The Second Book of the Kings, commonly called the Fourth Book of the Kings
2 Kings 25
Chapter XXV · Vol. II, pp. 804–806
1 Jerusalem is again besieged. 4 Zedekiah taken, his sons slain, and his eyes put out. 8 Nebuzaradan defaceth the city, carrieth the remnant, except a few poor labourers, into captivity, 13 spoileth and carrieth away the treasures. 18 The nobles of Judah are slain at Riblah. 22 Gedaliah, who was set over the people that remained, being slain, the rest flee into Egypt. 27 Evil-merodach advanceth Jehoiachin in his court.
1 And it came to pass ain the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.1
A.M. 3414. B.C. 590.
a Je.39.1; 52.4. Eze.4.2; 24.1,2; iv. Le.26.25-31. De.28.52-57.
1 In this chapter we have a brief but graphic narrative of the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's temple. It is almost verbatim the same as Je. lii. The systematic student of Bible history ought also to read in connection Je.xxxix. with the whole book of Lamentations.—P.
3 And on the ninth day of the bfourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was cno bread for the people of the land.3
c Le.26.26. De.28.52,53. La.4.10. Eze.4.16,17; 6.3,12; 7.15,19; 14.13,21; 5.10. Je.37.21; 52.6.
3 Before the invention of gunpowder there were various military engines for the assault of city walls. Still the chief dependence was on a chain of forts, united by lines, called lines of circumvallation, by which means, by the process now called 'blockade,' cities were at length reduced by famine.—C.
4 And the city dwas broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden; (now the Chaldees were against the city round about;) and the king went the way toward the plain.4
d Je.39.2,3; 52.7; 5.10. De.28.25. Eze.12.12. 1 Sa.12.25.
4 'The king's garden' was south of Moriah, in the bed of the Kidron valley. The king and his chief men appear to have left the city by a postern, and to have fled down the glen toward the Jordan valley. They were not discovered till the morning; but they were then pursued and captured at Jericho.—P.
5 And the army of the Chaldees epursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army were scattered from him.
6 Sof they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.5
f Je.52.9,11. Eze.17.18.
5 Heb. spake judgment with him.
7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and gput out the eyes6 of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.7
g Heb. made blind, Je.32.5; 34.3. Eze.12.13. Ps.107.10,11.
6 This cruel practice is a common punishment of dethroned princes in the East, and is done to render them incapable of again ascending the throne. In Persia it is effected by passing a red-hot copper-plate close to the eyes, or with the point of a dagger.—I.
7 It was prophesied (Je.32.5; 34.3) that he should go to Babylon, and in Eze.12.13, that he should never see Babylon; and, by this cruelty of Nebuchadnezzar, the apparently contradictory prophecies were reconciled and fulfilled.—C.
8 And hin the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, (which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,) came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard,8 a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:
9 And ihe burnt the house of the 9LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.
i Je.7.14; 37.8; 17.27; 21.14; 52.13; 39.8. 2 Ch.36.19. Ps.79.1,2; 74.7,8. Eze.7.20,21; 15.6,7; 16.41; 20.47; 22.18-22; 24.4-14,21.
9 Solomon's temple, which, according to Usher, had now stood 424 years, 3 months, and 8 days.—C.
10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, kbrake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.
11 Now the lrest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away1 to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry away.
l Je.52.15,19; 39.9. ch.21.14.
1 Heb. fallen away.
12 But the captain of the guard left of mthe poor9 of the land to be vine-dressers and husbandmen.
m Je.39.10; xl.-xliv.
A.M. 3416. B.C. 588.
9 Sometimes poverty is a protection; they who own nothing have nothing to lose. The poor, formerly oppressed, have now liberty, while their oppressors are enslaved.—I.
13 And nthe pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.1
n ch.20.17. Je.27.21,22; 52.17-22. 1 Ki.7.15,23,27,47,50. 2 Ch.4.11-18.
1 This robbery of the house of the Lord, and this carrying away of his people into captivity, are here to be accurately noted, (1) as judgments against an apostatizing and idolatrous church; and (2) as instances of that reckless covetousness and cruelty, which, in due time, brought down the judgments of God against Babylon.—C.
