Jeremiah 39:1

1 It happened when Yerushalayim was taken, (in the ninth year of Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah, in the tenth month, came Nevukhadretztzar king of Bavel and all his army against Yerushalayim, and besieged it;

Jeremiah 39:1 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 39:1

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth
month
The month Tebet, which answers to part of our December, and part of January; so that it was in the winter season the siege of Jerusalem began: came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem,
and they besieged it;
provoked by Zedekiah's breaking covenant with him, and rebelling against him, who had set him upon his throne, in the room of his nephew; so that here was a mixture of perfidy and ingratitude, which he was determined to revenge; and being impatient of it, came at such an unseasonable time of the year for a long march and a siege. The king of Babylon came in person at first; but having begun the siege, and given proper orders to his generals for the carrying of it on, and supposing it would be a long one, retired to Riblah in Syria, either for pleasure or for business. The time of beginning the siege exactly agrees with the account in ( 2 Kings 25:1 ) ; only there it is more particular, expressing the day of the month, which was the tenth of it; and so in ( Jeremiah 52:4 ) . The reason of inserting the account of the siege and taking of the city, in this place, is both to show the exact accomplishment of Jeremiah's prophecies about it, and to lead on to some facts and predictions that followed it.

Jeremiah 39:1 In-Context

1 It happened when Yerushalayim was taken, (in the ninth year of Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah, in the tenth month, came Nevukhadretztzar king of Bavel and all his army against Yerushalayim, and besieged it;

2 in the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city,)

3 that all the princes of the king of Bavel came in, and sat in the middle gate, [to wit], Nergal-Sar'etzer, Samgar-Nevo, Sarsekhim, Rav-Saris, Nergal-Sar'etzer, Rav-Mag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Bavel.

4 It happened that, when Tzidkiyahu the king of Yehudah and all the men of war saw them, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the `Aravah.

5 But the army of the Kasdim pursued after them, and overtook Tzidkiyahu in the plains of Yericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nevukhadretztzar king of Bavel to Rivlah in the land of Hamat; and he gave judgment on him.