And it came to pass when Jerusalem was taken, in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
The date in this verse is not decoration. It marks the moment a long-ignored warning stopped being a threat and became a siege. Commentators read it as the hour God had set for judgment.
One writer sees this date as the end of every scheme made to put the day off.
The inevitable hour was now at hand. Hopes founded on man are vain, most of all for God's people when He is morally judging. Unbelief has nothing but schemes to fend off submission to God — submission even more than conviction. In the end, though, the due moment arrives to carry out the warning ignored for so long. Then the strong-hearted turn coward, all the more because they have a guilty conscience.
Verse 1 gives the start; the next verse gives the breach. One writer counts the months from the siege to the fall.
In the tenth month of the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar comes and besieges Jerusalem. Sixteen months later the city is broken up (39:1-2). As the king of Judah and his men of war flee, they are pursued and overtaken by the army of the Chaldeans.
One writer looks past the army at the gate to what the city had already done to God's messenger.
Stirring scenes now come before us. The armies of the Chaldeans are before the gates of Jerusalem! They demand admission. They are God's messengers of judgment, for the city had refused to bear His prophetic messenger. Neither King Zedekiah, nor his servants, nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord which He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 37:2). Instead, they put him in prison. Only when the city fell did he get his freedom. The king of Babylon treated him better than the king of his own people, whom he served so faithfully.
The prophet had offered a way out: surrender to Babylon's officials, and both king and city would live. Zedekiah fled instead.
It is solemn to see how little a spirit that has given in to man's thoughts against God's word remembers in the hour of greatest need. It forgets the very thing that might still have saved city, people and prince alike. Had the prophet not promised Zedekiah this? If he went out to the king of Babylon's princes, he and his house would live, and the city would not be burned with fire. Sadly, this is one effect of the evil heart that turns away from the living God: it always seems to forget the word just when it is most needed.
Two earlier prophecies about Zedekiah look like they clash. One writer shows how this chapter settles them.
Ezekiel foretold that Zedekiah would not see Babylon, though he would die there; Jeremiah foretold that he would see the eyes of the king of Babylon and speak with him face to face. To a casual reader this might seem hard to reconcile, if not a contradiction. But such a thought would be only ignorance, not to say irreverence; for each of them gave out from God beforehand what was made good in the actual history. His pursuers caught the fleeing king before he crossed the Jordan. At Riblah the king of Babylon judged his case. He had Zedekiah's sons killed before their guilty father's eyes, then put out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. So he did not see Babylon, though he went there; yet he did see the angry conqueror's eyes, who spoke with him face to face. No word of the Lord falls to the ground.
The fall of this one city changed where authority on earth sat.
When Nebuchadnezzar carried them away captive to Babylon, the people truly became "Lo-ammi," which means "not my people" (though God still watched over them in mercy). The "times of the Gentiles" began. So when Israel failed and turned to idolatry, God gave power into the hands of the Gentiles. His throne was no longer on earth, as it had been at Jerusalem.
The judgment did not sweep everyone away. One writer finds a promise in who stayed behind.
Still, the clearing out was not complete. The poor did not disappear from the land; some stayed in it. Little as the foreigner realised, they were a pledge of two things: the return of a poor remnant, and a nation yet to be poor in spirit when God will bring back the captivity of His people.
- Warned. Zedekiah, his officials and the people refused the word God spoke through Jeremiah. So the armies at the gate came as God's own messengers of judgment.
- Dated. Ninth year, tenth month — the hour the long-delayed warning became a siege. Sixteen months later the city fell.
- Forgotten. The prophet had offered a way out — surrender and live. But a heart turned from God forgets the word just when it needs it most.
- Fulfilled. Two prophecies that seem to clash both came true to the letter at Riblah. No word of the Lord falls to the ground.
- Preserved. Power passed to the Gentiles that day. Yet God left the poor in the land — a quiet pledge of a remnant He would one day bring back.
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the city was broken into;
One short verse dates the end of Jerusalem's last siege to a single day. Why did God let the warning run so long before the wall gave way, and what did that day change for Israel?
The breach in the wall did not come suddenly. It came at the end of a siege that lasted about a year and a half, with one break in the middle:
The king of Babylon had begun it before the ninth year of Zedekiah closed. He took the city early in his eleventh year, after surrounding it for some eighteen months, though not without an interruption.
Jeremiah had told Jerusalem for years what would happen. This verse is the moment the warnings stopped being words.
