3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.
And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee:
And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire: Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick. They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?
Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shalt thou eat it. Thou shalt drink also water by measure, the sixth part of an hin: from time to time shalt thou drink. And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them. Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » John Gill's Exposition of the Bible » Commentary on 2 Kings 25
Commentary on 2 Kings 25 John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 25
In this chapter is an account of the siege, taking, and burning of the city of Jerusalem, and of the carrying captive the king and the inhabitants to Babylon, 2 Kings 25:1, as also of the pillars and vessels of the temple brought thither, 2 Kings 25:13 and of the putting to death several of the principal persons of the land, 2 Kings 25:18, and of the miserable condition of the rest under Gedaliah, whom Ishmael slew, 2 Kings 25:23, and the chapter, and so the history, is concluded with the kindness Jehoiachin met with from the king of Babylon, after thirty seven years' captivity, 2 Kings 25:27.
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign,.... Of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. From hence to the end of 2 Kings 25:7, the account exactly agrees with Jeremiah 52:4.
And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month,.... In Jeremiah 52:12 it is the tenth day of the month; which, how to be reconciled; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:12.
which is the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar; who, according to Ptolemy's canon, reigned forty three years; MetasthenesF21De Judicio Temp. & Annal. Pers. fol. 221. 2. says forty five; and from hence, to the end of 2 Kings 25:12 facts are related as in Jeremiah 52:12 whither the reader is referred.
And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord,.... The two pillars in the temple, Jachin and Boaz. Benjamin of Tudela saysF23Itinerar. p. 13. , that in the church of St. Stephen in Rome these pillars now are with the name of Solomon engraved on each; and the Jews at Rome told him, when there, (in the twelfth century,) that on the ninth of Ab (the day the temple was destroyed) every year sweat was found upon them like water; the one, I suppose, will equally be believed as the other, since it is here expressly said that the Chaldeans broke them in pieces. From hence, to the end of 2 Kings 25:17 is the same with Jeremiah 52:7, where it is rather more largely and fully expressed; only there is this difference here in 2 Kings 25:17 the height of the chapiter of a pillar is said to be three cubits, there five cubits; for the reconciliation of which; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:22.
And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest,.... The sagan, or deputy priest, who officiated for the high priest, when by any means he was rendered unfit and incapable; so Joseph, the son of Ellem, as JosephusF24Antiqu. l. 17. c. 6. sect. 4. relates, officiated for Matthias, when defiled with a nocturnal pollution; and seven days before the day of atonement they always substituted one under the high priest, lest anything of this kind should happen to himF25Misn. Yoma, c. 1. sect. 1. . From hence, to the end of 2 Kings 25:21 the account is the same as in Jeremiah 52:25, only here in 2 Kings 25:19 it is said, that five men that were in the king's presence were taken, there seven men; to account for which; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:25.
And as for the people that remained,.... That were left in the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen; over these the king of Babylon made Gedaliah governor, to whom the captains, with their scattered troops, came, and submitted for a time; of whom; see Gill on Jeremiah 40:7; see Gill on Jeremiah 40:8; see Gill on Jeremiah 40:9.
And it came to pass in the seventh month,.... Not of Gedaliah's government, but of the year, the month Tisri or September, near two months after the destruction of Jerusalem; the Jews say fifty two days after it; of the death of Gedaliah, and the man that slew him, as here related; see Gill on Jeremiah 41:1, Jeremiah 41:2, Jeremiah 41:3.
And all the people, both small and great,.... High and low, rich and poor, among whom were the king's daughters, committed to the care of Gedaliah, and also the prophets Jeremiah and Baruch, see Jeremiah 41:16.
and the captains of the armies rose, and came to Egypt; contrary to the express command of God; these were Johanan, and the captain of the forces with him, Jeremiah 43:4.
for they were afraid of the Chaldees; lest they should come and avenge the death of Gedaliah, appointed governor of Judea, see Jeremiah 41:17.
And it came to pass in the thirty and seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah,.... Who must then be fifty five years of age:
in the twelfth month, on the twenty and seventh day of the month; in Jeremiah 52:31 it is said to be the twenty fifth day; of the reason of which difference; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:31,
that Evilmerodach king of Babylon; who is supposed, by someF26Vid. Lampe, Eccles. Hist. l. 1. c. 7. sect. 18. ", to be the same with Belshazzar, and his successor Neriglissar, the same with Darius the Mede in Daniel. From hence, to the end of the chapter, the same account is given of the kindness of this king to Jehoiachin, as in Jeremiah 52:31. See Gill on Jeremiah 52:31; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:32; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:33; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:34.MetasthenesF1Ut supra. (De Judicio Temp. & Annal. Pers. fol. 221. 2.) calls him Amilinus Evilmerodach, and says he reigned thirty years, and makes Belshazzar, or Baltassar, as he calls him, his third son.