Jeremiah 52 vs 2 Kings 25 compared

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>' 
This entry was posted in Stuff and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *