Jeremiah 39:1-10

Jerusalem Taken

v. 1. In the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the tenth month, the day of the month being the tenth, 52:4; 2 Kings 25:1-Numbers :, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

v. 2. And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up, the enemies gained an entry into the city by battering down a part of the wall. The siege thus lasted eighteen months, if we except the suspension of it caused by the coming of Pharaoh-hophrah. Nebuchadnezzar was present at the beginning of the siege, but was in Riblah at its close.

v. 3. And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, the generals entering through the breach in the wall, and sat in the middle gate, they occupied that part of the city by encamping in a gate of Zion, in the wall which separated the upper city from the lower, a position which gave them control of the capital, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer, Rabmag, Rabsaris being chief of the chamberlains and the second Nergal-sharezer chief of the magi, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon, an imposing array of mighty men.

v. 4. And it came to pass that, when Zedekiah, the king of Judah, saw them, and all the men of war, that is, when Zedekiah and his soldiers noted the pomp and the warlike appearance of the Chaldean generals at close range, then they fled and went forth out of the city, the upper city, where the royal palace was situated, by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls, those on the western edge of Ophel and on the eastern edge of Zion, for the royal gardens were situated southeast of the city, on the slopes of the Kidron Valley; and he went out the way of the plain, the meadows of the Jordan near Jericho. There may have been a gap in the lines of the besieging army at this point, since the upper city was almost impregnable from the east and southeast; so this plan was the only one which promised success.

v. 5. But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, the attempt of Zedekiah and his soldiers to escape being noticed very soon and the alarm accordingly given, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, for his intention evidently was to escape into the country of the Moabites beyond the river; and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, beyond the northern border of Canaan, where the headquarters of the Chaldean king had been established during his campaign of conquest of the countries along the Mediterranean, where he gave judgment upon him, Zedekiah now receiving evidence of the truth of Jeremiah's prophecy.

v. 6. Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes, for they were guilty, with their father, of the revolt against the Babylonian supremacy; also, the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah, who really had been the chief rebels against his authority.

v. 7. Moreover, he put out Zedekiah's eyes, commanding that he be blinded, probably by passing a heated metal rod before his open eyes, and bound him with chains, doubly fettered hand and foot, to carry him to Babylon, in a most shameful captivity.

v. 8. And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, the beautiful royal palace, and the houses of the people, with fire, destroying all the finer residences of the city, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem, the fortifications of the city, which, in the past, had rendered it almost impregnable.

v. 9. Then Nebuzar-adan, the captain of the guard, the commander of the royal Chaldean body-guard, one of the chief officers of Nebuchadnezzar, carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, the few who had escaped the ravages of the sword and of famine, and those that fell away, that fell to him, those who had deserted and come over into the camp of the enemy during the siege, with the rest of the people that remained, those of any importance who had not yet been led away into exile.

v. 10. But Nebuzar-adan, the captain of the guard, left of the poor of the people, which had nothing in the land of Judah, no landed possessions, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time, at that time, namely, when he led the others captive. They received orders to cultivate the vineyards and fields, lest the country revert to its wild state and yield no revenue. Thus the threatening words of the Lord concerning the fate of the disobedient Jews were fulfilled in every detail, as an example of warning to the unbelievers of all times.