(13) All the houses of the great men.--More accurately, all the great houses.

52:12-23 The Chaldean army made woful havoc. But nothing is so particularly related here, as the carrying away of the articles in the temple. The remembrance of their beauty and value shows us the more the evil of sin.And burnt the house of the Lord,.... The temple built by Solomon, after it had stood four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days, according to Josephus (z): but the Jews say it stood but four hundred ten years (a):

and the king's house; the royal palace; probably that which was built by Solomon, 1 Kings 7:1;

and all the houses of Jerusalem: of any note or strength:

and all the houses of the great men burnt he with fire; of the princes and nobles in Jerusalem; it is in the singular number, "and every house of the great one"; or "every great house" (b); Jarchi interprets it of the synagogue, where prayer was magnified; and others, he says, understood it of the schools, where the law was magnified.

(z) Autiqu. l. 10. c. 8. sect. 5. (a) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 3. 2. & Gloss. in ib. (b) "omnem domum magnatis", Cocceius; "omnemque domum magnam", Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt.