And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
18. Seraiah, the chief priest ] Probably the son of Azariah and grandson of Hilkiah (1Ch 6:14). His name is not found except in the parallel narratives.
Zephaniah the second priest ] This was the son of Maaseiah (Jer 21:1). He was the successor in office of Jehoiada (Jer 29:25-26). The particulars known of his history are that he was asked by Shemaiah the Nehelamite (Jer 29:29) to punish Jeremiah as if he were a false prophet. Zephaniah was also sent on two occasions to Jeremiah, once to ask the result of the siege, and secondly, to beg the prophet to intercede for the people (Jer 27:3).
On ‘second priest’ see note on 2Ki 23:4 above.
the three keepers of the door ] These were the three Levites stationed one at each chief entrance to the temple.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It devolved on Nebuzaradan to select for exemplary punishment the persons whom he regarded as most guilty, either in respect of the original rebellion or of the protracted resistance. Instead of taking indiscriminately the first comers, he first selected those who by their offices would be likely to have had most authority – the high priest; the second priest (2Ki 23:4 note); three of the temple Levites; the commandant of the city; five members of the kings Privy Council (or seven, see 2Ki 25:19 note); and the secretary (or adjutant) of the captain of the host. To these he added sixty others, who were accounted princes. Compared with the many occasions on which Assyrian and Persian conquerers put to death hundreds or thousands after taking a revolted town, Nebuzaradan (and Nebuchadnezzar) must be regarded as moderate, or even merciful, in their vengeance. Compare Jer 40:2-5.
The three keepers of the door – Rather, three keepers. The Hebrew has no article. The temple door-keepers in the time of Solomon numbered twenty-four 1Ch 26:17-18, who were probably under six chiefs. After the captivity the chiefs are either six Ezr 2:42; Neh 7:45 or four 1Ch 9:17.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ki 25:18
And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest.
Unconscious heroism
1. Most of us, I daresay, are familiar with the story of the faithful sentinel at Pompeii. It is told for us by Miss Yonge, in her little book of golden deeds. The man was an ordinary soldier, set to guard the city gate. It was the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and from the position assigned to him he was able to watch the stream of molten lava, like a cruel crawling hungry tide, setting in the direction of Pompeii: on and on it came: nearer and nearer with its blinding light and burning flame it advanced towards him: but the sentinel never stirred from his post; he stood where he had been ordered to stand: and when after more than a thousand years the buried city was, as it were, disentombed from her sepulchre, the good soldiers bones, still girt about with breast-plate and helmet, and with the hand still raised to keep the dust from his mouth, remained to tell all future generations how a Roman soldier, rather than leave the post of duty, was not unwilling to die. The story is not without modern parallels. Lord Wolseley pays a tribute of respectful admiration to the chivalrous faithfulness which was shown by one of the English sentinels at the battle of Inkermann. In the blinding mist of the November morning, the Russian soldiers crept within our lines. Through what some call chance, but what we would rather call the providence of God, the enemy in their progress failed to come across one of our sentries: all day long, with enemies before him and enemies behind him, that man remained where he had been placed; and when, in the evening of the day, the thin red line of our troops drove back their opponents into their entrenchments, Lord Wolseley found this sentinel, still holding his ground, at his post, doing his duty. I have referred to these two incidents, not merely because they are golden deeds, but because they help, I think, to illustrate the act of unconscious heroism which our text describes. In this last chapter of the Second Book of Kings we read the story of the abolition of the Jewish monarchy and of the leading away into captivity of the Jewish people. From the throne on which had once reigned David and Solomon and Hezekiah, the last occupant passed forth a blind and childless man, to the ignominy of a Babylonish prison: by command of King Nebuchadnezzar, the wall and the palaces of the city, once the joy of the whole earth, were