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Jeremiah 52
Living Bible

52 (Events told about in chapter 39.)

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal (daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah). 2 But he was a wicked king, just as Jehoiakim had been. 3 Things became so bad at last that the Lord, in his anger, saw to it that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon until he and the people of Israel were ejected from the Lord’s presence in Jerusalem and Judah, and were taken away as captives to Babylon.

4 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came with all his army against Jerusalem and built forts around it, 5 and laid siege to the city for two years. 6 Then finally, on the ninth day of the fourth month, when the famine in the city was very serious, with the last of the food entirely gone, 7 the people in the city tore a hole in the city wall and all the soldiers fled from the city during the night, going out by the gate between the two walls near the king’s gardens (for the city was surrounded by the Chaldeans), and made a dash for it across the fields, toward Arabah.

8 But the Chaldean soldiers chased them and caught King Zedekiah in some fields near Jericho—for all his army was scattered from him. 9 They brought him to the king of Babylon who was staying in the city of Riblah in the kingdom of Hamath, and there judgment was passed upon him. 10 He made Zedekiah watch while his sons and all the princes of Judah were killed before his eyes. 11 Then his eyes were gouged out, and he was taken in chains to Babylon and put in prison for the rest of his life.

12 On the tenth day of the fifth month during the nineteenth year[a] of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, arrived in Jerusalem, 13 and burned the Temple and the palace and all the larger homes, 14 and set the Chaldean army to work tearing down the walls of the city. 15 Then he took to Babylon, as captives, some of the poorest of the people—along with those who survived the city’s destruction, and those who had deserted Zedekiah and had come over to the Babylonian army, and the tradesmen who were left. 16 But he left some of the poorest people to care for the crops as vinedressers and plowmen.

17 The Babylonians dismantled the two large bronze pillars that stood at the entrance of the Temple, and the bronze laver and bronze bulls on which it stood, and carted them off to Babylon. 18 And he took along all the bronze pots and kettles, the ash shovels used at the altar, the snuffers, spoons, bowls, and all the other items used in the Temple. 19 He also took the firepans, the solid gold and silver candlesticks, and the cups and bowls.

20 The weight of the two enormous pillars, the laver, and twelve bulls was tremendous. They had no way of estimating it. (They had been made in the days of King Solomon.) 21 For the pillars were each 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference, hollow, with 3-inch walls. 22 The top 7-1/2 feet of each column had bronze carvings, a network of bronze pomegranates. 23 There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and on the network round about there were a hundred more.

24-25 The captain of the guard took along with him as his prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah his assistant, the three chief Temple guards, one of the commanding officers of the army, seven of the king’s special counselors discovered in the city, the secretary of the general-in-chief of the Jewish army (who was in charge of recruitment), and sixty other men of importance found hiding. 26 He took them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, 27 where the king killed them all.

So it was that Judah’s exile was accomplished.

28 The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was 3,023. 29 Then, eleven years later, he took 832 more; 30 five years after that he sent Nebuzaradan, his captain of the guard, and took 745—a total of 4,600 captives in all.

31 On February 25 of the thirty-seventh year of the imprisonment in Babylon of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, Evil-merodach, who became king of Babylon that year, was kind to King Jehoiachin and brought him out of prison. 32 He spoke pleasantly to him and gave him preference over all the other kings in Babylon; 33 he gave him new clothes and fed him from the king’s kitchen as long as he lived. 34 And he was given a regular allowance to cover his daily needs until the day of his death.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 52:12 On the tenth day of the fifth month during the nineteenth year, late in July, 587 B.C.
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Jeremiah 52
New American Bible (Revised Edition)

IX. Historical Appendix[a]

Chapter 52

Capture of Jerusalem. 1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.(A) His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 2 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 Indeed, 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 (B)In the tenth month of the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the month,[b] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his entire army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it, and built siege walls on every side. 5 The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6 On the ninth day of the fourth month, when famine had gripped the city and the people had no more bread, 7 the 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. 8 But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the wilderness near Jericho; his whole army fled from him.

9 The king, therefore, was arrested and brought to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, to the king of Babylon, who pronounced judgment on him. 10 As Zedekiah looked on, the king of Babylon slaughtered his sons before his eyes! All the nobles of Judah were slaughtered at Riblah. 11 And 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. 12 On the tenth day of the fifth month, this was in the nineteenth year[c] of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, came to Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon. 13 He burned the house of the Lord, the palace of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every large building he destroyed with fire. 14 Then the Chaldean troops with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.

15 Nebuzaradan, 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. 16 But Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, left behind some of the country’s poor as vinedressers and farmers.

17 The 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. 18 They also took the pots, shovels, snuffers, bowls, pans, and all the bronze vessels used for service; 19 the 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 20 the 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.

21 As for the pillars, each of them was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in diameter; each was four fingers thick and hollow inside. 22 A 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. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides, a hundred pomegranates surrounding the network.

24 The captain of the guard also took Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the entrance. 25 From 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. 26 The captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, arrested them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, 27 who had them struck down and executed in Riblah, in the land of Hamath.

Thus Judah was exiled from the land. 28 [d]This is the number of people Nebuchadnezzar led away captive: in his seventh year, three thousand twenty-three people of Judah; 29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred thirty-two persons from Jerusalem; 30 in 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.[e] 31 (C)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. 32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne higher than the thrones of the other kings[f] who were with him in Babylon. 33 Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and ate at the king’s table as long as he lived. 34 The 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.

Footnotes

  1. 52:1–34 One of the editors of the Book of Jeremiah took most of this supplement from 2 Kgs 24:18–25:30 and placed it here to show the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecies. The supplement repeats part of the history given in Jeremiah 39–41, but omits the history of Gedaliah in 2 Kgs 25:22–26.
  2. 52:4 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.
  3. 52:12 On the tenth day of the fifth month…nineteenth year: the tenth of Ab—July/August in 587/586 B.C.
  4. 52:28–30 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.
  5. 52:31–34 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.
  6. 52:32 The other kings: heads of state brought as captives to Babylon.
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Jeremiah 52
New King James Version

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed(A)

52 Zedekiah was (B)twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of (C)Libnah. 2 He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah (D)rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4 Now it came to pass in the (E)ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. 5 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6 By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 7 Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the [a]plain.

8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. 9 (F)So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. 10 (G)Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 He also (H)put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in [b]bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

12 (I)Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month ((J)which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), (K)Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13 He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 15 (L)Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

17 (M)The (N)bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18 They also took away (O)the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the [c]bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. 19 The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. 20 The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—(P)the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 21 Now concerning the (Q)pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen [d]cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was [e]four fingers; it was hollow. 22 A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; (R)all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

24 (S)The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, (T)Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 25 He also took out of the city an [f]officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. 26 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

28 (U)These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: (V)in the seventh year, (W)three thousand and twenty-three Jews; 29 (X)in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six hundred.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison(Y)

31 (Z)Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that [g]Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, (AA)lifted[h] up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. 32 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So [i]Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, (AB)and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. 34 And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 52:7 Or Arabah; the Jordan Valley
  2. Jeremiah 52:11 shackles
  3. Jeremiah 52:18 basins
  4. Jeremiah 52:21 18 inches each
  5. Jeremiah 52:21 3 inches
  6. Jeremiah 52:25 Lit. eunuch
  7. Jeremiah 52:31 Or Awil-Marduk; lit. The Man of Marduk
  8. Jeremiah 52:31 Showed favor to
  9. Jeremiah 52:33 Lit. he
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Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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