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. 2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. 3It 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.
4So 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 camped outside the city and built siege works all around it. 5The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
6By 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. 7Then 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 were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah, 8but the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, 9and he was captured.
He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him. 10There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah. 11Then 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.
12On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. 14The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the rest of the craftsmen and those who had gone over to the king of Babylon. 16But Nebuzaradan left behind the rest of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.
17The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the LORD and they carried all the bronze to Babylon. 18They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. 19The commander of the imperial guard took away the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes and bowls used for drink offerings—all that were made of pure gold or silver.
20The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the temple of the LORD, was more than could be weighed. 21Each of the pillars was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference; each was four fingers thick, and hollow. 22The bronze capital on top of the one pillar was five cubits high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar. 23There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; the total number of pomegranates above the surrounding network was a hundred.
24The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers. 25Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and sixty of his men who were found in the city. 26Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed.
So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. 28This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile:
in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;
29in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year,
832 people from Jerusalem;
30in his twenty-third year,
745 Jews taken into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard.
There were 4,600 people in all.
31In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. 32He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 33So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. 34Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death.
Original Meaning
CHAPTER 52, THE CONCLUSION to the book of Jeremiah, largely parallels the conclusion to the book of 2 Kings (2 Kings 24:20b–25:30). That the two accounts are similar is obvious; what is not at all obvious is the literary relationship between the two. Were details from one of the accounts copied for the other; and if so, which is the earlier of the two? The answer to either question is difficult to answer with any confidence—and neither question is as important as the role of the account in 2 Kings and in Jeremiah.
(1) We begin by observing that at least two scriptural writers/editors believed that a narrative account of Jerusalem’s tragic fall, coupled with the report that the exiled king Jehoiachin was still in Babylon until the reign of Evil-Merodach, was the appropriate place to conclude their respective “books.”
(2) The book of Jeremiah is not historical narrative in the sense that 1–2 Kings is, but its presentation of the prophet’s work presupposes the historical context provided in Kings.
(3) Not only is this last chapter of Jeremiah tragic in its details; it is somewhat repetitive and therefore anticlimactic. This may be a small clue to the literary relationship between Kings and Jeremiah. For sequential readers of this book, Jeremiah 37–44 has already provided details of the fall of Jerusalem and its aftermath, some of which get repeated in chapter 52 (cf. 39:1–10 with 52:4–16). The account in 2 Kings 25, however, follows the chronologically arranged, unfolding scheme of the larger work entitled 1–2 Kings. Perhaps, therefore, it was the compilers of Jeremiah who made a conscious decision to end the prophet’s book in similar fashion to that of 2 Kings, even if that meant repeating material already used in the book.
If the scenario above is correct, it does not solve the issue of the literary relationship between the two accounts, as if it is certain that Jeremiah’s compiler(s) copied from 2 Kings; it only suggests that the way 2 Kings concludes influenced the way Jeremiah’s compiler(s) concluded the prophet’s book. There are, after all, significant differences between the two prose accounts. Given the fact that generally speaking the prose traditions of Jeremiah are similar linguistically to those in 1–2 Kings—suggesting to a number of scholars that the compilers of the two works were somehow related1—it is more likely that the particular relationship between 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52 goes back to the prehistory of the texts as we now have them rather than with one essentially copying the other. Both chapters contain prose traditions that have been shaped by the respective needs of the larger work in which they are included, and both were likely compiled in the exilic period.
To summarize: The ending of Jeremiah was likely influenced by the way 2 Kings concludes. It is difficult to discern if 2 Kings 25 is earlier in literary form than Jeremiah 52, since the prose traditions in Jeremiah’s book have a lot in common with those in 1–2 Kings.
There are several minor differences between the Jeremiah and Kings accounts and one major difference. The major one is the omission of Gedaliah’s assassination in Jeremiah 52 (cf. 2 Kings 25:22–26). The circumstances surrounding his death are certainly known to Jeremiah’s compiler(s), since they are given a much fuller account in Jeremiah 40–41.
