Jeremiah 52

A.M. 3416. B.C. 588.

This chapter contains a brief history of the captivity, nearly the same, word for word, as it is related in the second book of Kings, 2 Kings 24:18-20 , and chap. 25., with some few additions. Some have supposed it placed here as a proper introduction to the book of Lamentations. But more probably the design was, by immediately subjoining this historical narrative of the desolations of the Jewish nation to the predictions of Jeremiah concerning them, to give a nearer view of the exact accomplishment of the divine word of prophecy. That this narrative could not be added by Jeremiah is manifest, not only by the last clause of the preceding chapter, but also by this consideration, that a great part of it is a repetition of what he himself had related in the 39th and 40th chapters of his prophecy. As therefore it must have been subjoined by some other person, it is most probable it was done by Ezra, who is commonly supposed to have revised the sacred writings after the return of the Jews from Babylon, and to have collected them into one body. We have here,

(1,) The reign of Zedekiah rendered unhappy by his sins and punishments, Jeremiah 52:1-3 .

(2,) The besieging and taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, Jeremiah 52:4-7 .

(3,) The severe usage which Zedekiah and his princes met with from Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 52:8-11 .

(4,) The destruction of the temple and the city 12-14.

(5,) The carrying away of the people into captivity, Jeremiah 52:15 , Jeremiah 52:16 , with an account of the numbers of those carried away, Jeremiah 52:28-30 .

(6,) The taking away of the plunder of the temple, Jeremiah 52:17-23 .

(7,) The murder of the two chief priests and seventy-two other persons of rank in cold blood, by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, Jeremiah 52:24-27 .

(8,) King Jehoiachin is released and honoured after Nebuchadnezzar’s death, as an earnest of the deliverance of the Jews, Jeremiah 52:31-34 .