Jeremiah 39: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Babylon's army besieges Jerusalem for about eighteen months, breaks through the wall, and takes the city. Zedekiah tries to escape by night, is captured near Jericho, watches his sons killed and the nobles of Judah put to death, is blinded and taken to Babylon in chains, while the city is burned, its walls pulled down, and most of the survivors deported; the poorest are left behind and given land. On Nebuchadnezzar's orders Jeremiah is taken from the prison courtyard, protected, and handed over to Gedaliah, and a message given earlier promises Ebed-melech that he will survive the fall of the city because he trusted the LORD.

Claim by Claim

1. 39:1
   • In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem.
   • Nebuchadrezzar's entire army came against Jerusalem with him.
   • They laid siege to Jerusalem.
2. 39:2
   • In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was broken into.
3. 39:3
   • All the officials of the king of Babylon came in.
   • They sat in the middle gate.
   • Among them were Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer, and Rabmag.
   • All the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon were there as well.
4. 39:4
   • Zedekiah king of Judah saw them.
   • All the men of war saw them.
   • They fled.
   • They went out of the city by night by way of the king's garden.
   • They went out through the gate between the two walls.
   • He went out by the way of the Arabah.
5. 39:5
   • The army of the Chaldeans pursued after them.
   • They overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho.
   • They took him.
   • They brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath.
   • Nebuchadnezzar pronounced judgment on him.
6. 39:6
   • The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before Zedekiah's eyes.
   • The king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.
7. 39:7
   • He blinded Zedekiah's eyes.
   • He bound Zedekiah with bronze fetters.
   • The binding was in order to carry him to Babylon.
8. 39:8
   • The Chaldeans burned the king's house with fire.
   • The Chaldeans burned the houses of the people with fire.
   • They broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
9. 39:9
   • Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained in the city.
   • He also carried away those who had deserted and gone over to him.
   • He also carried away the rest of the people who remained.
10. 39:10
    • Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah.
    • He gave them vineyards and fields at that time.
11. 39:11
    • Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave a command concerning Jeremiah.
    • The command was given through Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard.
12. 39:12
    • Nebuchadrezzar said to take Jeremiah.
    • Nebuchadrezzar said to set his eyes upon Jeremiah and look after him.
    • Nebuchadrezzar said to do him no harm.
    • Nebuchadrezzar said to do for him whatever he says.
13. 39:13
    • Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent.
    • Nebushasban the Rabsaris was with him.
    • Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag was with him.
    • All the chief officers of the king of Babylon were with him.
14. 39:14
    • They sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard.
    • They committed him to Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan.
    • The purpose was that Gedaliah should bring him home.
    • So Jeremiah dwelt among the people.
15. 39:15
    • The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
    • This happened while Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the guard.
16. 39:16
    • The LORD told Jeremiah to go and speak to Ebed-melech the Cushite.
    • The message was declared to be from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel.
    • The LORD said he was about to bring his words upon this city.
    • The LORD said his words were for evil and not for good.
    • The LORD said his words would be accomplished before Ebed-melech on that day.
17. 39:17
    • The LORD said he would deliver Ebed-melech on that day.
    • This is declared by the LORD.
    • The LORD said Ebed-melech would not be given into the hand of the men he was afraid of.
18. 39:18
    • The LORD said he would surely deliver Ebed-melech.
    • The LORD said Ebed-melech would not fall by the sword.
    • The LORD said Ebed-melech's life would be to him as spoil.
    • The reason given is that Ebed-melech trusted in the LORD.
    • This is declared by the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

39:1

Judah's years were counted from the start of each king's reign, so "the ninth year of Zedekiah" is about 589–588 BC. Zedekiah had been installed as king by Nebuchadnezzar himself as a subject ruler, and had then broken his oath and turned to Egypt for backing; the siege is Babylon's answer. Months were numbered from the spring, so the tenth month falls in about December–January. To "besiege" a city was to ring it with troops and cut off food and water until it surrendered or was stormed.

39:2

The fourth month is roughly June–July, about eighteen months after the siege began; the year is 587 or 586 BC, depending on how the reigns are counted. "Broken up" in 1611 English meant broken into, the wall was breached, not the city dismantled. Other accounts of the same siege describe severe famine inside the walls by this point.

