17The Chaldeans broke up the bronze columns of the House of the LORD, the stands, and the bronze tank that was in the House of the LORD; and they carried all the bronze away to Babylon. 18They also took the pails, scrapers, snuffers, sprinkling bowls, ladles, and all the other bronze vessels used in the service. 19The chief of the guards took whatever was of gold and whatever was of silver: basins, fire pans, sprinkling bowls, pails, lampstands, ladles, and jars. 20The two columns, the one tank and the twelve bronze oxen which supported it, and the stands, which King Solomon had provided for the House of the LORD—all these objects contained bronze beyond weighing. 21As for the columns, each was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference; it was hollow, and [the metal] was four fingers thick. 22It had a bronze capital above it; the height of each capital was five cubits, and there was a meshwork [decorated] with pomegranates about the capital, all made of bronze; and so for the second column, also with pomegranates. 23There were ninety-six pomegranates b-facing outward;-b all the pomegranates around the meshwork amounted to one hundred.
24The chief of the guards also took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the deputy priest, and the three guardians of the threshold. 25And from the city he took a eunuch who was in command of the soldiers; seven royal privy councilors, who were present in the city; the scribe of the army commander, who was in charge of mustering the people of the land; and sixty of the common people who were inside the city. 26Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27The king of Babylon had them struck down and put to death at Riblah, in the region of Hamath.
Thus Judah was exiled from its land. 28This is the number of those whom Nebuchadrezzar exiled in the seventh year: 3,023 Judeans. 29In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, 832 persons [were exiled] from Jerusalem. 30And in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, exiled 745 Judeans. The total amounted to 4,600 persons.
31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year he became king, g-took note of-g King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. 32He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a throne above those of other kings who were with him in Babylon. 33He removed his prison garments and [Jehoiachin] ate regularly in his presence the rest of his life. 34A regular allotment of food was given him by order of the king of Babylon, an allotment for each day, to the day of his death—all the days of his life.
a Heb. shaqed.
b Heb. shoqed.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d I.e., against Jerusalem and Judah.
e Lit. “the people of the land.”
a Lit. “shepherds”; cf. 3.15; 23.1 ff.
b Cities in Egypt. The Egyptians, like the Assyrians, will prove a disappointment; cf. v. 36.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d-d Lit. “that is what your forsaking the LORD your God is doing to you.”
e For the form, cf. shaqqamti, Judg. 5.7; others “1.”
f Following the kethib; qere “transgress.”
g I.e., of Hinnom; cf. 7.31–32; 32.35.
h I.e., other gods.
i In which case there might have been an excuse for killing them; cf. Exod. 22.1.
j-j A gesture of wild grief; cf. 2 Sam. 13.19
a Cf. Deut. 24.1–4.
b Lit. “Arab.”
c Lit. “forehead.”
d Cf. Akkadian parallels nadāaru and sham&aamacr;aru.
e-e Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
f She deserted her God for idols of stone and wood.
g Lit. “ways.”
h Meaning of Heb. ba’alti uncertain; compare 31.32.
i I.e., Israel and Judah.
j-j I.e., the pagan rites celebrated on the hills are futile; exact force of Heb. uncertain.
k Heb. Bosheth, a contemptuous substitute for Baal.
a-a I.e., profess the worship of the LORD.
b Heb. “him.”
c Lit. “circumcise”; cf. Deut. 10.16 and 30.6.
d-d Septuagint reads “And they shall say.”
e-e Lit. “the daughter that is My people”; so, frequently, in poetry.
f I.e., the invader of v. 7.
g Lit. “entrails.”
h-h Lit. “you, O my being, hear.” Change of vocalization yields “I hear the blare of horns, / My inner being, alarms of war.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b Lit. “rows.”
c-c Or “Not He”; cf. Deut. 32.39; Isa. 43.13.
d Heb. “you.”
e-e Emendation yields “Whose mouths.”
f-f Some ancient versions read “have transgressed My words for evil.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Understanding yado as in Ps. 95.7.
c-c Lit. “Consecrate.”
d-d Emendation yields “She is the city of falseness.”
c-c Emendation yields “Glean” (singular).
f The prophet speaks.
g I.e., prophets.
h-h Lit. “Daughter that is My people”; so, frequently, in poetry. See 4.11 and note.
i-i See note at Lev. 19.16.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Change of vocalization yields “dwell with you”; so Aquila and Vulgate.
b See note at Deut. 11.28.
c I.e., the mother goddess (Ishtar, Astarte) in whose honor these cakes were baked.
d Heb. “you.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain; change of vocalization yields “Their fruit harvest has been gathered in.”
