What does Jeremias Chapter 52 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Dated siege, famine and capture precede royal imprisonment. Temple vessels and dimensions accompany city destruction. Exact deportation totals precede dated release and lifelong provision.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 52 recapitulates Sedecias’s reign: age twenty-one, eleven years, mother Amital daughter of Jeremias of Lobna, and evil like Joakim. Revolt accompanies wrath. Siege starts in year nine, month ten, day ten, with forts; it lasts to year eleven. Month four, day nine brings famine and no food, then breach and night flight by the garden gate between walls. The Chaldean army catches the king near Jericho while companions scatter. At Reblatha in Emath his sons die before him and Juda’s princes are slain. Blinding, fetters and Babylonian prison last until his death. This chapter’s ninth-day famine date must remain distinct from chapter 39’s fifth-day opening date without inventing harmonization.

In Nabuchodonosor’s nineteenth year, fifth month, tenth day, Nabuzardan comes. Temple, royal house and houses burn; walls fall. Some poor people are deported and some left as vinedressers and husbandmen. Bronze pillars, bases and sea are broken and taken, with caldrons, fleshhooks, psalteries, bowls, mortars, pitchers, censers, pots, basins, candlesticks and cups in stated metals. Two pillars, sea and twelve oxen have unweighed brass. Pillar height eighteen cubits, compass twelve, thickness four fingers and hollow interior accompany five-cubit capitals with network and pomegranates: ninety-six hanging and one hundred total.

Saraias, Sophonias, three entry-keepers, a military eunuch, seven near the king, a soldier-training scribe and sixty people are taken and executed at Reblatha. Deportations count 3,023 in year seven, 832 in year eighteen and 745 in year twenty-three, totaling 4,600. Joachin’s release occurs in captivity year thirty-seven, month twelve, day twenty-five, Evilmerodach’s first year. Kind words, a throne above other kings, changed prison clothes, bread before him and daily provision continue for life. Cavalry, bronze fetters, prominent citizens, a cash pension and an unconditional messianic guarantee are not supplied.

The story inside

Opening: Dated siege, famine and capture precede royal imprisonment. Development: Temple vessels and dimensions accompany city destruction. Conclusion: Exact deportation totals precede dated release and lifelong provision.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Dated siege, famine and capture precede royal imprisonment.
2
Temple vessels and dimensions accompany city destruction.
3
Exact deportation totals precede dated release and lifelong provision.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 89748–89768
52:2. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Joakim had done. 52:3. For the wrath of the Lord was against Jerusalem, and against Juda, till he cast them out from his presence: and Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon. 52:4. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and they besieged it, and built forts against it round about. 52:5. And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Sedecias. 52:6. And in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a famine overpowered the city: and there was no food for the people of the land. 52:7. And the city was broken up, and the men of war fled, and went out of the city in the night by the way of the gate that is between the two walls, and leadeth to the king’s garden, (the Chaldeans besieging the
Lines 89770–89782
wilderness. 52:8. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king: and they overtook Sedecias in the desert which is near Jericho: and all his companions were scattered from him. 52:9. And when they had taken the king, they carried him to the king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him. 52:10. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias before his eyes: and he slew all the princes of Juda in Reblatha.
Lines 89784–89814
and the king of Babylon brought him into Babylon, and he put him in prison till the day of his death. 52:12. And in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, the same is the nineteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan the general of the army, who stood before the king of Babylon in Jerusalem. 52:13. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burnt with fire. 52:14. And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the general broke down all the wall of Jerusalem round about. 52:15. But Nabuzardan the general carried away captives some of the poor people, and of the rest of the common sort who remained in the city, and of the fugitives that were fled over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. 52:16. But of the poor of the land, Nabuzardan the general left some for vinedressers, and for husbandmen. 52:17. The Chaldeans also broke in pieces the brazen pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass that was in the house of the Lord: and they carried all the brass of them to Babylon. 52:18. And they took the caldrons, and the fleshhooks, and the psalteries, and the bowls, and the little mortars, and all the brazen vessels that had been used in the ministry: and
Lines 89816–89831
pots, and the basins, and the candlesticks, and the mortars, and the cups: as many as were of gold, in gold: and as many as were of silver, in silver: 52:20. And the two pillars, and one sea, and twelve oxen of brass that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord: there was no weight of the brass of all these vessels. 52:21. And concerning the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high: and a cord of twelve cubits compassed it about: but the thickness thereof was four fingers, and it was hollow within. 52:22. And chapiters of brass were upon both: and the height of one chapiter was five cubits: and network, and pomegranates were upon the chapiters round about, all of brass. The same of the second pillar, and the pomegranates.
Lines 89833–89849
52:23. And there were ninety-six pomegranates hanging down: and the pomegranates being a hundred in all, were compassed with network. 52:24. And the general took Saraias the chief priest, and Sophonias the second priest, and the three keepers of the entry. 52:25. He also took out of the city one eunuch that was chief over the men of war: and seven men of them that were near the king’s person, that were found in the city: and a scribe, an officer of the army who exercised the young soldiers: and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city. 52:26. And Nabuzardan the general took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon, to Reblatha. 52:27. And the king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death in Reblatha, in the land of Emath: and Juda was carried away captive out
Lines 89851–89877
52:28. This is the people whom Nabuchodonosor carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews. 52:29. In the eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, eight hundred and thirty-two souls from Jerusalem. 52:30. In the three and twentieth year of Nabuchodonosor, Nabuzardan the general carried away of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five souls. So all the souls were four thousand six hundred. 52:31. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Joachin king of Juda, in the twelfth month, the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Joachin king of Juda, and brought him forth out of prison. 52:32. And he spoke kindly to him, and he set his throne above the thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon. 52:33. And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread before him always all the days of his life. 52:34. And for his diet a continual provision was allowed him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.