The City Taken
1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and besieged it. 2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. 3 All the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate: Nergal Sharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim the Rabsaris, Nergal Sharezer the Rabmag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon. 4 When Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, then they fled and went out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. When they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he pronounced judgment on him. 6 Then the king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons in Riblah before his eyes. The king of Babylon also killed all the nobles of Judah. 7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. 8 The Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the people’s houses with fire and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters also who fell away to him, and the rest of the people who remained. 10 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. 11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon commanded Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard concerning Jeremiah, saying, 12 “Take him and take care of him. Do him no harm; but do to him even as he tells you.” 13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushazban, Rabsaris, and Nergal Sharezer, Rabmag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon 14 sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard, and committed him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should bring him home. So he lived among the people. 15 Now Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the guard, saying, 16 “Go, and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will bring my words on this city for evil, and not for good; and they will be accomplished before you in that day. 17 But I will deliver you in that day,” says Yahweh; “and you will not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. 18 For I will surely save you. You won’t fall by the sword, but you will escape with your life, because you have put your trust in me,” says Yahweh.’”
The wall is breached and foreign officers sit down in the gate, which is the exact picture Jeremiah was shown in the first chapter of the book.
The fall is reported like a dispatch: ninth year, tenth month, the siege begins; eleventh year, fourth month, ninth day, a breach is made. Eighteen months of encirclement in two verses, and no theology attached to either. Then the Babylonian commanders come in and sat in the middle gate. They are listed by name and title. That sentence is the payoff of the vision Jeremiah received forty years earlier, in which the kingdoms of the north would come and each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem Jeremiah 1:15. The gate was where Judah's own elders had heard cases. Other men are sitting in it now.
Zedekiah's flight is recorded without drama: out by night through the garden gate between the two walls, toward the Arabah. So is its end. He is overtaken in the plains of Jericho and brought to Riblah for sentencing. His sons are killed in front of him and then his eyes are put out, so that the death of his children is the last thing he sees. He had been told he would speak with the king of Babylon face to face and see his eyes Jeremiah 34:3. Another prophet in Babylon had said of the same man that he would be brought there and yet would not see it Ezekiel 12:13. Both statements were made in advance, and both turned out to be exactly true.
What happens to the population is stated with one surprise in it. The rest of the people are deported, deserters included — and Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. The only people in the whole book who receive land are the ones who had never owned any. A book that has spent forty chapters on kings, priests, prophets and princes ends its account of the city with landless men being handed vineyards by a foreign officer.
Jeremiah is released on the direct order of Nebuchadnezzar: take him, do him no harm, do for him whatever he asks. He is handed over to Gedaliah, whose father and grandfather had both protected him. The irony is complete and the book does not point at it. The man his own kings imprisoned for treason is given his freedom by the enemy they accused him of serving. And the chapter closes with a word given to Ebedmelech while Jeremiah was still shut up. He will not fall by the sword. He will escape with his life. The reason is stated in five words that are said of nobody else in the book — because you have put your trust in me — and the man they are said to is an African slave in a Judean palace.
settled What this mark means