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Jeremiah Chapter Thirty-nine

Jeremiah 39

Chapter Contents

The taking of Jerusalem. (1-10) Jeremiah used well. (11-14) Promises of safety to Ebed-melech. (15-18)

Commentary on Jeremiah 39:1-10

Jerusalem was so strong that the inhabitants believed the enemy could never enter it. But sin provoked God to withdraw his protection and then it was as weak as other cities. Zedekiah had his eyes put out; so he was condemned to darkness who had shut his eyes against the clear light of God's word. Those who will not believe God's words will be convinced by the event. Observe the wonderful changes of Providence how uncertain are earthly possessions; and see the just dealings of Providence: but whether the Lord makes men poor or rich nothing will profit them while they cleave to their sins.

Commentary on Jeremiah 39:11-14

(Read Jeremiah 39:11-14)

The servants of God alone are prepared for all events; and they are delivered and comforted while the wicked suffer. They often meet with more kindness from the profane than from hypocritical professors of godliness. The Lord will raise them up friends do them good and perform all his promises.

Commentary on Jeremiah 39:15-18

(Read Jeremiah 39:15-18)

Here is a message to assure Ebed-melech of a recompence for his great kindness to Jeremiah. Because thou hast put thy trust in me saith the Lord. God recompenses men's services according to their principles. Those who trust God in the way of duty as this good man did will find that their hope shall not fail in times of the greatest danger.

── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》

Jeremiah 39

Verse 1

[1] In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah in the tenth month came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem and they besieged it.

Tenth month — This month answers to part of our December and January.

Verse 3

[3] And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the middle gate even Nergalsharezer Samgarnebo Sarsechim Rabsaris Nergalsharezer Rabmag with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.

The middle gate — The city was encompassed with two walls before they came to the wall of the temple; the gate in the inner wall is supposed to have been that which is called the middle gate. They would not at first venture farther 'till they might without hazarding their persons.

Verse 5

[5] But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath where he gave judgment upon him.

Riblah — Riblah was upon the borders of Canaan. Zedekiah was a tributary to the king of Babylon and so subject to his power having made a covenant with him and secured his allegiance by his oath to him.

Verse 12

[12] Take him and look well to him and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.

Take him — It is probable that Nebuchadnezzar had been informed Jeremiah had constantly told the king that the Chaldeans should take the city and as steadily persuaded both the king and princes to surrender it to them.

Verse 15

[15] Now the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison saying

Now the word — These four verses mention a matter that happened before the things mentioned in the foregoing verses.

── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》

39 Chapter 39

Verses 1-18

Verses 1-10

Jeremiah 39:1-10

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah in the tenth month came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.

The downfall of Judah

The siege and sacking of Jerusalem under Nebuchadrezzar is the most tragic story in history. The second destruction of the city under Titus the Roman general was analogous but did not equal the first in horror of detail. The siege was more prolonged under the king of Babylon the resistance by the Jews more desperate and the determination with which the people held out more stubborn preferring starvation to surrender. During those eighteen months the city presented an awful spectacle; delicately reared princesses were seen clawing over dung-heaps and street refuse to find a morsel of food; the once snow-clad Nazarites walked the streets in filthy garments; the fairest and best-looking of the people were reduced to the merest skeletons; desperation of hunger forced fond mothers to boil and eat their own children. The horrors depicted even in outline by the sacred writers almost beggar the imagination. The king of Judah was the vassal of the king of Babylon but being deceived by false prophets he rebelled against his foreign sovereign and sought through an alliance with the king of Egypt to throw off the Chaldean yoke. Hearing of this attempt at rebellion the Chaldeans had sent a strong detachment of their army to reduce Zedekiah to obedience when an Egyptian army making its appearance forced them to raise the siege. Subsequently the Egyptian army was defeated and then with his entire army Nebuchadrezzar came up and besieged Jerusalem for eighteen months and took it. Jeremiah had persistently warned the king that it was folly to contend with Babylon for the Lord had determined upon their captivity. So the king and the princes not only rebelled against the king of Babylon but set themselves in defiance against God Himself.

