three temple officials. 25Then he arrested one of the army commanders, seven of King Zedekiah's personal advisors, and the officer in charge of gathering the troops for battle. He also found 60 more soldiers who were still in Jerusalem. 26-27Nebuzaradan led them to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where Nebuchadnezzar had them killed.
The people of Judah no longer lived in their own country.
People of Judah Taken Prisoner
28-30Here is a list of the number of the people of Judah that Nebuchadnezzar#52.28-30 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. took to Babylonia as prisoners:
In his seventh year as king, he took 3,023 people.
In his eighteenth year as king, he took 832 from Jerusalem.
In his twenty-third year as king, his officer Nebuzaradan took 745 people.
So, Nebuchadnezzar took a total of 4,600 people from Judah to Babylonia.
Jehoiachin Is Set Free
(2 Kings 25.27-30)
31Jehoiachin was a prisoner in Babylon for 37 years. Then Evil Merodach#52.31 Evil Merodach: The son of Nebuchadnezzar who ruled Babylonia from 562–560 b.c. became king of Babylonia, and in the first year of his rule, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month,#52.31 twelfth month: Adar, the twelfth month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-February to mid-March. he let Jehoiachin out of prison. 32Evil Merodach was kind to Jehoiachin and honored him more than any of the other kings held prisoner there. 33Jehoiachin was allowed to wear regular clothes instead of a prison uniform, and he even ate at the king's table every day. 34As long as Jehoiachin lived, he was paid a daily allowance to buy whatever he needed.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Yirmeyahu (Jer) 52
52
1Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for eleven years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu, from Livnah. 2He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, following the example of everything Y’hoyakim had done. 3And it was because of Adonai’s anger that all these things happened to Yerushalayim and Y’hudah, until he had thrown them out of his presence.
Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel; 4so in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel marched against Yerushalayim with his entire army. He set up camp against it and built siege towers against it on every side. 5The city remained under siege into the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu.
6On the ninth day of the fourth month, when the famine in the city was so severe that there was no food for the people of the land, 7they broke through into the city. All the soldiers fled and left the city by night through the gate between the two walls, near the king’s garden. Because the Kasdim were surrounding the city, they took the route through the ‘Aravah. 8But the army of the Kasdim went in pursuit of the king and overtook Tzidkiyahu on the plains near Yericho; all his troops deserted him. 9Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Bavel in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, where he passed judgment on him. 10The king of Bavel slaughtered his sons before his eyes; he also slaughtered all the leading men of Y’hudah in Rivlah. 11Then the king of Bavel put out Tzidkiyahu’s eyes, bound him in chains, carried him off to Bavel and kept him in prison until the day of his death.
12In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was also the nineteenth year of King N’vukhadretzar, king of Bavel, N’vuzar’adan, the commander of the guard and a close associate of the king of Bavel, entered Yerushalayim. 13He burned down the house of Adonai, the royal palace and all the houses in Yerushalayim — every notable person’s house he burned to the ground. 14The whole army of the Kasdim, who were with the commander of the guard, broke down all the walls of Yerushalayim on every side. 15N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard then deported some of the poor people, the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Bavel and the rest of the common people. 16But N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard left behind some of the poor people of the land to be vineyard-workers and farmers.
17The Kasdim smashed the bronze columns of the house of Adonai, also the trolleys and bronze Sea that were in the house of Adonai, and carried their bronze to Bavel. 18They also took away the pots, shovels, snuffers, basins, pans, and all the bronze articles they had used in worship. 19The commander of the guard took the cups, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, menorahs, pans and bowls — everything made of gold and everything made of silver. 20The bronze in the two columns, the one Sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the bases, all of which Shlomo had made for the house of Adonai, was more than could be weighed. 21As for the columns, the height of one column was thirty-one-and-a-half feet; it took a twenty-one-foot measuring line to go around it; and its thickness was four fingers — it was hollow. 22On it was a capital of brass eight-and-three quarters feet high, with netting and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze; the second column was similar, also with pomegranates. 23There were ninety-six pomegranates on the outside; while the total number of pomegranates in the netting was one hundred.
24The commander of the guard took [prisoner] S’rayah the chief cohen, Tz’fanyah the second-ranking cohen, and three doorkeepers. 25From the city he took an official in charge of the soldiers, seven close associates of the king who had been found in the city, the army commander’s secretary in charge of military conscription, and sixty of the common people found inside the city. 26N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Bavel in Rivlah. 27There in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, the king of Bavel had them put to death. Thus Y’hudah was carried away captive out of his land.
28The numbers of people deported by N’vukhadretzar were as follows: in the seventh year, 3,023 persons from Y’hudah; 29in the eighteenth year of N’vukhadretzar, 832 persons from Yerushalayim; 30and in the twenty-third year of N’vukhadretzar, N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard deported 745 persons from Y’hudah; the total comes to 4,600 persons.
31In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Y’hoyakhin king of Y’hudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Eveel-M’rodakh began his reign as king of Bavel; and in his first year, he commuted the sentence of Y’hoyakhin king of Y’hudah and released him from prison. 32He treated him with kindness and gave him a throne higher than those of the other kings there with him in Bavel. 33So Y’hoyakhin no longer had to wear prison clothes; moreover, he was provided with food as long as he lived, 34and he was granted a daily allowance by the king of Bavel to spend on his other needs for as long as he lived, until the day of his death.
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