[To wit], Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah
Which are mentioned first, because God's judgments began with them, as they usually do with the house of God, ( 1 Peter 4:17 ) ; and even now began; for this very year, in which this prophecy was delivered, Nebuchadnezzar came up and besieged Jerusalem, and carried away some captives, ( Daniel 1:1 ) ; this was the beginning of what afterwards were more fully executed: and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof:
the Kings Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, with those of their families, the princes of the blood, and their nobles: to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse;
to strip them of their crowns and kingdom, of their wealth, and riches, and honour, and bring them into slavery and bondage; so that they became an astonishment to some, to see the change that was made in them; and were hissed stand cursed by others: (as [it is] this day);
which is added, either because of the certainty of it, or because it began to take, place this very year; though more fully in Jeconiah's time, and still more in Zedekiah's; or rather this clause might be added by Jeremiah after the captivity; or by Baruch, or by Ezra, or whoever collected his prophecies, and put them into one volume, as ( Jeremiah 52:1-34 ) seems to be added by another hand.