I. Jerusalem taken and sacked. The prophet does not dwell on the details of the siege as it was no part of his plan to detail the military processes by which the holy city was at last put into the hands of the Chaldeans. His purpose was simply to record the fact and thus mark the fulfilment of God’s word. After eighteen months in which the city had been completely invested a breach in the walls was effected and the Babylonian army was in full possession. The princes of the Chaldean king entered the city and took up their headquarters in the middle gate. This was probably the gate through an inner wall within the city which surrounded the citadel. At any rate the presence of these Babylonian princes in that place showed that the city was entirely in their hands. For further details compare 2 Kings 25:1-30. with our present text and Jeremiah 52:1-34. These three accounts are substantially the same. For details of the horrors and sufferings of the inhabitants of Jerusalem during the siege compare Lamentations (especially chap. 4.) in which the heartbroken prophet pours forth his sorrow over the downfall of the city and especially over the woes which had come upon his people. See also Ezekiel 4:5; Ezekiel 4:12; Ezekiel 21:1-32. where minute prophecies of the downfall of the city are recorded. After the subjugation of the city and the flight capture judgment and imprisonment of the king under the command of Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard the Babylonian soldiers burned the city including the Temple king’s palace and all the houses of the princes and chief men; the walls were razed; the whole city was turned into a waste and ruinous heap (verse 8; 52:13 14). Jeremiah laments the destruction of the glorious city of God in these sad and pathetic words: “How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people; how is she become a widow she that was great among the nations . . . She weepeth sore in the night and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are become her enemies . . . And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed . . . How is the gold become dim; how is the most fine gold changed; the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers the work of the hands of the potter” (Lamentations 1:1-2; Lamentations 1:6; Lamentations 4:1-2). The great lesson to be deeply pondered from this awful judgment upon Jerusalem is the certain retribution of God upon persistent sin. No honest and thoughtful man can read these prophetic and historic records without being profoundly impressed with the longsuffering mercy of God toward sinners and the certainty of retribution following upon unrepented and persistent sin. God’s judgment may be slow in coming but it is as sure as it is slow. How long He had borne with Judah and Jerusalem before He began to pour out His fury upon them! Long God postpones His judgment when once it sets in it goes on to the end though the mills of God grind slowly yet they grind exceeding small. What a culmination of calamities at the last! There is no stopping or turning them back. All the skill the courage and the endurance which Jerusalem brought to bear in order to avert this awful judgment availed nothing. When the time for judgment comes it is too late for prayer and entreaty. When will men learn this lesson? We have not to do with the judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem but with that which is coming upon all men who like this apostate people despise God’s Word and believe not His prophets. No amount of theory or argument will prevent the doom of the persistent sinner. Men may say that death ends all; but the resurrection of Jesus proves that it does not; men may say that God is too merciful to punish sinners according to the declaration of the Scriptures; but is He? Let the story of the flood; the overwhelming fate of Pharaoh; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; the terrible calamities that came upon Israel and Judah be our answer. After God’s mercy has been ruthlessly trampled under foot then His righteous retribution comes and proceeds to the bitter end.

II. The flight and capture of the king. When the king saw the city in the possession of the enemy he hastily gathered his army and family and by night fled from the city by a secret way through his garden and between two walls which concealed his movements (verse 4 52:7; 2 Kings 25:4). His flight however was of no avail; for though he nearly effected his escape having reached the borders of the Jordan his absence was discovered and the Chaldeans pursued after him; and while his army was scattered abroad probably on a foraging expedition the king and his family and the princes that were with him were captured. Too late the king sought safety in flight. It was not to be. God had decreed his capture and no precaution could prevent it. Had he heeded the warning of Jeremiah who brought him the word of God and surrendered to the king of Babylon his own life would have been spared his children’s lives would have been spared his princes’ lives would have been spared and the glorious City of God would have been spared (Jeremiah 28:17-17). The king was a weak man and hesitated to do the word of God because he was afraid of being taunted with cowardice by his nobles and the people. How many men are cowards before their fellow-men and yet bravo before God! They fear the reproach of weak feeble and sinful men but fear not the Word of God. Surely the sorry flight of the wretched king from his ruined city a fugitive from God and the king of Babylon was infinitely more humiliating than an honourable surrender to Nebuchadrezzar. How many will seek salvation wildly when it is too late! Let it be remembered again that when once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut the door then flight or petition is of none avail. When once Jesus ceases to be the Advocate of sinners and becomes their Judge then repentance is too late and no man may flee the judgment. What unutterable miseries are added to the main consequences of our sins when we think of what “might have been ” had we not been too late!

