Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.

He also put out the eyes of Sedecias: and bound him with fetters, to be carried to Babylon.

and he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with chains of brass, to carry him to Babylon.

And the eyes of Zedekiah he hath blinded, and he bindeth him with brazen fetters, to bring him in to Babylon.

And more than this, he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and had him put in chains to take him away to Babylon.

Also, he plucked out the eyes of Zedekiah. And he bound him with fetters, to be led away to Babylon.

Et oculos Zedechiae excaecavit, et vinxit eum cathenis (in duali numero, duabus cathenis,) ut adduceret ipsum Babylonem.

Here was an accumulation of misery: the king had his eyes pulled out, [1] after having been a spectator of the slaughter of his own sons! He then saw heaped together the dead bodies of his own offspring and of all his nobles. After that slaughter he was made blind. His life was, no doubt, prolonged to him, that he might die, as it were, by little and little, according to what a notorious tyrant has said. And thus Nebuchadnezzar intended to kill him a hundred and a thousand times, and not at once to put him to death, for death removes man from all the miseries of the present life. That Zedekiah remained alive, was then a much harder condition. And this has been recorded that we may know, that as he had been so long obstinate against God, the punishment inflicted on him was long protracted; for he had not sinned through levity or want of thought, or some hidden impulse, but hardened himself against every truth and all counsels. It was therefore just that he should die by little and little, and not be killed at once. This was the reason why the king of Babylon pulled out his eyes. The Prophet says in the last place, that he was bound with chains, and that he was in this miserable condition led into Babylon This reproach was an addition to his blindness: he was bound with chains as a criminal. It would have been better for him to have been taken immediately to the gallows, or to have been put to death in any way; but it was the design of Nebuchadnezzar, that he should lead a miserable life in this degraded state, and be a public example of what perfidy deserved. It follows, --

Footnotes

1 - The pulling out of his eyes is derived from the Vulg.; the other versions and the Targum. express literally the Hebrew, "And he blinded the eyes of Zedekiah." And the custom was to hold before them red-hot iron. It seems also that they practiced in the East the horrible custom of pulling out the eyes. But to blind the eyes must have been a different form of barbarity. -- Ed.

Bounds him with chains - Margin: "Two brazen chains;" one for his hands, and the other for his feet.

Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes,.... By what means is not certain; however, hereby the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled, that his eyes should see the king of Babylon, as they did, before they were put out, and that he should not die by the sword, Jeremiah 34:3; and also the prophecy of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 12:13; that he should be brought to Babylon, and yet should not see it; for his eyes were put out before he was carried there: a full proof this of the prescience of God; of his foreknowledge of future and contingent events; of the truth and certainty of prophecy, and of the authority of divine revelation:
and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon; with two brass or iron chains, or fetters, for both his legs; and thus bound he was carried to Babylon, where he remained to the day of his death.