2 Kings 25:9

And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) He burnt the house . . . king’s house.—Which were in the upper city. (There should be a semicolon after “king’s house.”)

And every great man’s house.—Omit man’s. The phrase limits the preceding one, “all the houses of Jerusalem,” that is to say, “every great house” (2Chronicles 36:19, “all her palaces”). The common houses were spared for the poor who were left (2Kings 25:12).

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 25:9. And he burnt the house of the Lord — The king of Babylon, it appears, did not design to send any colonies to people Judea, and therefore ordered Jerusalem to be laid in ashes, as a nest of rebels. “At the burning of the king’s house,” says Henry, “and the houses of the great men, one cannot much wonder, the inhabitants had by their sins kindled the fire of God’s wrath against them; but that the house of the Lord should perish in these flames, that that holy and beautiful house should be burned with fire, (Isaiah 64:11,) is very strange; that house which David prepared for, and which Solomon built, at such a vast expense; that house which had the eye and the heart of God perpetually upon it, (1 Kings 9:3,) might not that have been snatched as a brand out of the burning? No, that will not be fireproof against God’s judgments; this stately structure must be laid in ashes, and it is probable the ark in it; for the enemies, probably having heard how dear the Philistines paid for the abusing it, durst not seize it; nor did any of its friends take care to preserve it; for then we should have heard of it again in the second temple.” The temple was burned four hundred years after the time that it was built, says Sir John Marsham; four hundred and twenty-four years three months and eight days, says Archbishop Usher; four hundred thirty years, says Abarbinel and other learned Jews; but Josephus computes the matter still higher; for he tells us that the temple was burned four hundred and seventy years six months and ten days after the building of it; one thousand and sixty years six months and ten days from the time of the Israelites coming out of the land of Egypt; one thousand nine hundred, and fifty years six months and ten days from the deluge; three thousand five hundred and thirty years six months and ten days from the creation; and he mentions it as a very remarkable circumstance, that the second temple was burned by the Romans in the same month and on the very same day of the month that this was set on fire by the Chaldeans, and, as some of the Jewish rabbis say, when the Levites were singing the very same passage, namely, He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness: yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off, Psalm 94:23. By the burning of the temple, God would show how little he cares for the external pomp of his worship, when the life and power of religion are neglected. The people trusted to the temple, as if that would protect them in their sins, (Jeremiah 7:4,) but God by this let them know that when they had profaned it, they would find it but a refuge of lies.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:8-21 The city and temple were burnt, and, it is probable, the ark in it. By this, God showed how little he cares for the outward pomp of his worship, when the life and power of religion are neglected. The walls of Jerusalem were thrown down, and the people carried captive to Babylon. The vessels of the temple were carried away. When the things signified were sinned away, what should the signs stand there for? It was righteous with God to deprive those of the benefit of his worship, who had preferred false worships before it; those that would have many altars, now shall have none. As the Lord spared not the angels that sinned, as he doomed the whole race of fallen men to the grave, and all unbelievers to hell, and as he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, we need not wonder at any miseries he may bring upon guilty nations, churches, or persons.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He burnt the house of the Lord - Compare the prophecies of Jeremiah Jer 21:10; Jeremiah 34:2; Jeremiah 38:18, Jeremiah 38:23. Psalm 79:1-13 is thought to have been written soon after this destruction of the temple.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8-18. on the seventh day of the month … came Nebuzar-adan—(compare Jer 52:12). In attempting to reconcile these two passages, it must be supposed either that, though he had set out on the seventh, he did not arrive in Jerusalem till the tenth, or that he did not put his orders in execution till that day. His office as captain of the guard (Ge 37:36; 39:1) called him to execute the awards of justice on criminals; and hence, although not engaged in the siege of Jerusalem (Jer 39:13), Nebuzar-adan was despatched to rase the city, to plunder the temple, to lay both in ruins, demolish the fortifications, and transport the inhabitants to Babylon. The most eminent of these were taken to the king at Riblah (2Ki 25:27) and executed, as instigators and abettors of the rebellion, or otherwise obnoxious to the Assyrian government. In their number were Seraiah, the high priest, grandfather of Ezra (Ezr 7:1), his sagan or deputy, a priest of the second order (Jer 21:2; 29:25, 29; 37:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He burnt the house of the Lord, which had now stood about four hundred and fifty years.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month,.... In Jeremiah 52:12 it is the tenth day of the month; which, how to be reconciled; see Gill on Jeremiah 52:12.

which is the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar; who, according to Ptolemy's canon, reigned forty three years; Metasthenes (u) says forty five; and from hence, to the end of 2 Kings 25:12 facts are related as in Jeremiah 52:12 whither the reader is referred.

(u) De Judicio Temp. & Annal. Pers. fol. 221. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. every great man’s house burnt he with fire] R.V. omits ‘man’s’. The expression in 2 Chronicles is ‘he burnt all the palaces thereof with fire’.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - And he burnt the house of the Lord. After it had stood, according to Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 10:8. § 5), four hundred and seventy years six months and ten days. This calculation, however, seems to exceed the truth. Neither the Assyrians nor the Babylonians had any regard for the gods of other nations. They everywhere burnt the temples, plundered the shrines, and carried off the images as trophies of victory. In the temple of Jerusalem they would find no images except those of the two cherubim (1 Kings 6:23-28), which they probably took away with them. And the king's house (see 1 Kings 7:1, 8-12; 2 Kings 11:16). The royal palace was, perhaps, almost as magnificent as the temple; and its destruction was almost as great a loss to art. It doubtless contained Solomon's throne of ivory (1 Kings 10:18), to which there was an ascent by six steps, with two sculptured lions on each step. And all the houses of Jerusalem. This statement is qualified by the words of the following clause, which show that only the houses of the princes and great men were purposely set on fire. Many of the remaining habitations may have perished in the conflagration, but some probably escaped, and were inhabited by "the poor of the land." And every great man's house burnt he with fire (comp. 2 Chronicles 36:19, where the Chaldeans are said to have burnt "all the palaces"). 2 Kings 25:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

By the words, "every great house," יר כּל־בּתּי את is more minutely defined: not all the houses to the very last, but simply all the large houses he burned to the very last, together with the temple and the royal palaces. The victors used one portion of the dwelling-houses for their stay in Jerusalem. He then had all the walls of the city destroyed. In Jeremiah כּל is omitted before חומת, as not being required for the sense; and also the את before טבּחים רב, which is indispensable to the sense, and has fallen out through a copyist's oversight.