Fall of Jerusalem

Biblical Text

The fall of Jerusalem is recorded in 2 Kings 25, 2 Chronicles 36, and Jeremiah 39 and 52. In this event Jerusalem fell to Babylon, and the temple was burned.

On the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of King Zedekiah, the army of Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the city. As famine grew severe within the city, the wall was breached on the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh year (2 Kings 25:1-4). Zedekiah fled by night but was captured in the plains of Jericho and brought to Riblah. There his sons were killed before his eyes, and he was blinded and taken to Babylon bound in bronze fetters. Then, in the fifth month, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, burned the temple, the king's palace, and the houses of the city, tore down the city walls, and carried away the bronze pillars and the vessels of the temple. Babylon appointed Gedaliah as governor over the remaining land, but he was assassinated, and the remnant went down to Egypt (2 Kings 25:22-26).

Background

An earlier invasion had taken place during the reign of King Jehoiachin, when the king, the nobles, and the craftsmen were the first to be carried away captive (2 Kings 24:10-16). On the basis of the Babylonian chronicles, this first capture of the city is widely dated to 597 BC. Later, when Zedekiah, whom Babylon had installed as king, rebelled (2 Kings 24:20), Babylon sent its army once again. Scholars differ on whether the final fall took place in 587 or 586 BC.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The books of Kings explain the fall as the consequence of forsaking the covenant, including the sins of Manasseh (2 Kings 24:3-4). Chronicles presents it as judgment for mocking the warnings of the prophets and also interprets it as the fulfillment of Jeremiah's word concerning the seventy years during which the land would enjoy its sabbaths (2 Chronicles 36:15-21). Jeremiah warned of the fall beforehand and wrote to the exiles, urging them to seek peace in the land to which they had been carried (Jeremiah 29:4-14). Lamentations and Psalm 137 are read as songs lamenting this loss. Zechariah 7-8 mentions the practice of fasting in the months associated with the fall. Jeremiah and Ezekiel also foretold restoration beyond judgment and a new covenant, a trajectory that continues beyond the Babylonian exile into the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple.

In the New Testament, the genealogy in Matthew treats the carrying away into Babylon as a dividing point between eras (Matthew 1:11-12). Jesus wept over Jerusalem and foretold its destruction (Luke 19:41-44; 21:20-24). Hebrews 8 quotes Jeremiah's prophecy of the new covenant and presents it as fulfilled in Christ.

Interpretive Issues

• Dates and numbers: 2 Kings 25:8 dates the burning of the temple to the seventh day of the fifth month, whereas Jeremiah 52:12 gives the tenth day of the fifth month. The number of captives also differs: 2 Kings 24:14 speaks of "ten thousand captives," while Jeremiah 52:28-30 gives a total of 4,600. Some explain these differences as reflecting counts of different groups.
• Seventy years: Views differ on the year from which the seventy years of Jeremiah 25:11-12 should be counted.
• Jesus' prediction: Interpretations of the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24) vary. Many interpreters hold that it was largely fulfilled in the Roman army's destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Dispensationalism reads parts of it as referring to events yet to be fulfilled in the end times.
• Ark of the covenant: Scripture does not say what became of the ark of the covenant when the city fell. The story that Jeremiah hid the ark in a mountain appears in the apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees (chapter 2) and is distinct from the text of the Protestant canon.

In the Korean Church

The confession in Lamentations 3 that "his compassions fail not" (Lamentations 3:22) is known as the passage behind the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." This text is frequently preached as a word of hope amid the despair of the city's fall. Some sermons also draw comparisons with modern Korean history, in light of the shared experience of losing one's nation.