The inevitable hour was now at hand. Hopes founded on man are vain, most of all for God's people when He is morally judging. Unbelief is rich in nothing but tricks to fend off God — not so much to fend off conviction as to avoid submitting to Him. In the end, though, the moment comes to make good the warning men had long ignored. Then the bold-hearted turn into cowards, all the more because their conscience is guilty.
Nothing dramatic had backed Jeremiah up while he preached. The silence was God waiting. When His word came true, the exactness of it spoke louder than any sign.
At the time, no startling or miraculous acts of God stepped in to prove Jeremiah's words right in public. Yet his words came true exactly. The fulfilment looked delayed, and that made it all the more striking when it came. There was nothing immediate or sudden. Jeremiah spoke the word of the Lord and suffered for it. God in long-suffering mercy waited on the people, patiently looking for their repentance. Repentance did not come, and meanwhile people insulted and ill-treated the prophet. Then the hearts of the people, the princes, the priests, the prophets and the pastors grew completely hard. After that, Jeremiah's words came true fast.
When the wall broke, the king ran. Yet the prophet had told him that surrender would save both his house and the city. That was the one thing he did not remember.
It is solemn to see how a spirit that has given in to man's thoughts against God's word forgets. In the moment of greatest need, it hardly remembers what could still have helped city and people and prince alike. Had the prophet not assured Zedekiah of this? If he went out to the king of Babylon's princes, he and his house would live, and the city would escape the fire. This is one of the effects of the evil heart that departs from the living God. It always seems to forget the word just when the word is most wanted. It feels the force of that word only after it has taken up some new plan of its own — a plan as disappointing as all the rest. How bitter to remember too late that everything the heart clung to must go to vengeance and the enemy. The ruin that follows is the fruit of one's own folly.
The fall of one city changed the shape of world history. Power passed from David's line to Gentile hands, where it has stayed.
God's patience still waited with the kingdom of Judah. Then the sin of David's house made it impossible for Him to bear with either any longer. Babylon took Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and carried the Jews away captive. The throne of God no longer stood at Jerusalem. Power passed into the hands of the Gentiles, and it has stayed with them until now. With Nebuchadnezzar two things began together: the times of the Gentiles, and the captivity and scattering of the Jews.
Israel later kept four fast days. Commentators link the one in the fourth month with the day this verse records.
The fast of the fourth month probably goes back to the day when Jerusalem's gates opened to the princes of Nebuchadnezzar (see Jeremiah 39:2-3)… So all these days brought sad memories to the Jew. They reminded him not only of national disaster, but also of the anger of the Lord.
God's last word on those anniversaries is not grief.
It is now revealed that a day would come when these four fasts would become feasts of rejoicing. Therefore they were to love truth and peace.
- Warned — Jeremiah announced this outcome for years and suffered for saying it. Nothing confirmed him at the time.
- Waited — God held the judgment back, looking for repentance. The delay was mercy, not indifference.
- Breached — after about eighteen months of siege, the wall gave way on a dated day. The long-ignored warning came true.
- Transferred — with that fall the throne left Jerusalem. Power passed to Nebuchadnezzar, and the times of the Gentiles began.
- Reversed — the date became one of Israel's four fasts, and God promises those fasts will one day be feasts of joy.
and all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebu, Sarsechim, chief chamberlain, Nergal-sharezer, chief magian, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Babylon's army has broken through the wall of Jerusalem, and its officers now sit in the middle gate — the place where Judah's own leaders should have given judgment. The strange names and titles record the moment when rule over the city passed from David's line into foreign hands, just as God had warned.
One writer traces the long delay to unbelief, and names what happens when the hour finally comes:
Hopes founded on man are vain, most of all for God's people when He is morally judging. Unbelief is rich in nothing but devices for dodging — not conviction so much as submission to God. At length, however, the due moment arrives to carry out the warning so long ignored. Then the bold-hearted become cowards all the more, because they have a guilty conscience.
Sitting down in a gateway sounds like resting after a battle. In the ancient world it meant taking office.
Gates protected a city. But "in the gate" was also the place where people settled many important matters... To "sit in the gate" was a place of honour: "I am the talk of those who sit in the gate" (Ps. 69:12). It should have been the place of true judgement and justice, but was not always so... It was, at least at times, the king's chief place of audience. From this it would be a symbol of power.
One writer sets this scene beside the warning God gave through Jeremiah long before:
In the days of old, the condition of the people of God had become so evil that the LORD had to bring judgment upon them. The solemn message by Jeremiah was, "I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the LORD, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around" (Jer. 1:15). So it came to pass, for we read that the enemy came in and "sat in the middle gate," and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
Some words in this list are not personal names at all, but ranks. That is why the same name can appear twice.
