2 Kings 24

2 KINGS CHAPTER 24

Judah’s King Jehoiakim Continued

      • During Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for 3 years. Then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled. Yahweh sent Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands to destroy Judah in accordance with the word of Yahweh which He spoke through His servants the prophets. These things happened to Judah at Yahweh’s command, in order to remove them from His presence, because of Manasseh’s sins in accordance with all that he had done, including all the innocent blood he had shed. He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood and Yahweh was unwilling to pardon.

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible explains, “In 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar commanded forces that defeated the remaining Assyrian army and an Egyptian contingent at Carchemish (see Jer 46:2). While he campaigned in the west, his father, Nabopolassar, died, and Nebuchadnezzar returned home to assume the throne as Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC). When he rejoined his troops, they easily moved down the Mediterranean coast. Sometime during this campaign, he invaded the land of Judah and took much booty and many captives to Babylon, including Daniel and his three friends (Dan 1:1-7). Jehoiakim was made a vassal to Nebuchadnezzar and paid him tribute for three years. When Pharaoh Neco defeated the Babylonians at the Egyptian border in 601 BC, Jehoiakim rebelled, seizing the opportunity to gain his independence. Nebuchadnezzar bided his time between 601 and 598 BC while consolidating his hold on the west, sending various raiders to Judah. The root of Judah’s problems was its incorrigible spiritual infidelity. Despite Josiah’s reforms, the sins of Manasseh permeated Judah so that divine judgment was inevitable. Tradition holds that Manasseh murdered the prophet Isaiah by sawing him in two (cp Heb 11:37).”

        • Guzik mentions, “This specific attack is documented by the Babylonian Chronicles, a collection of tablets discovered as early as 1887, held in the British Museum. In them, Nebuchadnezzar’s 605 b.c. presence in Judah is documented and clarified. When the Babylonian chronicles were finally published in 1956, they gave us first-rate, detailed political and military information about the first 10 years of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. L.W. King prepared these tablets in 1919; he then died, and they were neglected for four decades. Excavations also document the victory of Nebuchadnezzar over the Egyptians at Carchemish in May or June of 605 b.c. Archaeologists found evidences of battle, vast quantities of arrowheads, layers of ash, and a shield of a Greek mercenary fighting for the Egyptians. This campaign of Nebuchadnezzar was interrupted suddenly when he heard of his father’s death and raced back to Babylon to secure his succession to the throne. He traveled about 500 miles in two weeks – remarkable speed for travel in that day. Nebuchadnezzar only had the time to take a few choice captives (such as Daniel), a few treasures and a promise of submission from Jehoiakim.”

      • The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign, along with all of his accomplishments, are recorded in the book, “Annals of the Kings of Judah.” He rested with his ancestors and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king. The king of Egypt did not march out of his land again because the king of Babylon had taken all the territory that belonged to him from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible says, “Jehoiakim died in 598 BC, evidently during Nebuchadnezzar’s second campaign against Jerusalem (Josephus reports that Nebuchadnezzar executed Jehoiakim; see Josephus, Antiquities 10.6.3; cp Jer 22:18-19; 36:30-31). The king of Egypt did not venture out of his country after that because of Nebuchadnezzar’s overwhelming strength. Any hope Judah had of help from Egypt was in vain (see Jer 2:36; 46:2-12; Ezek 29:6, 16).” The same source note that the Wadi of Egypt “has been identified as either the Wadi el-Arish at the edge of the Nile delta, or as Nahal Besor, which lies south of Gaza.”

Judah’s King Jehoiachin

      • Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king and he reigned for 3 months in Jerusalem. His mother was Elnathan’s daughter, Nehushta, and she was from Jerusalem. He did what was evil in Yahweh’s eyes just as his father had done.

        • ESV Study Bible writes, “The Babylonian withdrawal from Palestine in 601 BC turned out to be only temporary, and Jehoiakim’s rebellion brought the Babylonian army to the gates of Jerusalem at the end of the year 598. The city surrendered to the Babylonians on the fifteenth or sixteenth of March 597 BC, by which time Jehoiachin was king…”

      • At that time, the officers of King Nebuchadezzar of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem and laid siege to the city. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his officers were besieging it, and Judah’s King Jehoiachin, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered to him. In the 8th year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin captive. And just as Yahweh had foretold, Nebuchadnezzar took all the treasures from the house of Yahweh and from the king’s house, and he stripped away all of the gold items that King Solomon of Israel had made for the house of Yahweh. He deported all of Jerusalem, including all of the officials, all the soldiers, all the skilled workers, and those who worked with metal- 10,000 in all. Only the poorest people were left in the land. He deported Jehoiachin from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his eunuchs, and the prominent people of the land. The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon all 7,000 soldiers, as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers- all strong and fit for war. The king of Babylon made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Mattaniah, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible notes, “Faced with the overwhelming forces of Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiachin surrendered…The eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was 597 BC.” On the statement that these events were “just as Yahweh had foretold,” the same source continues, “See 20:16-17. A greater divine judgment still lay in the future (21:12-15; 22:15-20; 23:26-27). In his earlier siege of Jerusalem in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar had taken part of the Temple treasures as spoil (2 Chr 36:7; Dan 1:2). He now carried away all the treasures. Anything left behind on this occasion was taken in his final siege of Jerusalem in 586 BC (2 Kgs 25:15). In addition to Jehoiachin, the prophet Ezekiel was also taken into captivity (Ezek 1:1). Throughout the book of Ezekiel, events in Ezekiel’s life are dated in terms of the years since Jehoiachin had been taken captive…Like the three kings before him, Mattaniah received a throne name, Zedekiah.”

