Jeremiah 52

The book closes with a plain history of Jerusalem’s last days: the long siege, Zedekiah’s capture, the burning of the temple, and the deportations to Babylon. Everything Jeremiah had warned about came to pass. The chapter ends with a small sign of mercy, as the exiled king Jehoiachin is lifted out of prison.

Jeremiah 52:1-2

Zedekiah, Judah’s last king, was twenty-one when he began his eleven-year reign. His mother Hamutal came from Libnah, and her father was apparently a different Jeremiah from the prophet. The verdict on Zedekiah is the same as on his brother Jehoiakim: he did evil in God’s sight.

BSA: sight (“eye, gaze”): Zedekiah’s rule was lived under the eye of God, and nothing in it was hidden from Him.

Jeremiah 52:3

The disaster was no accident of politics. The Lord’s anger over long-standing sin lay behind it, and He finally removed His people from His presence. Zedekiah then added his own rebellion against Babylon, to whom he had sworn loyalty.

BSA: banished (“cast them out, threw them away”): The people were thrown out of the land where God had set them, as the fruit of their long refusal to listen.

Hebrew: פָּנָיו (panav, H6440) — “his face.” The Hebrew says He cast them out from His face. Exile meant losing the nearness of the God who had dwelt among them.

See also: 2 Kings 24:20; Leviticus 26:33.

Jeremiah 52:4-5

Nebuchadnezzar came with his whole army and shut Jerusalem in. The date, the tenth day of the tenth month, is recorded exactly. The siege lasted about two and a half years, until Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

BSA: siege wall (“a wall of attack, a fortification”): The enemy built works all around the city, so that no one could get in or out.

Hebrew: דָּיֵק (dayeq, H1785) — “siege-work, siege wall.” The word names the earthworks and barriers an army built to seal a city in. Escape was cut off and supplies could not enter.

See also: Ezekiel 24:1-2.

Jeremiah 52:6

By the fourth month of the eleventh year the famine had become extreme. The common people, here called the people of the land, had no bread left. This is the suffering Jeremiah had warned about for years, and it was now being felt inside the walls.

BSA: famine (“hunger, lack of spiritual nourishment”): The hunger was physical, and it also pictured a people long starved of the word of God they had refused.

See also: Lamentations 4:9-10.

Jeremiah 52:7

The wall was finally broken open. The soldiers slipped out at night through a gate by the king’s garden and headed toward the Arabah, the rift valley to the east. The Babylonians were all around, but the king and his men tried to run.

Hebrew: וַתִּבָּקַע (wattibbaqaʿ, H1234) — “was split open, was breached.” The word means a thing cracked or broken open. The city that had seemed secure was split like a broken vessel.

Jeremiah 52:8-9

The Babylonians caught Zedekiah on the plains near Jericho, and his army scattered from him. He was taken north to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, the Babylonian headquarters in Hamath, and there he received sentence as a rebel against a king to whom he had sworn loyalty.

BSA: separated (“scattered, dispersed”): The king was left alone, with none of his men to protect him.

Hebrew: מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim, H4941) — “judgments, sentences.” The Hebrew says Nebuchadnezzar spoke judgments with him. It was a formal trial and sentence for breaking his oath.

See also: Jeremiah 34:3.

Jeremiah 52:10-11

Zedekiah watched his sons killed, and then his own eyes were put out. Chained, he was taken to Babylon and held there until he died. The last thing he saw was his sons’ death. This matches the strange warnings that he would be taken to Babylon yet never see it.

Hebrew: עִוֵּר (ʿiwwer, H5786) — “he blinded.” This is the same root used for blindness. The king who would not see God’s word was left with no sight at all.

See also: Ezekiel 12:13; Jeremiah 32:4-5.

Jeremiah 52:12-13

A month after the walls fell, Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian commander of the guard, entered Jerusalem. He burned the temple, the king’s palace and the great houses. The place where God had set His name for centuries went up in flames.

BSA: house (“dwelling place, temple”): The temple was meant as God’s dwelling among His people, and it was now destroyed because they had defiled it.

Hebrew: שָׂרַף (saraf, H8313) — “he burned.” The word means burning with fire until the thing is consumed. Nothing of the old temple was left standing.

See also: 2 Kings 25:8-9; Lamentations 2:6-7.

Jeremiah 52:14

The Babylonian army tore down the walls all around Jerusalem. A city without walls was defenseless and could not be rebuilt as a fortress without great labor. Jerusalem was now open and exposed to anyone.

See also: Nehemiah 1:3.