This is not a proper name, but the title of Nergal-sharezer. Some have taken it to mean "chief of the Magi," and others "chief priest." On the monuments it appears as ruba emga, which some have understood as "the glorious prince." This would be a fitting title if Nergal-sharezer is the same person who became Neriglissar the king.
The next verse tells us the king saw these officers and ran. The prophet had already told him what to do if this moment came.
It is solemn to see how little the spirit that has yielded to man's thoughts against God's word remembers in the moment of greatest need. It forgets what might even yet have helped both city and people and prince. Had not the prophet assured Zedekiah of this? If he went out to the king of Babylon's princes, he and his house would live, and the city would not be burned with fire. Alas! it is one of the effects of the evil heart that turns away from the living God: it always seems to forget the word when it is most wanted.
Two of the officers named here appear again later in the chapter. This time they carry out an order to bring Jeremiah out of prison. The verses below are quoted in older wording:
But there is respect for God sometimes where some would least expect it. "Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave orders concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, saying, Take him, and look after him well, and do him no harm... So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, Nebushasban, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the king of Babylon's princes sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison."
- Warned — God announced this judgment through Jeremiah long before: thrones set at the entrance of Jerusalem's gates.
- Seated — the gate was the place of honour, audience and judgment. Foreign officers sitting there means the government has changed hands.
- Named — Rab-mag is a rank, not a name; the man who held it may be the future king Neriglissar.
- Refused — the prophet promised Zedekiah that going out to these princes would spare him and the city. He forgot it when he needed it most.
- Preserved — the officers who sat in the gate as conquerors later brought Jeremiah out of prison unharmed.
And it came to pass when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, that they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate between the two walls; and he went out the way of the plain.
Jerusalem has fallen, and Babylon's commanders are sitting inside it. This verse catches the moment Zedekiah's nerve breaks. He runs by night — away from the safety God had already offered him, and into what God had already said would happen to a king who tried to escape.
One writer sees the flight as the collapse of hopes that rested on man instead of God.
The inevitable hour was now at hand. Hopes founded on man are vain, most of all for God's people when He is morally judging. Unbelief is rich in nothing but schemes to fend off submission to God — submission even more than conviction. But at last the moment comes to fulfil the warning that was ignored so long. Then the bold-hearted turn into cowards, all the more because their conscience is guilty.
Zedekiah knew his options. God had named the terms, and he turned them down because he was afraid of people.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign Nebuchadnezzar came and besieged Jerusalem, building a wall around it. By the word of the Lord, Jeremiah told Zedekiah this: if he surrendered to the king of Babylon, he would live and the city would not be burned with fire. If he refused to surrender, the city would be burned and Zedekiah himself would not escape (Jer. 38:17-18). But Zedekiah feared the Jews, so he would not surrender.
So the night flight is bitter. He runs from the very fate God had offered to spare him.
It is solemn to see how little such a spirit remembers at the moment of greatest need. It has given in to man's thoughts against God's word, and so it forgets what might even then have saved city, people and prince alike… This is one effect of the evil heart that turns away from the living God: it always seems to forget the word just when the word is most needed. It feels the force of that word only after it has taken up some new plan of its own — as disappointing as all the ones before.
One writer traces the route out of the city and where it was heading.
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah the enemy gained possession of the northern suburb… Then the king and all the regular army sought safety in flight during the darkness of the night. As the Chaldeans held the northern part of the city, they fled southwards. Between the two walls, out of the "fountain-gate," and through the king's garden, they hurried to reach the Jordan.
One writer asks the obvious question:
How did they expect to escape when the army of the Chaldeans surrounded the city?
Long before it happened, Ezekiel described this night — the darkness, the covered face, the capture. One writer sets his words beside Jeremiah's and finds both exact.
The prince who is among them shall lift his baggage upon his shoulder at dusk, and shall go out. They shall dig through the wall to bring him out through it. He shall cover his face, that he may not see the land with his eyes. And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare. And I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it, and he shall die there. These two prophecies were fulfilled to the letter.
The two predictions look like they clash. One said he would meet the king of Babylon eye to eye. The other said he would never see Babylon. What happened after the flight settles it.
