Jeremiah 52:13, commentary and pictures

The verse records that in Zedekiah's captivity the forces of the king of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, acting through Nebuzaradan, burned the house of the LORD with the king's palace and all the houses of Jerusalem, even those of the great men, laying the city completely waste. That burning fulfilled the warning that an unquenchable fire would devour Jerusalem and its palaces. Unquenchable means a fire that no one can stop or quench before it has consumed all that can burn, burning irresistibly to utter consumption and then ceasing of itself, not a fire that burns forever. The destruction came when iniquity had come to the full and wrath to the uttermost, after the Jews were warned that Jerusalem would stand forever if they kept the Sabbath holy and after they turned to idols until the temple had become a reproach. It stands as a lesson that proud cities and people who forget and defy God and leave warnings unheeded face judgment and destruction by fire as the consequence of wickedness.

Burning and Its History

In Zedekiah's captivity the forces of the king of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, acting through Nebuzaradan, burned the house of the Lord, the king's house or palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem including those of the great men and leaders. That burning laid Jerusalem completely waste, leaving a total desolation. The destruction was the conquest of the city carried out by fire upon its temple, palace, and dwellings of its leading people.

The burning of the temple and Jerusalem took place in the fifth month. It was commemorated by the Jews' annual fast in that month during the seventy years of captivity.

That ruined condition is the state from which Jerusalem had to be restored and built. The work of commencing to restore and build from that ruin belonged to Ezra under his decree in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, not to Nehemiah. Nehemiah's later work was only to build the walls and gates then broken down which Ezra had already been restoring.

The destruction visited upon the Jews came when iniquity had come to the full and wrath to the uttermost overtook them. It came only a few years after they were warned about the Sabbath with the promise that Jerusalem would stand forever if they kept the Sabbath holy by bearing no burdens on that day, and with the threat that disobedience would bring its destruction by fire. They had turned to idols, so that the temple had become a reproach to God and He permitted it to be burned.

Meaning of Unquenchable Fire

The burning was the fulfillment of the earlier prediction and warning that an unquenchable fire would devour Jerusalem and its palaces, carried out when Nebuzaradan and Nebuchadnezzar's forces burned the house of the Lord, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem including those of the great men and leaders. That fire consumed everything that could burn and could not be stopped or quenched before it finished its work. Once its fuel was gone it ceased of itself, and it was not kept burning eternally. The houses were burned by a fire that God had said would never be quenched, yet the fire ceased after it had consumed what it fed upon.

Unquenchable therefore means a fire that cannot be put out or arrested before its work is complete. It describes a fire that no one stops before it has consumed what is cast into it. It burns irresistibly to utter consumption, burning until everything cast into it is consumed and then ceasing of itself. It does not mean a fire that burns forever, but a fire that cannot be arrested.

The destruction came only a few years after the people were warned about the Sabbath with the promise that Jerusalem would stand forever if they would keep the Sabbath holy by bearing no burdens on that day, and with the threat that disobedience would bring its destruction by fire. Their disobedience brought the burning of the house of the Lord, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem and of the great men. That outcome proves the sacredness of the Sabbath and shows that Sabbath-breaking brings judgment.

Prophecy Warning and Application

Just as the daughters of Jerusalem are a part of Jerusalem itself and the daughters of Rabbah are a part of Rabbah itself, so the daughters of Babylon are a part of Babylon itself. Great Babylon therefore embraces its daughters and includes all corrupt Christianity. When Babylon rejected the announcement that the hour of God's judgment is come, God left her by His Spirit and called His people to come out of her, and her destruction immediately follows.

The burning of the house of the Lord, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even those of the great men and leading people, stands as the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prediction that the king of Babylon would destroy Jerusalem and its temple by fire. Jerusalem in this suffered the consequences of its own wrongdoing, like a harvest of weeds and thistles. The chapter and verse are a lesson that proud cities and people who forget and defy God face judgment and destruction by fire as the consequence of wickedness, especially when warnings go unheeded. That lesson warns other cities to turn from wrongdoing and do right.