2 Kings 25

And pitched against it J. Encamped themselves before it And they built forts against it round about.] On which to place their batteries, and keep any relief from coming to them. prcssly that he gave these poor people vineyards and fields; which shews what they were, (Jer. xxxix. 10.)

2 Kings 25:1

J^jlND it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem.] See Jer. xxxix. 1. lii. 4.

2 Kings 25:2

And the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. There was another siege began before this; viz. in the third year of Zedekiah; but during this second siege, the king of Egypt came to help Zedekiah: which made the Chaldeans raise the siege for a time, (Jerem. xxxvii.12.) And then Jeremiah* endeavoured to get out of the city, but *as hindered; and bade them not flatter themselves, for the Chaldeans should return arid burn the city with fire; as he had told Zedekiah before, (xxxiv. 1, 2, &c.)

2 Kings 25:3

And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there ivas no bread for the people of the land. Who had fled thither out of the country to secure themselves and their families. This famine is described as very terrible, in the book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, iv. 10.

2 Kings 25:4

And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate, between two walls, which is by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city round about); and the king went the way towards the plain.] It is a hard matter to understand how they made their escape, since the Chaldeans had begirt the city round about; unless we suppose they kept strong guards only at the gates of the city; but the Chaldeans having made a breach in the wall, they got away privately between the wall and the outworks, in a passage which the Chaldeans did not suspect: and the king ran into the champaignc country, with some of his forces attending him. The Jews think there were subterranean conduits from the royal garden into the plain, through which Zedekiah went out: but this is without any ground.

2 Kings 25:5

And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army tvas scattered from him. Every man shifting away, and endeavouring to save himself in such places as he could flee unto.

2 Kings 25:6

So they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon to Riblah. Where he lay to attend the success of the siege, and to send them supplies, and intercept any relief that might come to them. And they gave judgment upon him.] A great council, I suppose, was called; who passed a solemn sentence upon him, in condemning him as a rebellious subject. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, that he should see the king of Babylon, and speak with him, (Jer. xxxii. 4; xxxiv. 3.)

2 Kings 25:7

And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. See Jer. lii. 11. And put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried Mm to Babylon.] Thus two famous prophecies were fulfilled, which seemed to contradict one the other (whereby Zedekiah, perhaps, w^s tempted not to believe them): one of Jeremiah, th^t he should be carried to Babylon; (xxxii. 5. xxxiv, 3.) and the other of Ezckicl, that he should not see Babylon, (xii. 13.) The event made good both; for he was carried thither blind.

2 Kings 25:8

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem.] It is said in Jer. lii. 12. that he came on the tenth day of this month; that is, he came from Riblah upon the sevppth, and arrived at Jerusalem on the tenth. Or, if he came to Jerusalem on the seventh, he did not burn the temple till the tenth; but spent the eighth and ninth days, as the Jews say, in eating, drinking, and making merry. Nebuchadnezzar did not come himself to Jerusalem, but he sent this great man to execute his commands; who, the Jews say, became a proselyte.

2 Kings 25:9

And he burnt the house of the Lord. After it had stood four hundred years, as Sir John Marsham computes it. But primate Usher makes account it wasburnt four hundred twenty-four years, three months, and eight days, after it began first to be built by Solomon. But neither of these accounts arc true, if we believe all the learned Jews,- (Kimchi, Ralbag, Abarbinel, &c.) who agree that it stood four hundred and thirty years. Josephus stands amazed at this, that the second temple was burnt by the Romans, in this very month, and the same day of the month, (lib. vi. de Bello Judaico, cap. 27.) And so we read in Seder Olam Rabba, cap. 30. that the Levites were in their desks singing the very same song in both destructions, which was this: He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness: yea, theLord our God shall cut them off, (Psal. xciv. 23.) * And the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he tvith fire.] By col beth gadol, which signify every great house, the Talmudists understand all the synagogues. But Kimchi, Ralbag, and Abarbinel, interpret the words as we do. And so the Targum; yea, Jarchi himself, who is the most tenacious of the Talmudical interpreters, after he had said, The houses of the synagogues, where the law and prayers were read, adds these words, and the palaces of the princes; not daring (as Vitringa observes) to vouch the former for a literal interpretation, (lib. de Synag. par. ii. cap. 11.)

2 Kings 25:10

And all the army of the Chaldeans, that zvere with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.* That they who were left therq might not be able to make any resistance hereafter; and that it might no longer be looked upon as a city, but as an open village.

2 Kings 25:11

Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, tvith the remnant of the multitude. That is, all that pspaped the sword and the famine; and all that fled to the king of Babylon, and put themselves under his protection. Did Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, carry away.] “Who were in all eight hundred thirty and two persons; as we read in Jer. lii. 29. ^vhere he fcaith, in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar (that is, in the end of it, and the beginning of his nineteenth year), he carried away this number.

