Tammuz 9 – And on the ninth day of the fourth month…

July 14, 2024

Tammuz 9, 5784; from sunset July 14, 2024, to sunset July 15, 2024

This is an image of the Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle; one of 50+ Babylonian Chronicles which is a series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. This tablet brags of capturing the king of Judah (Jehoiachin) and the appointment of a king of his choosing (Zedekiah).

The Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle mentioned above was discovered in an excavation in Babylon and translated in 1956. It contains a description of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Judea, eleven years before he returned and destroyed the Temple. It was at this time that he deposed King Jehoiachin and installed Zedekiah as king. Our “Today in the Bible” event occurs 11 years later, at the end of Zedekiah’s reign…and only a few short weeks before the destruction of the first Temple.
Nebuchadnezzar laid siege against Jerusalem in the 9th year of Zedekiah’s reign, in the 10th month (Tevet), and it lasted for 2 1/2 years; but now the people of Jerusalem have run out of food…and the walls are about to be breached.

So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. – 2 Kings 25:1-3 (NIV)

And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city wall was broken through. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and took seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of the king of Babylon. – Jeremiah 39:2-3 (NIV)

The Middle Gate is not mentioned again in the Bible. It was located in the middle of the northern wall (at the time) of Jerusalem. Excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City have exposed a large L-shaped fortified wall. Dr. Leen Ritmeyer identified this as part of a gateway. At the outside corner of the gate, four arrowheads were found lying on a layer of burnt debris. Three arrowheads were made of iron and belonged to the Israelite forces, while the other one was made of bronze and belonged to the Babylonian army.

With the remembrance of the breached wall back in the days of the First Temple, we begin several weeks of mourning on the biblical calendar. We’ll remember the sin of the golden calf, the bad report of the spies who have returned from scouting out the Land in the days of Moses, and the destruction of both the First and Second Temples. We hope you’ll join us as we remember those dark days for the Southern Kingdom of Judah, as well as other ominous events against the Jewish people during this period of time throughout history.

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