Jeremiah 52
Lexham English Bible
The Fall of Jerusalem
52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old[a] at his beginning to reign, and he reigned eleven years[b] in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh like all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For because of the anger[c] of Yahweh this happened in Jerusalem and Judah until his casting them from his presence.[d] And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 And then[e] in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came against Jerusalem, he and all his army. And they laid siege to it, and built siege works[f] against it all around. 5 So the city came under siege[g] until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine in the city became severe and there was no food for the people of the land. 7 Then the city was breached, and all the soldiers[h] fled and went out from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls that are at the garden of the king, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. And they went in the direction of the Jordan Valley.[i] 8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. 9 Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.[j] 10 And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. 11 Then he made blind the eyes of Zedekiah, and they tied him up with bronze fetters, and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon. And he put him in prison[k] until the day of his death.
12 Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard,[l] who stood before[m] the king of Babylon, entered into Jerusalem. 13 And he burned the temple[n] of Yahweh, and the palace[o] of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house he burned with fire. 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard[p] broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. 15 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard[q] deported some of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the deserters who deserted to the king of Babylon, along with the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard[r] left some of the poor of the land to serve as vinedressers and farmers.
17 And the Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that were in the temple[s] of Yahweh, and the kettle stands and the sea of bronze that were in the temple[t] of Yahweh, and they carried all their bronze to Babylon. 18 And they took with them the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the sprinkling bowls, and the pans, and all the vessels of bronze which were used in temple service. 19 And the captain of the guard[u] took the bowls, and the firepans, and the sprinkling bowls, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the pans, and the libation bowls, those made of solid gold[v] and those made of solid silver.[w] 20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen that were under the kettle stands which King Solomon had made for the temple[x] of Yahweh—there was not a weight for the bronze of all these vessels! 21 Now the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits,[y] and a thread of twelve cubits[z] surrounded it, and its thickness was four fingers, hollowed out. 22 And a capital upon it was bronze and the height of the one capital was five cubits, and latticework and pomegranates were on the capital on all sides, all of bronze. And like these was the second pillar with pomegranates. 23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides;[aa] all the pomegranates on the latticework on all sides were a hundred.
24 Then the captain of the guard[ab] took Seraiah the chief priest,[ac] and Zephaniah the second priest,[ad] and three keepers of the threshold. 25 And from the city he took one high official who was chief officer over the soldiers,[ae] and seven men of the king’s advisors[af] who were found in the city, and the secretary of the commander of the army who levied for military service the people of the land, and sixty men[ag] of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. 26 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard[ah] took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 And the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah left from its land.
28 This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Judeans; 29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two persons[ai] from Jerusalem; 30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard,[aj] deported seven hundred and forty-five Judean persons;[ak] there were four thousand six hundred persons[al] in all.
An Allowance for Jehoiachin
31 And then[am] in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach, the king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, and brought him out from prison.[an] 32 Then he spoke with him kindly and gave his seat above the seats[ao] of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So he changed the garments of his imprisonment and he ate food before him[ap] continually all the days of his life. 34 And his allowance, a continual allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon on a daily basis[aq] all the days of his life up to the day of his death.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 52:1 Literally “a son of twenty-one year”
- Jeremiah 52:1 Hebrew “year”
- Jeremiah 52:3 Literally “nose”
- Jeremiah 52:3 Literally “face”
- Jeremiah 52:4 Literally “And it was”
- Jeremiah 52:4 Literally “siege work”
- Jeremiah 52:5 Literally “into the siege”
- Jeremiah 52:7 Literally “the men of the battle”
- Jeremiah 52:7 Or “Arabah”
- Jeremiah 52:9 Literally “he spoke to him judgments”
- Jeremiah 52:11 Literally “the house of the watch”
- Jeremiah 52:12 Hebrew “guards”
- Jeremiah 52:12 Literally “to the face of”
- Jeremiah 52:13 Literally “house”
- Jeremiah 52:13 Or “house”
- Jeremiah 52:14 Hebrew “guards”
- Jeremiah 52:15 Hebrew “guards”
- Jeremiah 52:16 Hebrew “guards”
- Jeremiah 52:17 Literally “house”
- Jeremiah 52:17 Literally “house”
- Jeremiah 52:19 Hebrew “guards”
