1 And it cometh to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth of the month, come hath Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, he and all his force, against Jerusalem, and encampeth against it, and buildeth against it a fortification round about.
And it cometh to pass, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth of the month, come hath Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon -- he and all his force -- against Jerusalem, and they encamp against it, and build against it a fortification round about; and the city cometh into siege till the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. In the fourth month, in the ninth of the month, when the famine is severe in the city, and there hath been no bread for the people of the land, then is the city broken up, and all the men of war flee, and go forth from the city by night, the way of the gate between the two walls, that `is' by the king's garden -- and the Chaldeans `are' by the city round about -- and they go the way of the plain. And the forces of the Chaldeans pursue after the king, and overtake Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his forces have been scattered from him, and they capture the king, and bring him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and he speaketh with him -- judgments. And the king of Babylon slaughtereth the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also all the princes of Judah hath he slaughtered in Riblah; and the eyes of Zedekiah he hath blinded, and he bindeth him in brazen fetters, and the king of Babylon bringeth him to Babylon, and putteth him in the house of inspection unto the day of his death.
The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah -- and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his force, and all kingdoms of the land of the dominion of his hand, and all the peoples are fighting against Jerusalem, and against all its cities -- saying: `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel: Go, and thou hast spoken unto Zedekiah king of Judah, and hast said unto him, Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he hath burned it with fire, and thou, thou dost not escape out of his hand, for thou art certainly caught, and into his hand thou art given, and thine eyes see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth with thy mouth speaketh, and Babylon thou enterest. `Only, hear a word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah, Thus said Jehovah unto thee: Thou dost not die by sword, in peace thou diest, and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings who have been before thee, so they make a burning for thee; and Ah, lord, they lament for thee, for the word I have spoken -- an affirmation of Jehovah.' And Jeremiah the prophet speaketh unto Zedekiah king of Judah all these words in Jerusalem,
`Because days shall come upon thee, and thine enemies shall cast around thee a rampart, and compass thee round, and press thee on every side, and lay thee low, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou didst not know the time of thy inspection.'
`Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples, nations, and languages, who are dwelling in all the earth: Your peace be great! The signs and wonders that God Most High hath done with me, it is good before me to shew. His signs how great! and His wonders how mighty! His kingdom `is' a kingdom age-during, and His rule `is' with generation and generation. `I, Nebuchadnezzar, have been at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace: a dream I have seen, and it maketh me afraid, and the conceptions on my bed, and the visions of my head, do trouble me. And by me a decree is made, to cause all the wise men of Babylon to come up before me, that the interpretation of the dream they may cause me to know. Then coming up are the scribes, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, and the dream I have told before them, and its interpretation they are not making known to me. And at last come up before me hath Daniel, whose name `is' Belteshazzar -- according to the name of my god -- and in whom `is' the spirit of the holy gods, and the dream before him I have told: `O Belteshazzar, master of the scribes, as I have known that the spirit of the holy gods `is' in thee, and no secret doth press thee, the visions of my dream that I have seen, and its interpretation, tell. As to the visions of my head on my bed, I was looking, and lo, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height `is' great: become great hath the tree, yea, strong, and its height doth reach to the heavens, and its vision to the end of the whole land; its leaves `are' fair, and its budding great, and food for all `is' in it: under it take shade doth the beast of the field, and in its boughs dwell do the birds of the heavens, and of it fed are all flesh. `I was looking, in the visions of my head on my bed, and lo, a sifter, even a holy one, from the heavens is coming down. He is calling mightily, and thus hath said, Cut down the tree, and cut off its branches, shake off its leaves, and scatter its budding, move away let the beast from under it, and the birds from off its branches; but the stump of its roots leave in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field, and with the dew of the heavens is it wet, and with the beasts `is' his portion in the herb of the earth; his heart from man's is changed, and the heart of a beast is given to him, and seven times pass over him; by the decree of the sifters `is' the sentence, and by the saying of the holy ones the requirement, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and to whom He willeth He giveth it, and the lowest of men He doth raise up over it. `This dream I have seen, I king Nebuchadnezzar; and thou, O Belteshazzar, the interpretation tell, because that all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to cause me to know the interpretation, and thou `art' able, for the spirit of the holy gods `is' in thee.