        • Citing Dilday, Guzik points out, “’The fall of Jerusalem didn’t come about in one cataclysmic battle; it occurred in stages.’ Nebuchadnezzar initially subjugated the city about 605 b.c. Destruction from Nebuchadnezzar’s marauding bands followed from 601 to 598 b.c. The siege and fall of Jerusalem occurred under Nebuchadnezzar’s main army on 16 March, 597 b.c. Nebuchadnezzar returned to completely destroy and depopulate Jerusalem in the summer of 586 b.c.”

Zedekiah’s Reign and the Fall of Jerusalem (24:18-25:21)

Judah’s King Zedekiah

      • Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jeremiah’s daughter, Hamutal, and she was from Libnah. Zedekiah did what was evil in Yahweh’s eyes just as Jehoiakim had done.

      • It was because of Yahweh’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally expelled them from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

        • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible writes, “…Babylonian conquerors usually instated vassal rulers from the same house as their predecessor to ensure continuity and stability with the local population. The Babylonian Chronicle refers to him as ‘a king of his [Nebuchadnezzar’s] liking/choosing.’ However, Jeremiah suggests that from early on in his reign (Jer 27:1; 28:1) Zedekiah was involved in discussions with neighboring peoples about the possibility of revolt. Eventually, Judah did in fact rebel, in circumstances that are not entirely clear but that were no doubt connected with the machinations of Egypt under Necho’s successor, Psammetichus II (595-589 BC). Zedekiah stopped paying tribute, and a new siege of Jerusalem followed. This siege was temporarily lifted when the new pharaoh Apries (589-570 BC) sent an army into Palestine (Jer 37:1-10), but it was resumed when the Egyptian army withdrew. The city eventually fell in 586 BC, after nearly two years of siege and with all supplies of food exhausted.”

        • NLT Illustrated Study Bible includes the following very helpful historical summary of Babylon titled “Babylon, Great City for Proud Humanity”:

          • “Babylon, one of the world’s most ancient cities, was the center of Babylonian civilization and is an enduring symbol for defiant human pride. Babylon was founded a few generations after the Flood by Nimrod (Gen 10:8-9), one of history’s first powerful overlords. Babylon takes its name from Babel, a word that means ‘gate of god’ in the Babylonian language. Babylon was probably the location of the tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9), the first monument to humanity’s attempt to construct its own identity apart from the Creator. It was this proud civilization that Abraham and his family left when they traveled out of Ur of the Chaldeans around 2000 BC…Even though Babylon was ruled by many kingdoms throughout the centuries, the city remained a cultural and religious figurehead.”

        • “Sumerian Civilization (3200-2000 BC) The first great civilization to flourish in Babylonia was Sumer, centered south of Babylon. The Sumerians invented cuneiform writing, which was used by Mesopotamian culture for 3,000 years.”

        • “The Akkadian Empire (2334-2154 BC) To the north of Babylon, Akkadian king Sargon I (2339-2279 BC) founded the capital city of Akkad and gained political and cultural supremacy over Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire lasted for nearly two centuries.”

        • “First Babylonian Kingdom (1900-1600 BC) During the same period, Semitic-speaking nomads from Syria called Amurru (‘Amorites’), regarded as barbarians by the urbane Babylonians, began migrating into Babylonia, where they eventually established a new Babylonian kingdom under Amorite control. The sixth king of that dynasty was Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), who enlarged the kingdom significantly. Babylon’s glory, however, was short-lived; the kingdom shriveled under Hammurabi’s son and lasted only another century.”

        • “Assyrian Domination (900-614 BC) In 851 BC Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC) entered Babylon but treated the ancient city with respect and left its king on his throne as a vassal. A century and a half later (around 705 BC), a Babylonian vassal king named Merodach-baladan organized a revolution, and he sent ambassadors to King Hezekiah of Judah for support (2 Kgs 20:12-19; Isa 39). Assyria quickly crushed Merodoch-baladan’s revolution, and Assyria’s domination continued for another century.”

        • “Neo-Babylonian Empire (612-539 BC) The Chaldean prince Nabopolassar seized the throne of Babylon (625-605 BC) and put an end to the Assyrian Empire. Under his son Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 BC), Babylon was master of the Near East, a city of splendor (see Dan 1-4). Nebuchanezzar was eventually succeeded by a high diplomatic official named Nabonidus (555-539 BC), who neglected Babylon and lost its support. When Cyrus II of Persia (559-530 BC) attacked the city in October 539 BC (Dan 5:30-31), the city gave itself up without a battle. That surrender ended independent Babylon.”

        • “The Symbolic Enemy of God’s People In I Peter and Revelation, Rome is personified as ‘Babylon the Great, Mother of all Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World’ (Rev 17:5)- a dreadfully immoral center of wealth and commerce, ruling over the kings of the earth and persecuting God’s people. The kings and merchants of the earth will mourn her demise (Rev 18:9-19), but God’s people will rejoice that their oppression has ended and will worship God freely.”

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