2 Kings 25:7
Context25:7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. 1 The king of Babylon 2 then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.
2 Kings 25:18-21
Context25:18 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five 3 of the king’s advisers 4 who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens 5 for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city. 25:20 Nebuzaradan, captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 25:21 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed 6 at Riblah in the territory 7 of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.
2 Kings 25:25-26
Context25:25 But in the seventh month 8 Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, 9 came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, 10 as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. 25:26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for 11 Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.
1 tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”
2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”
4 tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”
5 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
6 tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”
7 tn Heb “land.”
8 sn It is not altogether clear whether this is in the same year that Jerusalem fell or not. The wall was breached in the fourth month (= early July; Jer 39:2) and Nebuzaradan came and burned the palace, the temple, and many of the houses and tore down the wall in the fifth month (= early August; Jer 52:12). That would have left time between the fifth month and the seventh month (October) to gather in the harvest of grapes, dates and figs, and olives (Jer 40:12). However, many commentators feel that too much activity takes place in too short a time for this to have been in the same year and posit that it happened the following year or even five years later when a further deportation took place, possibly in retaliation for the murder of Gedaliah and the Babylonian garrison at Mizpah (Jer 52:30). The assassination of Gedaliah had momentous consequences and was commemorated in one of the post exilic fast days lamenting the fall of Jerusalem (Zech 8:19).
9 tn Heb “[was] from the seed of the kingdom.”
10 tn Heb “and they struck down Gedaliah and he died.”
11 tn Heb “arose and went to.”