2 Kings 25

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).[5]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century).[6][lower-alpha 1]

• 2 Kings 25:1–7: 2 Chronicles 36:15–21; Jeremiah 39:1–10[8]
• 2 Kings 25:8–17: Jeremiah 52:12–23[8]
• 2 Kings 25:18–21: Jeremiah 52:24–30[8]
• 2 Kings 25:22–24: Jeremiah 40:1–16[8]
• 2 Kings 25:25–26: Jeremiah 41:1–10[8]
• 2 Kings 25:27–40: Jeremiah 52:31–34[8]

And the city was 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.[12]

• Cross references: Jeremiah 39:4; Jeremiah 52:7; Ezekiel 12:12
• "The city was broken up": in Hebrew: "the city was breached".[13]
• "The king’s garden": mentioned in Nehemiah 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the City of David, which is in the southern part of the city near the Tyropoeon Valley (supported by the reference to the "two walls", that refers to the walls on the eastern and western hills).[14]
• "Plain" or "Arabah" (עֲרָבָה), the Jordan Valley;[15] also called "the rift valley", extending northward of the Dead Sea past Galilee and southward to the Gulf of Aqaba, here the "plain" specifically refers to the southern part of the Jordan Valley, which has access to cross the Jordan River to Moab or Ammon (Jeremiah 40:14; 41:15 mention that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians).[16]

And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.[17]

• Cross references: Jeremiah 39:7; Jeremiah 52:11
• Huey notes the fulfillment of two prophecies in this verse:[18]
  1. Zedekiah would see the king of Babylon and then be taken to Babylon (the prophecy recorded in Jeremiah 32:4–5; Jeremiah 34:3)
  2. Zedekiah would die in Babylon without being able to see that country (the prophecy recorded in Ezekiel 12:13)

And in the fifth month, on the 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:[19]

• "The fifth month, on seventh day": or the 7th of Av, was the start of the destruction of Jerusalem. According to the Talmud,[20] the actual destruction of the First Temple built by King Solomon began on the Ninth of Av (Tisha B'Av), and it continued to burn throughout the Tenth of Av (Jeremiah 52:12).[21] Gill interprets that Nebuzaradan departed from Riblah on the 7th and entered Jerusalem on the 10th.[22] The Talmud reads:

"On the seventh of Av, gentiles entered the Sanctuary, and on the seventh and the eighth they ate there and desecrated it, by engaging in acts of fornication. And on the ninth, adjacent to nightfall, they set fire to it, and it continuously burned the entire day, as it is stated: "Woe unto us, for the day has declined, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out" (Jeremiah 6:4).[23]

• "Nebuzaradan" (2 Kings 25:8, 11, 20; Jeremiah 52:30; Jeremiah 39:9,11, 40:2, 5): mentioned (as Nabuzeriddinam or Nabû-zēr-iddin) in a Babylonian cuneiform inscription known as Nebuchadnezzar II's Prism (column 3, line 36 of prism EŞ 7834, in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum).[24]

But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah.[27]

The assassination of Gedaliah was commemorated in Fast of Gedalia, one of the fast days lamenting the fall of Jerusalem (Zechariah 8:19).[28]

And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of 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[30]

• "Seven and thirtieth year": This is 26 years after the destruction of Jerusalem.[31] Jehoiachin would have been 55 years old when he was pardoned (cf. 2 Kings 24:8, 12).[32] Clay tablets discovered in the site of ancient Babylon provide information about the provision he received from the Babylonian administrators.[33] According to Thiele's chronology, the date of Jehoiachin's release from prison was 2 April 561 BCE.[34][35] Book of Jeremiah 52:31 records that Evil-Merodach ordered the release on the 25th day, but the physical release happened on the 27th.[22][36]

A 6th-century clay tablet listing rations for King Jehoiachin and his sons, captives in Babylon, written in Akkadian language in cuneiform script.

And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.[37]

In the parallel verse Jeremiah 52:34, there are words "until the day he died" before "all the days of his life".[38]

• "Rate": "ration", "portion", "provision" or "allowance".[39] Tablets from the royal archives of Nebuchadnezzar II king of Babylon (dated 6th century BC) were unearthed in the ruins of Babylon near the Ishtar Gate that contain food rations paid to captives and craftsmen who lived in and around the city, and two of the tablets (now called "Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets") mentions "Ya’u-kīnu, king of the land of Yahudu", who is identified with Jeconiah, king of Judah,[40] along with his five sons listed as royal princes.[41]