25:1 And it came to pass in the a ninth year of his reign, in
the b 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.
(a) That is, of Zedekiah.
(b) Which the Hebrews call Teber, and it contains part of
December and part of January.
25:3 And on the ninth [day] of the [fourth] month the famine c
prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the
people of the land.
(c) So much that the mothers ate their children,
(La 4:10).
25:4 And the city was broken up, and all the men of war [fled]
by night by the way of the d 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.
(d) Which was a back door, or some secret gate to leave by.
25:6 So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of
Babylon to Riblah; and they e gave judgment upon him.
(e) Or, condemned him for his perjury and treason,
(2Ch 36:13).
25:8 And in the fifth month, on the f seventh [day] of the
month, which [is] the nineteenth year of king
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain
of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto
Jerusalem:
(f) Jeremiah writes in (Jer 52:12) the tenth day,
because the fire continued from the seventh day to the
tenth.
25:11 Now the rest of the people [that were] left in the city,
and the fugitives that g fell away to the king of
Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away.
(g) While the siege endured.
25:14 And the h pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and
the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they
ministered, took they away.
25:18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief
priest, and Zephaniah the i second priest, and the three
keepers of the door:
(i) That is, one appointed to act in the place of the high
priest, if he were sick or otherwise detained.
25:19 And out of the city he took an officer that was set over
the men of war, and k five men of them that were in the
king's presence, which were found in the city, and the
principal scribe of the host, which mustered the people of
the land, and threescore men of the people of the land
[that were] found in the city:
(k) Jeremiah makes mention of seven but here he speaks of
those who were the chiefest.
25:24 And Gedaliah l sware to them, and to their men, and said
unto them, Fear 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.
(l) That is, he exhorted them in the Name of the Lord,
according to Jeremiah's counsel, to submit themselves
to Nebuchadnezzar, seeing it was the revealed will of
the Lord.
25:26 And all the people, both small and great, and the captains
of the armies, arose, and came to m Egypt: for they were
afraid of the Chaldees.
(m) Contrary to Jeremiah's counsel in Jeremiah 40-42.
25:27 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the
captivity of n Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth
month, on the seven and twentieth [day] of the month,
[that] Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year that he
began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of
Judah out of prison;
(n) This long were he, his wife and his children in
Babylon, whom Nebuchadnezzar's son after his father's
death preferred to honour: thus by God's providence
the seed of David was preserved even to Christ.
25:30 And his o allowance [was] a continual allowance given
him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days
of his life.