Jeremiah 52:15-16

Some of the poor and the craftsmen were carried away, along with those who had gone over to Babylon. Others of the poorest were left behind to work the vineyards and fields. Babylon wanted the skilled people and left behind laborers to keep the land producing.

BSA: poorest (“most helpless, destitute”): The people with the least to lose were the ones left on the land, while the skilled and powerful were taken away.

Hebrew: דַּלּוֹת (dallot, H1803) — “the lowly, the poor.” The word describes the thin, weak and powerless. They were the people who were easiest to overlook, and the ones left to tend the land.

Jeremiah 52:17-19

The Babylonians broke up the great bronze furnishings of the temple and carried them off. They took the smaller vessels too, and the gold and silver ones. What had been set apart for the worship of the Lord was now in the hands of a pagan king.

BSA: Sea (“a large body of water, specifically the west or seaward direction”): This was the huge bronze basin Solomon made, so named for its size, and it was broken up like everything else.

See also: 1 Kings 7:23-26; Jeremiah 27:19-22.

Jeremiah 52:20

The bronze from Solomon’s pillars, the great basin, its twelve bulls and the movable stands was too heavy to weigh. Solomon’s great work, made with such care, was reduced to metal to be carried off by the conquerors.

Hebrew: מִשְׁקָל (mishqal, H4948) — “weight.” The text says there was no weight for all this bronze. It was so much that the scribes gave up measuring it.

See also: 1 Kings 7:15-22.

Jeremiah 52:21-23

These verses pause to describe the two bronze pillars: their height, their hollow walls, their carved tops and the pomegranates around them. The pillars stood before the temple, and recording their dimensions honors what was lost.

BSA: hollow (“empty, without solid filling”): The pillars were cast hollow, with thin walls about four fingers thick.

Jeremiah 52:24-25

Nebuzaradan took the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, the three doorkeepers, and a range of military and royal officials. Those who led worship and those who led the war were taken together, since the leaders of both had failed the nation.

BSA: trusted royal advisers (“near the king’s person, in the king’s presence”): These were men who stood close to the king, and the Babylonians took them for that reason.

Hebrew: כֹּהֵן הָרֹאשׁ (kohen haroʾsh, H3548) — “the head priest.” The title means the priest at the head. The man who led Israel’s worship was now led away as a captive.

Jeremiah 52:26-27

The prisoners were taken to Riblah and executed. The chapter sums up the whole matter in one line: Judah was taken into exile away from its own land. This was the loss God had long ago named as the penalty for breaking His covenant.

BSA: exile (“carried away captive, forced to leave”): The people were forced from their land, and the promised inheritance was left empty.

See also: Deuteronomy 28:63-64.

Jeremiah 52:28-30

Here is a record of three deportations, in the seventh, eighteenth and twenty-third years of Nebuchadnezzar. The numbers total 4,600. They are probably counts of particular groups, and other books give different figures for the first two waves. God’s people were removed over time.

BSA: people (“souls, living beings”): Behind each number was a living person with a name, taken from home.

See also: 2 Kings 24:14-16.

Jeremiah 52:31

After thirty-seven years in captivity, the new king Evil-merodach freed Jehoiachin from prison. After so much judgment the book ends with a quiet sign of mercy. The royal line of David was not forgotten, even in Babylon.

BSA: pardoned (“lifted up, showed favor to”): The king raised him from the low place of prison to a place of favor.

Hebrew: נָשָׂא (nasaʾ, H5375) — “he lifted up.” The Hebrew says he lifted up the head of Jehoiachin. It is a picture of raising a man from disgrace.

See also: 2 Kings 25:27-30.

Jeremiah 52:32

The Babylonian king spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honor above the other captive kings. The Davidic line still had a throne of sorts, small but real. It shows that God had not ended His promise to David.

BSA: kindly (“with good words”): The favor was shown in speech as well as in release, with gracious words spoken to the fallen king.

See also: 2 Samuel 7:16.

Jeremiah 52:33-34

Jehoiachin put off his prison clothes and ate at the king’s table for the rest of his life, with a daily allowance provided. The book ends on this daily provision. For a people in exile it was a quiet sign that judgment was not the last word.

BSA: portion (“ration, food allowance”): The bread arrived day by day, as steady provision that did not run out.

Hebrew: לֶחֶם (leḥem, H3899) — “bread.” The Hebrew says he ate bread before the king. In Scripture bread stands for ordinary daily provision and fellowship at table.

See also: Matthew 1:11-12.