nine or (ordinal) ninth · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
month
בַּחֹדֶשׁba.Cho.desh
H2320
the new moon · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
famine
הָרָעָ֖בha.ra.'Av
H7458
hunger (more or less extensive) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
prevailed
וַיֶּחֱזַ֥קvai.ye.che.Zak
H2388
to fasten upon · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
city
בָּעִ֑ירba.'Ir
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
bread
לֶ֖חֶםLe.chem
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
people
לְעַ֥םle.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
land
הָאָֽרֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 26:26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by…
Deuteronomy 28:52-53 And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and…
Jeremiah 38:2 Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to…
Jeremiah 52:6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the la…
Lamentations 4:4-10 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them…
Ezekiel 5:12 A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall…
Ezekiel 7:15 The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city…
Ezekiel 14:21 For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome bea…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 25:1-7
We left king Zedekiah in rebellion against the king of Babylon (Kg2 24:20), contriving and endeavouring to shake off his yoke, when he was no way able to do it, nor took the right method by making God his friend first. Now here we have an account of the fatal consequences of that attempt.
I. The king of Babylon's army laid siege to Jerusalem, Kg2 25:1. What should hinder them when the country was already in their possession? Kg2 24:2. They built forts against the city round about, whence, by such arts of war as they then had, they battered it, sent into it instruments of death, and kept out of it the necessary supports of life. Formerly Jerusalem had been compassed with the favour of God as…
on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed--In consequence of the close and protracted blockade, the inhabitants were reduced to dreadful extremities; and under the maddening influence of hunger, the most inhuman atrocities were perpetrated (Lam 2:20, Lam 2:22; Lam 4:9-10; Eze 5:10). This was a fulfilment of the prophetic denunciations threatened on the apostasy of the chosen people (Lev 26:29; Deu 28:53-57; Jer 15:2; Jer 27:13; Eze 4:16).
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 25:2
And the city was besieged, etc. - Nebuchadnezzar, having routed the Egyptian army, returned to Jerusalem, and besieged it so closely that, being reduced by famine, and a breach made in the wall, the Chaldeans entered it on the ninth day of the fourth month, (Wednesday, July 27), Zedekiah and many others endeavoring to make their escape by night.
John Gill on 2 Kings 25:1
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign,.... Of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. From hence to the end of 2 Kings 25:7, the account exactly agrees with Jeremiah 52:4.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Kings 25:1-7
Dictionary and topics
Chaldees — Or Chaldeans, the inhabitants of the country of which Babylon was the capital. They were so called till the time of the Captivity (2 Kings 25; Isa. 13:19; 23:13), when, particularly in the Book of…
Famine — The first mentioned in Scripture was so grievous as to compel Abraham to go down to the land of Egypt (Gen. 26:1). Another is mentioned as having occurred in the days of Isaac, causing him to go to…
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Jerusalem — Called also Salem, Ariel, Jebus, the “city of God,” the “holy city;” by the modern Arabs el-Khuds, meaning “the holy;” once “the city of Judah” (2 Chr. 25:28). This name is in the original in the…
Kings, The Books of — The two books of Kings formed originally but one book in the Hebrew Scriptures. The present division into two books was first made by the LXX., which now, with the Vulgate, numbers them as the third…
Month — Among the Egyptians the month of thirty days each was in use long before the time of the Exodus, and formed the basis of their calculations. From the time of the institution of the Mosaic law the…
Pharaoh — The official title borne by the Egyptian kings down to the time when that country was conquered by the Greeks. (See EGYPT.) The name is a compound, as some think, of the words Ra, the “sun” or…
Zedekiah — Righteousness of Jehovah. (1.) The last king of Judah. He was the third son of Josiah, and his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, and hence he was the brother of Jehoahaz…
Babylon · Nebuchadnezzar king of: Besieged and took Jerusalem — Nebuchadnezzar king of: Besieged and took Jerusalem
Famine · .In — .In
Siege and conquest of Jerusalem; Zedekiah taken prisoner and led away to Babel (cf. Jer 52:4-11 and Jer 39:1-7). - Kg2 25:1. In the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar marched with all his forces against Jerusalem and commenced the siege (cf. Jer 39:1), after he had taken all the rest of the fortified cities of the land, with the exception of Lachish and Azekah, which were besieged at the same time as Jerusalem (Jer 34:7). On the very same day the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem was revealed to the prophet Ezekiel in his exile (Eze 24:1). "And they built against it (the city) siege-towers round about." דּיק, which only occurs here a…
Siege ramps were characteristic of ancient Near Eastern warfare. Attackers built tall earthen ramps and towers to give them a more advantageous position (see Jer 52:14; Ezek 21:22).
Rashi on 2 Kings 25:1
In the ninth year of his reign. Of Tzidkiyohu.1Which corresponds to Nevuchadnetzar's seventeenth year.—Radak
Siege towers. [Targum Yonoson] rendered כרקום [=works of siege].
Jerusalem · Calamities of, mentioned: Taken and burned by Nebuchadnezzar — Calamities of, mentioned: Taken and burned by Nebuchadnezzar
Siege · of the inhabitants during a — of the inhabitants during a
Sieges · Cities invested by: Often suffered from famine — Cities invested by: Often suffered from famine
Zedekiah · to Babylon, blinds his eyes, kills his — to Babylon, blinds his eyes, kills his
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
