Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 52:12-23
We have here an account of the woeful havoc that was made by the Chaldean army, a month after the city was taken, under the command of Nebuzaradan, who was captain of the guard, or general of the army, in this action. In the margin he is called the chief of the slaughter-men, or executioners; for soldiers are but slaughter-men, and God employs them as executioners of his sentence against a sinful people. Nebuzaradan was chief of those soldiers, but, in the execution he did, we have reason to fear he had no eye to God, but he served the king of Babylon and his own designs, now that he came into Jerusalem, into the very bowels of it, as captain of the slaughter-men there. And, 1. He laid the t…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 52:21
eighteen cubits--but in Ch2 3:15, it is "thirty-five cubits." The discrepancy is thus removed. Each pillar was eighteen common cubits. The two together, deducting the base, were thirty-five, as stated in Ch2 3:15 [GROTIUS]. Other ways (for example, by reference to the difference between the common and the sacred cubit) are proposed: though we are not able positively to decide now which is the true way, at least those proposed do show that the discrepancies are not irreconcilable.
John Gill on Jeremiah 52:21
And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits,.... As in 1 Kings 7:15; said to be thirty five, 2 Chronicles 3:15; of the reconciliation of which; see Gill on 2 Chronicles 3:15,
and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it; a thread or line of that measure encompassed each of the pillars, 1 Kings 7:15;
and the thickness thereof was four fingers; either of the pillar, or the fillet about it; that is, the brass of it was four fingers thick:
it was hollow; that is, the pillar was hollow.
Keil & Delitzsch on Jeremiah 52:17-23
The carrying away of the vessels of the temple is more fully stated than in Kg2 25:13-17. The large brazen articles, the two pillars at the porch (cf. Kg1 7:15.), the bases (Kg1 7:27.), and the brazen sea (Kg1 7:23.), which were too vast in their proportions to be easily carried away to Babylon, were broken to pieces by the Chaldeans, who carried off the brass of which they were made. אשׁר לבּית is more correct than אשׁר (Kings), and "all their brass" is more precise than simply "their brass" (Kings). In the enumeration of the smaller brazen vessels used for the temple service, Jer 52:18, there is omitted, in 2 Kings, ואת־המּזרקות, "and the bowls" (used in sacrifice); this omission is perhap…
