14. polluted the house] Jeremiah vii. 9–11, xxiii. 11–14; Ezekiel viii. 5–16.
¹⁵And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:
15. rising up early and sending] The words are absent from 1 Esdras i. 50, and are perhaps a late addition to Chronicles derived from Jeremiah; compare Jeremiah xxvi. 5. See note on verse 5 above.
¹⁶but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy[¹].
[¹] Hebrew healing.
16. mocked the messengers] Jeremiah was imprisoned, beaten, and threatened with death, Urijah (Jeremiah xxvi. 20–23) was put to death. Of the fate of Habakkuk (who probably lived during the Chaldean period, Habakkuk i. 6) nothing is known.
¹⁷Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or ancient: he gave them all into his hand.
17. Chaldeans] Their name in Hebrew is Casdim and in Assyrio-Babylonian Caldu (the change of “s” for “l” before a dental is not uncommon in the latter language). They were a people originally living south of Babylon on the sea, but Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadrezzar, conquered Babylon and established a Chaldeo-Babylonian Empire.
in the house of their sanctuary] Compare Ezekiel’s vision of the slaughter; Ezekiel ix. 1–11.
¹⁸And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.