And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth of the month, saying, `Son of man, write for thee the name of the day -- this self-same day leaned hath the king of Babylon toward Jerusalem in this self-same day -- and use unto the rebellious house a simile, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: To set on the pot, to set `it' on, and also to pour into it water, To gather its pieces unto it, every good piece, Thigh and shoulder, the choice of the bones to fill in. The choice of the flock to take, And also to pile of the bones under it, Boil it thoroughly, yea, cook its bones in its midst. Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Wo `to' the city of blood, A pot whose scum `is' in it, And its scum hath not come out of it, By piece of it, by piece of it bring it out, Not fallen on it hath a lot. For her blood in her midst hath been, On a clear place of a rock she hath set it, She hath not poured it on the earth, To cover it over with dust. To cause fury to come up to take vengeance, I have put her blood on a clear place of a rock -- not to be covered. Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Wo `to' the city of blood, yea, I -- I make great the pile. Make abundant the wood, Kindle the fire, consume the flesh, And make the compound, And let the bones be burnt. And cause it to stand on its coals empty, So that its brass is hot and burning, Melted hath been in its midst its uncleanness, Consumed is its scum. `With' sorrows she hath wearied herself, And the abundance of her scum goeth not out of her, In the fire `is' her scum. In thine uncleanness `is' wickedness, Because I have cleansed thee, And thou hast not been cleansed, From thine uncleanness thou art not cleansed again, Till I have caused My fury to rest on thee. I, Jehovah, hath spoken, It hath come, and I have done `it', I do not free, nor do I spare, nor do I repent, According to thy ways, and according to thine acts, they have judged thee, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'
At his right hath been the divination -- Jerusalem, To place battering-rams, To open the mouth with slaughter, To lift up a voice with shouting, To place battering-rams against the gates, To pour out a mount, to build a fortification. And it hath been to them as a false divination in their eyes, Who have sworn oaths to them, And he is causing iniquity to be remembered to be caught. Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your causing your iniquity to be remembered, In your transgressions being revealed, For your sins being seen, in all your doings, Because of your being remembered, By the hand ye are caught.
`And thou, son of man, take to thee a brick, and thou hast put it before thee, and hast graven on it a city -- Jerusalem, and hast placed against it a siege, and builded against it a fortification, and poured out against it a mount, and placed against it camps, yea, set thou against it battering-rams round about. And thou, take to thee an iron pan, and thou hast made it a wall of iron between thee and the city; and thou hast prepared thy face against it, and it hath been in a siege, yea, thou hast laid siege against it. A sign it `is' to the house of Israel. `And thou, lie on thy left side, and thou hast placed the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; the number of the days that thou liest on it, thou bearest their iniquity. And I -- I have laid on thee the years of their iniquity, the number of days, three hundred and ninety days; and thou hast borne the iniquity of the house of Israel. And thou hast completed these, and hast lain on thy right side, a second time, and hast borne the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days -- a day for a year -- a day for a year I have appointed to thee. `And unto the siege of Jerusalem thou dost prepare thy face, and thine arm `is' uncovered, and thou hast prophesied concerning it. And lo, I have put on thee thick bands, and thou dost not turn from side to side till thy completing the days of thy siege.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, come hath Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his force unto Jerusalem, and they lay siege against it; in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth of the month, hath the city been broken up; and come in do all the heads of the king of Babylon, and they sit at the middle gate, Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar-Nebo, Sarsechim, chief of the eunuchs, Nergal-Sharezer, chief of the Mages, and all the rest of the heads of the king of Babylon. And it cometh to pass, when Zedekiah king of Judah, and all the men of war, have seen them, that they flee and go forth by night from the city, the way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls, and he goeth forth the way of the plain. And the forces of the Chaldeans pursue after them, and overtake Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and they take him, and bring him up unto Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and he speaketh with him -- judgments. And the king of Babylon slaughtereth the sons of Zedekiah, in Riblah, before his eyes, yea, all the freemen of Judah hath the king of Babylon slaughtered. And the eyes of Zedekiah he hath blinded, and he bindeth him with brazen fetters, to bring him in to Babylon. And the house of the king, and the house of the people, have the Chaldeans burnt with fire, and the walls of Jerusalem they have broken down. And the remnant of the people who are left in the city, and those falling who have fallen to him, and the remnant of the people who are left, hath Nebuzar-Adan, chief of the executioners, removed `to' Babylon. And of the poor people, who have nothing, hath Nebuzar-Adan, chief of the executioners, left in the land of Judah, and he giveth to them vineyards and fields on the same day.