One minor difference comes in 52:11, where we read that Nebuchadnezzar put Zedekiah in prison until his death. The parallel in 2 Kings 25:7 simply notes that Zedekiah was blinded by the Babylonians, bound in fetters, and sent to Babylon. There is also a difference between the numbers of exiles cited in Jeremiah 52:28–30 when compared to the parallel data in 2 Kings.2 Moreover, Jeremiah 52:30 records another wave of exiles in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year (582 B.C.), a detail not provided in 2 Kings. This deportation could be punishment for the assassination of Gedaliah, but the reason is not given.3
Jeremiah 52 provides a retrospective of approximately thirty years. It begins with the account of the Babylonian siege in 588 B.C. and concludes with the notice in 52:31–34 that Evil-Merodach had released Jehoiachin from prison and allowed him to eat at the royal table. Evil-Merodach is the Hebrew version of Amel Marduk, son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar, who had a short reign from 562–560 B.C. Jehoiachin would have been approximately fifty-three years old at the time of his release.4 This last reference in chapter 52 gives the reader a likely indication of the date for the final compiling of the material in the book of Jeremiah.
Two different dates are given in Jeremiah 52 for the fall of the city to the Babylonians. They contribute directly to the differences one finds among scholars for the reconstructed date—either 587 or 586 B.C. In 52:12 the date is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar (so also 2 Kings 25:8), while in 52:29 it is assigned to the eighteenth year. These look like—and perhaps are—contradictory dates. One solution to the problem is to posit a copyist error. But which date is the error? Those who posit a date for the destruction in 587 B.C. suggest that the nineteenth year is a mistake, whether one of improper calculation on the part of the writer or simply a copyist error. Another suggestion is to see the date in 52:12 (nineteenth year) as reflecting a nonaccession-year dating scheme for Nebuchadnezzar, while interpreting the eighteenth year of 52:29 as assuming an accession-year dating for his regnal years. This would make 586 B.C. the date of the city’s fall.5
52:1–11. The date of the ninth day and fourth month (v. 6) refers to the last year of Zedekiah’s reign. The details of Zedekiah’s capture should be compared with 39:1–7 and 2 Kings 25:1–7. Second Chronicles contains no narrative of Zedekiah’s capture.
52:12–16. This brief description of the city’s fall should be compared with 39:8 and 2 Kings 25:8–12. A reader only of Jeremiah 39 would not know that Nebuzaradan was the official in charge of burning the city and the temple. Indeed, Jer. 39:8 does not even mention the burning of the temple, as do the other two accounts.
52:17–23. This is a brief report of the looting of the temple (see also 2 Kings 25:13–17). A comparison of the two is fascinating. Each begins with a report that the Babylonians broke the bronze pillars, and there are similar details preserved between them. Nevertheless, each account preserves some distinctive elements. The Jeremiah account, which is the longer of the two, has more details about the carved pomegranates and the bronze pillars.
52:24–27a. These verses closely parallel 2 Kings 25:18–21.
52:27b–30. These verses preserve references to two waves of exiles during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The first wave came during the reign of Jehoiachin (597 B.C.), the second in 582 (see comments above).
52:31–34. This notice about Jehoiachin, which concludes Jeremiah, is paralled in 2 Kings 25:27–30, which also concludes 2 Kings. It is far more than a simple report about a minor monarch being long-exiled. The report undergirds a type of muted but stubborn faith. Even when the land of Judah and the city of Jerusalem lie in ruins, one from David’s line still lives.
Bridging Contexts
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JEHOIACHIN’S RELEASE. Jeremiah 52 has a peculiar combination of a narrative that records recent events of a traumatic past with a concluding report that Jehoiachin, a member of the Davidic line and formerly king in Jerusalem for three months, was released from imprisonment in Babylon. This combination points to a way of reading the account as a lesson about the price of failure combined with an indication of a future open to the continuing efficacy of God’s earlier promises made to David (2 Sam. 7; Jer. 23:5–6; 33:19–22).
