Ver. 1. In the tenth month, the tenth day of the month.] This was revealed to Ezekiel in Babylon. (Ezekiel 24:1) And although this day of the tenth month was by the law appointed for a day of expiation or atonement, (Leviticus 16:29-31) yet now “an end was come, the end was come, it watched against them, behold, it was come, an evil, an only evil was come, was come,” as Ezekiel hath it. (Ezekiel 7:5,6) This the poor captives afterward bewailed in their anniversary fast on this day kept. (Zechariah 8:19) And they built forts against it round about.] Of the greatness of this army environing so great a city, see Jeremiah 34:1.
Ver. 2. Unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.] Which was a full year and half; yet so as that the siege was raised for a time by the coming of Pharaohhophra, that broken reed, as Ezekiel styleth him, whereunto there was no trusting; and so it proved: for he came into the field like thunder and lightning, but went out like a snuff. (Jeremiah 37:5,11)
Ver. 3. The famine prevailed in the city.] Insomuch as that the fathers did eat their sons, and the sons their fathers. (Ezekiel 5:10 Lamentations 4:10) The pestilence also prevailed at the same time. (Jeremiah 21:6,7 24:10)
Ver. 4. And the city was broken up] By the besiegers, who had seized upon the middle gate. (Jeremiah 39:3) Cajetan holdeth that it was broken up by the citizens, that by the breach they might escape. Hunger, we say, breaketh through stone walls. And all the men of war…fled.] This word “fled” is not in the text, but supplied from Jeremiah 39:4 ut intelligamus fugam fuisse praecipitem, saith Vatablus, to set forth the hastiness and headlongness of their flight: but in fleeing from death they fled to it. By night.] All this was foretold. (Ezekiel 12:12) By the way towards the plain.] By a way underground, say the Hebrews, into which the secret gate led them: by a deep valley between mountains, saith Josephus. Now the Chaldees.] See on 2 Kings 25:1. Crebris ictibus arietum. -Vat. φευδοθυρον.
Ver. 5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued.] Insequuti sunt regem, et assecuti sunt eum. And all his army was scattered from him.] To shift for their lives, as man is a life-loving creature.
Ver. 6. To Riblah.] A city of Syria, which was afterwards called Apamia; as the Jerusalem Paraphrast on Numbers 34:11 showeth. And they gave judgment upon him.] They, by public sentence, pronounced him perfidious, and perjured—see Ezekiel 17:18, -and dealt with him accordingly. Rabbi Solomon undertaketh to tell us how they rated him, and in what terms.
Ver. 7. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah.] Who were, likely, taken with him, and consenting to his rebellion. Before his eyes.] To his greater grief. The like befell Mauricius, the emperor, a better man. And put out the eyes of Zedekiah.] The eyes of whose mind had been put out long before; else he might have foreseen and prevented this evil—as prevision is the best means of prevention, -had he taken warning by what was foretold. (Jeremiah 32:4 34:3 Ezekiel 12:13) The Dutchmen have a proverb, When God intends to destroy a man, he first puts out his eyes. This punishment of putting out the eyes of an enemy, was practised by the Philistines upon Samson; by Irene, the empress, upon her son Constantinus Copronymus; by our Henry I upon his brother Robert, duke of Normandy; by Amidas, king of Tunis, upon his own father Muleasses; by Amurath VI, king of Turks, upon his wife’s brethren, the two young Servian princes, Gregory and Stephen, whose eyes he cruelly burnt out with a bason made red hot; a common unmerciful practice among the Turks. Josephus Turk. Hist., 262.
Ver. 8. And in the fifth month.] In memory whereof the poor captives in Babylon kept a yearly fast. (Zechariah 7:3) And on the seventh day of the month.] Jeremiah hath it, on the tenth day, (Jeremiah 52:12 39:8) on the Sabbath day; till when, this profane person haply did, on purpose, defer the burning of the city and temple. Lydiat thinketh that he set fire to them on the seventh day, and burned them down on the tenth. Nebuzaradan captain of the guard.] Praefectus laniorum; master of the butchers or slaughtermen; so his swordmen seem to be called for their bloody cruelty.
