2 Kings 25:18 - Exposition

And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest . The "chief priest" is a new expression; but it can only mean the "high priest." Seraiah seems to have been the grandson of Hilkiah ( 1 Chronicles 6:18 , 1 Chronicles 6:14 ), and an ancestor (grandfather or great-grandfather) of Ezra ( Ezra 7:1 ). He had stayed at his post till the city was taken, and was now seized by Nebuzar-adan as one of the most important personages whom he found in the city. And Zephaniah the second priest. Keil and Bahr translate " a priest of the second order;' i.e. a mere Ordinary priest; but something more than this must be intended by Jeremiah, who calls him ( Jeremiah 52:34 ), כֹּהֵן הַמִּשְׁנֶה i.e. distinctly " the second priest." It is conjectured that he was the high priest's substitute, empowered to act for him on occasions. Possibly he was the Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, of whom we hear a good deal in Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 21:1 ; Jeremiah 29:25-29 : Jeremiah 37:3 ). And the three keepers of the door ; rather, and three keepers of the threshold . There were twenty-five "gatekeepers" of the temple ( 1 Chronicles 26:17 , 1 Chronicles 26:18 ), all of them Levites. On what principle Nebuzar-adan selected three out of the twenty-four is uncertain, since we have no evidence that the temple had. as Bahr says it had, "three main entrances." Jeremiah 38:14 certainly does not prove this.