Jeremiah 39:1

JEREMIAH 39

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM

For many years, God's prophets had foretold the fall of the reprobate city of the Chosen People, but the Israelites refused to believe it; but, in this chapter, we have the record of the disaster itself when it fell. At last, the iniquity of God's people had reached a point of no return; their day of grace was past; and Jerusalem was given over to "the sword, the famine, and the pestilence," as so often stated in Jeremiah.

There are no less than four Biblical accounts of the fall of Jerusalem: (1) the account recorded in this chapter; (2) the account in Jeremiah 52; (3) the record in 2 Kings 25; (4) and yet another in 2 Chronicles 36.

As should be expected, there are variations and differences in these several accounts, just as there are in the four Gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; and we learned in our studies of the New Testament that such variations prove the accuracy and historicity of the whole record. It is of no value whatever to concern oneself with all of the alleged discrepancies found in narratives of this kind. The principle facts are open to no question or doubt whatever; and in the same manner that four eyewitness accounts of a traffic accident are impossible of verification on every little detail, so it is in these four accounts. Exploring them is an absolutely worthless endeavor. We accept the whole truth about the fall of Jerusalem as the composite accumulation of all that is written in the sacred text. All that is written in the Bible concerning the fall of Jerusalem is true, but men are not always able to understand at this late date just exactly how it all happened, nor is such an understanding necessary.

The length of the siege which was terminated in the record of this chapter lacked, "only one day of being exactly eighteen months, lasting from January 588 B.C. to July 587 B.C."[1]

There are similarities in Jeremiah's account to portions of the accounts given in Kings and Chronicles; but as Keil noted, "This does not mean that either account was derived from the other."[2] The language here is definitely that of Jeremiah. Remember, the Biblical writers were describing the same events from different vantage points.

Jeremiah 39:1-3

"And it came to pass when Jerusalem was taken (in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and besieged it; In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, and the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city); that all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, to wit, Nergel-sharezer, Samgar-nebo. Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergel-sharezer, Rabmag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon."

Some have erroneously supposed the siege to have lasted two years or more, due to the mention of "the ninth year of Zedekiah" in Jeremiah 39:1; but differences in the methods of reckoning the years of a reigning monarch account for the error.

The principal event mentioned here is that the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem and set up their own administrative system in the principal gate of the city. This signaled the fall of the city.

The names of these Babylonian princes could not possibly be of much interest to anyone. It appears to us that scholars take an inordinate amount of interest in these Babylonian names. Ash tells us that some of these proper names are the names of titles, not of persons; we have one name repeated.[3] (Were there two generals by this name?) What difference does it make?

It has been determined from, "a large clay prism found at Babylon, which lists high officials of the Babylonian court,"[4] that three of the names in this list are indeed the titles of the persons mentioned; but the same author explains that "we do not know the meaning of two of these."[5]