Jeremiah 52:12 - Meaning and Application

This tells us about the terrible damage the Chaldean army caused a month after Jerusalem was captured, under Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, that is, the army commander in this action. In the margin, he is called the chief of the slaughter-men, or executioners. Soldiers are, in effect, men of slaughter, and God uses them to carry out his judgment on a sinful people.

Nebuzaradan was the head of those soldiers, but in what he did, he seems to have had no regard for God. He served the king of Babylon and his own plans when he came into Jerusalem, right into the heart of it, as the captain of the slaughter-men there. First, he burned the temple after taking everything valuable from it. He set fire to the house of the Lord, that holy and beautiful house where their fathers had praised him (Isaiah 64:11).

He also burned the royal palace, probably the one Solomon had built after the temple, which had been the king’s house ever since. He burned all the houses of Jerusalem, meaning all the houses of the great men, or at least those in view here. If any homes escaped, they were only poor little cottages left for the poor people of the land.

He broke down all the walls of Jerusalem, as if to take revenge on a city that had held out against his army for so long. So the defended city was turned into ruins (Isaiah 25:2). He also carried many people away into captivity (Jeremiah 52:15). He took some of the poor from the city, while he left the poor of the land, that is, the people in the country, to be vine-dressers and farmers.

He also carried off the rest of the people who were still in the city, those who had escaped sword and famine, along with the deserters, as he chose, or rather as God chose. God had already determined that some would die by pestilence, some by sword, some by famine, and some by captivity (Jeremiah 15:2). But what is described here most fully is the carrying away of the temple equipment.

Everything of great value had already been taken, the vessels of silver and gold. Yet some items of that kind still remained, and these were now taken too (Jeremiah 52:19). Most of the temple spoils seized this time were made of bronze, which was less valuable and was taken last. When the gold was gone, the bronze soon followed, because the people still would not repent, as Jeremiah had warned (Jeremiah 27:19). When the city walls were torn down, the temple pillars were pulled down too. Both acts showed that God, who had been the strength and support of their civil and worship life, had left them.

No walls can protect a people, and no pillars can hold them up, if God withdraws his favor. These temple pillars were not there to support a building, since nothing was built on top of them. They were there for beauty and meaning. Their names were Jachin, meaning “He will establish,” and Boaz, meaning “In him is strength.” So when they were broken, it showed that God would no longer establish his house or be its strength.

These pillars are described in detail here (Jeremiah 52:21-23, from 1 Kings 7:15), so that their great beauty and grandeur would make their destruction feel even more painful. All the vessels used at the bronze altar were also carried away, because the sin of Jerusalem, like Eli’s house, could not be cleansed by sacrifice or offering (1 Samuel 3:14).

It is said, “The bronze of all these vessels was without weight” (Jeremiah 52:20). That was true when they were made, too, because the amount of bronze was not then counted out in advance (1 Kings 7:47; 2 Chronicles 4:18). It was also true when they were destroyed. Those who seized them did not bother to weigh them, as buyers would, because whatever they took was already theirs.