Commentaria in IV Regum
Chapter Twenty-five. Synopsis of the Chapter
Nabuchodonosor takes Jerusalem; he carries Sedecias, blinded, with the people into Babylon, and burns the temple.
1. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came, he and all his army, to Jerusalem, and they encamped round about it; and they built forts round about it. 2. And the city was shut up and besieged until the eleventh year of king Sedecias, 3. On the ninth day of the month; and a famine prevailed in the city, neither was there bread for the people of the land. 4. And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled in the night, by the way of the gate, which is between the two walls, to the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were besieging the city round about), and Sedecias fled by the way that leadeth to the plains of the wilderness. 5. And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plain of Jericho; and all the men of war that were with him were scattered, and left him. 6. So they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon in Reblatha; and he spoke judgment with him. 7. And the sons of Sedecias he slew before his eyes, and he put out his eyes, and bound him with chains, and brought him to Babylon. 8. In the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, the same is the nineteenth year of the king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan the general of the army, the servant of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem. 9. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burnt with fire. 10. And the whole army of the Chaldeans, which was with the captain of the soldiers, broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about. 11. And the rest of the people who remained in the city, and the deserters who had fled over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, Nabuzardan the general of the army carried away. 12. And of the poor of the land he left vine-dressers and husbandmen. 13. And the Chaldeans broke the brazen pillars that were in the temple of the Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon. 14. And the brazen pots, and the fleshhooks, and the forks, and the cups, and the mortars, and all the brazen vessels that they ministered with, they took away. 15. The general of the army took also the censers and the bowls, such as were of gold, as gold, and such as were of silver, as silver: 16. That is, the two pillars, the one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made in the temple of the Lord: there was no weight of the brass of all the vessels. 17. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high; and the brazen capital upon it was three cubits high; and the network and pomegranates upon the capital of the pillar, all of brass; the second pillar also had the like ornament. 18. And the general of the army took also Saraias the first priest, and Sophonias the second priest, and the three door keepers. 19. And out of the city one eunuch, who was captain over the men of war; and five men of them that stood before the king, whom he found in the city; and Sopher the captain of the army, who exercised the new soldiers of the people of the land; and threescore men of the common people, that were found in the city. 20. These Nabuzardan the general took, and brought to the king of Babylon to Reblatha. 21. And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Reblatha in the land of Emath, and Juda was carried away out of their land. 22. And over the people that were left in the land of Juda, whom Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had left, he set Godolias the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan. 23. And when all the captains of the soldiers, they and the men that were with them, heard that the king of Babylon had made Godolias governor, they came to Godolias to Maspha, Ismahel the son of Nathanias, and Johanan the son of Caree, and Saraias the son of Thanehumeth the Netophathite, and Jezonias the son of Maachati, they and their companions. 24. And Godolias swore to them and to their companions, saying: Fear not to serve the Chaldeans: stay in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. 25. But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ismahel the son of Nathanias the son of Elisama of the royal seed came, and ten men with him, and struck Godolias, and he died; and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him in Maspha. 26. And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the soldiers, rising up, came into Egypt, fearing the Chaldeans. 27. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Joachin king of Juda, in the twelfth month, the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Joachin king of Juda out of prison. 28. And he spoke kindly to him, and he set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. 29. And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread always in his sight all the days of his life. 30. And he appointed him a continual allowance, which was also given him by the king every day, all the days of his life.
This chapter is exactly the same as the last chapter of Jeremias, where I explained it: for Jeremias was present at this whole disaster, and tried to prevent it, as is plain from his prophecies, but in vain. See Abulensis here, last Question, who combines the singular series of the prophecies of Jeremias with the series of the deeds of these kings. See also the chronological table which I prefixed to Jeremias.
4. THE CITY WAS BROKEN UP,—namely by the frequent blows of the enemy’s battering rams, whence the citizens fled out of it by a hidden way and exit. So Abulensis and Vatablus, although Cajetan would have it that the wall was broken by the citizens themselves, that they might escape through the breach.
6. HE SPOKE JUDGMENT WITH HIM,—that is, he pleaded the case with him in judgment, and justly condemned him, saying: You broke the faith given to me and rebelled; you therefore justly deserve to be blinded by me. Rabbi Solomon adds other things, but fables in his own manner.
8. ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF THE MONTH.—Jeremias, last chapter, has “the tenth day”: both are reconciled thus, that on the seventh day he came to Jerusalem, but on the tenth burned the temple. So Cajetan. Or rather on the seventh day he departed from Reblatha, where Nabuchodonosor was, and on the tenth day (for the journey is three days), he came to Jerusalem.