Jeremiah 39:8

And the Chaldeans burnt the king's house ,.... His palace: this was a month after the city was taken, as appears from Jeremiah 52:12 ;

and the houses of the people, with fire ; the houses of the common people, as distinct from the king's house, and the houses of the great men, Jeremiah 52:13 ; though Jarchi interprets of the synagogues. It is in the original text in the singular number, "the house of the people"; which Abarbinel understands of the temple, called, not the house of God, he having departed from it; but the house of the people, a den of thieves; according to Adrichomius F11 Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 154. , there was a house in Jerusalem called "the house of the vulgar", or common people, where public feasts and sports were kept; but the former sense seems best:

and broke down the walls of Jerusalem ; demolished all the fortifications of it, and entirely dismantled it, that it might be no more a city of force and strength, as it had been.