Jeremiah 52:11

Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) And put him in prison till the day of his death.—This also is an additional detail not mentioned in 2 Kings 25, and its absence is probably due to the fact that that was the earlier narrative of the two. The word for “prison” is a peculiar one, and differs from that in Jeremiah 52:31. Literally it means “house of visitation,” and this may imply either stricter custody, or more severe punishment in addition to imprisonment. The LXX. renders it by “house of the mill,” as though Zedekiah, after he had been blinded, had been made to do slave work like that of Samson. Possibly this was merely an inference from Lamentations 5:13. Such treatment of captive kings was, however, quite in keeping with the character of Assyrian and Chaldæan rulers. Thus Assur-bani-pal boasts that he placed a king of Arabia in chains, and bound him with the dogs, and caused him to be kept in one of the great gates of Nineveh (Records of the Past, i. p. 93). So Darius, in the Behistun inscription, boasts of having taken a rebel king of Sagartia, cut off his nose and ears, and kept him chained at his door (Records of the Past, i. p. 119).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

52:1-11 This fruit of sin we should pray against above any thing; Cast me not away from thy presence, Ps 51:11. None are cast out of God's presence but those who by sin have first thrown themselves out. Zedekiah's flight was in vain, for there is no escaping the judgments of God; they come upon the sinner, and overtake him, let him flee where he will.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Put him in prison ... - Not found in 2 Kings, for in the contemporaneous history what befell Zedekiah at Riblah would alone be known. It was no doubt added by the same hand which inserted the account of the deportations to Babylon.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. Eze 12:13: "I will bring him to Babylon … yet shall he not see it."

prison—literally, "the house of visitations," or "punishments," that is, where there was penal work enforced on the prisoners, such as grinding. Hence the Septuagint renders it "the house of the mill." So Samson, after his eyes were put out, "ground" in the Philistine prison-house (Jud 16:21).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This history is found 2 Kings 25:1-7, much in the same words. See the annotations on that chapter. Jeremiah also hath the substance of it, Jeremiah 39:1-7; only neither of those places have the last words, from whence we learn that Zedekiah died in Babylon a prisoner.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah,.... After he had seen his children and princes executed, which must be very terrible to him; See Gill on Jeremiah 39:7;

and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon; in Jeremiah 39:7; it is said, he bound him, "to carry him" there; here it is affirmed he did carry him thither: and it is added,

and put him in prison till the day of his death; from this place only we learn that King Zedekiah was put into a prison, and died a prisoner.

Geneva Study Bible

Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. he put out the eyes] See on Jeremiah 34:3, and Jeremiah 39:7.

and put him in prison till the day of his death] an addition to the narrative in 2 Kgs.

prison] lit. the house of visitations, i.e. of punishment. The LXX render mill, of which rendering there is also a trace in Jeremiah 39:7 in that Version; an indication perhaps of a tradition on the subject.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - In prison; literally, in the house of custody. Jeremiah 52:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Fate of King Zedekiah at the taking of Jerusalem; cf. 2 Kings 24:18; 2 Kings 25:7, and Jeremiah 39:1-7. The statements regarding Zedekiah's ascension and his government, Jeremiah 52:1-3, agree word for word with 2 Kings 24:18-20, even to the variation השׁליכו, Jeremiah 52:3, for השׁליכו (Kings). The length of the siege of Jerusalem, Jeremiah 52:4-7, and the flight, capture, and condemnation of King Zedekiah and the princes of Judah, Jeremiah 52:7-11, not only agrees with 2 Kings 25:1-7, but also with Jeremiah 39:1-7, where it is merely the forcible entrance into the city by the Chaldeans that receives special detail; see on Jeremiah 39:3. The variation ויּחנוּ, Jeremiah 52:4, instead of ויּחן (2 Kings 25:1), does not affect the sense. As to the account given of the flight, capture, and condemnation of the king, both Jeremiah 39 and 2 Kings mit the notices given in Jeremiah 52:10, "and also all the princes of Judah he caused to be slain (i.e., executed) at Riblah," and in Jeremiah 52:11, "and he put him in the prison-house till the day of his death." בּית־הפּקדּות has been rendered οἰκία μυλῶνος by the lxx; on this fact Hitzig bases the opinion that the Hebrew words signify "the house of punishment," or "the house of correction," in which Zedekiah was obliged to turn the mill like other culprits, and as Samson was once obliged to do (Judges 16:21). But this meaning of the words cannot be substantiated. פּקדּה means "oversight, mustering, or visitation (Heimsuchung), or vengeance," e.g., Isaiah 10:3, but not punishment (Strafe), and the plural, "watches" (Ezekiel 9:1) and "custody," Ezekiel 54:11; hence the expression used here signifies "the house of custody," or "the house of the watches." The translation of the lxx can decide nothing against this, because their interpretation is based upon traditions which are themselves unfounded. Regarding this, Ewald well remarks (History of the People of Israel, iii. p. 748 of 2nd:ed.): "That Zedekiah must have laboured at the mill, as is mentioned in later chronicles (see Aug. Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, t. i. P. 2, p. 6; cf. Chr. Sam. Ch. xlv.), is probably a mere inference from Lamentations 5:13."