Jeremiah 52:20-30

20 The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the Sea with the twelve bronze oxen beneath it, and the water carts was too great to be measured. These things had been made for the LORD ’s Temple in the days of King Solomon.

21 Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference. They were hollow, with walls 3 inches thick.

22 The bronze capital on top of each pillar was 7 feet high and was decorated with a network of bronze pomegranates all the way around.

23 There were 96 pomegranates on the sides, and a total of 100 pomegranates on the network around the top.

24 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers.

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.

Jeremiah 52:20-30 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]. Hebrew 18 cubits [8.3 meters] tall and 12 cubits [5.5 meters] in circumference.
• [b]. Hebrew 4 fingers thick [8 centimeters].
• [c]. Hebrew 5 cubits [2.3 meters].
• [d]. This exile in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 597
• [e]. This exile in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 586
• [f]. This exile in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign occurred in 581