2 Kings 25:12

But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen. What should move the Talmudists by the Hebrew word cerernim to understand gatherers of balsam; and by jogebim, fishers for purple, is hard to understand (though Bochartus hath attempted some account of it); when Jeremiah tells us ex- 3 Z Even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, rider.] His father Ahikam. w T as a great friend of Jeremiah’s, (Jer. xxvis 14.) and therefore Gedaliah may be presumed to have been so likewise; and by his advice, it is likely, was one of those that went out to. tho king of Babylon, (ver. 11.)

2 Kings 25:13

And the pillars of brass that zvere in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, did the Cltaldeans break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.’] They were too cumbersome to be carried away whole, therefore he brake them in pieces, and so transported the brass of which they were made.

2 Kings 25:14

And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass, wherewith they ministered, took they away.

2 Kings 25:15

And the fire-pans, and the boivls, and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away. He did not alter these, but carried them away as hie found them; that he might give a punctual account of them’to his master. And the singular providence of God herein appeared, that these vessels were not embezzled, nor employed to any common use, but put into the house of the king of Babylon’s god, viz. Belus, where they were preserved to bo restored, in God’s appointed time, by Cyrus. So we read they were, Ezra i. 7, 8, &c.

2 Kings 25:16

And the tivo pillars, one sea, and the bases tuhich Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was withottt weight. So we read they were, when they tverc first made, (1 Kings vii. 47.)

2 Kings 25:17

And the height of one pillar iv’aS eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it ivas brass; and the height of the cliapiter three cubits; and thewreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these’had the second pillar with wreathen work.] These two pillars are more fully described iril Kings vii. 15, &c. and in Jer. Hi. 21, &c.

2 Kings 25:18

And tlve captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest. Whom the Jews call thesagan; who was the deputy of the highpriest, in ease of sickness, or any incapacity to officiate. And the three keepers of the door.] Of the vessels of the temple, saith Kimchi; or of the treasury.

2 Kings 25:19

And out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were hi the king’s presence. Who constantly attended the king’s person wheresoever he was. IVliich were in the city.] Where at first they found but five of them: but afterward seven, (Jer. lii. 26.) And the principal scribe of the host, which mustered the people of the land.] The muster-master-general, as we speak, or some such great Officer. And threescore people of the land that were found in tlie city.] These were some eminent persons who had concealed themselves in some private place; but, before Nebuzar-adan left Jerusalem, were discovered. And the Jews will have it that they were the men of the great Sanhedrin; whose whole number of seventy-one persons they make a shift to find here; viz. the three keepers of the door,- and the seven near attendants upon the king, and the scribe; which with these threescore, make seventy-one. (See Seldcn, lib. ii.de Syncdriis, cap. 16. p.- 671.)

2 Kings 25:20

And Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, took them, arid brought tlient to the king of Babylon at Jliblah. That” he might dispose of them as he thought fit; they being not vulgar persons, like iiose whom he had ordered to be carried captive, or left iu the land.

2 Kings 25:21

And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah, in the laud ofllamath. Passed the sentence of death upon them; which was forthwith executed: because he looked upon them, it is likely, as the king’s principal counsellors, who advised him to rebel against him. And the judgment of God, Strigelius here observes, was remarkable upon impious priests, whom he suffered not to live, because they had been great instruments in promoting idolatry.;; So Judah was carried away out of their land,] Four hundred sixty and eight years after the beginning of the reign of David; three hundred eighty and eight years since the division of the ten tribes from Judah and Benjamin; and a Jiundred thirty-four years since the destruction of the ten tribes; as our primate of Ireland makes account.

2 Kings 25:22

And for the people that remained in the land of Judah, tuhom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left.]

2 Kings 25:23

And when the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor. That is, such as fled away with Zedckiah, (ver. 5.) and those that fled perhaps before the siege to the Moabites, and Ammonites,. and Edomites, and other neigh-* bouring countries. (Seo Jer. xl. 7. 11, 12.) There came to Gedaliah toMizpah, even Islimael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son ofTanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of aMaachathite, they and their men.] He Teckons up the principal persons that camo in to him, with those under their command. Jeremiah also himself put himself under his protection, (Jer. xl. 5, 6.)

2 Kings 25:24

And Gedaliah sware unto them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.] He was so well assured of the king of Babylon’s favour to him, that he secured them by an oath, they should be safe under his government; provided they would serve the king of Babylon, which it was their interest to do.

2 Kings 25:25

And it came to pass in the seventh month. After he had been governor about two months. That Jshmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed-royal.] His pride (being of the seed-royal) tempted him to conspire against Gedaliah; though he had no power to maintain any authority in the country; but was forced presently to flee away. Nor was the king of Moab, who instigated him to this vilIany,(Jer. xl. 14.) able to support him. Came, and ten men ivith him.] These ten men were commanders, no doubt, of some forces under them; for so few were not sufficient to make a slaughter of Gedaliah, and all the Jews arid Chaldeans that were with him. (See Jer. xli. 1—3.) And he smote Gedaliah, that he ditd, and the Jews and