BOOK 24 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Jeremiah 39

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 39 of 52•18 verses

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Jeremiah 39 Overview

Jerusalem falls to Babylon, Zedekiah is captured and blinded after seeing his sons killed, the city is burned and leaders executed, but Jeremiah is protected and Ebed-melech receives the promised deliverance.

JeremiahBook

39Chapter

18Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 39

Coming from

Officials accuse Jeremiah of weakening morale and cast him into a muddy cistern; Ebed-melech courageously secures his rescue, and Jeremiah again privately tells Zedekiah that surrender will save his life and the city from worse destruction.

In this chapter

Leads into

After Jerusalem’s fall Jeremiah is released and chooses to remain with Gedaliah, Babylon’s appointed governor; scattered Judeans return, but Johanan warns Gedaliah that Ishmael has been sent to assassinate him.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The judgment announced for decades finally arrives in 586 BC. The chapter validates Jeremiah’s prophecy while preserving individual examples of mercy.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 39 is the chapter’s own movement: god’s long-delayed warnings eventually come to pass. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God’s long-delayed warnings eventually come to pass

The fall of Jerusalem is not a surprise within Jeremiah; it is the culmination of repeated prophecy.

Royal status cannot escape judgment

Zedekiah’s attempted flight ends in capture and devastating loss.

God remembers faithful individuals amid national catastrophe

Jeremiah and Ebed-melech receive protection while the city falls.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

2 Kings 25:1-12

Kings gives a parallel account of Jerusalem’s fall and Zedekiah’s capture.

2 Chronicles 36:15-21

Chronicles interprets the destruction as the culmination of persistent refusal to hear God’s messengers.

Jeremiah 38:7-13

Ebed-melech’s rescue of Jeremiah explains the personal deliverance promise fulfilled here.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not infer that temporal rescue proves one person is eternally saved while temporal death proves another is lost.

The chapter records historical judgments and mercies.

Do not treat Jerusalem’s fall as Babylonian power operating independently of God.

Jeremiah has consistently presented Babylon as an instrument under divine sovereignty.

Read Jeremiah 39 watching for…

the breach of Jerusalem

Zedekiah’s attempted escape

his blinding

Jeremiah’s protection

Ebed-melech’s promised rescue

Chapter outline2 sections

1-10Jerusalem falls, Zedekiah is captured and blinded, and many people are carried away 11-18Nebuchadnezzar protects Jeremiah, and Ebed-melech receives a promise of deliverance

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.

And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.

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.

And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.

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.

Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.

Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.

And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained.

But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,

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

So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rabsaris, and Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon's princes;

Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.

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

Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.

But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.

For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.