Jeremiah 52:1-11

1. The capture of the city, together with the circumstances immediately previous and subsequent thereto

Jeremiah 52:1-11

1Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter 2of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, 3according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For1 through the anger of the Lord [For so] it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah [that Jehovah was angry] till he had cast them out from his presence, that [And] Zedekiah rebelled against the king 4of Babylon. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month,2 in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts [a rampart]3 5against it round about. So the city was besieged4 unto the eleventh year of king 6Zedekiah. 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 7common people]. Then the city was broken up [through], and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city 8round about;) and they went5 by the way of [to] the plain. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho;9and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave 10judgment upon him. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before 11his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riolah. Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains [a double chain], and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Jeremiah 52:1-3. Zedekiah … king of Babylon. These three verses are of the same purport with 2 Kings 24:18-20, with only two unessential differences. In the latter passage, Jeremiah 52:20, we find וּבִיהוּרָה for וִיהוּדָה, and עַד־הִשְׁלִיכוֹ for עַד־הִשְלִיכוֹ, in both cases an easier and more correct reading, of which it is more natural to suppose that it arose out of the other, than the reverse. The present passage then has the presumption of originality in its favor. Comp., moreover, 2 Chronicles 36:11-13.—For through the anger, etc. The reason for Jehovah’s anger is punishment, in Jeremiah 52:2, however, to which the for refers, it is sin, not punishment, which is spoken of. Accordingly the words are not to be taken as causal, but as was shown on Jeremiah 32:31 (p. 287) עַל is used here as frequently elsewhere for אֵל or לְ, and עַל־אַף is the statement of the effect: it came to pass that Jehovah was angered—which may be said of what happened in Jerusalem, as well as against it.

Jeremiah 52:4-5. And it came to pass … Zedekiah. These words are found almost exactly the same in 2 Kings 25:1-2, and in an abridged extract in Jeremiah 39:1. Compare also Ezekiel 24:1. For the exposition of the parts reproduced in Jeremiah 39:0., see there the differences between our text and that of the Book of Kings. Comp. the Textual Notes.

Jeremiah 52:6-7. And in the fourth month … the plain. These opening words, found also in Jeremiah 39:2, are wanting in 2 Kings, although the statement of the day without that of the month, makes no sense, and also the words and went out of the city, though thus the sentence loses its predicate. Keil (on 2 Kings 25:4) supposes that not only the predicate has fallen out after all the men of war, but also still more before these words, in 2 Ki. and Jeremiah 52:0., namely, the words found in Jeremiah 39:3, “and it came to pass, when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them,” because the king (according to 2 Kings 25:5; Jeremiah 52:8; Jeremiah 39:5) was among the fugitives, and because the words “and all the men of war,” have no proper connection with the previous context and could not form an adverbial sentence. But if Keil were right, the whole verse Jeremiah 39:3 must have dropped out, since them refers to the persons mentioned in it. We have already shown on Jeremiah 39:0. that Jeremiah 52:1-2; Jeremiah 52:4-10 are only an abridged extract from Jeremiah 52:0. and that the words quoted above are only a connecting clause between the original and genuine Jeremiah 52:3, and the following verses derived from Jeremiah 52:0. These words are therefore of later date than Jeremiah 52:0., and cannot have been omitted before “ and all the men,” etc. The previous mention of the king is not necessary, since he is included; the sentence moreover is not adverbial, but a narrative of a by no means unusual construction (comp. Ewald, §346, b).