- Jeremiah 52:19 Literally “which gold gold”
- Jeremiah 52:19 Literally “which silver silver”
- Jeremiah 52:20 Literally “house”
- Jeremiah 52:21 Hebrew “cubit”
- Jeremiah 52:21 Hebrew “cubit”
- Jeremiah 52:23 Literally “breath”
- Jeremiah 52:24 Hebrew “guards”
- Jeremiah 52:24 Literally “the priest of the head”
- Jeremiah 52:24 Literally “the priest of the second”
- Jeremiah 52:25 Literally “the men of the battle”
- Jeremiah 52:25 Literally “those who see the face of the king”
- Jeremiah 52:25 Hebrew “man”
- Jeremiah 52:26 Hebrew “guards”
- Jeremiah 52:29 Hebrew “person”
- Jeremiah 52:30 Hebrew “guards”
- Jeremiah 52:30 Hebrew “person”
- Jeremiah 52:30 Hebrew “person”
- Jeremiah 52:31 Literally “and it was”
- Jeremiah 52:31 Literally “the house of the imprisonment”
- Jeremiah 52:32 Hebrew “seat”
- Jeremiah 52:33 Literally “to the face of him”
- Jeremiah 52:34 Literally “a matter of a day in its day”
Jeremiah 52
Common English Bible
Rule of Zedekiah and the fall of Jerusalem
52 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal; she was a daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 2 He did evil in the Lord’s eyes just as Jehoiachin had done. 3 It was because the Lord was angry against Jerusalem and Judah that he thrust them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4 In the ninth year, the tenth month, and the tenth day of the month, Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem with all of his army. He camped beside the city and built a siege wall around it. 5 The city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6 On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city reached a point that no food remained for the people. 7 The enemy entered the city, and all the soldiers fled by night along the gate between the two walls by the royal gardens. So the Babylonians surrounded the city while the soldiers fled toward the desert plain. 8 However, the Babylonian army chased down Zedekiah and caught him in the plains of Jericho. (His entire army had fled from him.) 9 They arrested the king and brought him before the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he pronounced sentence on him. 10 The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s children before his very own eyes, and he slaughtered all Judah’s officers at Riblah. 11 Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in chains. The king of Babylon dragged him off to Babylon and put him in prison, where he remained until he died.
12 In the tenth day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan commander of the guard came to Jerusalem on behalf of his king. 13 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the important buildings. 14 The entire Babylonian army and the commander of the guard destroyed the walls surrounding Jerusalem. 15 Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported some of the poorest people, the rest of the people left in the city, a few skilled workers, and those who had joined the king of Babylon. 16 But Nebuzaradan commander of the guard left some of the poor to tend the vineyards and till the land.
17 The Babylonians broke apart the bronze columns, the stands, and the bronze Sea in the Lord’s temple. They carried the bronze to Babylon. 18 They took the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the sprinkling bowls, the incense dishes, and all the bronze equipment used for the temple services. 19 The commander of the guard took whatever gold or silver he could find as well: the small bowls, the fire pans, the sprinkling bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the basins, and the offering bowls. 20 There was too much bronze to be weighed: two columns, the bronze Sea and the twelve bronze bulls that held it up, and the stands, all of which Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple. 21 Each column was about twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet around. They were hollow, but the bronze was about three inches thick. 22 Each had a capital of bronze above it that towered seven and a half feet high, and each had an ornate design of bronze pomegranates around it. The second column was the same, also with pomegranates. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides, a total of one hundred pomegranates around the ornate design.
24 The commander of the guard also took Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the deputy priest, and the three doorkeepers. 25 From the city, he took a eunuch who was appointed over the army and the seven royal advisors who remained in the city. He also took the scribe of the commander of the army in charge of military conscription and sixty military personnel[a] who were found in the city. 26 Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 The king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And Judah went away from its land into exile.
28 This is the number of people whom Nebuchadnezzar deported: In the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans. 29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, he took 832 people from Jerusalem. 30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, he dispatched Nebuzaradan commander of the guard, who deported 745 Judeans. Altogether, 4,600 were taken captive.
31 Judah’s King Jehoiachin had been in exile for thirty-seven years when Awil-merodach[b] became king in Babylon. He took note of Jehoiachin’s plight and released him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month[c] of that very year. 32 Awil-merodach treated Jehoiachin kindly and gave him a throne higher than those of the other kings with him in Babylon. 33 So Jehoiachin discarded his prison clothes and ate his meals at the king’s table for the rest of his life. 34 The Babylonian king provided him daily provisions for the rest of his life, right up until he died.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 52:25 Or from the people of the land
- Jeremiah 52:31 Or Evil-merodach
- Jeremiah 52:31 February–March, Adar
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