The end of Jeremiah (52:1-34) and the end of 2 Kings (2 Kings 24:18-25:30) are almost word-for-word identical. Here is a comparison done with wdiff
. You can see that one of the very first differences is the question about the comma after Hamutal. This is not known as the comma jeremiahian, but it should be.
The part that is crossed out is Jeremiah 52. The text in bold is 2 Kings 25.
Zedekiah was
one and twenty
and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was
Hamutal Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
And he did that which was evil in the
eyes sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah,
till until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that
Nebuchadrezzar Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came,
he he, and all his
army, host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against
it, it; and
they built forts against it round about.
So
And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
And
in the fourth month, in on the ninth day of the
month, fourth month the famine
was sore prevailed in the city,
so that and there was no bread for the people of the land.
Then
And the city was broken up, and all the men of war
fled, and went forth out of the city fled by night by the way of the gate between
the two walls, which
was is by the king’s
garden; garden: (now the
Chaldeans Chaldees were
by against the city round about:) and
they the king went
by the way
of toward the plain.
But
And the army of the
Chaldeans Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook
Zedekiah him in the plains of
Jericho; Jericho: and all his army
was were scattered from him.
Then
So they took the king, and
carried brought him up
unto to the king of Babylon to
Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.
And
the king of Babylon they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his
eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
Then he eyes, and put out the eyes of
Zedekiah; Zedekiah, and
the king of Babylon bound him
in chains, with fetters of brass, and carried him to
Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.
Now Babylon.
And in the fifth month,
in on the
tenth seventh day of the month, which
was is the nineteenth year of
Nebuchadrezzar king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard,
which served a servant of the king of Babylon,
into Jerusalem, unto Jerusalem:
And
burned he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s
house; house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and
all the houses of the every great
men, burned man’s house burnt he with
fire: fire.
And all the army of the
Chaldeans, Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down
all the walls of Jerusalem round about.
Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and
Now the
residue rest of the people that
remained were left in the city, and
those that fell away, the fugitives that fell
away to the king of Babylon,
and with the
rest remnant of the
multitude.
But multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard
carry away.
But the captain of the guard left
certain of the poor of the land
for to be vinedressers and
for husbandmen.
Also
And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD,
did the
Chaldeans brake, Chaldees break in pieces, and carried
all the brass of them to Babylon.
The caldrons also,
And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the
bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.
And the
basons, and the firepans, and the bowls, and
the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was such things as were of
gold gold, in gold, and
that which was of
silver silver, in silver,
took the captain of the guard
took away.
The two pillars, one sea, and
twelve brasen bulls that were under the
bases, bases which
king Solomon had made
in for the house of the
LORD: LORD; the brass of all these vessels was without weight.
And concerning the pillars, the
The height of
the one pillar was eighteen
cubits; and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it; cubits, and the
thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow.
And a chapiter
of brass was upon
it; it was brass: and the height of
one the chapiter
was five cubits, with network three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the
chapiters chapiter round about, all of
brass. The second pillar also brass: and
the pomegranates were like unto
these.
And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon these had the
network were an hundred round about. second pillar with wreathen work.
And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
He took also
And out of the city
he took an
eunuch, which had the charge of officer that was set over the men of
war; war, and
seven five men of them that were
near in the king’s
person, presence, which were found in the
city; city, and the principal scribe of the host,
who which mustered the people of the
land; land, and threescore men of the people of the
land, land that were found in the
midst of the city.
So city:
And Nebuzaradan
the captain of the guard took
them, these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to
Riblah. Riblah:
And the king of Babylon smote them, and
put slew them
to death in at Riblah in the land of Hamath.
Thus So Judah was carried away
captive out of
his own their land.
This is
And as for the people
whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: that remained in the
seventh year three thousand Jews land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.
And when all the captains of the armies, they and
three their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and
twenty:
In Johanan the
eighteenth year son of
Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty Careah, and
two persons:
In Seraiah the
three son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and
twentieth year Jaazaniah the son of
Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan a Maachathite, they and their men.
And Gedaliah sware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the
captain servants of the
guard carried away captive Chaldees: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you.
But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews
seven hundred forty and
five persons: all the
persons Chaldees that were
four thousand with him at Mizpah.
And all the people, both small and
six hundred. great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.
And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month,
in on the
five seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the
first year
of his that he began to reign
lifted did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of
Judah, and brought him forth Judah out of
prison, prison;
And
he spake kindly
unto to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in
Babylon, Babylon;
And changed his prison garments: and he did
continually eat bread
continually before him all the days of his life.
And
for his
diet, there allowance was a continual
diet allowance given him of the
king of Babylon, every day king, a
portion until the day of his death, daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.
There are a few implications about this:
- It can take a few days to get out of prison. They might even put you back by mistake.
- There’s more than one valid way to punctuate and translate the same text, say the translators of the King James Bible.
The code that did the comparison was this:
# j is the file containing the text from Jeremiah
# 2k is the file containing the text from 2 Kings
wdiff j 2k -w '<del>' -x '</del>' -y '<b>' -z '</b>'