Jeremiah 52:25-34

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 was 3,023.

29 Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year he took 832 more.

30 In Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who took 745 more—a total of 4,600 captives in all.

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 Jehoiachin and released him from prison on March 31 of that year.

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.

Jeremiah 52:25-34 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 52

This chapter contains the history of the besieging, taking, and destroying of Jerusalem; the moving cause of it, the wicked reign of Zedekiah, Jer 52:1-3; the instruments of it, the king of Babylon and his army, which besieged and took it, Jer 52:4-7; into whose hands the king of Judah, his sons, and the princes of Judah, fell; and were very barbarously and cruelly used by them, Jer 52:8-11. Then follows an account of the burning of the temple, the king's palace, and the houses in Jerusalem, and the breaking down of the walls of it, Jer 52:12-14; and of those that were carried captive, and of those that were left in the land by Nebuzaradan, Jer 52:15,16; and of the several vessels and valuable things in the temple, of gold, silver, and brass, it was plundered of, and carried to Babylon, Jer 52:17-23; and of the murder of several persons of dignity and character, Jer 52:24-27; and of the number of those that were carried captive at three different times, Jer 52:28-30; and the chapter is concluded with the exaltation of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and of the good treatment he met with from the king of Babylon to the day of his death, Jer 52:31-34.

Footnotes

• [a]. This exile in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 597
• [b]. This exile in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 586
• [c]. This exile in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 581
• [d]. Hebrew He raised the head of.
• [e]. Hebrew on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was March 31, 561 ; also see note on 52:4a .