Jeremiah 39

Chapter 39

39:2 [And] in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth [day] of the month, the city was broken ^a up.

(a) The gates and walls were broken down.

39:4 And it came to pass, when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went out of the city by night, by the way of the kings garden, by the ^b gate between the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.

(b) Which was a postern door, read ( 2 Kings 25:4 ).

39:5 But the Chaldeans army pursued them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to ^c Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.

(c) Which is called Antioch in Syria.

39:10 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the ^d poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

(d) For the rich and the mighty who put their trust in their shifts and means, were by Gods just judgments most rigorously handled.

39:12 Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do to him ^e even as he shall say to thee.

(e) Thus God preserved his prophet by his means, whom he made the scourge to punish the king, and them that were his enemies.

39:14 Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him to ^f Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.

(f) Whom the king of Babel had now appointed governor over the rest of the Jews that he left behind.

39:18 For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prize to thee: because thou ^g hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.

(g) Thus God recompensed his zeal and favour which he showed to his prophet in his troubles.