Jeremiah 39 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
586 BC (some date it 587 BC), the eleventh year of Zedekiah, when Jerusalem fell after roughly eighteen months of siege
Location
Jerusalem, then the escape route down toward the Jordan valley near Jericho, and the Babylonian military headquarters at Riblah in what is now Syria
Audience
Judeans and exiles who had lived through or heard of the fall of the city, needing an account of what actually happened
Situation
The city wall is breached, Babylonian officers take their seats in the Middle Gate, and Zedekiah flees by night but is captured near Jericho. His sons are killed in front of him, he is blinded and taken to Babylon in chains, the city and palace are burned, and Jeremiah is released and told that Ebed-Melech will be spared.
Key Background
Babylonian practice was to make a conquered rebel king watch his heirs die and then blind him, which ended the royal line's future while keeping the king alive as a display of imperial power. Officers taking seats in a captured city's gate was a formal act, since the gate was where legal judgments were given, so the scene announces that Babylon now holds the courts of Jerusalem. Empires of this period deliberately left the poorest farmers on the land and deported the skilled and wealthy, which is why the chapter notes vineyards and fields being handed to people who had owned nothing.
In the ninth year of king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army and to it.
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, on the ninth day of the fourth month, the city wall was
Then all the of the king of Babylon came in and took their seats at the Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim the chief officer, Nergal-sharezer the high-ranking official, and all the rest of the king of Babylon's
When Zedekiah king of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they fled. They left the city at night through the going out by the gate between the two walls, and headed toward the
But the Babylonian army chased after them and caught Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. They seized him and brought him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at in the territory of Hamath, where Nebuchadnezzar on him.
There at Riblah, the king of Babylon Zedekiah's sons right in front of him. He also all the leading men of Judah.
Then he out Zedekiah's bound him in and took him to Babylon.
The Babylonians to the royal palace and the houses of the people, and they tore down the walls of Jerusalem.
Nebuzaradan, the of the deported to Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, along with those who had to him, and everyone else who was left.
But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the who owned nothing. He gave them vineyards and fields that same day.
Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given specific orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard:
"Find him, look after him, and don't harm him in any way. Whatever he asks for, do it for him."
So Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard, along with Nebushazban the chief officer, Nergal-sharezer the high-ranking official, and all the other senior officers of the king of Babylon —
they sent for Jeremiah and had him taken out of the of the They handed him over to of the of Shaphan, to take him home. And so he stayed among the people.
While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, a message from Yahweh had come to him:
"Go and tell the This is what Yahweh, of the God of Israel says — Pay attention: I am about to bring my words against this city into reality — for disaster, not for good. And when that day comes, you will see it happen right in front of you.
But I will you on that day — this is Yahweh's You will not be handed over to the men you are afraid of.
I will certainly You will not be killed, because you in me — this is Yahweh's declaration."