Jeremiah 52:8-11. But the army … of his death. The Book of Kings reads “ him ” instead of Zedekiah. It is plain that the former could be more easily derived from the latter than the reverse.—In the land of Hamath is wanting in 2 Kings 25:6, while it is found ib. Jeremiah 52:21 (comp. 2 Kings 23:33).—He gave judgment.2 Kings 25:6, has “they gave,” etc., on which comp. rems. on Jeremiah 32:5.—The first half of Jeremiah 52:10 agrees with Jeremiah 39:6, even to the there added words, “in Riblah.” In 2 Kings 25:7 it reads, “and they slew the sons,” etc., the Chaldeans of Jeremiah 52:5 being still the subject. The second half of Jeremiah 52:10 is entirely wanting in 2 Kings. The blinding and binding in chains of king Zedekiah is narrated in both places in the same way, but in 2 Ki. the singulars put out (עוִּרִ) and bound him (וַיֵאַסְרֵהוּ) are the more surprising, as the sentence is contained in the plural carried him (וַיַבַיְאֻהוּ). 2 Kings 25:0. is entirely silent on the confinement of Zedekiah in Babylon. Hitzig justly calls attention to the fact that בֵּית־הַפְּקֻדּת is not simply a prison, this being always otherwise expressed (comp., e.g., Jeremiah 52:31). Jeremiah, who is not blinded, is put into prison; but Zedekiah, the more guilty, is blinded and put into the house of correction. Comp. Simson on Judges 16:21. The LXX. also has ἐις οἰκίαν μυλῶνος. Yet it appears that towards the end his confinement was less rigorous, and that an honorable interment was granted him after his death, for this is the purport of the promise made to him through Jeremiah in Jeremiah 34:1-5.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. “Docemur hoc capite, quod comminationes divinæ rum sint de pelvi fulgura, quodque Deus pro misericordia sua infinita calamitates a se immissas mitigare plerumque soleat, si seria interveniat pœnitentia.” Förster.

2. On Jeremiah 52:1-3. “From this we see why God sometimes places ungodly rulers over a country, who cast it to destruction. It is done on account of the rulers’ and the people’s sins, that they may draw down the well merited punishment, as Sirach says. On account of violence, injustice and avarice, a kingdom passes from one nation to another (Jeremiah 10:8). So also says king Solomon. Because of the sins of a nation occur many changes of rulers, but for the sake of the people who are intelligent and reasonable, the State is prolonged (Proverbs 28:2).” Wurtemb. Summarien.

3. On Jeremiah 52:4. “God allows many slight and mild punishments to come as warnings, till at last comes the finishing stroke. This is a witness to the divine long-suffering (Romans 2:4).” Cramer.

4. On Jeremiah 52:6. “The fact that in this siege compassionate women had to kill and eat their own children (Lamentations 4:10) is a reminder that by bodily hunger God would punish; 1. satiation and disgust towards His holy word and soul-food; 2. the terrible offering up of children to Moloch; 3. the loose discipline of children.” Cramer.

5. On Jeremiah 52:7. “No fortress can protect the ungodly, even though they had their nest in the clouds.” Cramer.

6. On Jeremiah 52:8. “An example of faithless, perjured men of war. But as Zedekiah broke his oath to the king at Babylon, he was paid back in the same coin.” Cramer. “His people forsook the poor king Zedekiah on his flight and he was captured, from which we see that great men cannot depend on their body-guard; these flee in time of need, and leave their masters in the lurch. The surest and best protection is when we have the holy angels for our guard … This angelic protection is, however, to be obtained and preserved by faith and godliness, but is lost by unbelief and ungodly conduct.” Wurtemb. Summ.

7. On Jeremiah 52:9-11. The punishment of perjury. “Ubi monemur, quod fides hosti, etiam barbaro, qualis hodie Turca, a Christianis data, mimine violanda.” Förster.

8. On Jeremiah 52:9. sqq. “God had shown Zedekiah by Jeremiah a way in which he could escape the calamity. But because he forsook the Lord and would not follow it, the others were only leaky cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13). For woe to the rebellious who take counsel without the Lord (Isaiah 30:1). This is useful for an instance against the holy by works, who reject God’s way of escaping the Devil; when they devise other ways for themselves they are caught by the Chaldeans of hell.” Cramer.

9. On Jeremiah 52:12 sqq. “Holy places, external ceremonies and opus operatum do not avail for hypocrites … If God punished His own institution so severely, how shall human institutions remain unpunished?” Cramer.

10. On Jeremiah 52:12. “Quale fatum, ne et nostris obtingat templis … caveamus, ne profanemus templa ulterius tum externa vel materialia, tum interna vel spiritualia in cordibus nostris, de quibus 1 Corinthians 3:16 sqq.; Jeremiah 6:19 sqq.” Förster.

11. On Jeremiah 52:15. “It is another work of mercy that some of Judah were preserved. For God’s grace is always to be found in His punishments.” Cramer.

12. On Jeremiah 52:15. “He who will not serve God and his neighbor at home and in quiet, must learn to do it in a strange land in affliction and distress.” Cramer.

