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®)
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Jeremiah 52
52
Capture of Jerusalem. 1Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.#2 Kgs 24:18–25:21. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 2He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3Indeed, the things done in Jerusalem and in Judah so angered the Lord that he cast them out from his presence. Thus Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4#Jer 39:1–10. In the tenth month of the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the month,#In the tenth month of the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the month: January 15, 588 B.C. Cf. 39:1. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his entire army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it, and built siege walls on every side. 5The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6On the ninth day of the fourth month, when famine had gripped the city and the people had no more bread, 7the city walls were breached. All the soldiers fled and left the city by night through the gate between the two walls which was near the king’s garden. With the Chaldeans surrounding the city, they went in the direction of the Arabah. 8But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the wilderness near Jericho; his whole army fled from him.
9The king, therefore, was arrested and brought to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, to the king of Babylon, who pronounced judgment on him. 10As Zedekiah looked on, the king of Babylon slaughtered his sons before his eyes! All the nobles of Judah were slaughtered at Riblah. 11And the eyes of Zedekiah he then blinded, bound him with chains, and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon and kept him in prison until the day he died.
Destruction of Jerusalem. 12On the tenth day of the fifth month, this was in the nineteenth year#On the tenth day of the fifth month…nineteenth year: the tenth of Ab—July/August in 587/586 B.C. of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, came to Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon. 13He burned the house of the Lord, the palace of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every large building he destroyed with fire. 14Then the Chaldean troops with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.
15Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, led into exile the remnant of people left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans. 16But Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, left behind some of the country’s poor as vinedressers and farmers.
17The bronze pillars that belonged to the house of the Lord, and the wheeled carts and the bronze sea in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke into pieces; they carried away all the bronze to Babylon. 18They also took the pots, shovels, snuffers, bowls, pans, and all the bronze vessels used for service; 19the basins, fire holders, bowls, pots, lampstands, pans, the sacrificial bowls made of gold or silver. Along with these furnishings the captain of the guard carried off 20the two pillars, the one sea and its base of twelve oxen cast in bronze, and the wheeled carts King Solomon had commissioned for the house of the Lord. The bronze from all these furnishings was impossible to weigh.
21As for the pillars, each of them was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in diameter; each was four fingers thick and hollow inside. 22A bronze capital five cubits high crowned the one pillar, and a network with pomegranates encircled the capital, all of bronze; and so for the other pillar, with pomegranates. 23There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides, a hundred pomegranates surrounding the network.
24The captain of the guard also took Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the entrance. 25From the city he took one courtier, a commander of soldiers, and seven men in the personal service of the king still in the city, the scribe of the army commander who mustered the people of the land, and sixty of the common people remaining in the city. 26The captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, arrested them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, 27who had them struck down and executed in Riblah, in the land of Hamath.
Thus Judah was exiled from the land. 28#These verses, missing in the Greek text, do not come from 2 Kgs 25 but from a source using a different chronology. Besides the deportations of 598 and 587 B.C., this passage mentions a final deportation in 582/581, possibly a response to the murder of Gedaliah; cf. Jer 41:2. This is the number of people Nebuchadnezzar led away captive: in his seventh year, three thousand twenty-three people of Judah; 29in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred thirty-two persons from Jerusalem; 30in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, deported seven hundred forty-five Judahites: four thousand six hundred persons in all.
Favor Shown to Jehoiachin.#In the year 561/560 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar’s successor Awel-Marduk (Evil-merodach), who reigned only two years, released Jehoiachin. Babylonian records confirm that Jehoiachin and his family were supported at public expense. 31#2 Kgs 25:27–30. In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the inaugural year of his reign, raised up Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and released him from prison. 32He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne higher than the thrones of the other kings#The other kings: heads of state brought as captives to Babylon. who were with him in Babylon. 33Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and ate at the king’s table as long as he lived. 34The allowance given him by the king of Babylon was a perpetual allowance, in fixed daily amounts, all the days of his life until the day of his death.
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