Ver. 9. And he burnt the house of the Lord.] Which had now stood about four hundred and fifty years. With this house were burnt, say some ancients, all the copies of the holy Scriptures; but that is not likely.
Ver. 10. And all the army of the Chaldees.] Hic lege, et luge. Those of the captivity bewailed the destruction of Jerusalem by an annual fast. (Zechariah 7:5 Psalms 137) The Jews at this day, when they build a house, leave one part of it unfinished, in remembrance that Jerusalem and the temple lie desolate. At least they leave about a yard square of the house unplastered, on which they write in great letters, Si oblitus fuero, Ierusalem, ” If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning”; or else these words, Zecher lechorban, The memory of the desolation. Leo Modena.
Ver. 11. Now the rest of the people.] Who were eight hundred and thirty-two persons. (Jeremiah 40:1 52:29)
Ver. 12. Left of the poor of the land.] Who would be rather a burden than a benefit to the Chaldees; fruges consmere nati; but in Jewry might do some service. De populo tenuissimos, quibus nihil erat quicquam, reliquit. And yet of these poor ones also; about four or five years after this, were carried away seven hundred and forty-five persons; that so the land might enjoy her Sabbath. (2 Chronicles 36:20,21 Jeremiah 52:30) And here ended those before prophesied three hundred and ninety years of Israel’s iniquity; and those forty years of Judah’s. (Ezekiel 4:5,6)
Ver. 13. And the pillars of brass.] The ornaments of the temple and instruments of God’s service were all carried away, as had been foretold. (Jeremiah 27:21,22) But it befell Jeremiah, as the poets feign of Cassandra, that he spake truth, but could not be believed. And carried the brass.] It being very fine brass. (1 Kings 7:15)
Ver. 14. Took they away.] Unbroken, as being small, portable, and useful.
Ver. 15. And such things as were of gold, in gold.] These Chaldees were not of the mind of those Medes, “who regarded not gold, and as for silver, they delighted not in it.” (Isaiah 13:17) But it proved more fatal and pernicious to them, than that gold of Tholouse once did to the Roman plunderers.
Ver. 16. Was without weight,] i.e., Without certain or known weight. Which to prove, it is added,
Ver. 17. The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits.] The height evinceth the weight; immensum erat pondus; such as was that of the Turks’ great ordinance used against the Rhodes, drawn by thirty-eight yoke of oxen, and fitly called the basilisk. Turk. Hist.
Ver. 18. And the captain of the guard took Seraiah, &c.] These likely were fired out of those secret corners of the temple where they lay hid. Our chroniclers tell us that William the Conqueror, firing the city Mentz or Mayence in France, consumed a fair church there, in the walls whereof was enclosed an anchoret—-Stow saith two—who might, but would not escape, holding it a breach of his religious vow to forsake his cell in that distress. Other histories tell us, that at the last destruction of Jerusalem, certain Jews who had taken sanctuary in the temple, came forth when it was on fire, and besought the Emperor Titus to give them quarter for their lives: but he refused so to do; giving this for a reason, which indeed was no reason, Ye deserve not to live, who will not die with the downfall of your temple. And Zephaniah the second priest.] The high priest’s great deputy or suffragan; who, upon any extraordinary occasion or occurrent restraining or disabling the high priest, was to supply his place. Speed, 447.
Ver. 19. That was set over the men of war.] Lieutenant-general, likely, to General Sophar. (Jeremiah 25) And five men of them.] Jeremiah saith seven men; two of them, perhaps, were less considerable, or taken at another time.
Ver. 20. And Nebuzaradan captain of the guard.] Praefectus rerum capitalium, say the Tigurines. See 2 Kings 25:8.
Ver. 22. Over them he made Gedaliah ruler.] A pious, prudent, and meek-spirited man, cut down by envy, that sharp-ranged malignity, which none can stand before. (Proverbs 27:4) Josephus saith he was ετιεικης και δικαιος, a moderate and just man.
Ver. 23. And when all the captains of the army.] Palantes per agros, qui dispersi fuerant; those, likely, that were scattered from Zedekiah. (2 Kings 25:5)
Ver. 24. Dwell in the land, and serve.] The Arabians have a good proverb, Os quod in sorte tua cediderit, rodas, Be content with your condition; and if you cannot bring your estate to your mind, bring your mind to your estate.