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Here God is speaking.
a-a See note at Lev. 19.16.
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c Lit. “They abandoned.”
d-d Force of Heb. uncertain.
e-e I.e., their minds are blocked to God’s commandments.
a-a Emendation yields “the objects that the nations fear.”
b Heb. “them.”
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d This verse is in Aramaic.
e-e Lit. “At the sound of His making.”
f-f Emendation yields “have to leave.”
g I.e., rulers; cf. note at 2.8.
a I.e., the terms of the covenant.
b Lit. “at.”
c I.e., the punishments prescribed for violation.
d Lit. “towns.”
e See note at 3.24.
f-f Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “Who does such vile deeds? / Can your treacheries be canceled by sacral flesh / That you exult while performing your evil deeds?”
g Emendation yields “burned.”
h Or “sap.”
a Lit. “be in the right.”
b Septuagint reads “ways.”
c God here replies to Jeremiah’s plea in vv. 1–3.
d-d Some Septuagint mss. read “not secure.”
e Lit. “possession”; the land as well as the people, as is clear in v. 14.
f-f Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
g-g Heb. “He has.”
h-h Or “incorporated into.”
a Or “the Euphrates”; cf. “Parah,” Josh. 18.23.
b-b I.e., most of Judah has been annexed by an alien people.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
d Heb. “them.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Lit. “the maiden daughter, My people.”
c-c Lit. “the sicknesses of.”
a-a Lit. “stand before Me,” as Jeremiah is doing now; cf. 18.20.
b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Moved up from v. 12 for clarity.
d-d Emendation yields “He shall shatter iron—iron and bronze!”
e-e Lit. “Do not take me away.”
a Lit. “religious gathering.”
b So a few mss. Most mss. and editions read “to them.”
c Lit. “mourning.”
d See note to Isa. 65.7.
e I.e., their lifeless idols.
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “Surely the horns of their altars / Are as a memorial against them.”
b-b Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
c-c Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “Your hand must let go.”
d Or “tamarisk”; exact meaning of Heb. uncertain.
e Lit. “Me.”
f Lit. “inscribed”; meaning of line uncertain.
g-g Exact force of Heb. uncertain. Emendation yields “urged you to [bring] misfortune.”
h Or “merchandise.”
a-a So some mss. and one early edition. Most mss. and editions read “And if the vessel that he was making with clay in the potter’s hands was spoiled.”
b The same Hebrew word as is used above for “potter.”
c Meaning of verse uncertain; cf. 2.13, 17.13.
d These actions were performed at the sight of ruin to ward off a like fate from the observer; cf. Lam. 2.15.
e-e Change of vocalization yields “I will show them [My] back and not [My] face.”
f Cf. 20.10.
g-g Emendation yields “my case.”
a-a Others “by way of the Potsherd Gate”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b See note at Deut. 11.28.
c Lit. “empty,” Heb. u-baqqothi, a play on baqbuq, “jug” in v. 1.
d See note at 18.16.
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b I.e., “Terror all around”; cf. v. 10.
c Emendation yields “day.”
a-a Lit. “he shall have his life as booty.”
b-b Force of Heb. uncertain.
c Perhaps a reference to the royal palace; cf. 1 Kings 7.2.
a I.e., Josiah; see 2 Kings 23.29–30.
b-b I.e., the king called by his throne name Jehoahaz in 2 Kings 23.31 ff., and by his private name Shallum here in v. 11 and in 1 Chron. 3.15.
c-c I.e., he was content with the simple necessities of life.
d-d Or “That is the reward for heeding Me.”
e-e They shall express neither sorrow at the loss of a relative nor grief at the death of a ruler.
f Israel is addressed.
g Change of vocalization yields “paramours.”
h-h Septuagint reads “How you will groan.”
i-i Heb. “If Coniah … were …”; Coniah (Jeconiah in 24.1) is identical with Jehoiachin, 2 Kings 24.8 ff.
a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b A few Heb. mss. and Septuagint read “these.”
c-c Lit. “Their running is wickedness, I Their straining is iniquity.”
d Change of vocalization yields “announce it”; cf. vv. 22, 28.
e-e This section constitutes the word of God to which Jeremiah refers.
f I.e., pronouncement; cf. Isa. 13.1, 15.1, etc., where the word rendered “pronouncement” can also mean “burden.”
g-g Septuagint and other versions read “You are the burden!”
h-h Some Heb. mss., Septuagint, and other versions read “lift you up,” a word from the same root as “burden.”
a I.e., a standard by which men curse; cf. Gen. 12.2 and note; Zech. 8.13.
a I.e., idols.
b Cf. note at