levelled to the ground: and the holy and beautiful temple, fragrant with cedar wood and bright with gold, where in happier days the shining cloud of Gods presence had rested upon the mercy seat, was turned into a charred and dilapidated ruin. Verily the weeping captives as they went forth to their exile in the land of the enemy must have learned at last the lesson which is taught so plainly on every page of history, and by the experience of every life, be sure your sin will find you out. But just as some gleams of pleasant sunshine will often come to cheer us at the end of a cloudy and dark day, so this dark and terrible national catastrophe seems to have been lit up by at least one deed of noble unconscious heroism. When the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar forced themselves at last into the very precincts of the temple, the great crowd of worshippers, who habitually were present there, had gone; the many attendant priests and Levites, who habitually assisted at the services, had also gone; but Seraiah the chief priest was there; and Zephaniah the second priest was there: and there were also present three men whose names are not so much as told us, three men of whom the historian apparently knows nothing, three men who were faithful but not famous; they were only keepers of the door, but faithful among the faithless, they were ready to sacrifice their lives rather than desert their posts. The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the door, and the king of Babylon smote them and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. What epitaph shall we write on the grave of these unconscious heroes? Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. It is the peculiar glory of the Christian religion that it has sowed the world broadcast with unconscious heroes. By their love of God, by their devotion to duty, by the unselfishness of their lives, by their repression of themselves, by their enthusiasm for humanity you may know them; they are to be met with almost everywhere; in cottages, in palaces; in towns and villages; in busy workshops, in great seats of learning; in the silence of the sick-room, among those who go down to the sea in ships, in the darkness of the underground mine. They are of all ages; some are schoolboys and schoolgirls; some are young men and maidens; some are old and grey-headed, weary with the burden of three score years and ten, holding the staff in the hand for very age. Yes, who can count the dust of Jacob or the number of the fourth part of Israel? Thanks to the example which our Lord set, thanks to the teaching which our Lord gave, thanks to the Holy Spirit which our Lord sends, unconscious Christian heroes have been as the stars in heaven for multitude and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. Quite impossible is it for human mind to measure the widespreading fruitfulness of any single life, however humble, thus given unreservedly to the service of God. As Gods word expressly teaches us, as Church History continually reminds us, as our own experience of life shows us, it is, as a rule, Almighty Gods way to work great results by apparently insufficient means. By little grains of sand the proud waters of the sea are held within their limits; by little drops of rain the earth is made to give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. When our Lord Jesus Christ came to save the world He chose the humiliations of poverty and the ignominy of a death upon a cross. Not so much by the pre-eminent holiness of great saints as by the unconscious heroism of numberless Christian lives has the faith, which was once committed to the saints, won its way throughout the world. Sometimes it is given to us to know bow fruitful a humble Christian life can be. In our own time a single Christian nobleman has been allowed to lift hundreds and thousands of his fellow-countrymen out of abysses of ignorance and oppression, and in many cases to guide their feet into the way of peace. But whence did Lord Shaftesbury acquire his enthusiasm for humanity and his desire to serve God? He did not learn it from his father or mother; he did not learn it from his schoolmasters at Harrow or elsewhere; but he learned it, as he tells us, from that unlettered, faithful nurse who had the courage to lift up her voice for God, who spoke to him about our Lord Jesus Christ, and taught him to pray, who prayed with him and prayed for him, and who unconsciously sowed a seed in a kindly soil, which brought forth fruit thirtyfold, sixty-fold, hundredfold.