39:3

The Hebrew list is hard to divide, and translators disagree about where names end and titles begin: "Samgar-nebo" may be part of the previous man's name or a place he came from, and Sarsechim may be "Nebo-sarsekim." Rabsaris and Rabmag are Babylonian court titles, not personal names, roughly "chief officer" and "chief official" (the exact duties are uncertain). The city gate was where officials of the ancient Near East sat to hold court and give judgments, so taking a seat in the Middle Gate was a public announcement that the city now belonged to them.

39:4

The king's garden and the gate between the two walls were at the south end of Jerusalem, the side facing away from the Babylonian lines. "The plain" translates the Hebrew Arabah, the deep valley floor that runs from the Sea of Galilee down past the Dead Sea; Zedekiah was heading east, aiming to cross the Jordan and get beyond Babylon's reach.

39:5

"Chaldeans" was a term for the people of southern Babylonia, and by this period it is used simply to mean the Babylonians. Riblah lay on the Orontes River in Syria, some two hundred miles north, and served as Nebuchadnezzar's headquarters for the whole campaign. "Gave judgment upon him" describes a formal legal proceeding: a subject king who had sworn loyalty and then rebelled was tried for breaking his treaty oath.

39:6

Killing the sons of a rebel king removed any heir who might later claim the throne. The "nobles" are the landholding aristocracy who governed with the king and had supported the revolt.

39:7

Blinding was a known Assyrian and Babylonian punishment for a subject king who broke faith, and the sequence here is deliberate: the execution of his sons was arranged to be the last thing Zedekiah ever saw. The Hebrew word for the chains is a dual form, a pair of bronze fetters, one for each leg.

39:8

Pulling down a city's walls was standard practice after a revolt. It left the place open, unable to be defended, and so unable to rebel again.

39:9

"Captain of the guard" translates a Hebrew title meaning literally "chief of the slaughterers", an old term for a very senior royal officer, here the general in charge of the occupation, not a bodyguard. Those who "fell away" are the people who had deserted to the Babylonians during the siege, which is exactly what Jeremiah had been urging the city to do; they were deported with the rest rather than killed.

39:10

This was practical policy, not only mercy. Leaving a landless peasant population on the confiscated estates kept the fields and vineyards in production and taxable for Babylon, while the owners who had led the revolt were taken away.

39:11

"Nebuchadrezzar" is the same king as "Nebuchadnezzar"; the King James Version uses both spellings. The form with the r is actually closer to the Babylonian name, Nabu-kudurri-usur.

39:12

"Look well to him" in 1611 English meant take care of him, not keep a close watch on him.

39:13

Rabsaris and Rabmag are job titles here, like captain or chief. They are not the men's names.

39:14

The "court of the prison" was the guardhouse courtyard attached to the palace, a place of detention under supervision, where a prisoner could still receive visitors and conduct business, rather than a cell. Gedaliah came from a family of senior court officials: his grandfather Shaphan had been secretary of state under King Josiah, and his father Ahikam had earlier stepped in to save Jeremiah's life. Babylon went on to appoint Gedaliah governor over those left in the land.

39:15

These last four verses step back in time. This message came to Jeremiah earlier, while the city was still surrounded and he was still shut up. When LORD is printed in capital letters, it stands for God's own personal name.

39:16

Ebed-melech had earlier pulled Jeremiah out of a muddy cistern where he had been left to die. His name means "servant of the king," which may be a title rather than a birth name. "Cushite" (the King James "Ethiopian") means he came from Cush, the region up the Nile south of Egypt, in what is now Sudan, not modern Ethiopia. "LORD" printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of God, which Jewish tradition avoided saying aloud; "LORD of hosts" means the LORD who commands the armies, whether of heaven or of Israel.

39:17

The men he is afraid of are most naturally the Jerusalem officials whose plan to let Jeremiah die he had personally overturned; a foreign servant who crossed the men who ran the city had good reason to expect payback when the city collapsed.

39:18

"Thy life shall be for a prey unto thee" is a battlefield expression used several times in Jeremiah. Plunder was what a soldier carried off from a defeated city; here the only plunder Ebed-melech gets out of the disaster is his own survival.