1. Prophecy and its fulfilment. In connection with the flight arrest condemnation and punishment of the king we have a most remarkable series of prophetic fulfilments. Ezekiel under the command of God had before this final calamity by means of pantomime as well as by clear and unmistakable words depicted every detail of the king’s flight capture and punishment. Read Ezekiel 12:1-13. Thus have we seen the king laden with his valuables fleeing at night digging through a wall to escape the Chaldeans; we have seen God spreading His net catching and delivering him over to be first blinded then loaded with chains carried to Babylon and thrust into prison; there we have seen him die. How impossible to have understood Ezekiel’s prophecy until it was fulfilled; how then does it appear to have been the very letter of subsequent fact!

2. Arrested condemned and punished. The details are briefly but graphically told. When the soldiers arrested the flying king they brought him to the king of Babylon who

III. The blessed poor. Only one ray of light penetrated the dark cloud of doom that hung over and burst on Jerusalem. The city burned with fire the Temple destroyed her fair stones scattered the king and his family the princes and nobles and all the city’s inhabitants carried away slain or held in a wretched captivity which brought them nought but sighs and tears; what exception was there in all this misery? Just this; and it is not unsuggestive. The wretchedly and miserably poor were left behind; and more; for the captain of the guard acting for the king of Babylon gave them fields and vineyards. In the general judgment that overwhelmed Jerusalem the sparing of these poor people and the gift to them of fields and vineyards suggest to us the blessings that are in reserve for those on earth who though “poor in this world are rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to them that love Him” (James 2:5). It also suggests the beatitude of Jesus: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:3; Matthew 5:5). God will not forget such. Here is seen God’s reversal. The rich and great of Jerusalem who had grown so by grinding oppression of the poor are carried away captive slain with the sword and cast into prison while those whom they oppressed are now inheriting their lands and vineyards (Isaiah 57:15; Isaiah 66:2). Till the captivity the poor were only a portion of the people but now they were the whole. This event therefore would seem to indicate that the poor meek and contrite in spirit are the whole sum of those who shall constitute the people of God in the day of judgment. (G. F. Pentecost D. D.)

He put out Zedekiah’s eyes.

Non-acceptance of chastisement

We sometimes act as though we thought that dispensations of light and joy were made to draw us to God; those of darkness and sorrow the reverse; but that is our mistake; our thought must be “God in all.” And here God makes the announcement of the chastisement in a manner worthy of Himself--in the midst of judgment He remembers mercy. He commissions Jeremiah to promise circumstances of alleviation and gracious dealing; even though the trouble remain. The trouble and its alleviations were to exist side by side. But now what are the speakings of this “moreover” to us?

1. It says to us Reject not bounded chastisement or trial for you know not how wide God may remove those bounds when it comes upon you as something rejected by you but inflicted whether you will or no by Him.

2. It says Be sure that God will carry His own way. Look upon all resistance of His will as madness as full of mischief for yourself.

3. If we reject what God thus ordains we may rest assured that we are laying up for ourselves a long period of sad thought peopled with sad memories.

4. Though the chastisement or the trial God announces be heavy still let us be assured that it is the lightest possible under the circumstances.

5. Let us believe that God has terrible reserves of chastening dealings. We think that each trial as it comes is the worst that can be; sometimes a man in folly and desperation feels as though God could do no more to him; but the reserves of the Lord in this way as in blessing are illimitable--take care “lest a worse thing come upon thee.”

