Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 39

In the ninth year of Zedekiah ... —The great crisis came at last, as Jeremiah had long ago predicted. A fuller narrative of the siege and capture is given in Jeremiah 52:0. The two verses which open the chapter seem to have been inserted here by the editor of the prophecies in their present form, as explaining the fact with which Jeremiah 38:0 had closed.

The siege had lasted eighteen months, beginning in B.C. 590 and ending in B.C. 588. It came to an end, as we learn from Jeremiah 52:6, through the pressure of the famine, of which we have seen traces in Jeremiah 37:21.

In the middle gate. —The term indicates a position in the line of walls between the citadel of Zion—the “upper city” of Josephus (Josephus, Ant. 5.20.2), which had not yet been surrendered (Jeremiah 39:4)—and the lower city, in the walls of which a breach had been made. Here an open space, originally used as a forum, or place of judgment, now gave the Chaldean generals a central encampment, from which they could command both quarters of the city, and by taking their place in the heart of its life, formally assert their mastery. Each of the names that follow has a meaning and history of its own.

Nergal-sharezer. —The first half of the name appears in 2 Kings 17:30 as that of a Cuthite, or Assyrian deity, and means the “great hero.” It occurs frequently in the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser and Assur-banipal (e.g., Records of the Past, 1.77, 103). The whole name appears in Assyrian monuments as Nergal-shar-uzur. Two of the generals mentioned here bore the same name, and each apparently was distinguished by a special title.

Samgar–nebo. —Here the second half is the name of a Babylonian deity (Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 48:1), possibly connected with the Hebrew Nabi (= prophet), and so corresponding to the Egyptian Thoth and the Greek Hermes. The great temple at Borsippa, known as Birs Nimroud, was dedicated to him (Records of the Past, 7.77). The first half has been explained by some scholars as meaning “warrior,” by others as “cupbearer,” and so equivalent to Rabshakeh (Isaiah 36:2), and as such is attached to the previous name of Nergal-sharezer. As a rule, the name of Nebo appears always in the beginning of compound words, as in Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzar-adan, etc., and probably we should connect it here with the name that follows.

Sarsechim, Rab-saris. —Probably, as indicated in the previous Note, the name should stand as Nebo-sarsechim. The two names go together, the first as a proper name, the second as a title, meaning “the chief eunuch.” In Jeremiah 39:13, Nebushasban appears as bearing the same title. In 2 Kings 18:17 it appears simply as a title, as in Rabshakeh we have “the chief cupbearer.”

Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag. —Here also the second name is the title of office, meaning probably “chief of the Magi,” or “chief of the priests.” The man thus named, who appears on the Assyrian monuments as Nergal-shar-uzur Rubu-emga, played a prominent part afterwards as murdering Evil-merodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, whose sister he had married. He reigned for three or four years, and appears in Berosus (Josephus, Against Apion 1.20) under the name of Neriglissar. The older name is found on the bricks of a palace at Babylon, on the right bank of the Euphrates (Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, Art. Nergal-sharezer).

When Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them ... —The hasty flight is narrated again in Jeremiah 52:7.

The gate between the two walls apparently opened from the park-like garden of the palace, near the pool of Siloah (Nehemiah 3:15). It was probably identical with the garden of Uzza, which was used as a burial place for Manasseh and Amon (2 Kings 21:18–26). This gate led to the Arabah, the plain (always known by this distinctive name) of the valley of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 1:1; Deuteronomy 3:17; Deuteronomy 4:49; Joshua 12:1, and elsewhere).

The “two walls” appear as part of the defence of the city in Isaiah 22:11 and connected Zion with the fortress known as Ophel (2 Chronicles 27:3; 2 Chronicles 33:14).

In the plains of Jericho. —Here again we have the distinctive word, the Araboth of the Jordan, the enlargement of the Jordan valley, three miles wide, near Jericho. The intention of the king was apparently to make his way to the ford near Jericho, cross the river, and escape to the open country of Gilead.

Riblah in the land of Hamath. —The city of Hamath stood on the Orontes, about halfway from its source, near Baalbek, to the bend which it makes at Jisr-hadid, and commanded the whole valley of the river to the defile of Daphne, below Antioch. It was a well-known city at the time of the Exodus (Numbers 13:21; Numbers 34:8), and in the time of David was the capital of a kingdom, which paid tribute to him and Solomon (2 Samuel 8:10; 1 Kings 4:21–24).

Riblah (still retaining its name, Ribleh), also on the Orontes and near its source, was a center from which the great lines of traffic led by the Euphrates to Nineveh, by Palmyra to Babylon, by Lebanon and the coast to Palestine and Egypt, and through the Jordan valley to the Holy Land.

It was, therefore, a natural post of observation for the Chaldean king while his generals were carrying on the sieges of Tyre and Jerusalem. So when Pharaoh-necho was for a time, before the battle of Carchemish, in control of the Assyrian territory, it was to Riblah that he summoned Jehoahaz and there imprisoned him (2 Kings 23:33). In this instance, Zedekiah was brought before Nebuchadnezzar as a vassal prince who, having received his authority from the Chaldean king (2 Kings 24:17), had rebelled and met with scant mercy.

The sons of Zedekiah. —The history of Eastern monarchies presents us with many examples of this refinement of cruelty, notably in the case of Eobazus under Darius (Herodotus 4.84), and Pythius under Xerxes (Herodotus 7.39). The slaughter of the “nobles” probably included most of those whom we have seen in Jeremiah 36:12, and elsewhere.