Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
2 Kings 25:9 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 9. 9And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse advances the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence: “And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem….” Its responsible meaning belongs to the complete movement “Babylon burns Jerusalem and dismantles the temple.”
In the fifth month the house of the LORD is burned
This verse is one part of that explanation in 2 Kings 25:8–17. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.
Read It With
- 2 Kings 25:8–17
Read 2 Kings 25:9 with 25:8–17. The selected wording supplies one step in the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence; the surrounding verses supply the causes, responses, and outcome summarized here: Nebuzaradan burns temple, palace, and houses, breaks walls, deports remaining people, leaves some poor for agricultural labor, and removes and breaks temple bronze.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Within “Babylon burns Jerusalem and dismantles the temple,” 2 Kings 25:9 advances the thought unit through its next reported action, speech, or consequence through the wording “And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem….” Its placement is governed by this reviewed relationship: 2 Kings 25:1–7 establishes this prior movement: Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem, famine becomes severe, the city is breached, Zedekiah is captured, his sons are killed before him, and he is blinded and taken to Babylon. 2 Kings 25:8–17 reverses, redirects, or qualifies the preceding movement; that evidenced relationship, rather than database adjacency alone, explains its placement.
Read 2 Kings 25:8–17 together
Why these verses belong together: 2 Kings 25:8–17 forms one scene or regnal notice: Nebuzaradan burns temple, palace, and houses, breaks walls, deports remaining people, leaves some poor for agricultural labor, and removes and breaks temple bronze.
Verse 8. 8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:
Verse 9. 9 And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire.
Verse 10. 10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.
Verse 11. 11 Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry away.
Verse 12. 12 But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.
Verse 13. 13 And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.
Verse 14. 14 And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.
Verse 15. 15 And the firepans, and the bowls, and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away.
Verse 16. 16 The two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels was without weight.
Verse 17. 17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these had the second pillar with wreathen work.
Follow the Context
- Nebuzaradan burns temple, palace, and houses, breaks walls, deports remaining people, leaves some poor for agricultural labor, and removes and breaks temple bronze.
- The unit closes by establishing the result or tension named in “Babylon burns Jerusalem and dismantles the temple” before the next narrated movement.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
2 Kings 25:9 does not permit the wording “And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem…” to be read apart from the selected verse's context. The destruction does not authorize antisemitism, triumph over Jewish loss, looting sacred places, forced displacement, or romanticizing the poor people's imposed labor.
What Remains True
Theological interpretation never makes imperial domination morally clean or turns displaced and subjected people into scenery for a ruler's story. This unit tests that truth through the narrated movement: Nebuzaradan burns temple, palace, and houses, breaks walls, deports remaining people, leaves some poor for agricultural labor, and removes and breaks temple bronze. In 2 Kings 25:9, the concrete line “And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem…” keeps that truth accountable to narrated evidence.
Teach It Back
In 70–220 words, explain 2 Kings 25:9's role in 25:8–17. Paraphrase “And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem…,” identify one agent or affected person, state one material source or historical limit, and name one conclusion the context does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read 2 Kings 25:8–17 — Babylon burns Jerusalem and dismantles the templeSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Kings, Jeremiah, archaeology, and Babylonian evidence differ in scope and detail; burning and deportation are historically grounded without proving every theological explanation.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Kings 25:8–17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 25:8–17
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 666–667, translation and translator notes for 25:8–17
Open source ↗