To a shallow reader this might seem hard to reconcile, if not a contradiction. But such a thought would be mere ignorance, and irreverence too. Each of them spoke from God beforehand, and the history bore out what they said. The Chaldeans chased the fleeing king and caught him before he crossed the Jordan. At Riblah the king of Babylon judged his case. He had Zedekiah's sons killed in front of their guilty father, then put out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. So he did not see Babylon, though he went there; yet he did see the eyes of the angry conqueror who spoke with him face to face. No word of the Lord falls to the ground.
- Word refused. Surrender and live, with the city spared: Zedekiah had that offer, and fear of people made him refuse it.
- Word forgotten. A heart that sides with man against God's word loses that word when it is needed most.
- Word outrun. The night escape through the king's garden tried to outrun God's announced word. The Chaldeans held the city on every side.
- Word ahead of him. Ezekiel had named the darkness, the covered face, the spread net. The flight ran into a snare set long before.
- Word fulfilled. He met the conqueror face to face, then lost his eyes. He died in Babylon without ever seeing it. No word of the Lord falls to the ground.
And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and they took him, and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, unto Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he pronounced judgment upon him.
Jeremiah 39:5 ends a chase: Babylon's army catches Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, near Jericho. Two questions sit behind the bare report — why did he run at all, and whose sentence fell on him at Riblah?
Zedekiah had a promise that covered this exact moment, and he ran past it. One writer explains why.
It is solemn to see a spirit that has given in to man's thoughts against God's word. In the moment of greatest need it remembers so little of what might even then have helped city, people and prince. Had not the prophet given Zedekiah his word? If he went out to the king of Babylon's princes, he and his house would live, and the city would not be burned with fire. Sadly, this is one of the effects of the evil heart that turns away from the living God. It always seems to forget the word just when the word is most wanted. It only feels the word's force once it has taken up some new plan of its own, as disappointing as all the ones before it.
Riblah appears more than once in Judah's story. Foreign rulers used it to deal with Judah's captured kings.
A city in the land of Hamath. Pharaoh-nechoh imprisoned Jehoahaz there. From there the king of Babylon carried Zedekiah away, when he killed his sons and the priests and chief men of Judah.
Nebuchadnezzar pronounced the sentence, but the verdict was not his own. One writer traces how long the effect of it has lasted.
Nebuchadnezzar was only the executor of God's sentence. No son of David has since that time sat upon his throne… The foreigner has ruled them ever since. That rule will last until the true Heir comes — the next King of the house of David, the Lord Jesus. Until then they lie under the judgment of God.
Two earlier prophecies about Zedekiah look at first like they clash. This capture settles both.
Both prophets implied that he would be taken, even if he tried to escape, and both said he must go to Babylon. But Ezekiel predicted that he would not see it — Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans — though he would die there. Jeremiah predicted that his eyes would see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and that the king would speak with him face to face. To a superficial reader this might seem hard to reconcile, if not a contradiction. But such a thought would be only ignorance, not to speak of irreverence; for each of them gave out from God beforehand what the history of the case then made good. The Chaldeans pursued the fleeing king and overtook him before he crossed the Jordan. At Riblah, after judging the matter, the king of Babylon had Zedekiah's sons killed before their guilty father's eyes. He then put out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. So he did not see Babylon, though he went there; yet he did see the eyes of the angry conqueror who spoke with him face to face. No word of the Lord falls to the ground.
The sentence at Riblah had causes older than the flight. One writer lists them.
By breaking an oath sworn in God's name in front of the idol-worshipping nations, he showed them that he had no regard for the God he claimed to belong to. Chronicles records four reasons for the judgment of this king. He did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke to him on Jehovah's behalf; this was rebellion against the word of the Spirit of God. He revolted against Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against returning to Jehovah.
The same chapter follows two other men through the same fall of the city.
Jeremiah 39 shows us the capture of Jerusalem and the flight of Zedekiah. But they caught the king and brought him before the Chaldean conqueror — the thing he dreaded most of all. The king of Babylon, by contrast, cared for Jeremiah. And Ebed-melech was not forgotten.
- Word ignored. The prophet promised Zedekiah his life and a spared city if he surrendered. He ran instead, and that road ended at Riblah.
- Word despised. Four things stood against him: evil in God's sight, refusing to humble himself before the prophet, breaking an oath sworn in God's name, and a hard heart.
- Word executed. Nebuchadnezzar passed the sentence, but the sentence was God's. Since that day no son of David has sat on the throne.
- Word exact. He would see Babylon's king. He would never see Babylon. Riblah made both true. No word of the Lord falls to the ground.
- Word trusted. In the same collapse, the king of Babylon cared for Jeremiah, and Ebed-melech was not forgotten. The word that condemns the one who slights it shelters the one who leans on it.
