Bible Strands
Jeremiah 52:7
Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the final collapse of Jerusalem’s defenses after the Chaldean siege has starved the population and shattered the walls.
The words — The Hebrew verb יִבְרְחוּ (yiv.re.Chu) denotes the active flight of the soldiers, while וַ/תִּבָּקַ֣ע (va./ti.ba.Ka') literally describes the city walls being shattered or breached.
The thread — This flight sequence parallels the parallel account in 2 Kings 25:4, the earlier parallel in Jeremiah 39:4, and the tactical description of seized fords in Jeremiah 51:32.
Why it lands — The text records the immediate collapse of military order despite prior fortifications, asking the reader to note how the breach and famine rendered the army's position untenable.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 25:4 Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,
- Jeremiah 39:4 When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, and they went out along the route to the Arabah.
- Jeremiah 51:32 The fords have been seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers are terrified.”
- Leviticus 26:17 And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.
- Leviticus 26:36 As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.
- Deuteronomy 28:25 The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Joshua 7:8 O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned its back and run from its enemies?
- Jeremiah 34:2 The LORD, the God of Israel, told Jeremiah to go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him that this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.
- Jeremiah 49:26 For her young men will fall in the streets, and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD of Hosts.