13. On Jeremiah 52:24 sqq. “As teachers are often to blame for their behaviour that sin gets the upper hand in a community, it is exceedingly just when God brings such for an example into great punitive judgment (1 Samuel 2:27-34).” Starke.

14. On Jeremiah 52:24. “The priests are caught and slain; 1. because they could not believe the truth for themselves; 2. because they led others astray; 3. because they appealed to the temple of the Lord; 4. because they persecuted the true prophets; 5. because they troubled the whole church of God. But he who troubleth shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be (Galatians 5:10).” Cramer.

15. On Jeremiah 52:31 sqq. “Sane omnino verisimile videtur judicio Philippi Melanchthonis in Chron. part, I fol. 33 Evilmerodachum amplexum esse doctrinam Danielis de Vero Deo, quam et pater publico edic professus est, eamque ob causam clementiam exercuisse erga regem Jechoniam.” Förster.—“Narrant Hebræi hujusmodi fabulam: Evilmerodach, qui patre suo Nabuchodonosor vivente per septem annos inter bestias, ante regnaverat, postquam ille restitutus in regno est, usque ad mortem patris cum Joakim rege Judæ in vinculis fuit; quo mortuo, quum rursus in regnum succederet, et non susciperetur a principibus, qui metuebant, ne viveret qui dicebatur extinctus, ut fidem patris mortui faceret, aperuit sepulcrum et cadaver ejus unco et funibus traxit.” Jerome on Jeremiah 14:18-19. Josephus speaks of it as follows: “Ἀβιλαμαρώδαχος εὐθὺς τὸν ‘Ιεχωνίαν τῶν δεσμῶν … ‘Ο γὰρ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ τὴν πίστιν οὐκ ἐφύλαξε τῷ ’Ιεχωνία, παραδόντι μετὰ γυναικαῶν καὶ τέκνων καὶ τῆς συγγενείας ὅλης ἑκουσίως ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς πατρἰδος, ὡς ἄν μὴ κατασκαφείη ληφθεῖσα τῇ πολιορκίᾳ.” (Antiqq., X. 11, 21.)

16. On Jeremiah 52:31 sqq. “Ceterum potest hoc exemplo, quod Jechonias rex dignitati suæ in exilio Babylonico restitutus, refutari exceptio Judæorum contra vaticinium Jacobi (Genesis 49:10) de Messia jamdudum exhibito, postquam per Romanos sceptrum de Juda ablatum, id quod τεκμήριον Messiæ jamjam nascituri esse debuit.” Förster.

17. On Jeremiah 52:31 sqq. “No one should despair in misfortune, for the right hand of the Highest can change all (Psalms 77:10) and Christ rules even in the midst of His enemies (Psalms 110:2). For His are the praise, the glory and the power from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.” Cramer.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1. On Jeremiah 52:1-11. The truth of the word “What a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” exhibited in the example of the Jewish State under Zedekiah.1. The seed (Jeremiah 52:2); 2. The crop (a) the siege, (b) the famine, (c) the capture of the city and flight of the king, (d) the punishment of the king and his princes, (e) the fate of the people (Jeremiah 52:3).

2. On Jeremiah 52:12-20. The rejection of Judah appears at first sight a contradiction. For Jerusalem is the holy city (Matthew 4:5; Nehemiah 11:1; Nehemiah 11:18), the city of God (Psalms 46:5; Psalms 48:2; Psalms 48:9; Psalms 78:3); the temple is the house of Jehovah (Jeremiah 7:2. etc.); God’s service rests on divine authority (Ex. chh. 25–27, 30, 31). But God cannot contradict Himself. We have, therefore, to show “the unity of the divine thoughts in the choice and rejection of Jerusalem.” 1. The rejection was a conditional one (Jeremiah 7:3 sqq). Hence notwithstanding the election the rejection involved nothing contradictory, but was a necessary consequence of the unfulfilled condition.—2. The election remains (a) objectively notwithstanding the rejection; it is (b) subjectively brought to its realization by the rejection; the latter as a means of discipline operating to produce the disposition, from which alone thefulfillment of this condition can proceed. Comp. rems. on Jeremiah 32:41, p. 288.

3. On Jeremiah 52:24-27. “That great lords sometimes make an example of gross miscreants, promotes righteousness, only it must not be done on the innocent, or with such severity that there is no proportion between the crime and its punishment (Joshua 7:25).” Starke.

