39:1–3 The reference to the “ninth year of Zedekiah . . . in the tenth month” (v. 1) points to Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem, which began around 588 BC. A full description of siege apparatuses and the suffering of the city’s inhabitants is not recorded here (cf. 32:24). Instead, this chapter focuses on the conclusion of the siege (39:2), when a litany of Babylonian officials enter the breached city and situate themselves at the middle gate (v. 3). Although this location in Jerusalem is not mentioned elsewhere in the OT, it is clearly of symbolic significance; the gate of a city or village was where important functions of government were carried out (e.g., Ruth 4:1; 1 Kings 22:10). In this seat of Judah’s power now sit the officials of Babylon. The names and titles of these Babylonian officials suggest that they are a mixture of military and political officials.123

39:4–8 One final time Zedekiah refuses to yield to Babylon as the agent of Yahweh’s discipline. He and his officials attempt a nighttime escape through the southern wall of the city toward the Arabah (Jer. 39:4), a semi-arid region to the southeast of Jerusalem. But the armies of Babylon (here called Chaldeans, a synonym) overtake Zedekiah near the lowlands of Jericho, west of the Jordan River. They bring him to “Riblah, in the land of Hamath” (v. 5), a mountainous city in Syria that likely served as the military headquarters of Nebuchadnezzar during his campaign along the eastern Mediterranean. The king of Babylon cuts down Zedekiah’s sons and all his nobles (v. 6) before blinding his eyes and taking him to Babylon (v. 7). Like that of Assyria before it, the cruelty of Babylon toward prisoners of war was proverbial in the ancient world. Total war is also in evidence when Babylon destroys the residences of the king and the people as well (v. 8). This fate vindicates the prophetic word of Jeremiah, whom Yahweh had promised would stand in for Jerusalem as “a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land” (1:18).124

39:9–10 These verses explain Babylon’s rationale when deciding between taking its newly conquered people into exile or leaving them behind. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard who will later show kindness to Jeremiah (40:4–6), deports everyone who remains in Jerusalem (39:9) except for the poor, whom he leaves to tend the vineyards and fields of Judah (v. 10). Earlier deportations by Babylon in 605 and 598 BC (Dan. 1:3–4; 2 Kings 24:14) have already taken Judah’s intelligentsia to Babylon, including the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel.

39:11–14 The fate of Jeremiah contrasts markedly with the brutality his countrymen experience at the hands of Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar personally directs Nebuzaradan not only to look after the welfare of the prophet but also to give him a say in where he will live (Jer. 39:11–12). The irony runs deep: just as freedom for Jerusalem meant captivity for Jeremiah, captivity for Jerusalem now means freedom for Jeremiah. The prophet of Yahweh had been detained as a traitor by his own king, but the Babylonian king permits him to return home and remain in the land under the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the Judean governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar himself (vv. 13–14).

In chapter 40 Babylon’s generous offer to live in the land will be extended to the entire remnant of Judah. However, chapters 41–43 record how Gedaliah and Jeremiah come under mortal threat from these same refugees, who persist in their refusal to learn the lessons of Jerusalem’s fall.

39:15–18 These verses might seem out of place, since this prophetic oracle to Jeremiah dates from when “he was shut up in the court of the guard” (v. 15) that is, prior to Jerusalem’s demise (cf. 32:2, 8; 33:1; 37:21). A preexilic setting is confirmed by Yahweh’s promise to Ebed-melech: “I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day” (39:16). Why does the text include this retrospective glance at Yahweh’s promises to a marginal figure in Judah?

Jeremiah 39:15–18 is one of many examples in the book of topical rather than chronological organization. This becomes evident when Ebed-melech receives the same assurance that Jeremiah does elsewhere. Yahweh promises Ebed-melech, much as he does Jeremiah (but not King Zedekiah), “I will deliver you” from enemies (v. 17; cf. 1:8, 19; 15:20) and “I will surely save you” (39:18; cf. 32:4; 34:3; 38:18, 23). Similarly, the fact that Ebed-melech will receive his “life as a prize of war” (39:18) means that he will survive the coming disaster in a manner the besieged inhabitants of Jerusalem will not (cf. 21:9; 38:2).

Ebed-melech has become a symbol of something more (on which cf. the Response section on Jeremiah 38). Thus it is appropriate that a passage about Judah’s exile should be interrupted by these verses about Ebed-melech, a non-Israelite whose obedience illustrates a future time when “all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart” (3:17). The present excursus about Ebed-melech the foreigner reminds stubborn Judah what faithfulness to Yahweh ought to look like.