In his last campaign against Judea and Zedekiah, Nebuchadnezzar had first attacked all the garrisons spread throughout the country, including that of Lachish. Then he set up his army in front of Jerusalem to besiege it.
Let's look at the continuation of the historical and biblical chronologies (for earlier dates, refer to the previous articles since Adam):
year 3155 (605 BCE): battle of Carchemish; victory of Nebuchadnezzar against the Assyrian-Egyptian coalition
year 3158 (602 BCE): Jehoiakim, king of Judea, breaks his allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar
year 3163 (597 BCE): Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem and Jehoiakim is killed
year 3163 (597 BCE): Nebuchadnezzar appoints Zedekiah to the throne of Judea
year 3166 (594 BCE): Zedekiah's rebellion against the Babylonian yoke
year 3167 (593 BCE): Ezekiel prophesies about the messianic times
year 3171 (589 BCE): Nebuchadnezzar campaigns against Judea, siege of Jerusalem
year 3173 (587 BCE): fall of Jerusalem and destruction of Solomon's Temple
During this entire period of siege, Jeremiah continued to prophesy against Jerusalem if the people did not return to the right path wanted by God. However, other false prophets like a certain Hananiah mentioned in the Bible prophesied that God would not abandon His people. It is easy to guess which sermons King Zedekiah preferred to believe... So, he had decided to lock up Jeremiah for his "negative" speeches:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judea, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was besieging Jerusalem; and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judea's house. For Zedekiah king of Judea had shut him up, saying: "Why do you prophesy, and say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it?" (Jeremiah 32:1-3)
The siege by Nebuchadnezzar lasted almost three years. Jeremiah remained in the hands of the Judean authorities for a long time.
Moreover, Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah: "What have I sinned against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? Where now are your prophets that prophesied unto you, saying: The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land? And now hear, I pray you, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray you, be presented before you; that you cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or else I will die there."
Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the court of the guard, and they gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus, Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard. (Jeremiah 37:18-21)
But some officials were convinced that Jeremiah, a prophet of doom in their eyes, should be put to death, while famine was raging in the city, and the people were in despair:
And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah spoke unto all the people, saying: "Thus says the Lord: He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goes forth to the Chaldeans shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey, and he shall live." Thus says the Lord: "This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it."
Then the princes said unto the king: 'Let this man, we pray you be put to death; forasmuch as he weakens the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them; for this man seeks not the welfare of this people, but the hurt." Then Zedekiah the king said: "Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do anything against you."
Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the pit of Malchiah the king's son, that was in the court of the guard; and they let down Jeremiah with ropes. And in the pit there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire. (Jeremiah 38:1-6)
This episode tells us about these officials who are only mentioned in the Bible. If they had existed, History must have forgotten them at a time when writings hardly survived after a devastating war and the only recorded writings were mostly to praise rulers' exploits. However, during the excavations of the City of David in 2008, south of the current wall of Jerusalem, archaeologists found clay seals at the site called "David's palace". This was the old Jebusite palace (a Canaanite people) that David took possession of after conquering the city. This Canaanite palace became David's palace. But his son Solomon had built a new royal palace on the slopes of the Temple Mount, north of the city, called the City of David. So all the Judean kings occupied Solomon's royal palace after him, while the previous Canaanite palace had become the building of the royal administration. It was also the case until the time of Zedekiah. Now the two seals found bear the names of two of the high officials who had imprisoned Jeremiah: Gedalyahu [Gedaliah] ben Pashur and Yehushal [or Jucal] ben Shelemyahu [Shelemiah]. If the Bible was written hundreds of years after the destruction of Jerusalem, as some historians had claimed, how could the author of the Bible, whoever he was and at whatever time, have known the names of officials who existed at such remote time back? What source or record could be left after this war and the destruction of the entire city?
Jeremiah was finally taken out of the pit where these officials had thrown him and put in a normal cell by Zedekiah. He remained there until the fall of Jerusalem. Another archaeological find proves the truth of the biblical text:
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city, such as all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sarezer, Samgar-Nabu-sarsekim Rab-saris (=the chief eunuch), Nergal-sarezer Rab-mag (=the chief magician), with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon. (Jeremiah 39:2-3)
The name of this Babylonian official, Nabu-sarsekim, has also been identified in one of the cuneiform tablets preserved in the British Museum:
[…] the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch, […] 11th month, 18th day, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. (Alberge, Dalya, "Museum tablet gives new weight to biblical truth", Times article, July 11, 2007)
And the British newspaper added that this was rare evidence in a non-biblical source of a real person, other than a king, mentioned in the Bible. This extraordinary fact is also mentioned in an English Wikipedia page: click here.
To return to the home page of articles on this theme of "the Bible is true", click here.
Albert Benhamou
Private tour guide in Israel
March 2025
