Everyone is quick to note this final chapter is a verbatim copy from 2 Kings 24:18 and verses following. It is included here for the obvious reason of pointing out Jeremiah's prophecies came true. However, Jeremiah adds a few details not found elsewhere.
In the minds of most Judeans, Jehoiachin was the legitimate king, though taken as hostage to Babylon after only a few months on the throne. Thus, his uncle Zedekiah is viewed merely as a regent, but his biographical details are entered in the registry of Kings. We are told how the siege progressed for some eighteen months, until the wall was breeched. That night Zedekiah, his closest advisers and bodyguard, all fled down the Kidron Valley through an inconspicuous gate near the King's Garden, situated between an old inner wall and a newer outer one. The Kidron runs down to the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, where there was space to move north and cross the Jordan. Somewhere there in the Plains of Jordan just north of the Dead Sea, the Babylonian pursuit caught up with them. Zedekiah's bodyguard fled, which puts both them and him in a bad light.
He was marched north to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar maintained his personal field headquarters for the pacification of this whole region. The punishment for Zedekiah's crime of insubordination was to see his retainers and children all executed. It was the last thing he saw, as his eyes were then put out. He survived the march to Babylon, but died in prison. Next, a few priests who aided in leading his revolt, plus their guards, were also executed, and the Temple was plundered. Finally, it and every other building of any significance in Jerusalem was burned. That is, all the wood work framing was burned, and the stonework would collapse.
Then Jeremiah fills us in on the deportation statistics. We are reminded numerical precision is not important in Hebrew literature, as the words for numbers had other meanings. The means of accounting for dating and estimations of head counts would normally vary with the perspective of the one telling the story. No one reading from a Hebrew mindset would be concerned, because context is everything. Numerical precision was simply not important, as we count such things, but the meaning of the facts is what matters. Thus, we see there were three deportations. The first was around 605 BC, and there might be any number of reasons why Jeremiah counts but a third of those reported in 2 Kings 24:12-16, but the context and choice of words would be more obvious to someone living in those times. Perhaps Jeremiah simply reports those who survived the long trip, versus how many began it.
The second deportation was when Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC. The group taken to Babylon was quite small by comparison. The third deportation is not reported anywhere else in Scripture, and matches well with a response to Gedaliah's assassination. In the end, Jehoiachin was rehabilitated, and treated like the client king he was by the successor to Nebuchadnezzar.
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By Ed Hurst
03 February 2011
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