2 Kings 25

In the ninth year of Zedekiah's rule as king, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army. They camped around the city and built siege works all around it.

1And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

NoteDates are given by the years of a king's reign, the normal way of counting time in the ancient Near East; the tenth month of the Hebrew calendar falls in our December–January, so this is about January 588 BC. Nebuchadnezzar had earlier placed Zedekiah on the throne as a subject king, and Zedekiah had rebelled against him. "Siege works" were earth ramps, walls and towers thrown up around a city to seal it off from supplies and to let attackers reach the top of its walls.

2The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

2And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

NoteCounting from the ninth year to the eleventh, the siege lasted about eighteen months.

3By the ninth day of the fourth month, the hunger in the city had grown so bad that the people of the land had no food left.

3And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

NoteThe fourth month falls in our June–July. A besieged city starved because nothing could be brought in; the food ran out before the walls did.

4Then the city wall was broken through. The Chaldeans had the city surrounded, but all the fighting men ran away at night through the gate between the two walls near the king's garden. The king went toward the Arabah, the flat valley by the Jordan.

4And 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 Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.

Note"Chaldeans" was the name of the people of southern Babylonia, the group the ruling dynasty came from; throughout these chapters it simply means the Babylonians.

5But the Chaldean army chased the king and caught up with him on the plains near Jericho. All his soldiers scattered and left him.

5And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.

6They seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they passed sentence on him.

6So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.

NoteRiblah was a town in Syria on the Orontes river, roughly two hundred miles north of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar was running the campaign from there rather than being present at the siege himself.

7They killed Zedekiah's sons while he watched. Then they put out his eyes, tied him with bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

7And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

NoteBlinding a defeated rebel was a recognized punishment for a subject king who broke his oath of loyalty. Killing his sons first both ended his family line and made that the last thing he ever saw.

8In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan came to Jerusalem. He was the captain of the guard and a servant of the king of Babylon.

8And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:

Note"Captain of the guard" translates a title for the commander of the king's bodyguard, one of the senior officers of the Babylonian state. The fifth month falls in our July–August; this is about a month after the wall was breached, in 586 BC.

9He burned down the temple of the LORD, the king's palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He set fire to every important building.

9And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.

NoteThe temple was the one Solomon had built roughly four hundred years earlier; it was the only place where sacrifices to the LORD were offered. Where the King James prints LORD in capitals, it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH, which readers spoke aloud as "the Lord."

10And the whole Chaldean army, under the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

10And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

11Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away the people who were still left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.

11Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.

NoteDeporting a conquered population, especially its leading families, was standard Babylonian policy: people scattered far from home were far less likely to revolt again. "Those who had deserted" are people who had gone over to the besieging army before the city fell.

12But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land behind to work the vineyards and the fields.

12But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

NoteThe point of leaving the poorest was practical, not merciful. Removing the wealthy, the skilled and the leading families broke any capacity to resist, while farm laborers kept the land producing crops and taxes for Babylon.

13The Chaldeans broke apart the bronze pillars in the temple of the LORD, along with the movable stands and the huge bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried the bronze to Babylon.

13And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.

NoteThe pillars were two free-standing bronze columns at the temple entrance, known elsewhere as Jachin and Boaz. The "Sea" was an enormous bronze basin, about fifteen feet across, holding water for the priests to wash with. The stands were wheeled bronze carts that carried smaller basins. Bronze was a costly metal, and the value here was in the metal itself, which is why it was broken up and hauled away.

14They also took away the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the dishes, and all the bronze objects used in the temple service.

14And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.

NoteThese were the working tools of sacrificial worship: pots for boiling meat and carrying ashes, shovels for clearing ash from the altar, trimmers for cutting the burnt ends off lamp wicks, and dishes used for incense.

15The captain of the guard also took the firepans and the sprinkling bowls, everything that was made of solid gold or solid silver.

15And the firepans, and the bowls, and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away.

NoteFirepans were shallow metal trays for carrying live coals from the altar. Sprinkling bowls held blood or wine that was thrown against the sides of the altar during a sacrifice.

16As for the two pillars, the one Sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the temple of the LORD, the bronze in all these objects was too heavy to weigh.

16The two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

Note"Too heavy to weigh" is a way of saying the amount was beyond reckoning, not that anyone tried and failed.

