Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations - Volume 5

1Twenty-one years old was Zedekiah when he began to reign, and eleven years reigned he in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

2And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all the things which Jehoiakim had done:

3And on account of the indignation of Jehovah against Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them away from his presence, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4And it was in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, and built against it a fortress on every side.

5And the city was besieged till the eleventh year of Zedekiah.

6In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the famine prevailed in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land:

7And the city was broken in upon, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night, by the way of the gate, between two walls, which were near the king’s garden; (and the Chaldeans were near the city around:) and they went out by the way of the desert.

8And the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they took Zedekiah in the deserts of Jericho; for all his army were scattered from him.

9They then took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon in Riblah, to the land of Hamath; who pronounced judgment upon him.

10And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; and all the princes of Judah he also slew in Riblah:

11But he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with chains; And the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day in which he died.

12Now, in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, (that year was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon,) Nebuzar-adan, the prince of the soldiers, who stood before the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem,

13And burnt the house of Jehovah and the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house he burnt with fire:

14And all the walls of Jerusalem around they destroyed, even the whole army of the Chaldeans, which was with the prince of the soldiers.

15And some of the poor of the people and the rest of the people who had remained in the city, and the fugitives who had fled over to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the multitude, Nebuzar-adan, the prince of the soldiers, led away captive.

16But some of the poor of the land, Nebuzar-adan, the prince of the soldiers, left to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

17And the brass pillars which were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the brazen sea which was in the house of Jehovah, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried away all their brass to Babylon.

18The pots also, and the shovels and the snuffers and the basons and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass, with which they ministered, they took away.

19And the dishes and the pans and the basons and the pots and the candlesticks and the spoons and the bowls, some of which were all of gold and some were all of silver, the prince of the soldiers took away.

20The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve oxen of brass, which were under the bases which Solomon had made in the house of Jehovah, there was no weight as to the brass of all these vessels.

21As to the pillars, the height of each pillar was eighteen cubits, and a thread of twelve cubits surrounded it, and its thickness was four fingers; it was hollow.

22And the chapiter which was over it was brass, and the height of one chapiter was five cubits, and net-work and pomegranates were on the chapiter around; all these were of brass; and like these were the second pillar and the pomegranates.

23And there were pomegranates, ninety-six on one side; all the pomegranates on the net-work around were one hundred.

24The prince of the soldiers took away also Seraiah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:

25And from the city he took away one eunuch, who had been set over the men of war: and seven men of those who attended the king, who were found in the city, and a scribe, the chief of the army, who gathered to the army the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.

26And Nebuzar-adan, the prince of the soldiers, took them away and brought them to the king of Babylon in Riblah:

27And the king of Babylon smote them and slew them in Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he removed Judah from his own land.

28These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;

29 In the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two souls;

30In the three-and-twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzar-adan, the prince of the soldiers, carried away Jews, seven hundred and forty-five souls; — all the souls were four thousand and six hundred.

31And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach, the king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, and brought him forth from prison;

32And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the thrones of the kings, who were with him in Babylon;

33And he changed his prison garments, and ate bread before him always, all the days of his life.

34And his portion, a perpetual portion was given him by the king of Babylon every day, until the day he died, all the days of his life.

PRAISE TO GOD.