4. On Jeremiah 52:31-34. The deliverance of Jehoiachin. 1. It shows us that the Lord can help (a) out of great distress (grievous imprisonment of thirty-seven years), (b) in a glorious manner. 2. It admonishes us (a) to steadfast patience, (b) to believing hope, Psalms 13:0 [“It was a prelude and pledge of the liberation and exaltation of the Jewish Nation, when it had been humbled and purified by the discipline of suffering; and of its return to its own land; and a joyful pre-announcement of that far more glorious future restoration which the prophets in the Old Testament, and the Apostles in the New foretell—of Israel to God in Christ; to whom, with the Father and Holt Ghost, be ascribed all honor, glory, dominion, adoration and praise, now and forever. Amen.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.].

Footnotes:

Jeremiah 52:3; Jeremiah 52:3.—הִשְׁלִיכוֹ, if there be no mistake in the writing, is an abnormal form of the infinitive. Comp. Olsh., § 191, b, f; Ewald, § 238, d. On the neuter meaning of the fem. verb הָֽיְתָה comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 60, 6, b; Isaiah 11:20; 2 Kings 24:3.

Jeremiah 52:4; Jeremiah 52:4.—The differences between the text here and in 2 Kings 25:1-2 are as follows: 1. Instead of בַּשָׁנָה ו׳ here בִּשְׁנַת הַתְּשִׁעִית there. The latter mode of expression (anno noni, i.e., numeri, comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 65, 2, c) is found in Jer. also in Jeremiah 28:1, Chethibh; Jeremiah 32:1. Chethibh; Jeremiah 46:2; Jeremiah 51:59. Besides also in Jeremiah 52:28; Jeremiah 29:30 Jeremiah 29:2. Jeremiah 29:2 Kings has the Liter form in Heb., Nebuchadnezzar (comp. Jeremiah 21:2-7; Jeremiah 24:1; Jeremiah 32:1; Jeremiah 35:11; Jeremiah 39:11; Jeremiah 43:10; Jeremiah 44:30; Jeremiah 46:2; Jeremiah 50:17 with Jeremiah 27:6; Jeremiah 27:20; Jeremiah 28:3; Jeremiah 39:5; Hitzig on Jeremiah 24:1). 3. וַיִדַון 2 Kings, instead of וַיַדֽוְַנוּ, which is required by וַיִבְנוּ.

Jeremiah 52:4; Jeremiah 52:4.—The word דָּיֵק occurs, besides here and in the parallel passages, only in Ezekiel 4:2; Ezekiel 17:17; Ezekiel 21:27; Ezekiel 26:8. It is thus a later word. The root דוק does not occur in Hebrew, but is very common in the Chaldee, Syriac and Samaritan, where it has the meaning, speculari, inspicere, circumspicere, דָיֵק is therefore specula; the watch-tower, from which the besieged city may be watched and assailed. With this agrees well Isaiah 23:13, where the בַּחוּנִים of the Chaldeans are spoken of. It is surprising that the word never occurs in the plural, as we should expect, if it designated only, the single towers. We may therefore suppose that it signifies the whole line of circumvallation, including the towers and is thus a potiori, a collective designation. As the chaldeans were celebrated for their skill in sieges (comp. Herzog, Real-Enc., IV., S. 394), the word may have passed from their language into the Hebrew. Comp. Keil on 2 Kings 25:1; Haevernick on Ezekiel 4:2, S. 49; Gesen., Thes., p. 330.

Jeremiah 52:5; Jeremiah 52:5.—מָצוֹר is primarily coarctatio in general and then specially coarctatio by means of obsidio, hence it assumes the latter meaning in connections like עִיר מָצוֹר (Psalms 31:22; Psalms 60:11), בָּנָה מ׳ (Deuteronomy 20:20), נָתַן מ׳ עַל (Ezekiel 4:2), בּוֹא בַּמּ׳ (2 Kings 24:10; 2 Kings 25:2), without involving a complete suppression of the radical signification. Comp. Jeremiah 10:17; Jeremiah 19:9.

Jeremiah 52:7; Jeremiah 52:7.—Instead of וַיֵלְכִוּ we find in 2 Ki. the manifestly less correct form, וַיֵלֶךְ.