Jeremiah 52:34

And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

52:31-34 See this history of king Jehoiachin in 2Ki 25:27-30. Those under oppression will find it is not in vain for them to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord. Our times are in God's hand, for the hearts of all we have to deal with are so. May we be enabled, more and more, to rest on the Rock of Ages, and to look forward with holy faith to that hour, when the Lord will bring again Zion, and overthrow all the enemies of the church.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Seventh year - The suggestion is now generally received, that the word ten has dropped out before seven, and that the deportations mentioned here are all connected with the final war against Zedekiah. The calculation of Nebuchadnezzars reign is different from that used elsewhere, showing that the writer had access to a document not known to the compiler of the Book of Kings. In each date there is a difference of one year. The Septuagint omits Jeremiah 52:28-30.

The number of the exiles carried away is small compared with the 42,360 men who returned Ezra 2:64-65, leaving a large Jewish population behind at Babylon. But a continual drain of people from Judaea was going on, and the 10,000 carried away with Jehoiachin formed the nucleus and center, and gave tone to the whole (see 2 Kings 24:14). When they began to thrive in Babylon, large numbers would emigrate there of their own accord.

A comparison of this chapter with the parallel portion of 2 Kings hows that though not free from clerical errors and mistakes of copyists the body of the text is remarkably sound. Many of the differences between the two texts are abbreviations made purposely by the compiler of the Book of Kings; others are the result of negligence; and upon the whole the text of the Book of Kings is inferior to that of the Appendix to the Book of Jeremiah. Bearing in mind, however, that possibly they are not two transcripts of the same text, but the result of an independent use by two different writers of the same original authority, their complete agreement, except in trivial matters and mistakes easy of correction, is a satisfactory proof of the general trust-worthiness of the Masoretic Text in all more important particulars.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

34. every day a portion—rather, "its portion," (compare 1Ki 8:59, Margin).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He treated him like a prince, with a respect becoming his former state, took care both for his habit and diet: for his habit, that it should be decent, such as became a person of his quality, though a captive: for his diet, that he should have it in his court, thereby learning others that humanity which becometh all men to treat others with that are fallen under their power; that decency which becometh them as men, and as men whose circumstances have been better; doing to others as we would they should do unto us. Thus Jehoiachin’s lot was different from that of his father Jehoiakim, whose body was cast out, as we heard before; as also from that of his uncle Zedekiah, who did not only die in Babylon, but died a prisoner; his nephew Jehoiachin died there, and a captive, but not in durance.

Thee four last verses are found also 2 Kings 25:27-30; and being found here in a narrative form, related as a piece of history relating a thing done not in a prophetical style, are an argument (as was said before) that this whole chapter is no part of the prophecy of Jeremiah, and probably not wrote by him; for he beginning his prophecy in the thirteenth year of Josiah, who reigned thirty-one years, and continuing it three months during the reign of Jehoahaz, and eleven years during the reign of Jehoiakim, and three months during the reign of Jehoiachin, (or Jeconiah,) and eleven years during the reign of Zedekiah, and Jehoiachin outliving the reign of Zedekiah twenty-five years, it must needs be sixty-five years and a half after the word of the Lord first came to Jeremiah before the death of Jehoiachin; so as the prophet, if he lived to that time, must be near a hundred years old, which is not probable.

Here now endeth the history of the kingdom of Judah. I shall only note the severe judgment of God upon this people, whose kingdom was made up of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and half the tribe of Manasseh. In the numbering of the persons belonging to these two tribes, Numbers 1, (counting half of the number of the tribe of Manasseh,) we find one hundred twenty-six thousand one hundred. Numbers 26, we find of them one hundred forty-eight thousand four hundred and fifty. Here, Jeremiah 52:30, we find no more of them carried into captivity than four thousand and six hundred. From whence we may judge what a multitude of them were slain by the sword, or killed by the famine and the pestilence, though we make a great allowance for such as were left in the land to dress vineyards and to till the ground. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, to mock his messengers, despise his words, and misuse his prophets, till there be no remedy, as this people did, 2 Chronicles 36:16.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon,.... This seems to design not food only, and for himself, which he had daily at the king's table, but all necessary provisions for himself, family, and servants:

every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life; that is, of Jeconiah's; how long he lived after this is not known; he was now fifty five years of age, and cannot be thought to have lived a great while after, having been imprisoned so many years; and it is certain he did not live to the return from the captivity. Of the death of Zedekiah we have no account, only that he died in prison. The Jews say (x) he died at this very time, when Jeconiah was advanced. The account here given of Jeconiah has led some to conclude that this chapter was not written by Jeremiah; since it cannot be well thought he should live so long as to the death of this prince; and, besides, had given an account of the destruction of Jerusalem in the thirty ninth chapter, which he would hardly repeat: though that he might do, partly for the sake of new circumstances here added; and partly as an introduction to the book of the Lamentations, which follows.

(x) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 28. p. 81.

Geneva Study Bible

And for his food, there was a {q} continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

(q) That is he had allowance in the court, and thus at length he had rest and quietness because he obeyed Jeremiah the Prophet, while the others were cruelly ordered that would not obey him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. until the day of his death, all the days of his life] The latter of these clauses (absent from LXX) is probably either an addition to, or originally a substitution for, the former, in order to avoid the inauspicious ending with the word death.

Jeremiah 52:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The closing portion of this chapter, viz., the notice regarding the liberation of Jehoiachin from imprisonment, ad his elevation to royal honours by Evil-merodach after Nebuchadnezzar's death, substantially agrees with the account given of that even in 2 Kings 25:27-30. The difference of date, "on the twenty-fifth of the month" (Jeremiah 52:31), and "on the twenty-seventh of the month" in 2 Kings, has arisen through the entrance of a clerical error into one text or the other. The few remaining variations of the two texts have no influence on the meaning. As to the fact itself, and its importance for the people languishing in exile, we may refer to the explanation given at 2 Kings 25:27.