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25 But in the seventh month[a] Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family,[b] came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah,[c] as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. 26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for[d] Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.

Jehoiachin in Babylon

27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh[e] day of the twelfth month,[f] King Evil Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned[g] King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him[h] from prison.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 25:25 sn It is not altogether clear whether this is in the same year that Jerusalem fell or not. The wall was breached in the fourth month (= early July; Jer 39:2) and Nebuzaradan came and burned the palace, the temple, and many of the houses and tore down the wall in the fifth month (= early August; Jer 52:12). That would have left time between the fifth month and the seventh month (October) to gather in the harvest of grapes, dates and figs, and olives (Jer 40:12). However, many commentators feel that too much activity takes place in too short a time for this to have been in the same year and posit that it happened the following year or even five years later when a further deportation took place, possibly in retaliation for the murder of Gedaliah and the Babylonian garrison at Mizpah (Jer 52:30). The assassination of Gedaliah had momentous consequences and was commemorated in one of the post exilic fast days lamenting the fall of Jerusalem (Zech 8:19).
  2. 2 Kings 25:25 tn Heb “[was] from the seed of the kingdom.”
  3. 2 Kings 25:25 tn Heb “and they struck down Gedaliah and he died.”
  4. 2 Kings 25:26 tn Heb “arose and went to.”
  5. 2 Kings 25:27 sn The parallel account in Jer 52:31 has “twenty-fifth.”
  6. 2 Kings 25:27 sn The twenty-seventh day would be March 22, 561 b.c. in modern reckoning.
  7. 2 Kings 25:27 tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”
  8. 2 Kings 25:27 tn The words “released him” are supplied in the translation on the basis of Jer 52:31.