And He causeth to go up against them the king of the Chaldeans, and he slayeth their chosen ones by the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and hath had no pity on young man and virgin, old man and very aged -- the whole He hath given into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, the great and the small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king and of his princes -- the whole he hath brought in to Babylon. And they burn the house of God, and break down the wall of Jerusalem, and all its palaces they have burnt with fire, and all its desirable vessels -- to destruction. And he removeth those left of the sword unto Babylon, and they are to him and to his sons for servants, till the reigning of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfil the word of Jehovah in the mouth of Jeremiah, till the land hath enjoyed its sabbaths; all the days of the desolation it kept sabbath -- to the fulness of seventy years.
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Commentary on 2 Kings 25 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 25
2Ki 25:1-3. Jerusalem Again Besieged.
1. Nebuchadnezzar … came … against Jerusalem—Incensed by the revolt of Zedekiah, the Assyrian despot determined to put an end to the perfidious and inconstant monarchy of Judea. This chapter narrates his third and last invasion, which he conducted in person at the head of an immense army, levied out of all the tributary nations under his sway. Having overrun the northern parts of the country and taken almost all the fenced cities (Jer 34:7), he marched direct to Jerusalem to invest it. The date of the beginning as well as the end of the siege is here carefully marked (compare Eze 24:1; Jer 39:1; 52:4-6); from which it appears, that, with a brief interruption caused by Nebuchadnezzar's marching to oppose the Egyptians who were coming to its relief but who retreated without fighting, the siege lasted a year and a half. So long a resistance was owing, not to the superior skill and valor of the Jewish soldiers, but to the strength of the city fortifications, on which the king too confidently relied (compare Jer 21:1-14; 37:1-38:28).
pitched against it, and … built forts—rather, perhaps, drew lines of circumvallation, with a ditch to prevent any going out of the city. On this rampart were erected his military engines for throwing missiles into the city.
3. on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed—In consequence of the close and protracted blockade, the inhabitants were reduced to dreadful extremities; and under the maddening influence of hunger, the most inhuman atrocities were perpetrated (La 2:20, 22; 4:9, 10; Eze 5:10). This was a fulfilment of the prophetic denunciations threatened on the apostasy of the chosen people (Le 26:29; De 28:53-57; Jer 15:2; 27:13; Eze 4:16).
2Ki 25:4-30. Zedekiah Taken.
4. the city was broken up—that is, a breach was effected, as we are elsewhere informed, in a part of the wall belonging to the lower city (2Ch 32:5; 33:14).
the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden—The king's garden was (Ne 3:15) at the pool of Siloam, that is, at the mouth of the Tyropæon. A trace of the outermost of these walls appears to be still extant in the rude pathway which crosses the mouth of the Tyropæon, on a mound hard by the old mulberry tree, which marks the traditional spot of Isaiah's martyrdom [Robinson]. It is probable that the besiegers had overlooked this pass.
the king went … toward the plain—that is, the Ghor, or valley of Jordan, estimated at five hours' distance from Jerusalem. The plain near Jericho is about eleven or twelve miles broad.
6, 7. they took the king, and brought him … to Riblah—Nebuchadnezzar, having gone from the siege to oppose the auxiliary forces of Pharaoh-hophra, left his generals to carry on the blockade, he himself not returning to the scene of action, but taking up his station at Riblah in the land of Hamath (2Ki 23:33).
they gave judgment upon him—They, that is, the council (Jer 39:3, 13; Da 6:7, 8, 12), regarding him as a seditious and rebellious vassal, condemned him for violating his oath and neglecting the announcement of the divine will as made known to him by Jeremiah (compare Jer 32:5; 34:2; 38:17). His sons and the nobles who had joined in his flight were slain before his eyes (Jer 39:6; 52:10). In conformity with Eastern ideas, which consider a blind man incapable of ruling, his eyes were put out, and being put in chains, he was carried to perpetual imprisonment in Babylon (Jer 52:11), which, though he came to it, as Ezekiel had foretold, he did not see (Jer 32:5; Eze 12:13; 17:16).
8-18. on the seventh day of the month … came Nebuzar-adan—(compare Jer 52:12). In attempting to reconcile these two passages, it must be supposed either that, though he had set out on the seventh, he did not arrive in Jerusalem till the tenth, or that he did not put his orders in execution till that day. His office as captain of the guard (Ge 37:36; 39:1) called him to execute the awards of justice on criminals; and hence, although not engaged in the siege of Jerusalem (Jer 39:13), Nebuzar-adan was despatched to rase the city, to plunder the temple, to lay both in ruins, demolish the fortifications, and transport the inhabitants to Babylon. The most eminent of these were taken to the king at Riblah (2Ki 25:27) and executed, as instigators and abettors of the rebellion, or otherwise obnoxious to the Assyrian government. In their number were Seraiah, the high priest, grandfather of Ezra (Ezr 7:1), his sagan or deputy, a priest of the second order (Jer 21:2; 29:25, 29; 37:3).
18. the three keepers of the door—not mere porters, but officers of high trust among the Levites (2Ki 22:4; 1Ch 9:26).
19. five men of them that were in the king's presence—that is, who belonged to the royal retinue. It is probable that there were five at first, and that other two were found afterwards (Jer 52:25).
22-26. Nebuchadnezzar … made Gedaliah … ruler—The people permitted to remain were, besides the king's daughters, a few court attendants and others (Jer 40:7) too insignificant to be removed, only the peasantry who could till the land and dress the vineyards. Gedaliah was Jeremiah's friend (Jer 26:24), and having, by the prophet's counsel, probably fled from the city as abandoned of God, he surrendered himself to the conqueror (Jer 38:2, 17), and being promoted to the government of Judea, fixed his provincial court at Mizpeh. He was well qualified to surmount the difficulties of ruling at such a crisis. Many of the fugitive Jews, as well as the soldiers of Zedekiah who had accompanied the king in his flight to the plains of Jericho, left their retreats (Jer 40:11, 12) and flocked around the governor; who having counselled them to submit, promised them on complying with this condition, security on oath that they would retain their possessions and enjoy the produce of their land (Jer 40:9).
25. Ishmael … of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah—He had found refuge with Baalis, king of the Ammonites, and he returned with a bad design, being either instigated by envy of a governor not descended from the house of David, or bribed by Baalis to murder Gedaliah. The generous governor, though apprised of his intentions, refused to credit the report, much less to sanction the proposal made by an attached friend to cut off Ishmael. The consequence was, that he was murdered by this same Ishmael, when entertaining him in his own house (Jer 41:1).
26. and all the people … came to Egypt—In spite of Jeremiah's dissuasions (Jer 43:7, 8) they settled in various cities of that country (Jer 44:1).
27. seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin—corresponding with the year of Nebuchadnezzar's death, and his son Evil-merodach's ascension to the throne.
Evil-merodach … did lift up the head of Jehoiachin … and spake kindly—gave him liberty upon parole. This kindly feeling is said to have originated in a familiar acquaintance formed in prison, in which Evil-merodach had lain till his father's death, on account of some malversation while acting as regent during Nebuchadnezzar's seven years' illness (Da 4:32, 33). But doubtless the improvement in Zedekiah's condition is to be traced to the overruling providence and grace of Him who still cherished purposes of love to the house of David (2Sa 7:14, 15).
29. Jehoiachin … did eat … continually before him—According to an ancient usage in Eastern courts, had a seat at the royal table on great days, and had a stated provision granted him for the maintenance of his exiled court.