And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah;
Jerusalem has fallen. The king who fled by night now stands before the conqueror at Riblah, a city north of the land, and hears his sentence. What happens there is not random cruelty. It carries out, to the letter, words two prophets spoke years earlier. It also raises a question: what becomes of David's throne once its last king is dragged away?
Jeremiah had told Zedekiah his eyes would meet the eyes of the king of Babylon. Ezekiel said Zedekiah would go to Babylon and never see it. The scene at Riblah shows how both were true.
To a shallow reader this might seem hard to reconcile, or even look like a contradiction. But such a thought would only be ignorance, not to say irreverence; for each prophet gave out from God beforehand what the history then made good. Pursuers overtook the fleeing king before he crossed the Jordan. At Riblah the king of Babylon judged the matter. He had Zedekiah's sons killed in front of their guilty father's eyes. Then he put out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him with chains and carried him to Babylon. So he did not see Babylon, though he went there; yet he did see the eyes of the angry conqueror who spoke with him face to face. No word of the Lord falls to the ground.
Nebuchadnezzar's cruelty to a beaten prisoner looks far worse than a failed revolt deserves. Commentators point to something deeper. Zedekiah had sworn loyalty in the name of the Lord.
Nebuchadnezzar took terrible vengeance on his helpless captive. The cause was perhaps not so much the rebellion of a vassal king as the guilt, the enormity, of breaking the oath he took in the name of Jehovah to obey Nebuchadnezzar. This wrongdoing filled up his cup. He made a covenant with the king of Babylon… so much so that Jehovah called it "my oath" and "my covenant." Afterwards he rebelled against the king that Jehovah had set over him, and sent to Egypt for horses and men. He despised the covenant and oath so solemnly taken, and so presented the name of the Holy One of Israel to the heathen king as nothing.
The offence was worse because the man who broke the oath bore God's name.
So Zedekiah's conduct made it impossible, from every point of view, for God to shield the guilty king and people any longer. It was all the less possible because they bore His name… if sin is always sin, it is least excusable where His word is known and His name is held up before men.
The prophet had offered Zedekiah a way out.
It is solemn to notice how little a spirit that has given in to man's thoughts against God's word remembers in the moment of greatest need. What it forgets might even then have saved city, people and prince alike. Had the prophet not assured Zedekiah that, if he went out to the king of Babylon's princes, he and his house would live, and the city would not be burned? One effect of the evil heart that turns away from the living God: it always seems to forget the word just when it is most needed. It feels the word's force only after it has taken up some new plan of its own, as disappointing as all the ones before. How bitter to remember too late that everything the heart clung to must be handed over to vengeance and the enemy. The ruin about to follow is the fruit of one's own folly.
With "all the nobles of Judah" dead beside the royal sons, what falls at Riblah is a throne, not just a family.
While David's throne stood, however feeble and contemptible its occupants might be, it was still "the throne of Jehovah." The last king, Zedekiah, brought on the ruin by his treachery… Now notice the words of Jehovah to him: "…Remove the diadem, and take off the crown… I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is, and I will give it Him." Ever since that day David's throne has lain in the dust.
David's line now ends in a blinded prisoner in Babylon.
Was God's promise overthrown? It was not. If the historical account of David's seed ended in complete failure, then another Seed of David must clearly come. He must come so that God's promise to David may be fulfilled. Certainly that Seed has come.
- Word — Two prophecies looked contradictory. Both came true at Riblah: no word of the Lord falls to the ground.
- Oath — Zedekiah swore by the Lord's name and then broke it. That made God's name look worthless to a heathen king, and the sentence fell hard.
- Warning — Surrender would have saved Zedekiah, his house and the city. A heart turned from God forgets the word just when it is needed most.
- Throne — The sons and nobles die, and David's throne falls. It has lain in the dust ever since — but only "until He come whose right it is."
- Seed — David's line ended in failure, so another Seed of David had to come — and that Seed has come.
and he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with chains of brass, to carry him to Babylon.
Judgment falls at last on Zedekiah, Judah's final king: he watches his sons die, loses his eyes, and goes to Babylon in chains. Why was the sentence so heavy, and does David's line end here?
The literal wording is harsher than most translations show:
He first watched his own children killed in front of him. Then his own eyes were "dug" out of their sockets. He was bound "with double chains of bronze" (2 Kings 25:7, literally), and led off to Babylon.
