Jeremiah 39:1-3

III. THE PROPHET CONFIRMED Jeremiah 39:1-18

For years Jeremiah had been preaching that Jerusalem would fall to the enemy from the north, the Chaldeans. Only through national submission to Nebuchadnezzar the servant of the Lord was there any hope of deliverance. Because of this message Jeremiah had suffered. He had been ridiculed, condemned as a false prophet, tortured, accused of treason, buffeted, harassed, imprisoned. On more than one occasion he nearly lost his life. Yet he never ceased to preach. He never compromised his message. Chapter 39 relates the confirmation of Jeremiah as a prophet. All of which he had warned and threatened came to pass. No longer could there be any doubt in the mind of anyone. Jeremiah was a man of God speaking forth the revelations he had received from the one true God.

The fall of Jerusalem to the Chaldeans was one of the monumental events of Old Testament history. The account here in chapter 39 is one of four accounts of the events surrounding the fall of the city, the others being found in 2 Kings 25, 2 Kings 25 and 2 Chronicles 36. Naturally all these accounts should be studied together for the complete picture. The narrative in chapter 39 may be divided into four paragraphs: the collapse of the city (Jeremiah 39:1-3); the capture of the king (Jeremiah 39:4-7); the captivity of the people (Jeremiah 39:8-10); and the command of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 39:11-14).

It should, perhaps, be noted that the genuineness of the greater part of chapter 39 has been called into question. Jeremiah 39:4-13 are omitted in the Septuagint (Greek) version of Jeremiah. But the Septuagint of Jeremiah has all the appearance of being a translation of an abridged version of the book. Perhaps in that abridged version this section was omitted because the same material is repeated in more detail in chapter 52. In this case the absence of this passage from the Septuagint is not a very weighty argument against its genuineness. The same can be said for the alleged contradictions found in this passage. These will be treated in the comments which follow.

A. The Collapse of the City Jeremiah 39:1-3

TRANSLATION

(1) In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all of his army against Jerusalem to besiege it. (2) On the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the city was breached (3) and all the princes of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar, Nebosarsechim the Rab-saris, Nergalsharezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.

COMMENTS

The siege of Jerusalem had begun in the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, i.e., in January 588 B.C. (Jeremiah 39:1). The siege was brought to a successful conclusion in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, i.e., July 587 B.C. What a fateful day that was when the city was broken up, i.e., a breach was made in the walls (Jeremiah 39:2). It was a day commemorated by fasting for nearly seventy years (Zechariah 7:3; Zechariah 8:19). After eighteen long, weary months during much of which time the people in Jerusalem were at the point of starvation, the city had fallen. All that was left for the Chaldeans to do was to storm the upper part of Jerusalem where the remnant of the Judean army was holding out. Nebuchadnezzar himself was not present when the city fell. After defeating Pharaoh Hophra a few months earlier the great king had gone about 200 miles north of Jerusalem to the Syrian town of Riblah where he made his military headquarters. The final conquest of Jerusalem and the other military operations in the area were left in the hands of his subordinates.

As soon as the outer areas of Jerusalem had fallen the Chaldeans established a military government for the city. The administrative headquarters was set up at the middle gate, perhaps a gate in the wall that separated the upper and lower parts of the city. Three or possibly four Chaldean officers of that provisional government are named in Jeremiah 39:3. First is Nergal-sharezer whose name means may Nergal protect the king. The next name which appears in the King James Version is Samgar-nebo. There is quite some difference of opinion about this name. The present writer concurs with most modern scholars in connecting the nebo element with the next name. But what is to be done with Samgar? It has been taken to be (1) the name of a second official, (2) the name of the town from which Nergal-sharezer hailed, or (3) the official title of Nergal-sharezer. At the present time it is best to be non-committal on the meaning of the word Samgar and await further information from the ancient Near East, Nebo-sarsechim is the third officer named. He occupied the office of Rab-saris. The final officer is another Nergal-sharezer who occupied the office of Rabmag. From archaeological evidence it is now known that Rab-saris and Rab-mag were titles of high ranking military or diplomatic officials but their exact functions are unknown.[333] One of the Nergal-sharezers[334] mentioned in this verse is probably the same fellow by that name who succeeded the son of Nebuchadnezzar on the throne of Babylon in 560 B.C. He is more commonly known by his Greek name, Neriglissar. These three or four officials administered martial law upon the city until the arrival of Nebuzaradan, the captain of the garrison force, who came about a month after the breach was made in the walls (Jeremiah 52:12).

[333] The literal translation of the titles, chief of eunuchs and chief soothsayer does not do justice to the importance of these men.
[334] Bright, (op. cit., p. 243) contends that the two Nergalsharezers mentioned here are the same person.