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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Jeremiah 52: NABRE
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Jeremiah 52
52
Babylon Destroys Jerusalem
1Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2And he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, just like all Jehoiakim had done.
3Because of Adonai’s anger it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He had them cast out of His presence. So Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4It came to pass in the ninth year of his reign in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came—he and all his army—against Jerusalem, and besieged it. They built a siege wall all around it.
5So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6In the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the famine was so severe in the city, that there was no food for the people of the land.
7Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled, going out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was near the king’s garden—even though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They were heading along the way of the Arabah.
8But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the desert plains of Jericho. Then all his army was scattered from him.
9Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. He passed judgment on him.
10At Riblah, the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and also all the Judean leaders.
11Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes. Then the king of Babylon bound him in bronze chains, and brought him to Babylon, where he put him in prison until the day of his death.
12Now in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard came into Jerusalem to represent the king of Babylon.
13Then he burned the House of Adonai, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned every large house with fire.
14Then all the Chaldean army, which was with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.
15Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and what remained of the craftsmen.
16But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
17The Chaldeans smashed the bronze pillars of the House of Adonai, the stands and the bronze sea that were in the House of Adonai, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.
18The pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the basins, the pans, and all the bronze articles for Temple service, they also took away.
19The cups, the fire-pans, the basins, the pots, the menorot, the pans, and the drink offering bowls—whatever was gold or silver—the captain of the guard took away.
20As for the two pillars, one sea, and twelve bronze bulls that were under the stands that King Solomon had made for the House of Adonai—all these articles had bronze beyond weighing.
21The height of one pillar was 18 cubits and it was twelve cubits in circumference and four fingers in its thickness—it was hollow.
22There was a bronze capital on it—the height of one capital was five cubits, with latticework and pomegranates upon the capital all around, all of bronze. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates.
23There were 96 pomegranates on the outside; including all the pomegranates around the lattice, there were 100.
24Then the captain of the guard took Seraiah the kohen gadol , and Zephaniah the second kohen, and the three doorkeepers.
25From the city he took an officer who had been appointed over the men of war as well as seven men who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city, the scribe of the commander of the army, who enlisted people of the land, and 60 men of the people of the land who were found within the city.
26Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.
27The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Then Judah was led away into exile from its land.
28These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year 3,023 Jews;
29in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;
30in the Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard exiled 745 of the Jews—all together 4,600 people.
Release of King Jehoiachin
31Now it came to pass on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, that King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, and released him out of prison.
32He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
33Then he changed out of his prison garments, dined regularly before him all the days of his life.
34As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
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