Two prophets had spoken about Zedekiah, and their words looked as if they clashed:
Both prophets said he must go to Babylon. But Ezekiel predicted that he would not see it, though he would die there. Jeremiah predicted that his eyes would see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and that the king would speak with him face to face. To a careless reader this might seem hard to reconcile, or even a contradiction. But such a thought would only show ignorance, and worse, a lack of reverence. Each prophet gave out from God beforehand what the events themselves then made good. The fugitive king was pursued and overtaken before he crossed the Jordan… So he did not see Babylon, though he went there. Yet he did see the eyes of the angry conqueror, who spoke with him face to face. No word of the Lord falls to the ground.
The king had broken more than a treaty:
The Lord charges the son of David then on the throne with treachery against Himself as well as against Nebuchadnezzar. He had violated his covenant with the Chaldeans, and this when it was sealed with the name of the Lord. And had it come to this, that the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar had more respect for the oath of the Lord than David's son, the king of Judah?
Zedekiah's blindness was physical at the end, but it began earlier:
It is solemn to see how little a heart that has given in to man's thoughts against God's word remembers. In the moment of greatest need it forgets what might even then have helped city and people and prince alike. Had not the prophet assured Zedekiah that, if he went out to the king of Babylon's princes, he and his house would live, and the city would not be burned? … How bitter to remember too late that everything the heart clung to must go to vengeance and the enemy. The destruction that soon follows is the fruit of one's own folly.
With those eyes went the crown:
While David's throne stood, however weak and unworthy its occupants were, it was still "the throne of the Lord." The last king, Zedekiah, brought on the ruin by his treachery… Now note the words of the Lord to him: "And you, O profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come… Remove the turban, and take off the crown… A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him" (Ezekiel 21:25-27). Ever since that day David's throne has lain in the dust.
One writer sees Zedekiah's darkness as a picture of his nation's, and of a hope beyond it:
The light was to become darkness. This section begins by speaking of Zedekiah's eyes (Jeremiah 34:1-3), and at the end it tells us that they were put out (Jeremiah 39:7)… Israel is blind. Darkness covers the people. They must await the coming again of the One who opens the eyes of the blind, and who opens the prison doors for those who, like Zedekiah, are bound in chains.
Commentators differ on what lay ahead for the blinded king himself. One reads it this way:
"Until I visit him" (Jeremiah 32:5) might suggest that he was set free in the end, but "till the day of his death" (Jeremiah 52:11) rules that out. It is better to take the words to mean that God in mercy would visit him with repentance and a true knowledge of Himself. How often God has used the stern hand of His government to break down the pride and rebellion of the heart, and through such a visit give the repentant soul the truest liberty of all — freedom from the bondage of sin. So his soul would be set free, though his body remained in bondage.
- Sight ignored. The prophet's word could have saved his house and his city. Zedekiah forgot it at the one moment it mattered.
- Sight forfeited. He swore loyalty in the name of the Lord and then broke it, so a pagan king looked more reverent than David's own son.
- Sight taken. His sons died in front of him, his own eyes were dug out, and he went to Babylon in double chains.
- Sight vindicated. He saw the eyes of Babylon's king, yet never saw Babylon. Both prophecies came true, for no word of the Lord falls to the ground.
- Sight restored. David's throne lies in the dust until the One comes to whom it belongs — the One who opens the eyes of the blind and the prison doors of the chained.
And the Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
This verse records Jerusalem's fall in three strokes: the palace burned, ordinary homes burned, and the walls pulled down. God had announced every one of these losses in advance, and He had even offered the king a way to escape the fire — so why did it happen anyway?
The burning was not a sudden turn of events:
When Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar and his armies came against Jerusalem and besieged it. They "burned the house of the LORD and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem… And all the army of the Chaldeans… broke down the walls around Jerusalem." This was God carrying out the judgment He had foretold long before, and long delayed in His patience.
The verse names not only the king's house but the homes of ordinary people. Years earlier God told Jeremiah why those houses would burn:
"The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger." … "For this city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I must remove it from my sight."
The fire need not have happened at all. One writer weighs what the king forgot:
It is solemn to notice how little a spirit that has given in to man's thoughts against God's word remembers. In the moment of greatest need it forgets what might even then have saved city, people and prince alike. Had not the prophet assured Zedekiah that if he went out to the king of Babylon's princes, he and his house would live, and the city would not be burned with fire? Sadly, this is one of the effects of an evil heart that turns from the living God. Such a heart always seems to forget the word just when it is needed most. It only feels the force of that word after it has taken up some new plan of its own, as disappointing as all the rest. How bitter to remember too late that everything the heart clung to must go to vengeance and the enemy. The destruction about to follow is the fruit of one's own foolishness.
