And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.
He burnt the house of the Lord. The substructures of Solomon's temple have been discovered. The stones are of large size such as are special to Judea (and Assyria), and have the Jewish style of cut. The masonry is believed to belong to the time of Solomon (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 1:, p. 426; 'Jewish Intelligence,' December, 1857, pp. 373, 374).
And the king's house. On the site afterward occupied by King Herod the Great's palace stood the royal residence of the kings of Judah, which was destroyed when the Jews were driven into captivity. His office as captain of the guard (Genesis 37:36; Genesis 39:1) called him to execute the awards of justice on criminals; and hence, although not engaged in the siege of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 39:13) Nebuzaradan was despatched to raze the city, to plunder the temple, to lay both in ruins, demolish the fortifications, and transport the inhabitants to Babylon.