Jeremiah 52
Jeremiah 52 is the fifty-second chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter contains a "historical appendix", matching the account in of the end of national life in Judah, and also serving as a vindication of Jeremiah's message.
Text
The original text was written in Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 34 verses.Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus. Verses 2-3, 15 and 27c-30 are missing from the Septuagint version.
Verse numbering
The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text, and Vulgate, in some places differs from that in the Septuagint according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.The order of Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study based on Rahlfs' Septuaginta differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs' edition.
| Hebrew, Vulgate, English | Rahlfs' LXX |
| 52:1,4-14,16-27,31-34 | 52:1,4-14,16-27,31-34 |
| 52:2-3,15,28-30 | n/a |
Parashot
The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Jeremiah 52 contains the narrative of "Destruction and Hope". : open parashah; : closed parashah.Structure
O'Connor notes six vignettes in this chapter:- Verses 1-3a: failure of kings (Reign of Zedekiah)
- Verses 3b-11: Zedekiah's failed escape
- Verses 12-23: deportation of people and of temple vessels
- Verses 24-27: execution of officials
- Verses 28-30: numbers of exiles
- Verses 31-34: Jehoiachin's survival (Restoration of Jehoiachin)
Reign of Zedekiah (52:1–3)
- Cross reference:
Verse 3
The contemporary religious situation in Judah is described in Ezekiel 8.Siege and fall of Jerusalem (52:4–30)
- Cross references: ; Jeremiah 39:1-10
Verse 4
- "Ninth year...tenth month on the tenth day": reckoned to be January 15, 588 BCE, based on the calendar that begins the year in the spring.
Verse 6
- "In the fourth month, in the ninth day": by modern reckoning, on July 18, 586 BC, so the siege against Jerusalem had lasted almost a full eighteen months.
Verse 7
- Cross references: 2 Kings 25:4; Jeremiah 39:4; Ezekiel 12:12
- "The plain": or "Arabah; the Jordan valley."
Verse 8
- Cross reference: Jeremiah 39:5
- "Plain": from the plural form of the Hebrew word עֲרָבָה, ʿaravah, "rift valley") refers to the sloping plains of the rift valley basin north of the Dead Sea, here specifically in west of the Jordan in the vicinity of Jericho.
Verse 11
Cross references: 2 Kings 25:7; Jeremiah 39:7- "Bronze fetters": or "shackles".
- Huey notes the fulfillment of two prophecies in this verse:
- # Zedekiah would see the king of Babylon and then be taken to Babylon
- # Zedekiah would die in Babylon without being able to see that country
Verse 12
- Cross reference: 2 Kings 25:8
Restoration of Jehoiachin (52:31–34)
Verse 34
- Cross references: 2 Kings 24:12,, 25:27–30; 2 Chronicles 36:9–10; Jeremiah 22:24–26, 29:2;.
- "Ration": Some 6th-century clay tablets, which were excavated from the ruin of Babylon palace near the Ishtar Gate during 1899–1917 by Robert Koldewey, describe the food rations set aside for a royal captive identified with Jehoiachin, king of Judah. These so-called Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets mention "Ya’u-kīnu, king of the land of Yahudu" along with his five sons listed as royal princes.