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
New Living Translation
The Fall of Jerusalem
52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 2 But Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 These things happened because of the Lord’s anger against the people of Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally banished them from his presence and sent them into exile.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 So on January 15,[a] during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar[b] of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls. 5 Jerusalem was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah’s reign.
6 By July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign,[c] the famine in the city had become very severe, and the last of the food was entirely gone. 7 Then a section of the city wall was broken down, and all the soldiers fled. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians,[d] they waited for nightfall. Then they slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.[e]
8 But the Babylonian troops chased King Zedekiah and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered. 9 They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. 10 The king of Babylon made Zedekiah watch as he slaughtered his sons. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. 11 Then he gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in bronze chains, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon. Zedekiah remained there in prison until the day of his death.
The Temple Destroyed
12 On August 17 of that year,[f] which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in Jerusalem. 13 He burned down the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings[g] in the city. 14 Then he supervised the entire Babylonian[h] army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. 15 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind to care for the vineyards and fields.
17 The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars in front of the Lord’s Temple, the bronze water carts, and the great bronze basin called the Sea, and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon. 18 They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp snuffers, basins, dishes, and all the other bronze articles used for making sacrifices at the Temple. 19 The captain of the guard also took the small bowls, incense burners, basins, pots, lampstands, ladles, bowls used for liquid offerings, and all the other articles made of pure gold or silver.
20 The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea with the twelve bronze oxen beneath it, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the Lord’s Temple in the days of King Solomon. 21 Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference.[i] They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.[j] 22 The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7 1⁄2 feet[k] high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around. 23 There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 pomegranates on the network around the top.
24 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers. 25 And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an officer who had been in charge of the Judean army; seven of the king’s personal advisers; the army commander’s chief secretary, who was in charge of recruitment; and sixty other citizens. 26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.
28 The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign[l] was 3,023. 29 Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year[m] he took 832 more. 30 In Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year[n] he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who took 745 more—a total of 4,600 captives in all.
Hope for Israel’s Royal Line
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to[o] Jehoiachin and released him from prison on March 31 of that year.[p] 32 He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon. 33 He supplied Jehoiachin with new clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. 34 So the Babylonian king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he lived. This continued until the day of his death.
Footnotes
- 52:4a Hebrew on the tenth day of the tenth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. A number of events in Jeremiah can be cross-checked with dates in surviving Babylonian records and related accurately to our modern calendar. This day was January 15, 588 B.c.
- 52:4b Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar; also in 52:12, 28, 29, 30.
- 52:6 Hebrew By the ninth day of the fourth month [in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign]. This day was July 18, 586 B.c.; also see note on 52:4a.
- 52:7a Or the Chaldeans; similarly in 52:8, 17.
- 52:7b Hebrew the Arabah.
- 52:12 Hebrew On the tenth day of the fifth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was August 17, 586 B.c.; also see note on 52:4a.
- 52:13 Or destroyed the houses of all the important people.
- 52:14 Or Chaldean.
- 52:21a Hebrew 18 cubits [8.3 meters] tall and 12 cubits [5.5 meters] in circumference.
- 52:21b Hebrew 4 fingers thick [8 centimeters].
- 52:22 Hebrew 5 cubits [2.3 meters].
- 52:28 This exile in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 597 B.c.
- 52:29 This exile in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 586 B.c.
- 52:30 This exile in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 581 B.c.
- 52:31a Hebrew He raised the head of.
- 52:31b Hebrew on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was March 31, 561 B.c.; also see note on 52:4a.
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