3. And here we stop and ask how is it possible to attain to that state of grace which produces as its natural fruit a life of unconscious Christian heroism? I answer you by referring you to a text of Scripture. We read that when Moses after forty days came down from the clouds and darkness that wreathed and settled on the top of Sinai, he wist not, so the Revised Version has it, that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with God. For forty days without weariness and without cessation he had lived in the light of the presence of God; during that time there had been revealed to him, as before time to no other, thoughts from the mind of God; and when at last he turned to go back to the camp of Israel, lo, just as the moon with its surface of extinct volcanoes gets illuminated by the beams of the sun, till it is beautiful with silver light, so the earthly features of the countenance of Moses were radiant with more than human brightness, and the Israelites could not bear to look upon him because he reflected the glory of God. Yet Moses wist not that his countenance did shine because of his speaking with God. Surely it is not difficult to guess the secret of the faithfulness to duty of those three keepers of the door in the house of the Lord. Do you ask how it was that when they heard the tramp of the army of the enemy they did not make haste to escape? How it was that when priest and Levite, and chorister, and worshipper were seeking safety they choose to remain at their post? Was it not because they were men worthy of their office? They preferred to be doorkeepers in the house of the Lord rather than dwell in the tents of ungodliness; their hearts rejoiced within them when they said one to another, day by day, Let us go into the house of the Lord. They loved worship; they loved duty; they loved God; and so when the hour of their trial came they east in their lot with Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest, being all the time as unconscious of their heroism as Moses was of his glory, when he wist not that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with God. And not otherwise has it been with all the bright and shining lives which have made the pages of Church history, and the homes of pious Christians flash and glitter like a milky way. They were by nature men of like passions with ourselves, they were compassed like us with manifold infirmities; they found, as we do, a law in their members warring against the law of their minds; but over and over again, morning, noon, and night, they prayed God that for Jesus Christs sake Satan might not have dominion over them, and so, out of weakness they were made strong, and in the darkness oer their fallen heads perceived the waving of the hands that bless. (W. T. Harrison, D. D.)
Heroism instructive
Heroism is not heroism until it is ingrained in the character. No one can become an hero in an instant. Like the flower of the century plant, heroism is the sudden blossoming of what has been years in preparation. It is not premeditated, it is instinctive, because nobility has grown into a habit, and grandeur has become the fife-blood, and self-sacrifice the very fibre of the nerves. So we may parody Miltons famous saying, If you would write an epic, your whole life must he an heroic poem, and assert, If you would do a deed of heroism at any time in the future, you must begin to be a hero now. (Amos R. Wells.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. Seraiah the chief priest – Zephaniah] The person who is here called the second priest was what the Jews call sagan, a sort of deputy, who performed the functions of the high priest when he was prevented by any infirmity from attending the temple service. See on 2Kg 23:4.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Seraiah the chief priest; the high priest, grandson of that Hilkiah, of whom 2Ki 22:4, and father of Jehozadak, who, as it seems, was taken with his father; and when his father was slain, 2Ki 25:21, he was carried away to Babylon, as it is noted, 1Ch 6:14,15.
Zephaniah the second priest; who was the high priests deputy, when he was hindered from the execution of his office: See Poole “Num 3:32“; See Poole “2Sa 8:17” 2Ki 23:4???.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. the three keepers of thedoornot mere porters, but officers of high trust among theLevites (2Ki 22:4; 1Ch 9:26).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ver. 18-21. And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest,…. The sagan, or deputy priest, who officiated for the high priest, when by any means he was rendered unfit and incapable; so Joseph, the son of Ellem, as Josephus x relates, officiated for Matthias, when defiled with a nocturnal pollution; and seven days before the day of atonement they always substituted one under the high priest, lest anything of this kind should happen to him y. From hence, to the end of 2Ki 25:21 the account is the same as in Jer 52:25, only here in 2Ki 25:19 it is said, that five men that were in the king’s presence were taken, there seven men; to account for which, [See comments on Jer 52:25].
x Antiqu. l. 17. c. 6. sect. 4. y Misn. Yoma, c. 1. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
VII. THE AFTERMATH OF THE FALL OF JERUSALEM 25:1830
Chapter 25 closes with a series of notices which are somewhat in the nature of an appendix. The author speaks here of (1) the execution of certain Jewish leaders (2Ki. 25:18-21); (2) the appointment and assassination of Gedaliah (2Ki. 25:22-26); and (3) the release of King Jehoiachin (2Ki. 25:27-30).
A. THE EXECUTION OF JEWISH LEADERS 25:1821
TRANSLATION
(18) And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and three of the keepers of the threshold; (19) and from the city he took an officer who was appointed over the men of war, and five men from those who had served in the presence of the king which were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the host, the one who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land which were found in the city; (20) and Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them unto the king of Babylon to Riblah. (21) And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them in Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went captive from upon their land.
