Jeremiah 52:6

_SO THE CITY WAS BESIEGED UNTO THE ELEVENTH YEAR OF KING ZEDEKIAH._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-11 This fruit of sin we should pray against above any thing; Cast me not away from thy presence, Psalms 51:11. None are cast out of God's presence but those who by sin have first thrown themselves out. Zedekiah's flight was in vain, for there is no escaping the judgments of God; they come upon the sinner, and overtake him, let him flee where he will....

Verse Jeremiah 52:6. _AND IN THE FOURTH MONTH_] Jeremiah 39:1, c. The _fourth_ month answers nearly to our July....

EXPOSITION The contents of this chapter prove that it is not an independent narrative, but the concluding part of a history of the kings of Judah. It agrees almost word for word with 2 Kings 24:18-12, from which we are justified in inferring that it is taken from the historical work which the editor of the Books of Kings closely followed. It is most improbable that Jeremiah was the author. Would the prophet have contented himself with the meagre statement that Zedekiah "did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord" (verse 2), or with such a summary description of the siege of Jerusalem? Apparently the editor who attached Jeremiah 52:1. as an appendix to the Book of Jeremiah omitted the account of Gedaliah (preserved in...

AND IN THE FOURTH MONTH, IN THE NINTH [DAY] OF THE MONTH,.... The month Tammuz o, which answers to part of June and part of July; hence the fast of the fourth month, for the taking of the city, Zechariah 8:19; THE FAMINE WAS SORE IN THE CITY, SO THAT THERE WAS NO BREAD FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND; for the common people; though there might be some in the king's palace, and in the houses of princes and noblemen, and officers of the army; yet none for the soldiers, and the meaner sort of people; who therefore were disheartened and enfeebled, that they could not defend the city, or hold out any longer: the famine had been before this time, but was now increased to a prodigious degree, so that the people had no bread to eat; see Jeremiah 38:9. o T. Bab. Roshhashana, fol. 18. 2

FOURTH MONTH That is, July....

CHAPTER S 50-51 BABYLON These two final Chapter s contain a great prophecy concerning Babylon, her overthrow and doom. The fifty-first chapter closes with the statement “thus far are the words of Jeremiah.” There is a direct statement that Jeremiah wrote all these words. We find it at the close of Jeremiah 51:59. “Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.” It would be a brazen infidelity which says Jeremiah did not write all these words. Yet the almost universally accepted view of the critics is that these Chapter s cannot be the work of Jeremiah. The German infidel, Professor Eichhorn, the man who coined the phrase “higher criticism,” started this denial; Kuenen, Budde and others have followed in his steps. Others have modified this radical view and concede the possibility that Jeremiah may have b

JEREMIAH 52. HISTORICAL APPENDIX. This is taken from 2 Kings 24:18 ff., and gives an account of the capture of Jerusalem, etc., in 586, _i.e._ of the fulfilment of Jeremiah's repeated declarations. Except for Jeremiah 52:28, this chapter has been taken, virtually verbatim, from its source, which should be consulted for the commentary (see _mgg.)._ The differences of text are of minor importance, _e.g._ the addition here of Jeremiah 52:10 b, and the last clause of Jeremiah 52:11, the reading tenth, for seventh (2 Kings 25:7)

THE FAMINE. Described in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. See note on Genesis 12:10....

_In the fourth month_ In memory of this date also, a fast was appointed (Zechariah 8:19). The numeral, which was dropped out of the Kgs. narrative, here survives. _famine_ described in detail in Lamentations (Jeremiah 2:19 f., Jeremiah 4:3 ff., Jeremiah 5:10). Cp. Ezekiel 4:16 f., Jeremiah 5:16 f. _the people of the land_ the poorer classes, who had taken refuge in Jerusalem, or who dwelt there....