Ver. 25. Of the seed royal.] He therefore disdained that Gedaliah, a meaner man, was made governor. Self-love and envy teach men to turn the glass to see themselves bigger and others lesser than they are. And smote Gedaliah.] Treacherously at a feast. (Jeremiah 41:2) And slew him.] Hereof Gedaliah had warning, but would not take it. (Jeremiah 40:13,14) The like is reported of Julius Caesar, of the duke of Guise in France, and others. And the Jews and the Chaldees, &c.] All these he massacred; being thereunto incited by Baalis king of the Ammonites, with whom this bloody villain had kept himself out of the storm during the siege of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 40:14)
Ver. 26. And came to Egypt.] Their rendezvous was at Bethlehem; where when the prophet Jeremiah had forbidden them from God to go to Egypt upon pain of utter destruction, they nevertheless would needlessly go, and did: taking along with them also Jeremiah and Baruch. (Jeremiah 43:4) “ Ah quoties docta plus valet arte malum! ” Jeremiah, though their prisoner, ceased not to reprove them in Egypt for their obstinacy and idolatry, and to foretell their destruction: for the which his ungrateful countrymen stoned him to death, as other histories report. Hoc fuit διδακτρον, saith one. This was the reward that that faithful servant of God received for his one and forty years’ pains taken amongst them.
Ver. 27. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year.] This was a long while to be held prisoner; but yet he had his life preserved—now, “a living dog is better than a dead lion”—and his eyes—-which benefit Zedekiah was deprived of; and at length this high preferment: so little is there lost by doing or suffering aught for God’s sake; whose retributions are more than bountiful. Those “good figs” that were carried captive with him, had their share also, no doubt, in his comforts, though nothing be said of it. On the seven and twentieth day of the month.] On the five and twentieth day he was released, (Jeremiah 52:31) and on the seven and twentieth advanced. That Evilmerodach king of Babylon.] Nebuchadnezzar’s son and successor. The Rabbis tell us that, his father returning to his right mind, after that he had for seven years’ space been turned a-grazing among the beasts of the field, cast Evilmerodach into the same prison with Jehoiachin, who told him his case, and thereby found this favour with him. They tell us further, that this Evilmerodach, in way of revenge, drew his father’s dead body out of the grave, cut it in pieces, burned it to ashes, parted the ashes, put them in several purses, bound them to four eagles necks, and caused them to fly to the four quarters of the world. See for this, Isaiah 14:19,20. Others tell us, that his courtiers called him Evilmerodach, that is, Foolmerodach, because he was so kind to Jehoiachin and his people. So they afterwards called Constantine the Great Pupillus, for his courtesy and bounty to the Christians.
Ver. 28. And he spake kindly to him.] Heb., Good things with him: he both spake and did for him such good things as he little expected; but far better digested than Arthur L. Lisle did King Henry VIII’s courtesy; by whom having been cast into the Tower for suspicion of treason, he was afterwards not only acquitted, but comforted with such good words, besides a rich ring sent unto him off his own finger, that at the hearing thereof, a sudden joy overcharged his heart: and was so immoderately received, that the same night it made an end of his life. Speed, 896.
Ver. 29. And changed his prison garments.] The like whereto befell Joseph, whose fetters one hour changed into a chain of gold, his rags into robes, his stocks into a chariot, his jail into a palace. So God turned again the captivity of Job, as the streams in the south. So Queen Elizabeth, after long restraint, was exalted from misery to majesty, from a prisoner to a princess, &c. “ Accidit in puncto quod non speratur in anno. ”
Ver. 30. And his allowance was a continual allowance.] So is or might be every true believers’ portion: who should therefore “eat his bread with joy, and drink his wine with cheerfulness all the days of his life,” which are not to be numbered by the hours, but measured by spiritual mirth; as moneys are not by tale, but by value. All the days of his life.] Evilmerodach reigned little more than two years; being treacherously slain by Neriglissorus, his own sister’s husband; as Berosus, cited by Josephus, writeth: and some hold it probable from this text, that Jechoniah also died about the same time, being seven and fifty years of age. Rer. Chaldaic., lib. xxx. Lib. i., cont. Apion. Soli Deo Gloria