Jeremiah 52:1-10

1 Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Yerushalayim: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu of Livna.

2 He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Yehoiakim had done.

3 For through the anger of the LORD did it happen in Yerushalayim and Yehudah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel.

4 It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nevukhadretztzar king of Bavel came, he and all his army, against Yerushalayim, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about.

5 So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Tzidkiyahu.

6 In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

7 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Kasdim were against the city round about;) and they went toward the `Aravah.

8 But the army of the Kasdim pursued after the king, and overtook Tzidkiyahu in the plains of Yericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

9 Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Bavel to Rivlah in the land of Hamat; and he gave judgment on him.

10 The king of Bavel killed the sons of Tzidkiyahu before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of Yehudah in Rivlah.

Jeremiah 52:1-10 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.