ToES Diary December 2018

Details of the end of the siege of Jerusalem in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah:

No food left in the city by ninth day of fourth month (2 Kings 25:3; Jeremiah 52:6).

Habakkuk 1:10 suggests method of defeat of the city also: “At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.”

Jeremiah 33:4 also: “For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defence against the siege mounds and against the sword”.

Whatever the method, a breach was made in the city (2 Kings 25:4) on the day given above (Jeremiah 39:2; 52:7).

Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate (or the middle of the gate) (Jeremiah 39:3). See later notes about these officials.

All the men of war fled through gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, dodged the Chaldean army still around the city and ran towards the Arabah (2 Kings 25:4; Jeremiah 52:7). In other words, the people in the city were left without any protection at all.

Chaldeans pursued and captured the king in the plains of Jericho and all the army ran away (2 Kings 25:5-6; Jeremiah 52:8).

Zedekiah taken to Riblah to Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:6; Jeremiah 52:9).

After the army of Judah had run away, the Chaldean army would have worked their way through the city and Jeremiah’s prophecies are horrifying.

To simplify events, assume there would be fires in places, but not wholesale burning until later.

Topheth was to be the Valley of Slaughter (Jeremiah 19:6-7). Assume at other end of city from the breach and that everyone had run there and could run no further and were systematically slaughtered. Also used for burying because there was nowhere else to bury (Jeremiah 7:32). Dead bodies will be food for birds and beasts with no-one to frighten them away (Jeremiah 7:33; 19:7) – no-one left alive. In particular, this was to happen to those who had promised to let their servant go and then taken them back again (Jeremiah 34:19-20). The dead will not be lamented (Jeremiah 16:4, 7). Dead bodies left near their idols and their altars destroyed (Ezekiel 6:4-7).

Jewish traditions

There are also many ideas from Jewish traditions about the terrible events, including the suggestion that the blood of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada was boiling on the pavement of the temple. Nebuzaradan tried to appease him by killing 940,000 people and then the blood stopped boiling and sank into the ground. Millions more killed inside and outside the city.

Nebuchadnezzar’s officers

There are differences of opinion on the names and titles of Nebuchadnezzar’s officers who met in the Middle Gate or the middle of the gate. For example, two editions of the ESV are different in their translation of this part of Jeremiah 39:3.

ESV (2001): Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, with all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.

ESV (2011): Nergal-sar-ezer of Samgar, Nebu-sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, with all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.

Still others suggest that Nergal-sar-ezer was the Samgar-Nebo (keeper/priest of Nebo). I have chosen to accept the ESV (2001) translation in this case since I do not know what is correct and nobody else seems to be able to convince everybody else about any translation.