Jeremiah 52 is an historical appendix to the Book of Jeremiah, giving details of the capture of Babylon additional to those contained in Jeremiah 39: The last words of the foregoing chapter affirm that Jeremiah was not the author, and the view adopted by most commentators is, that this chapter is ta... [ Continue Reading ]
IT - i. e., Zedekiah’s evil doing. PRESENCE, THAT ZEDEKIAH - Or, punctuate; “presence. And Zedekiah” etc.... [ Continue Reading ]
BROKEN UP ... THE PLAIN - Or, “broken into ... the Arabah” Deuteronomy 1:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
PUT HIM IN PRISON ... - Not found in 2 Kings, for in the contemporaneous history what befell Zedekiah at Riblah would alone be known. It was no doubt added by the same hand which inserted the account of the deportations to Babylon.... [ Continue Reading ]
SERVED - The word implies high office.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOUSES OF THE GREAT - Rather, every great house; i. e., the larger houses only.... [ Continue Reading ]
CERTAIN OF THE POOR OF THE PEOPLE, AND - Omit (as in 2 Kings 25:11), being inserted through some confusion with Jeremiah 52:16. MULTITUDE - Possibly workmen. The object of Nebuchadnezzar was to people Babylon, not with paupers, but with men of a better class, artisans and workmen, who would enrich... [ Continue Reading ]
HUSBANDMEN - Men who tilled little plots of ground with the mattock.... [ Continue Reading ]
TWELVE BRASEN BULLS THAT WERE UNDER - Omitted in 2 Kings and in Jeremiah 27:19. Probably rightly, for what is said here of their being under the bases is a mistake. The bases were under the ten lavers. The Septuagint makes sense by translating it: “the twelve brasen bulls under the sea.”... [ Continue Reading ]
The fillet means a measuring line; the pillars were 12 cubits, i. e., 18 feet, in circumference, and thus the diameter would be 5 feet 9 inches. As the brass was four fingers, i. e., scarcely four inches thick, the hollow center would be more than five feet in diameter.... [ Continue Reading ]
ON A SIDE - The 96 were toward the four winds, 24 toward the north, 24 toward the east, and so on. Add one at each corner, and the whole 100 is made up.... [ Continue Reading ]
AN EUNUCH ... MEN OF WAR - Or, who had charge of men of war. The King James Version makes him commander-in-chief; he was second in command, i. e., a lieutenant, possibly one among many others of equal rank.... [ Continue Reading ]
SEVENTH YEAR - The suggestion is now generally received, that the word ten has dropped out before seven, and that the deportations mentioned here are all connected with the final war against Zedekiah. The calculation of Nebuchadnezzars reign is different from that used elsewhere, showing that the wr... [ Continue Reading ]