Jeremiah 39

Jerusalem falls exactly as Jeremiah had warned for years. King Zedekiah flees, is captured, and is cruelly punished, while the city is burned and its people exiled. Yet in the ruins God shows care for the prophet who told the truth and for Ebed-melech, who trusted Him.

Jeremiah 39:1-2

The siege began in Zedekiah’s ninth year and lasted about eighteen months, until a breach was made in the wall. What Jeremiah had long warned about now happened. The long delay had given the king time to listen and turn, but he did not.

BSA: breached (“broken up, opened, to break or open something like a door or a wall”): The city’s protection was split open, and the walls the people trusted in could no longer keep the enemy out.

See also: 2 Kings 25:1-4.

Jeremiah 39:3

Babylon’s chief officers took their seats in the Middle Gate, a place where rulers sat to give judgment. Judah’s own leaders had once sat there. Now foreign officials sat in their place, a sign that the city had changed hands.

BSA: sat (“took their seats, dwelled”): Their sitting down shows they were settling in as the new authority over the city.

Jeremiah 39:4

Zedekiah and his soldiers did not stand and fight. They slipped away at night by a hidden route near the king’s garden. After refusing God’s word through Jeremiah, the king tried to save himself by his own plan, and it failed.

BSA: fled (“ran away quickly”): It was a hurried, fearful escape, the opposite of the calm trust Jeremiah had urged.

See also: Jeremiah 38:17-18.

Jeremiah 39:5

The Babylonian army caught Zedekiah near Jericho, far from the safety he hoped for. They took him north to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar had his headquarters. There the king of Babylon passed sentence on him, as a master judges a rebel who broke his oath.

BSA: judgment (“justice, a verdict”): Nebuchadnezzar acted as a judge handing down a legal sentence on a covenant-breaker.

See also: Ezekiel 17:13-16.

Jeremiah 39:6-7

Zedekiah was forced to watch his sons killed, and then he was blinded. The last thing he saw was the end of his family line. Jeremiah and Ezekiel had said he would go to Babylon but not see it, and both came true in this harsh way.

BSA: put out (“gouged out, blinded”): His eyes were taken by force, and the king who would not see God’s warning lost his sight.

See also: Ezekiel 12:13.

Jeremiah 39:8

The Babylonians burned the royal palace and the people’s homes and pulled down the city walls. The temple was destroyed too, as 2 Kings tells us. Jerusalem, the city of David, was left in ruins, the judgment God had warned about for so long.

See also: 2 Kings 25:9-10.

Jeremiah 39:9-10

Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, took most of the survivors to Babylon, including those who had gone over to the enemy. But he left the poorest behind and gave them vineyards and fields. Those who had least under the old order received land.

BSA: poor (“needy, weak”): These were the people with nothing, and they became the ones who were left to work the land.

Jeremiah 39:11-12

Nebuchadnezzar gave orders that Jeremiah should be treated well and given whatever he asked. Jeremiah had told the people to submit to Babylon, so the Babylonians saw him as a friend. God used a pagan king to protect His faithful servant.

BSA: look after (“watch over him, care for him”): The king ordered active care, not just leaving the prophet alone.

See also: Jeremiah 40:4-5.

Jeremiah 39:13-14

Babylon’s officers took Jeremiah out of the guard’s courtyard and put him in the care of Gedaliah, the governor they had chosen. Gedaliah’s family had supported Jeremiah before. So Jeremiah was free and stayed among his own people rather than going into exile.

BSA: courtyard (“place of the watchmen, court of the prison”): It was the place where Jeremiah had been held under watch for telling the truth.

See also: Jeremiah 26:24.

Jeremiah 39:15-16

Now the story goes back to a message God gave Jeremiah while he was still confined. It was for Ebed-melech, the Cushite who had rescued him from the cistern. God would carry out His words against the city, and Ebed-melech would see it happen.

BSA: fulfill (“to bring to pass, to complete”): God’s words are not empty, and every word He has spoken will be brought to completion.

See also: Jeremiah 38:7-13.

Jeremiah 39:17

While the city fell, God promised to rescue Ebed-melech from the very men he feared. A foreign official who showed kindness to God’s prophet was remembered by God. His rescue came on the same day the others were judged.

BSA: deliver (“rescue, snatch away from danger”): God would pull him out of harm, as one snatches a person from a fire.

Jeremiah 39:18

God gives the reason for the promise: Ebed-melech trusted Him. He would escape with his life, like something salvaged from a battle. In a time of ruin, trust in God was what counted, and not rank or nationality.

BSA: trusted (“put your faith, have confidence”): His rescue rests on his confidence in God, shown when he spoke up for Jeremiah at risk to himself.

Hebrew: בָּטַחְתָּ (bāṭaḥtā, H982) — “you trusted, you leaned on.” The Hebrew word means to rest your weight on something. Ebed-melech leaned on God when everything else was collapsing.

See also: Psalm 37:39-40.