COMMENTS
To the account of the fall of Jerusalem is appended a listing of the prominent persons taken to Riblah and executed before Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuzaradan selected those who were highest in authority and therefore most responsible for the prolonged resistance of Jerusalem. First, the author mentions the religious leaders who met this untimely death. At the head of these officials was Seraiah the chief of priests. Seraiah came from a noble line of priests, being the grandson of the great priest Hilkiah who had assisted so ably in the reforms under good King Josiah. After Seraiah, Zephaniah the second priest is named. It is not entirely clear what the office of second priest entailed. According to 2Ki. 23:4 there were several second priests. This Zephaniah is probably the Zephaniah son of Maaseiah of whom so much is said in the Book of Jeremiah.[693] Three keepers of the threshold were also among those executed at Riblah. These must have been high-ranking clergy who supervised the four thousand Levites (1Ch. 23:5) whose duty it was to prevent any disturbance or desecration of the Temple (2Ki. 25:18).
[693] See Jer. 21:1; Jer. 29:25-29; Jer. 37:3.
In the second category of those executed at Riblah are certain officials of state. The first such official is not named but is designated as the officer that was set over the men of war. Some commentators have suggested that this gentleman was the general who commanded the city garrison; others propose that he was a civilian official equivalent to minister of defense or the like. Five men who saw the kings face, i.e., who were part of the kings personal entourage, were also executed.[694] The scribe of the captain of the host is next listed among the officials who were slain. His job had been to muster the people of the land. A scribe in Old Testament times was not merely a stenographer. Some of the highest officials of state are called scribes. This particular scribe was likely the head of the war department of Judah (2Ki. 25:19). All these prisoners were brought before King Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah (2Ki. 25:20) and were slain.[695] All the other important people of Judah were deported to Babylon (2Ki. 25:21).[696]
[694] Jer. 52:25 mentions seven such courtiers who were slain. Perhaps two such officials were slain either sometime before or sometime after the massacre being narrated in 2 Kings 25. Jeremiah would then be giving the totals whereas Kings would be giving only partial figures of one specific execution.
[695] Whether or not this was the same day on which Zedekiahs sons were slain and his eyes blinded cannot be determined.
[696] For a discussion of the problems relating to the numbers of Jews carried away to Babylon, see Smith, JL, pp. 83234.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(18) Seraiah the chief (high) priest.And grandfather or great-grandfather of Ezra (1Ch. 6:14; Ezr. 7:1).
Zephaniah the second priest.See 2Ki. 23:4, Note; and Jer. 21:1; Jer. 29:25; Jer. 29:29; Jer. 37:3. From the last three passages it is clear that Zephaniah was a priest of high rank, being probably the high priests deputy.
The three keepers of the door (threshold).The chief warders of the principal entrances to the Temple. (See Jer. 38:13.) All the chief officials of the Temple were apparently taken away together.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(18, 19) List of the chief personages taken by Nebu-zaradan in the Temple and the city of David. This notice may be regarded as an indirect proof that the upper city was not captured before.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Seraiah The father of Ezra. Ezr 7:1.
The second priest The most distinguished of the priests of the second or common order. 2Ki 23:4. The three keepers of the door were “probably the three superintendents of the Levites, whose duty it was to keep guard over the temple, and who were, therefore, among the principal officers of the sanctuary.” Keil. Bahr thinks that “one was stationed at each of the main entrances to the temple;” but the temple had but one main entrance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 25:18. Zephaniah, the second priest The Jews call their second priest their Segan, whose business it was to supply the function of the high-priest, in case he was sick, or under any other incapacity. We find no such particular institution under the law; but Eleazar, the son of Aaron, who is styled the chief over the chief of the Levites, and who had the oversight of them who kept the charge of the sanctuary, Num 3:32., and whose authority was not much inferior to that of the high-priest, may not improperly be deemed one of that order. It is most probable that Nebuchadnezzar put to death the persons mentioned in this and the following verse, because he looked upon them as Zedekiah’s principal counsellors in the advising him to rebel.