14 And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass, wherewith they ministered, took they away.
15 And the ofire-pans, and the bowls, and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away.
16 The two pillars, one sea,2 and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels was without weight.
2 Heb. the one sea.
17 Thep height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits[≈ 8.2 m · 27 ft], and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits[≈ 1.4 m · 4 ft 6 in]; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these had the second pillar with wreathen work.
18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiahq the chief priest,3 and Zephaniah the secondr priest, and the three keepers of the door:4
19 And out of the city he took an officer5 that was set over the men of war, and five6 men of them that swere in the king's presence, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host,7 which mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the city:
5 Or, eunuch.
6 In Je.52.25 they are said to be seven, but this is no contradiction. Five were selected at first, and afterwards augmented to seven. C.—Probably they were no more than five at first; or perhaps Jeremiah reckoned, with the five, the officer that was set over the men of war, and the principal scribe of the host, mentioned here as two with the five; and thus made seven in the whole.—I.
s Heb. saw the king's face, Je.52.25.
7 Or, scribe of the captain of the host, i.e. the secretary of war.
20 And Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah:
21 And the king of Babylon tsmote them, and slew8 them at Riblah, in the land of Hamath. So uJudah was carried away out of their land.
8 Probably, as the chief instigators and leaders of the insurrection, and to strike the deeper terror into the inferior ranks of the people. C.—They were probably known as the favourites and counsellors of Zedekiah, and were put to death as accessories to his rebellion.—I.
u Je.25.9. Am.2.13-16; 5.27. De.28.36,64.
22 Andx as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.
23 And when all the ycaptains of the 9armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.
9 Leaders of the disjointed and independent bands of the Jews that arose after the reduction of Jerusalem.—C.
24 And 1Gedaliah zsware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, aFear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
1 He was anxious to promote the welfare of the people, by reconciling them to the Babylonian government.—I.
z Je.40.9. He.6.16. 2 Sa.14.11; 19.23.
a Je.27.12,17; 38.17,20.
25 But it came to pass in the bseventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal,2 came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at cMizpah.3
26 And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and dcame to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.
27 And eit came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year4 of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that fEvil-merodach5 king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;
e Je.52.31-34.
4 B.C. 562.
5 His proper name was Merodach, but the epithet Evil, i.e. foolish, was prefixed, probably because he was profligate and wicked.—(Prideaux.) He succeeded Nebuchadnezzar in the year 561 B.C., and reigned three years. He resumed his designs on the Medes, whose growing power he dreaded. His army was however routed, and himself slain, by Cyrus. He was succeeded by Belshazzar, in whose reign Babylon was taken by the same parties who had defeated his father.—I.
28 And he spake kindly6 to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings7 that were with him in Babylon;
6 Heb. good things with him.
7 In times and countries abounding with petty sovereignties, we need not be surprised to hear of many captive kings being congregated at Babylon. England, at a period comparatively modern, contained seven distinct kingdoms. Providence, by thus distinguishing the captive monarch of Judah, had the great end in view of drawing the attention of the Babylonian monarch to the revealed word and divine ordinances of Moses and the prophets, and of thus preparing the way for the development of those instructions and warnings which, through Babylon, continue to be still addressed by Daniel and other prophets, to the mighty kings and proud cities of the earth.—C.
29 And gchanged his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.
30 And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.
Notes
Reflections.—How dreadful are the fruits of sin in persons, cities, and nations! And fearful is the case of those in cities which are long besieged, or taken by force. But no contrivance for safety will at last avail them who have contemned the counsels of God. The final doom of impenitent sinners is to be bound with chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day! How terribly the ordinances of God suffer for the sin of their attendants! And woe to that city or kingdom from which they are removed! Dreadful is the universal overthrow that surely follows: and men of rank, in the time of such public calamities, are exposed to the most distinguished miseries, answerable to their distinguished influence in the sinful causes thereof. But observe here how exactly the threatenings of God by Moses and the prophets are now fulfilled. Notwithstanding Nebuchadnezzar's intentions, not a remnant of Jews is left in the land of Canaan: and yet, in the very midnight of their captivity, he grants them a token of their future deliverance.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.