6. We may and must leave it to God to take care of us when leading us into either discipline or chastisement.

7. Instead of fretting and troubling ourselves unduly and setting our minds upon finding out fresh and fresh elements in our trial let us count up some of the “moreovers” of what might have come upon us; some of the “moreovers” of the mercies which are bestowed.

8. Let us be careful to keep ourselves well within the line of God’s action with us and not to subject ourselves to man’s. It is not God’s purpose to make a full end of us; He means to deal wisely and admeasuredly with us; He means us to taste that He is gracious; to have reason to believe that He is so. (P. B. Power M. A.)

Verses 15-18

Jeremiah 39:15-18

I will surely deliver thee and thou shalt not fan by the sword but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee.

Ebed-melech the Ethiopian one of the Lord’s hidden ones

It is strange that amongst all the tracts and biographies and scriptural stories which the press sends forth one never meets the name of Ebed-melech the Ethiopian. It shows that Scripture history is either little read or little understood. It makes one doubt whether those whom either the world or the Church is admiring be those whom He that looketh not on the outward appearance and seeth not as man seeth will delight to honour in the day when He maketh up His jewels. Although for aught we know he never was a member of any church upon earth being a poor heathen brought from a land that the light of God’s revelation had never reached he is held up in the Book of God to our admiration and imitation in contrast with the whole Church and nation that was in covenant with God in ancient times; and even under the New Testament if we honoured saints at all his name should hold a conspicuous place in our calendar of worthies and illustrious confessors of the faith for he was like ourselves a Gentile man and it was by faith he obtained a good report from God Himself. Jerusalem was to fall but Ebed-melech the Ethiopian would stand in the evil day. As he had delivered the prophet from his dungeon and from the cruelty of the princes his persecutors and the danger of a horrible death he himself would be delivered in the day of danger and the men of whom he was afraid would not have it in their power to take his life or injure a hair of his head. God would be his saviour and shows him beforehand the certainty of his salvation.

I. What a blessed providence is that of God over the least as well as the greatest men and things especially over the good without respect of persons.

1. No one is forgotten before God and nothing that concerns the least left out of the regard of the Father of all. The one who was the object of special care to the God of Israel the Lord of hosts in the day of Israel’s final overthrow was one of these who were least regarded by men upon earth a slave a eunuch an Ethiopian an uncircumcised heathen an alien from the commonwealth of Israel a stranger to the covenant of promise. Who then is forgotten by the God of Israel?

2. God is far from confounding the righteous with the wicked in His judgments.

3. So far from confounding the righteous with the wicked God contrasts them with one another. What brighter display of Divine righteousness can there be than the salvation of the least of saints in the midst of the destruction of a whole nation or church of sinners like the Jews here or like Christendom to whose doom we are to look forward?

II. What encouragement to the lowliest to work out their salvation with cheerfulness and patience as well as with fear and trembling after the example of Ebed-melech the Ethiopian!

1. Why are such actions as this of Ebed-melech those which in the sight of God are of great account? Because they are acts of self-denying love and self-sacrifice; because they are thus God Himself in the text expressly says the fruits of a living faith in God.

2. It is not his circumstances that prevent any man from becoming great before God great as Ebed-melech for it is not his circumstances that prevent any from becoming good from having the same character and manifesting in his place the same heroic and holy spirit.

3. Woe to us if we are not like Ebed-melech in unselfishness or in self-denying love the fruit of faith! Church membership Church privileges Church knowledge and advantages of whatever kind what will they prove but the condemnation of those who are not like Ebed-melech in character?

III. What blessed hope for the future does Ebed-melech bring to many of whom the world is not worthy and who are by the world and by the Church unknown!

1. Kindness to those whom the world despises or the worldly and ungodly church reprobates or persecutes is not the least part of the duty of Christians or those who would be saved in the day of wrath like Ebed-melech.

2. How different is public opinion in a corrupt church or age from the judgment or truth of God! (R. Paisley.)
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