The broken walls mark more than military defeat. With them, the centre of authority on earth changed hands:
Its walls were broken down; it had been laid waste. Jerusalem had ceased, for the present, to be the throne of the LORD. Government and power in the earth have been handed over to the Gentiles.
This new arrangement has a name:
The end of 2 Kings tells how Nebuchadnezzar's captain of the guard destroyed Solomon's temple. He levelled Jerusalem to the ground, broke down its walls and burned its palaces and houses. He deported all the Jews, leaving only a few of "the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen." It was then that the Times of the Gentiles began — the time when the Jewish nation came under Gentile rule.
Jerusalem's confidence rested on the building inside its walls. One writer names the mistake:
With Jerusalem it was very different. The temple of God was there, but the men of the city treated it as a kind of charm. They imagined it would protect them from the judgment God had long predicted, and which the prophet Jeremiah was now announcing. They refused God's testimony through the prophet and went on in their idolatry and violence, so the judgment of God fell on them.
The fire fell on the whole city, but God did not lose sight of the people in it:
Still, in the middle of all this scene of misery and wickedness we find some rare examples of righteous men. However terrible His judgment may be, God remembers them. His judgment is terrible because He is righteous. Ebed-melech, who delivered Jeremiah, is spared.
More was lost than the buildings this verse names, and the prophet who watched it wrote down his grief:
The temple is plundered and destroyed, and the people are taken captive to Babylon. Overwhelmed by these disasters, Jeremiah writes his "Lamentations".
- Foretold — God announced this fire long before He sent it, and His patience held it back a long time.
- Deserved — The homes that burned were the homes whose rooftops had carried offerings to other gods.
- Avoidable — God offered surrender with a promise that the city would not burn. The king let the offer go, and the ruin was the fruit of his own folly.
- Transferred — With the walls down, Jerusalem stopped being the seat of God's throne, and rule passed to Gentile hands.
- Remembered — In that wreckage God still spared righteous people. His judgment is terrible for the same reason it is exact: He is righteous.
And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive into Babylon the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had deserted to him, with the rest of the people that were left.
Jerusalem has fallen. Nebuzaradan, the captain of Nebuchadnezzar's guard, now marches the survivors of the city to Babylon, along with those who had already gone over to the Babylonian side. Commentators see in this one flat sentence the proof of everything Jeremiah had preached. They also ask why some went, why others stayed, and what God meant by both.
Jeremiah had warned that the city would fall. One writer reads the outcome as God's word coming true:
The Word of God comes true; the prophecy of Jeremiah is vindicated! Nebuchadnezzar's mighty army returned to the city. The siege went on for many months, with suffering beyond words. How horrible it must have been! Then the city fell and the victors rushed in; the work of slaughter and burning began.
Among those taken were people who had abandoned the city and given themselves up to the Babylonians. Jeremiah had told the city all along to stop fighting and accept the conqueror. One writer insists that this advice was not politics but the word of God:
But the question was, What had God said? God told His prophet Jeremiah that there was only one path of safety, and only one path of honouring Him: submit to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon might be very wicked. But God's people were wicked too. God handed them over to him as a judgment on their evil.
The same offer stayed open to those left in the land. What they did next shows what refusing it cost:
Still, even at this last hour, this remnant could have submitted to the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. Then peace would have reigned in the land, and these few who were left would have held it. But some revolt, and the rest fear what their foolishness will bring. There is no thought of trusting in the LORD. They ask Jeremiah for advice, but they refuse to obey the word of the LORD he gives them. They take refuge in Egypt to escape Nebuchadnezzar. There they fall by the sword that would have spared them in Judea.
The march to Babylon looked like the end of everything. One writer says God had a purpose in it, and he marks out two ways of meeting such a blow:
Jehovah meant their exile to be for their eventual good. This is a very important point. In a day of ruin faith always recognises the chastening of God and bows to it. Unbelief always resists, and treats its opposition as patriotism, or perhaps as religion. This is why the men of Judah saw Jeremiah as a very false Jew. He always advised them to submit to the king of Babylon. They thought themselves far better Jews, because they were willing to fight against the king of Babylon.
The officer carried off the remnant of the people, but he did not empty the land. One writer finds a quiet promise in the few who stayed:
Still, the clearing out was not complete. The poor were not missing from the land; some were left in it. Little as the foreigner thought it, they were a pledge of the return of a poor remnant. They were a pledge too of a nation yet to be poor in spirit, when God will bring back the captivity of His people, and Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad.
