And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month - a year and a half after the capture of the city (Jeremiah 39:2; Jeremiah 52:5-6), which took place in the 11th year and fourth month. The one who escaped (as foretold Ezekiel 24:26) may have been so long on the road, through fear of entering the enemy's country (Henderson); or the singular is used for the plural in a collective sense, "the escaped remnant." (Compare similar phrases, "Him that escapeth of Moab," Isaiah 15:9; "He that escapeth of them," Amos 9:1.) Naturally the re-opening of the prophet's mouth for consolation would be deferred until the number of the escaped remnant was complete; the removal of such a large number would easily have occupied seventeen or eighteen mouths.