Jeremiah 52:1

JEREMIAH 52

A HISTORICAL RECORD OF JEREMIAH'S PROPHECIES FULFILLED

This chapter is usually styled "Historical Appendix"; but its obvious application to the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecies suggests the title we have given it.

Although many writers speak of this chapter's being a copy of 2 Kings 24:18-25:30,[1] this is true only of certain verses in this chapter. The chapter does apparently quote from 2Kings, "but with a very significant omission (regarding events leading to the assassination of Gedaliah as given in 2 Kings 25:22-26), and a very significant addition in @@vv. 28-30 where is found material given nowhere else in the Bible."[2]

The appearance here of unique material, along with some variations from the account in 2Kings, including a variant spelling of the name of Nebuchadnezzar, led Keil to the conclusion that both of the accounts in 2Kings and in this last chapter of Jeremiah, "Have a common origin in which the fall of the Kingdom of Judah was more fully described than in the historical books of the canon."[3]

To this writer, it appears that the principal reason for including this chapter from a source independent of Jeremiah was for the specific purpose of demonstrating historically the fulfillment of his marvelous prophecies. It has also been suggested that another reason could reside in the note of hope injected into the final verses regarding the restoration of Jehoiachin to his royal status under the house-arrest of Judah's last king, but as an honored guest at the table of the king of Babylon. The captives might have received that dramatic change in the status of their former king as a good omen related to the end of their captivity and their return to Judah.

There are five things treated in this chapter: (1) Jerusalem falls, and Zedekiah is captured (Jeremiah 52:1-16); (2) the Temple is despoiled (Jeremiah 52:17-23); (3) Zedekiah's advisors were executed (Jeremiah 52:24-27); (4) the three deportations of the Jews are related (Jeremiah 52:28-30); and (5) the record of Jehoiachin's kind treatment by the new king of Babylon (Jeremiah 52:31-34).

Jeremiah 52:1-16

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM AND THE CAPTURE OF IT AND ZEDEKIAH

"Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiachim had done. For through the anger of Jehovah did it come to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon came, and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city round about); and they went toward Arabah. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment upon him. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon. And he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people that were left in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen."

"Through the anger of Jehovah it came to pass ..." (Jeremiah 52:3). Some have complained that this makes it appear that the anger of Jehovah caused Judah's rebellion; whereas, on the other hand, it was the result of it. Such complaints fail to notice the meaning of "through the anger of Jehovah," which does not mean "because of his anger," but is a reference to the fact that through (during) the anger of Jehovah, as revealed by the prophet Jeremiah, and in spite of his repeated warnings against it, they went right on stubbornly in their rebellion.

Practically all of this passage, although somewhat abbreviated, is found in Jeremiah 39:1-9. See comments there. The instructions of Nebuchadnezzar for Jeremiah's safety (Jeremiah 39:11f) are omitted here.

"In prison till the day of his death ..." (Jeremiah 52:11b). This note regarding Zedekiah's imprisonment till death is found "nowhere else in the Bible."[4]

"The nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar ..." (Jeremiah 52:12). This same occasion is called "the eighteenth year" of Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah 52:29. One mode or reckoning counted the year of accession to the throne, and the other did not. There is no contradiction.[5]