2 Kings 25:8-17

VI. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM AND THE DEPORTATION OF THE JEWS 25:8-17

TRANSLATION

(8) And in the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, it being the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard the servant of the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem. (9) And he burned the house of the LORD and the house of the king and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burned with fire. (10) And all the army of the Chaldeans which was with the captain of the guard broke down the wall of Jerusalem round about. (11) And the rest of the people who remained in the city, both the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan carried away. (12) But the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land to cultivate vineyards and till the soil. (13) And the bronze pillars which were in the house of the LORD and the bases and the bronze sea which was in the house of the LORD the Chaldeans smashed, and they carried the bronze of them to Babylon. (14) And the ash pans and the shovels and the knives and the incense cups and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered they took. (15) And the small dishes and the bowls, those which were of gold in gold, and those which were of silver in silver, the captain of the guard took. (16) The two pillars, the one sea, the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the bronze of all these vessels was without weight. (17) Eighteen cubits high was the one pillar and the capital upon it was bronze; and the height of the capital was three cubits, and the wreathen work and pomegranates upon the captial round about all of bronze; and like unto this was the second pillar with wreathen work.

COMMENTS

Following the capitulation of Jerusalem, the Babylonian soldiers awaited further instructions concerning the fate of the city. A month after the successful breaching of the walls, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, arrived from Riblah with the orders of Nebuchadnezzar. The text of Kings and Jeremiah seem to be at variance as to the date that Nebuzaradan arrived at Jerusalem. According to the former account he arrived on the seventh day of the month, while in the latter it is said to have been the tenth day of the month (Jeremiah 52:12). The simplest solution is that Nebuzaradan arrived at Jerusalem on the seventh day and for some unexplained reason did not enter Jerusalem until the tenth day of the month.[689] The author adds the important chronological note that Jerusalem fell in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.[690]

[689] In the Hebrew the word Jerusalem has no preposition attached to it in 2 Kings 25:8 but has the preposition Beth in Jeremiah 52:12.

[690] Cf. Jeremiah 52:12. The nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, counting by the non-accession year method, would have begun in the spring of 587 B.C.

Nebuzaradan's orders were to destroy Jerusalem and prepare its inhabitants for deportation to Babylon. The entire city was burned, including the palace of the king, houses of the nobles, and the Temple itself (2 Kings 25:9). The Babylonians had no regard for the sacred precincts of conquered peoples. To prevent the city from ever again becoming a haven for rebels, the massive walls of Jerusalem were broken down (2 Kings 25:10).[691]

[691] Some commentators think that several massive portions of the wall may have been destroyed but not the entirety. However, the text gives the impression that the entire wall was destroyed.

The people who remained behind in Jerusalem when Zedekiah and the soldiers fled, and those who had deserted to the Babylonians during the course of the siege were ordered to prepare for deportation (2 Kings 25:11). Only the very poorest of the citizens were allowed to remain in the land (2 Kings 25:12). The Babylonians did not wish the area to lie waste, since it could then have paid no tribute.

Before setting fire to the Temple, the Babylonians had plundered that edifice of all its treasures. The giant pillars of bronzeJachin and Boazcast by Hiram under the directions of Solomon (1 Kings 7:15-22) were broken up to facilitate transportation to Babylon. The same applies to the ornate bases which Solomon had constructed for the portable lavers (cf. 1 Kings 7:27-37) as well as the mammoth laver called the sea of bronze (2 Kings 25:13). Bronze was of great value in this period, being used for vessels, arms and other implements. All of the smaller items of bronze which were used in the sacrificial ritual were also carried off by the Babylonians (2 Kings 25:14), along with what few vessels of gold and silver that still remained from the previous spoliations of the Temple in 605 and 597 B.C. (2 Kings 25:15).

Babylonian scribes usually noted the weight of all captured precious metals very carefully. But so much bronze was carried away by the conquerors that it was thought to be an impossible task to weigh it all (2 Kings 25:16). An enormous amount of bronze came from the two massive pillars, each of which was eighteen cubits (twenty-seven feet) tall and surmounted by a capital three cubits (4 1/2 feet)[692] tall, which was in turn decorated with a bronze wreathen work or network (2 Kings 25:17). An even more elaborate description of these pillars is given in Jeremiah 52:21.

[692] According to 1 Kings 7:16 and Jeremiah 52:22 the capitals were five cubits high. Perhaps the smaller figure represents the actual height of the capital above the pillar while the larger figure represents the total height of the capital including the part thereof that lapped over the top of the pillar.