성경 주석서

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, [that] Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

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 .

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And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

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 ; Jeremiah 37:11

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And on the ninth [day] of the [fourth] month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

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 ; Jeremiah 24:10

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And the city was broken up, and all the men of war [fled] by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which [is] by the king’s garden: (now the Chaldees [were] against the city round about:) and [the king] went the way toward the plain.

And the city was broken up — Crebris ictibus arietum. - Vat. 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, φευδοθυρον . 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 .

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And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.

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.

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So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.

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.

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And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

And they slew the sons of Zedekiah. — Who were, likely, taken with him, and consenting to his rebellion. Josephus

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 ; Jeremiah 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; Turk. Hist., 262. a common unmerciful practice among the Turks.

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And in the fifth month, on the seventh [day] of the month, which [is] the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:

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 ; Jeremiah 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.

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