Was Jehoiachin released from prison on the twenty-fifth or the twenty-seventh day of the month?

Hard question · Israel’s history: Joshua to Esther · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate

A copyist’s slip

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The passages

2 Kings 25:27

In the twelfth month, “on the seven and twentieth day of the month”, Evil-merodach lifted up the head of Jehoiachin out of prison.

And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil–merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;

Jeremiah 52:31

The same release, in the same year and month, “in the five and twentieth day of the month”.

And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evil–merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison,

The objection

2 Kings 25:27 and Jeremiah 52:31 tell of the same event in almost the same words: in the thirty-seventh year of his captivity, in the twelfth month, Evil-merodach of Babylon released King Jehoiachin from prison. But Kings says it was the twenty-seventh day of the month and Jeremiah the twenty-fifth. Both cannot be the day it happened.

The answer

Jeremiah 52 is a near copy of the last chapters of 2 Kings (24:18–25:30), taken from the same record and added at the end of Jeremiah’s book. The two passages agree on the year, the month, the king of Babylon and every detail of Jehoiachin’s new life at court. The only difference is one numeral in the day of the month. The most likely explanation is that, in one line of copies, a scribe misread or miscopied that number.

Keil and Delitzsch take it this way. They note several such differences between the two books in this chapter: the day the temple was burned (the seventh or the tenth, 2 Kings 25:8 and Jeremiah 52:12), the number of the king’s advisers (five or seven, 2 Kings 25:19 and Jeremiah 52:25), the height of the pillar capitals (three cubits or five, 2 Kings 25:17 and Jeremiah 52:22), and this day of release. They put them all down to the confusion of similar numeral signs (for the date of the burning another answer is also given; see that question). Ellicott thought Jeremiah’s ‘five and twentieth’ probably the right reading. Barnes’ Notes, comparing the two chapters, judges that the text, though not free from copyists’ slips, is ‘remarkably sound’.

The slip does not touch the substance. Both books end on the same note of hope: the son of David, after thirty-seven years in prison, is brought out, spoken to kindly and given a seat at the king’s table for the rest of his life.

Still open

It cannot now be shown which of the two numbers is original. The commentators who take it as a copyist’s slip do not agree on which book has the right day.

From the classic commentators

The difference of date, "on the twenty-fifth of the month" (Jer 52:31), and "on the twenty-seventh of the month" in 2 Kings, has arisen through the entrance of a clerical error into one text or the other. The few remaining variations of the two texts have no influence on the meaning.Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on Jeremiah 52:31

Was Jehoiachin released from prison on the twenty-fifth or the twenty-seventh day of the month?

The passages

The objection

The answer

Other answers Christians give

A decree and its carrying out

Still open

From the classic commentators

Sources

Further reading