Jeremiah 52:1-34

An Account Of The Taking And Destruction Of Jerusalem Which Is Then Followed By The Part Restoration Of The Davidic King (Jeremiah 52:1).

In this narrative, which on the whole is a repetition of 2 Kings 24:18 to 2 Kings 25:30, there appear to be certain emphases:

· King Zedekiah, and the people with him, ‘did what was evil in the sight of YHWH'. This phrase always indicates participation in idolatry and gross disobedience to the covenant. It explains all that follows (Jeremiah 52:2).

· YHWH was angry and was determined to cast them out of His presence (Jeremiah 52:3).

· King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon arrived with his army, besieged Jerusalem, bringing the people to starvation level, and thereby took it (Jeremiah 52:4).

· King Zedekiah was taken, and was blinded, having witnessed the execution of his sons, along with other dignitaries, after which he was taken to Babylon and was kept in prison until he died (Jeremiah 52:9).

· YHWH's House was burned down, along with the palace and all the great houses of Jerusalem, and the walls of Jerusalem were broken down (Jeremiah 52:13).

· The cream of the people were carried off to Babylon, whilst the poorest of the land (who would have been much more numerous) were left to tend the land (Jeremiah 52:15).

· All that was valuable in the house of YHWH was carried off to Babylon (Jeremiah 52:17).

· A number of dignitaries were executed, and the cream of the people were then carried off to Babylon. This latter fact is emphasised by an enumeration of people taken to exile in Babylon in three main exiles, something not included in the account in 2 Kings (24-30).

· Jehoiachin, the true Davidic king of Judah, is released from prison and raised to a position of honour in Babylon (31-34).

It will be seen that in a number of ways this narrative emphasises the fulfilment of the prophecies of Jeremiah, and explains why it was all necessary. The House of YHWH had been dishonoured and tainted by idolatrous worship and therefore had to be destroyed (Jeremiah 7:2; Jeremiah 26:6), and then time had to be allowed while it lay in ruins for the taint of dishonour to evaporate (time is required for ‘sanctifying'. Compare how when a man washed himself he was not clean ‘until the evening' e.g. Leviticus 15:16; Numbers 19:8). King Zedekiah and his associates had to be punished for the evil that they had done. The cream of the people had to share in that punishment as they had shared in the dishonour. They too were to be removed from the land so that it could be purified. But through it all YHWH would not forget His people or the Davidic house, something indicated by the restoration of Jehoiachin, giving hope for the fulfilment of Jeremiah's prophecies concerning the Davidic house (Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 30:9; Jeremiah 33:15; etc.).

We have, of course, no way of knowing when this narrative was added to Jeremiah's prophecies but it would appear that it was done in order to stress, at least in part, their historical fulfilment. Nor do we know what its source (and the source of the passage in 2 Kings) was. Only that it was ‘prophetic'. The restoration of Jehoiachin indicates a date after that event, which took place in around 562 BC. It is possible that it was Jeremiah himself who added it in his old age, especially if, as Jewish tradition suggests, he authored the book of Kings. Others suggest Baruch under Jeremiah's guidance.