Jeremiah 52:1 - Meaning and Application

This account begins with the start of Zedekiah’s reign, even though two deportations had already happened, one in Jehoiakim’s fourth year and one in Jeconiah’s first year. It may have been written by some of those taken away with Zedekiah, as a shameful reminder to themselves. They had hoped they would escape captivity after their fellow countrymen, and had comforted themselves with that false hope for a long time.

Here we see God’s just anger against Judah and Jerusalem for their sin, as shown in verse 3. His wrath rose so high that he decided to drive them out from his presence. This was his favorable, gracious presence, like a father telling a stubborn son to leave his sight when he is deeply offended. He cast them out of the good land that had shown his presence through daily care, and out of the holy city and temple that had shown his presence in covenant love.

Those who are shut out from God’s ordinances have reason to say they are, in some sense, cast out from his presence. Yet no one is removed from his gracious presence unless sin has already driven them away from it. Because of that, we should fear this result of sin more than anything else, as David did when he prayed, “Do not cast me away from your presence” (Psalm 51:11).

We also see Zedekiah’s poor rule, which God allowed because he was angry with the people, and then punished because he was angry with Zedekiah. Zedekiah was already grown when he became king, only twenty-one years old (Jeremiah 52:1). He was not one of the worst kings, since we do not read of his idol worship, but the Bible still says he did evil in the Lord’s sight, because he failed to do the good he should have done.

The evil that especially brought on this destruction was his rebellion against the king of Babylon. It was both sinful and foolish, and it brought ruin on his people in every sense. God was deeply displeased with his treacherous dealing with Babylon, as Ezekiel explains (Ezekiel 17:15 and following). And because God was angry with Judah and Jerusalem, he let Zedekiah follow his own bad judgment, and that choice proved fatal to him and to his kingdom.

Next we read of the Chaldeans, that is, the Babylonians, finally taking Jerusalem after an eighteen-month siege. They surrounded the city in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, in the tenth month (Jeremiah 52:4), and captured it in the eleventh year, in the fourth month (Jeremiah 52:6). While the Jews were in exile, they marked these stages of ruin with fasts, one in the fourth month and one in the tenth (Zechariah 8:19). The fast in the fifth month remembered the burning of the temple, and the fast in the seventh remembered the murder of Gedaliah.

We can imagine, though not fully picture, how miserable Jerusalem was during that year and a half. Supply lines were cut off, enemy attacks kept coming, and the people, stubbornly refusing to surrender, could only wait in fear for judgment to fall. What finally broke their resistance was famine in the city (Jeremiah 52:6). There was no bread for the people, so the soldiers could not hold their positions and became helpless. Then it is no surprise that the city was broken open (Jeremiah 52:7).

Walls cannot stand for long without men to defend them, and men cannot stand without walls. But even both together cannot protect a people without God’s care and protection. The outward strength of a city is nothing if God has withdrawn his help.

We also see the shameful escape of the king and his mighty men. They slipped out of the city by night (Jeremiah 52:7) and fled as best they could, though they were not sure where they were going. The king was caught in the plains of Jericho, his guards were scattered, and the rest of his army fled from him (Jeremiah 52:8). His fear was not needless, because no one can escape God’s judgments. They will come upon sinners and overtake them wherever they run (Deuteronomy 28:15), especially the judgments already foretold here (Jeremiah 51:52, Jeremiah 51:53).

Finally, we come to the sad sentence passed on Zedekiah by the king of Babylon, and carried out at once. He treated Zedekiah as a rebel and judged him (Jeremiah 51:9). It is heartbreaking to think that a king of Judah, a king from David’s line, should be brought before a pagan king like a criminal. Yet he had not humbled himself before Jeremiah the prophet, so God humbled him in this way.

The Babylonian king carried out his sentence cruelly. Zedekiah’s sons were killed before his eyes, along with all the princes of Judah (Jeremiah 52:10). Then his eyes were put out, he was bound in chains, and taken in triumph to Babylon. He may even have been mocked there, as Samson was mocked after his eyes were put out. At any rate, he spent the rest of his life in prison, in darkness and misery, seeing no more daylight. Jeremiah had warned him many times about where this would lead, but he would not listen when warning could still have helped him.