Nebuzaradan (Nebuzar-Adan)

Nebuzaradan (also spelled Nebuzar-Adan) was a Babylonian officer titled “captain of the guard,” who carried out the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of Judah for the king of Babylon (2 Kings 25:11, 21).

The text says that he burned Yahweh’s house, the king’s house, and every great house in Jerusalem with fire (2 Kings 25:9), and that he carried away captive the rest of the people left in the city, including those who had deserted to the king of Babylon (2 Kings 25:11). It also reports that the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars, bases, and bronze sea in Yahweh’s house and carried the bronze to Babylon (2 Kings 25:13), while the captain of the guard took away the fire pans and basins, the gold for gold and the silver for silver (2 Kings 25:15).

The same narrative says that the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold (2 Kings 25:18), and that the king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that Judah was carried away captive out of his land (2 Kings 25:21). Jeremiah’s account parallels this: Nebuzaradan carried away the rest of the people and the deserters (Jeremiah 39:9), but left the poor who had nothing in the land of Judah and gave them vineyards and fields (Jeremiah 39:10). In the same episode Jeremiah was taken from the court of the guard and committed to Gedaliah so that he could be brought home (Jeremiah 39:14). The later summary in Jeremiah 52 likewise records the burning (Jeremiah 52:13), the taking of the chief priest and others (Jeremiah 52:24), and their execution by the king of Babylon at Riblah (Jeremiah 52:27).

Scripture does not record Nebuzaradan’s motives or later career. Christian and Jewish readings do not attach a separate doctrine to him, and no major confessional dispute hinges on the details of his acts. They differ mainly in emphasis: some read the destruction he carried out as direct divine judgment on Judah, others stress the Babylonian imperial campaign, and many hold both together; the texts themselves close the account with the statement that Judah was carried away captive out of his land (2 Kings 25:21; Jeremiah 52:27).

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.