Jeremiah 39:8

8 The Babylonians burned down the royal palace and the houses of the people, and they destroyed the Jerusalem walls.

Jeremiah 39:8 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 39:8

And the Chaldeans burnt the king's house
His palace: this was a month after the city was taken, as appears from ( Jeremiah 52:12 Jeremiah 52:13 ) ; and the houses of the people, with fire;
the houses of the common people, as distinct from the king's house, and the houses of the great men, ( Jeremiah 52:13 ) ; though Jarchi interprets of the synagogues. It is in the original text in the singular number, "the house of the people"; which Abarbinel understands of the temple, called, not the house of God, he having departed from it; but the house of the people, a den of thieves; according to Adrichomius ^F11, there was a house in Jerusalem called "the house of the vulgar", or common people, where public feasts and sports were kept; but the former sense seems best: and broke down the walls of Jerusalem;
demolished all the fortifications of it, and entirely dismantled it, that it might be no more a city of force and strength, as it had been.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 154.

Jeremiah 39:8 In-Context

6 The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's children at Riblah before his very own eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the officials of Judah.

7 Then he gouged out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him in chains, and dragged him off to Babylon.

8 The Babylonians burned down the royal palace and the houses of the people, and they destroyed the Jerusalem walls.

9 Nebuzaradan the captain of the special guard rounded up the rest of the people who were left in the city, including those who had defected to the Babylonians, and deported them to Babylon.

10 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the special guard left some of the poorest people in the land of Judah. He gave them vineyards and fields at that time.