Unless readers can draw continuing significance from narration about the past, past acts remain simply events that lie behind the present. Since a retelling of the past is typically done to uncover ways in which to understand the present, we should ask why the account of Jerusalem’s fall is rehearsed (again). One reason is reflected in the widely quoted maxim, “Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” In the retelling of the story, we are instructed to live and learn from the mistakes of others. Such a reading can be instructive on the personal or the corporate level. It may point us toward introspection regarding our personal histories (“unfinished business”) as well as the history of our nation and church.
The account of Jehoiachin’s release comes like the small cloud of Elijah’s ministry during a time of drought (1 Kings 18:41–46). There is the possibility of change and deliverance to come. The shape of that change is indicated by the person released. He is David’s “son.” Even though the final paragraph likely presupposes the death of Jehoiachin in Babylon, he is the agent of continuity in the Davidic line and thus the family history of the Messiah, which reaches its culmination in the birth of Jesus. A Christological reading of the chapter’s conclusion grows out of the historical concerns of the compilers themselves. They wanted readers to know that all hope was not gone. Jehoiachin and his family were still living. And while the shape of any hope was inchoate, readers are invited to do more than simply acknowledge the judgment of the past. They are invited to be open to a future predicated on God’s promises to the Davidic house.
The basic point is this: The original readers of Jeremiah 52 looked back on judgment, but through the notice concerning Jehoiachin they were invited to look ahead to ways in which God would fulfill his promises to them. This posture can be similar to that of any generation of God’s people. Christians, for example, look back on the founding events of their faith—the death and resurrection of David’s greater Son—but they also look forward to the second coming of Christ, when he will bring God’s promised redemption to its final stage. Christians, like the generations of the Judean exile, live between promise and fulfillment.
Contemporary Significance
BETWEEN THE TIMES. Because of his own and his people’s failure, Moses did not enter the Promised Land. He did, however, see it from a distance. One might characterize his final point of view at Mount Pisgah as one between promise and fulfillment. He had the experience of having been led from Egypt, via Mount Sinai and the desert, to the edge of the Promised Land. He had tasted both victory and defeat, and though he himself gained a glimpse of the future, he ended his days before the surviving Israelites settled in the land promised to their ancestors.
Similarly, the point of view of Jeremiah 52 is that between the promise that judgment is not the end and the fulfillment of the promises of a better future and a ruler from David’s line to come. This kind of dynamic in the lives of peoples and generations fits the profile of Christians. We are those who live “between the times,” in the “already” of Christ’s initial coming and in the “not yet” of his second advent, where sin and death still have their influence but where it is known that the future belongs to God. “For in this hope we were saved” (Rom. 8:24), wrote Paul. In the short term we are not invulnerable to failure and weakness, but the future realization of God’s promised deliverance is sure—as sure and indestructible as Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
God and the future. It is possible for those who “wait on the LORD” to renew their strength. It is possible because God provides the strength we need in our times of need. It is possible because no matter how strong or resilient the enemy, the future belongs to God, who is faithful. How this happens is the mystery of grace. One cannot explain it by a formula; one can only point to the God of new beginnings as the faithful God and Lord of life and death.
Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus runs through the line of Jehoiachin (Matt. 1:11–12). What a story is packed into that simple genealogical list. Here is inspired commentary on sacred history. It is a reminder of how decades and centuries play a part in God’s redemptive work, even when their twists and turns seem only confusing. Who would have thought that a king exiled for thirty-seven years meant much of anything other than years of frustration?
Jeremiah 52 is the final word about an influential epoch in sacred history. It is the final witness of the prophet Jeremiah’s book. What we do with the witness is the way in which the ending of the book becomes an instructional piece in the unfolding drama of our lives. Jehoiachin died in captivity, yet he provided the means by which the Davidic family and the promises to it could continue. Jehoiachin’s greater Son arrived in the fullness of time only to die at the hands of another imperial power. The story of which the book of Jeremiah is a part is still unfolding because Christ is alive and because he calls the current generation of God’s people to discipleship and faithful living. So comfort one another with these words.