17Each pillar was eighteen cubits high. On top of one stood a bronze cap three cubits high, decorated all around with bronze network and pomegranates. The second pillar was the same, with its own network.

17The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these had the second pillar with wreathen work.

NoteA cubit was about eighteen inches, roughly the length of a forearm, so each pillar stood about twenty-seven feet high with a decorated cap of about four and a half feet on top. Pomegranates, a fruit with a crown-shaped top, were a common decorative motif in temple and palace work.

18The captain of the guard also took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three men who guarded the doors.

18And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:

NoteThese were the temple's senior staff: the chief priest, his deputy, and the officials who controlled who could enter the temple courts. Executing them dismantled the religious establishment along with the building.

19From the city he took an official who was in charge of the fighting men, and five of the king's personal advisers who were found there. He also took the army's chief scribe, who enlisted men for the army, and sixty men of the land found in the city.

19And out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in the king’s presence, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, which mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the city:

Note"The people of the land" was a set phrase for the free landholding citizens of Judah, a recognized class with real political weight, not simply the general population. The army's scribe kept the muster rolls recording which men owed military service, so he was the state's record of its own manpower.

20Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these men and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

20And Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah:

21There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them struck down and put to death. So Judah was carried away from its own land.

21And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.

NoteHamath was a region of central Syria, well north of Israelite territory; Riblah lay within it.

22As for the people who were left in the land of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon put Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, in charge of them.

22And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.

NoteGedaliah was made governor of a Babylonian province, not king. His grandfather Shaphan had been a senior secretary of state under King Josiah, and his father Ahikam had earlier protected the prophet Jeremiah; naming three generations signals that he came from a well-known Jerusalem official family rather than being a foreign appointee.

23When all the army commanders and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to him at Mizpah. They were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Careah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maachathite, along with their men.

23And when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.

NoteThese commanders led units of Judean soldiers who had escaped the fall of the city and were still under arms in the countryside. Mizpah, about eight miles north of Jerusalem, became the administrative center because Jerusalem itself was in ruins. "Netophathite" means a man from Netophah, a village near Bethlehem; "Maachathite" means from Maacah, a region northeast of the Sea of Galilee.

24Gedaliah gave them and their men his promise under oath. He said, "Do not be afraid to live as servants of the Chaldeans. Settle in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and things will go well for you."

24And Gedaliah sware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you.

NoteSwearing an oath was the binding legal act of the time; Gedaliah is guaranteeing with his own life that the men will not be punished for having fought against Babylon.

25But in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, came with ten men. They struck Gedaliah down and killed him, along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

25But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah.

NoteThe seventh month falls in our September–October. Ishmael was a descendant of David, so a member of the family that had ruled Judah for four centuries, while Gedaliah was not; the killing was an attack by the old royal line on a Babylonian-appointed ruler from outside it.

26Then all the people, from the least important to the greatest, along with the army commanders, set out and went to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

26And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.

NoteEgypt was Babylon's great rival and the obvious refuge, being outside Babylonian control. They fled because the murder of a Babylonian-appointed governor would bring reprisals on everyone left in the land.

27In the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin king of Judah was taken away as a captive, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon released Jehoiachin from prison. This was the year Evilmerodach became king.

27And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;

NoteJehoiachin was the king before Zedekiah. He had reigned only three months and was deported to Babylon in 597 BC, about eleven years before the city fell, and had been held there ever since; thirty-seven years on brings the date to about 561 BC. Evilmerodach is the Hebrew form of Amel-Marduk, Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor. The King James phrase "did lift up the head" is a Hebrew idiom for restoring someone to favor.

28He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a seat of honor above those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

28And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon;

NoteDefeated kings were commonly kept at the conqueror's court as hostages and trophies. Their seating order at court expressed their rank, so raising Jehoiachin's seat above theirs was a public statement of his new standing.

29So Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes, and for the rest of his life he ate regularly at the king's table.

29And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.

NoteEating at the king's table every day meant being kept permanently at royal expense with a recognized position at court, the opposite of being a prisoner.

30The king gave him a steady allowance, a set amount for each day, as long as he lived.

30And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.

NoteA fixed daily ration was how a court supported its dependants. Clay tablets found in Babylon record exactly this kind of ration list, including allowances of oil for "Yaukin, king of the land of Judah," and for his sons.