The choice of who stayed looks like a conqueror's calculation. One writer sees another hand behind it:
The poorest were allowed to stay, and they were treated with mercy. God remembers the poor and they are spared. For all we know, these poor people, who had nothing, were the godly ones. They wept over what was happening, and they cried to God for help. Their prayer, the prayer of the needy, was answered.
The same care reached Jeremiah himself, still shut up in prison:
And if the poor were remembered, the prophet too was treated with great kindness… Nebuzaradan found the great man of God in the prison. The princes had to come and take him from the prison house of humiliation. What an exaltation! He dwelt among the people. He cast his lot with the poor, who had nothing.
- Word. The deportation proves Jeremiah's message. What God said would happen, happened.
- Warning. Safety lay in the direction nobody wanted to go — surrender to Babylon. Those who took that road lived; those who fought their way out of it lost everything.
- Yoke. Faith bows to God's chastening and finds it meant for good. Unbelief resists, and calls that resistance loyalty.
- Poor. God left the poorest in the land and spared them. Jeremiah cast his lot with them.
- Pledge. God did not empty the land. The few left behind were a pledge of a restored people — poor in spirit, and glad.
But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard left [certain] of the people, the poor who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.
Jerusalem has fallen, and Babylon blinds the king, chains him, and marches the city into exile. Only the people who owned nothing are left behind — and the army that stripped the country bare hands them vineyards and fields.
The deportation was thorough, but not total. One commentator reads the survivors as a sign planted inside the disaster:
Still, the clearing out was not complete. The poor did not disappear from the land; some were left in it. Little as the foreign conqueror imagined it, they were a pledge of the return of a poor remnant. They were a pledge, too, of a nation that will yet be poor in spirit, when God brings back His people from captivity, and Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad.
Babylon had its own reasons, and kindness was not one of them. Another commentator names who the conqueror carried off, and why he left the rest:
More than this, Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive all the captains and mighty warriors, 10,000 of them, and all the craftsmen and metalworkers, one thousand. Only the poorest of the people remained. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make sure that Jerusalem could never rise to importance again.
Sparing the poor was not kindness. It was strategy.
Others see God's hand in the same event. One commentator even guesses who these penniless people may have been:
The poorest were allowed to remain, and they were treated with mercy. God remembers the poor and spares them. For all we know, these poor people, who had nothing, were the godly — those who wept over the conditions and cried to God for help. God answered their prayer, the prayer of the needy.
Note the hesitation — "for all we know." The text does not say they were godly; it says they were poor.
Nebuzaradan, the officer who handed out the fields, also went to the prison for Jeremiah. The same writer reads the two acts together:
The poor were remembered, and the prophet received great kindness too. The Babylonian king gave the order: "Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you." Nebuzaradan found the great man of God in the prison. The princes had to come and take him out of that prison house of humiliation. What a lifting up! He dwelt among the people. He cast his lot with the poor, who had nothing.
Jeremiah could have gone to Babylon with honour. He stayed with the landless.
Land does not make a heart new. Commentators differ here. One hopes the spared poor were the praying ones. Another follows their story into the later chapters and finds something bleaker:
In Jeremiah 40 to 44 we have the anarchy and moral disorder among the Jews left behind in the land or nearby, after most of their countrymen had gone to Babylon as captives. Jeremiah becomes their helper and brings them the word of the Lord. But he finds among them the greatest unbelief… Even the little remnant, the poor left in the land, among whom Jeremiah stayed, were full of jealousy, full of their own plans, full of treason, full of deceit and violence. God was not really in their thoughts.
The gift of vineyards was real. The change of heart was not yet.
- Stripped. Babylon carried off the soldiers, the craftsmen and the leaders. It kept "only the poorest of the people" so that Jerusalem could never rise again.
- Spared. The empire saw leftovers. One commentator sees mercy: "God remembers the poor and spares them." That these poor were the praying, weeping godly is offered as a guess, not a fact.
- Given. The people who owned nothing received vineyards and fields. In the ruin of a whole nation, the ones with least came out holding land.
- Joined. The conquering king freed Jeremiah and ordered him well treated. Jeremiah still "cast his lot with the poor, who had nothing," and stayed in the ruined land.
- Pledged. One commentator calls the poor left in the land "a pledge of the return of a poor remnant." Yet the later chapters show that remnant full of unbelief. Being spared and being changed are not the same thing.