REFLECTIONS.Near two months were spent in plundering the city, or given of God as a reprieve to the people, and then the decree went forth.
1. The temple, and all the palaces in Zion, are laid in ashes, the walls dismantled, and the whole city laid in ruins. Note; (1.) The temple is no longer precious in God’s sight, when the people are apostate. (2.) God’s patience with sinners by and by will end, and then judgment will overtake them to the uttermost.
2. The few vessels of silver and gold which remained in the temple, were now carried away, with all the brass, the pillars, the sea, the bases, and all the vessels belonging to the service, which for its vast quantity is said to be without weight. Thus a period was put to their worship. They who had so abused the house of God, and these consecrated vessels, deserved to be deprived of them.
3. Many of the great men are seized and executed, as being the supporters of the rebellion, and the rest carried away captive, Jer 52:29.; only the poor of the land were left to till the ground for their proud conquerors. Thus the same iniquities cast the Jews out of Judea, which had been so fatal to the Canaanites, on whom their ancestors had executed the judgments of God.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ki 25:18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
Ver. 18. And the captain of the guard took Seraiah, &c. ] These likely were fired out of those secret corners of the temple where they lay hid. Our chroniclers a tell us that William the Conqueror, firing the city Mentz or Mayence in France, consumed a fair church there, in the walls whereof was enclosed an anchoret – Stow saith two – who might, but would not escape, holding it a breach of his religious vow to forsake his cell in that distress. Other histories tell us, that at the last destruction of Jerusalem, certain Jews who had taken sanctuary in the temple, came forth when it was on fire, and besought the Emperor Titus to give them quarter for their lives: but he refused so to do; giving this for a reason, which indeed was no reason, Ye deserve not to live, who will not die with the downfall of your temple.
And Zephaniah the second priest.
a Speed, 447.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Seraiah. The grandfather or great-grandfather of Ezra (1Ch 6:14. Ezr 7:1).
chief priest. See note on Lev 4:3.
second priest. See note on 2Ki 23:4. Probably a deputy high priest. NO provision for such in the Law.
door = threshold.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
captain: 2Ki 25:24, 2Ki 25:25, 2Ki 25:26
Seraiah: 1Ch 6:14, Ezr 7:1, Jer 52:24
Zephaniah: Jer 21:1, Jer 29:25, Jer 29:29
the second priest: Called by the Jews, sagan, who officiated for the high priest in case of any temporary incapacity.
door: Heb. threshold
Reciprocal: Num 3:32 – General 2Ki 12:9 – the priests 1Ch 6:15 – when the Lord 1Ch 9:11 – the ruler 1Ch 12:27 – the leader 1Ch 15:23 – General Neh 9:32 – on our kings Isa 22:3 – thy rulers Jer 20:1 – chief Jer 21:7 – I will Jer 32:2 – then Jer 34:21 – Zedekiah Jer 35:4 – the keeper Jer 52:10 – he slew Lam 4:16 – they respected Eze 11:7 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 25:18-19. The captain of the guard took Seraiah, the chief priest The high-priest, grandson of that Hilkiah mentioned 2Ki 22:4, and father of Jehosadak, who, it seems, was taken with his father; and when his father was slain, (2Ki 25:21,) was carried away to Babylon, as is observed 1Ch 6:13-14. And Zephaniah the second priest Who was the high-priests deputy, when he was by sickness, or any other means, prevented from the execution of his office. And five of them that were in the kings presence Who constantly attended upon the kings person wheresoever he was, and were his most intimate counsellors. And threescore men of the land that were found in the city These were some eminent persons, who had concealed themselves in some private place; but before Nebuzar-adan left Jerusalem, were discovered.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
25:18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the {i} second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
(i) That is, one appointed to act in the place of the high priest, if he were sick or otherwise detained.