Jeremiah 39 explained: Jerusalem Falls to Babylon

The siege and the breach (vv. 1-3)

After about a year and a half of siege, with the city starving, Babylon's soldiers broke through Jerusalem's wall in midsummer. Their top officers sat in one of the city's gates to show they now held it; some of the listed words are probably job titles rather than names, and which gate this was is uncertain.

The king's flight and punishment (vv. 4-7)

King Zedekiah slipped out at night by a royal back route toward the Jordan valley, but was caught near Jericho and tried as a rebel for breaking his sworn loyalty to Babylon. His sons were killed before his eyes and Judah's nobles were also put to death; then he was blinded and taken to Babylon in chains, as Jeremiah had warned.

The city burned, people exiled (vv. 8-10)

The palace and houses were burned, the walls torn down, and most of the remaining people, even those who had already surrendered, were taken to Babylon. Only the poorest were left, and the Babylonian commander gave them fields and vineyards, probably so the land would keep being farmed.

Jeremiah set free (vv. 11-14)

Babylon's king, who had likely heard that Jeremiah urged surrender, ordered him treated well, so he was released from the guard's courtyard where his own leaders had held him. He was handed to Gedaliah, whose family had protected him before; the next chapter tells his release a little differently, and scholars debate how the two accounts fit.

A promise to Ebed-Melek (vv. 15-18)

This message came while Jeremiah was still confined and is placed here to show it came true. Ebed-Melek, a palace official from Cush (south of Egypt), had risked his life to pull Jeremiah from a muddy pit, and God promises he will survive the disaster because he trusted God.

Key verse: Jeremiah 39:2

Something to think about

In this chapter the king loses everything, while a prisoner, a foreign servant and the poorest people come through; what do you make of who ends up safe when a society falls apart?