Jeremiah 39:1, commentary and pictures

The verse fixes the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's final siege of Jerusalem to the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, when the king of Babylon and all his army came against the city and besieged it. That renewed attack came after Zedekiah rebelled, so that Nebuchadnezzar again brought his army against the city. It followed the warning that the city would be given into the hand of the Chaldeans and burned, and Zedekiah's refusal to surrender. The siege then lasted a year and a half and ended in Jerusalem's capture, the burning of the temple and the houses of its leaders, the breaking down of the city walls, and the deportation of Zedekiah and many of the people to Babylon.

Zedekiah was the last king to sit on David's throne, and he was captured by the Chaldeans when Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar and his army. The chapter belongs to the history of the two years before Jerusalem fell. In chronological reading order the passage belongs at the close of Jeremiah's work in Judah, to be read after Jeremiah 38 and after Jeremiah 39:15-18 though it stands first in the chapter, and before Jeremiah 40-45, listed elsewhere as 40-46. Jeremiah's prophecies are not in chronological order because of displacement when the manuscript rolls were gathered into one book, but the chapter itself clearly indicates its chronology and the displacement makes no change whatever in the teaching.

Zedekiah's sad fate shows the result of fearing the Jews more than believing God. Though assured that all who yielded to the king of Babylon would be spared, he did not dare act upon God's word because he feared his own people. His end illustrates the wisdom of heeding God's word rather than fearing men.