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Journey of a Passage

2 Kings 25:8 and Jeremiah 52:12

When was the temple burned?

2 Kings 25:8 says Nebuzaradan came on the seventh day of the fifth month; Hebrew Jeremiah 52:12 says the tenth; the library's Greek Jeremiah, the sixth. Jewish tradition mourns on the ninth of Av.

Read 2 Kings 25:8 and Jeremiah 52:12 in every edition

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original KingsUnknown (debated)
  2. Jeremiah 52:12 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)Book of Jeremiah, 6th century BC onward
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Kings
Greek
  1. Septuagint, Jeremiah 52:12 (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a shorter Hebrew text of Jeremiah
  2. Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. ADTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Kings

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Book of Jeremiah, 6th century BC onward

    Jeremiah 52:12 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)

    ✓ Contains this passage

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וּבַחֹדֶשׁ הַחֲמִישִׁי בֶּעָשׂוֹר לַחֹדֶשׁ

    in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month

  3. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, Jeremiah 52:12 (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a shorter Hebrew text of Jeremiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    le cinquième mois, le sixième jour du mois

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  4. Translated c. 2nd century BC; kaige revision 1st c. BC–1st c. AD

    Septuagint, 4 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Le septième jour du cinquième mois

    2 Kings 25:8. One Greek text (Vaticanus type, kaige revision) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  5. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Mense quinto, septima die mensis

    2 Kings 25:8.

  6. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Kings

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וּבַחֹדֶשׁ הַחֲמִישִׁי בְּשִׁבְעָה לַחֹדֶשׁ

    in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month

    2 Kings 25:8.

  7. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    on the seventh day (2 Kings); in the tenth day (Jeremiah)

What changed, and why

The Talmud (Ta'anit 29a) harmonizes: the enemy entered on the seventh, set the fire on the ninth, and it burned through the tenth; the fast is on the ninth of Av. Others see a copying difference. Jehoiachin's release also differs: 27th day (Kings), 25th (Hebrew Jeremiah 52:31), 23rd (the library's Greek Jeremiah).

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedKings and Jeremiah give different days.
  • Independently documentedThe Talmud harmonizes the dates.

Sources

  • E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)

Related lessons

  • Jerusalem Destroyed; Jehoiachin's Hope →Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem; famine sets in; the wall is breached. Zedekiah flees, is caught near Jericho, sees his sons killed at Riblah, and is blinded and taken to Babylon. Nebuzaradan burns the temple, the palace and the houses, breaks down the walls, carries off the bronze and deports the people, leaving the poor as vinedressers. Gedaliah, the appointed governor, is assassinated, and many flee to Egypt. Thirty-seven years into his exile, Jehoiachin is released from prison and eats at the king of Babylon's table.
  • Evidence Case: Lachish, Siloam and the Destruction of Jerusalem →Few periods of biblical history are as well documented in the ground as Judah's last century and a half: the siege of Lachish in 701 BC, Hezekiah's water tunnel and wall, the royal lmlk jars, the seals of officials, and the burnt city of 586 BC. Each find needs its own date and context.
  • How 2 Kings Came to Us →2 Kings is the second half of the Hebrew book of Kings. It ends with an event of about 561 BC, so its final form is no earlier than that. It names lost royal chronicles as sources, shares long passages with Isaiah and Jeremiah, and is retold in Chronicles. Qumran preserves only small papyrus fragments; the main Greek manuscripts carry a revision toward the Hebrew (kaige) throughout 2 Kings.