Judah’s evil King Zedekiah the destruction of Jerusalem and the people’s deportation
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📚And it came about in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it. And they built a siege wall against it all around. 2 And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.25:2 586 B.C.⚜
3 📚And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine 📖 prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 4 📚And the city was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans 📖 were all around the city. And the king went on the way toward the plain 📖. 5 📚And the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army scattered from him. 6 📚So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. 7 📚And they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with bronze fetters and carried him away to Babylon.
8 📚And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, which was in the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 📚And he burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned with fire every great man’s house.
10 📚And the whole army of the Chaldeans, that was with the commander of the guard, broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around. 11 📚Now Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, took away the rest of the people who were left in the city, and the fugitives who had defected to the king of Babylon, with the rest of the population. 12 📚But the commander of the guard left some of the poor of the land to be vineyard workers and farmers.
13 📚And the Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze pillars 📖 that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands and the bronze sea 📖 that was at the house of the LORD, and carried their bronze away to Babylon. 14 📚And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the spoons and all the bronze articles with which the priests ministered. 15 📚And the commander of the guard took away the fire-pans and the bowls, and the gold and silver of those things which had gold or silver.
16 📚As for the two pillars, one sea, and the stands which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 17 📚The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the capital on it was of bronze; and the height of the capital was three cubits; and the woven work and pomegranates all around on the capital were all of bronze. And the second pillar was the same, with woven work.
18 📚And the commander of the guard took Seraiah 📖 the chief priest, and Zephaniah 📖 the second priest, and the three doorkeepers.
19 📚And he took from the city an officer who had been appointed over the men of war, and five men of those who had been in the king’s presence, who were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the army, who conscripted the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city; 20 📚and Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guard, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 21 📚And the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.
25:21 2 Kings 23:27; Lev 26:33; Deut 28:36; Jer 25:8-11. God’s people had been in the land for about 800 years, from the time of Joshua. God removed them from the land because they repeatedly broke His covenant and would not listen to His messengers (2 Chron 36:15-17; Jer 11:1-13). Their history showed that they were a sinful and rebellious people (as, indeed, all men are by nature. See notes at 2 Kings 17:13, 19). But this was not the end of their story. Ezekiel, Daniel, and Esther record some of the events which took place during their exile from the land. Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi (and, of course, the four Gospels and part of Acts) record some of their history when the exile was over.⚜
Gedaliah is appointed governor of Judah
22 📚And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler over them. 23 📚And when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah and Johanan, the son of Careah, and Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, the son of a Maachathite, they and their men, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. 24 📚And Gedaliah took an oath before them and before their men, and said to them, “Do not be afraid to be the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you”.
25 📚But it came about in the seventh month, that Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal line, and ten men with him, came and struck down Gedaliah, killing him and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26 📚And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose and went to Egypt 📖, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
Jehoiachin’s time in Babylon
27 📚And it came about in the thirty-seventh year 📖 of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil Merodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison 28 📚and spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat more prominent than the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon, 29 📚and changed his prison garments. And Jehoiachin ate food regularly in his presence all the days of his life. 30 📚And as for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.
25:30 Though God’s people went into exile, they were not completely destroyed, and David’s royal house survived, as God had promised it would (2 Sam 7:14-16). For a reason why Jehoiachin (and other exiles from Judah) found some kindness in Babylon see 1 Kings 8:50; Ps 106:46.⚜