Michael Avioz, «When Was the First Temple Destroyed, According to the Bible?», Vol. 84 (2003) 562-565

This article deals with the contradiction between 2 Kgs 25 and Jer 52 regarding the date on which the First Temple was destroyed. Comparing the descriptions of the destruction in Kings and in Jeremiah shows that the two descriptions were borrowed from a common third source. In our view, this common third source is better preserved in Jeremiah 52 than in 2 Kings 25. We therefore deduce that Jeremiah 52 preserves the more exact date of the Temple’s destruction: the tenth of Ab. This claim is based on the fact that the description of the destruction in Kings is in any case truncated, and is therefore likely that it contains the textual corruptions as opposed to Jeremiah.

        2. The sentence hlylh hmxlmh y#$n)-lkw ("all the men of war by night") in 2 Kgs 25,4 is truncated, and the version in Jer 52,7 wxrby hmxlmh y#$n)-lkw  ("all the men of war fled") is preferable¹⁹.
        3. The list of vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar in Jer 52 is more detailed. Compare Jer 52,17-23 to 2 Kgs 25,13-17.
        4. Numbers: Instead of seven people, as in Jer 52,25, 2 Kgs 25,19 has five; instead of five cubits in Jer 52,22, 2 Kgs 25,7 has three cubits. The text "five cubits" accords with the list in 1 Kgs 7,15.

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        It seems that the contradiction between the books of Kings and Jeremiah regarding the date of the First Temple‘s destruction cannot be resolved either by textual emendation or by chronological solutions. We hold that there is no point in trying to harmonize these contradictory dates, and that only one of the dates should be regarded as ancient. This date, according to our view, is the tenth of Ab, as is written in Jeremiah 52²⁰.