Jeremiah 52:1-11

The Fall of Jerusalem

1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

2 He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.

3 It was because of the LORD’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence. Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4 So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it.

5 The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.

7 Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled. They left the city at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[a] were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^[b]

8 but the Babylonian^[c] army pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,

9 and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him.

10 There at Riblah the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah.

11 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.

Jeremiah 52:1-11 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.

Cross References

• 1. S 2 Kings 24:17
• 2. S Numbers 33:20; Joshua 10:29; 2 Kings 8:22
• 3. S Jeremiah 36:30
• 4. Isaiah 3:1
• 5. S Genesis 4:14; S Exodus 33:15
• 6. Ezekiel 17:12-16
• 7. Zechariah 8:19
• 8. Jeremiah 34:1; 2 Kings 25:1-7; Jeremiah 39:1
• 9. S Jeremiah 6:6
• 10. Ezekiel 24:1-2
• 11. S Leviticus 26:26; S Isaiah 3:1; Lamentations 1:11
• 12. Lamentations 4:19
• 13. S Jeremiah 21:7; S Jeremiah 32:4
• 14. S Numbers 34:11
• 15. S Numbers 13:21
• 16. S Jeremiah 22:30
• 17. Jeremiah 34:4; Ezekiel 12:13; Ezekiel 17:16

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "Chaldeans" ; also in verse 17
• [b]. Or "the Jordan Valley"
• [c]. Or "Chaldean" ; also in verse 14