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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
23:31-25:30 The End of Judah. The story of 1-2 Kings now comes to its end as imperial power passes to Babylon, temple and palace are destroyed, and Jerusalem's treasures are carried off to a foreign land. It is left to Josiah's grandson Jehoiachin to offer such hope as can be found for the future of the Davidic "lamp" (1 Kings 11:36).
23:31-35 Jehoahaz. The new king of Judah is summoned to Pharaoh Neco's temporary headquarters at Riblah on the eastern bank of the Orontes River, as the Egyptians return from the unsuccessful siege of Haran (). Jehoahaz is removed from power and subsequently imprisoned in Egypt. (See note on 2 Chron. 36:1-4.)
23:36-24:7 Jehoahaz's replacement is his brother Jehoiakim, who is confronted by the armies of Babylon that have just dismantled the Assyrian Empire and now invade Palestine in pursuit of complete victory over Egypt. Their ruler is Nebuchadnezzar, who was never able to defeat Egypt completely but did enough to ensure that the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land. Jehoiakim first switched his allegiance from Egypt to Babylon (), but after Nebuchadnezzar's failed attempt to invade Egypt in (i.e., after three years), he rebelled against Babylon and looked once again to Egypt for help (cf. Jer. 46:14-28).
24:5 Chronicles of the Kings. See note on 1 Kings 14:19.
24:8-17 Jehoiachin. The Babylonian withdrawal from Palestine in turned out to be only temporary, and Jehoiakim's rebellion brought the Babylonian army to the gates of Jerusalem at the . The city surrendered to the Babylonians on the , by which time Jehoiachin was king. Significant deportations followed; on deportation as an imperial tactic, see note on 15:27-31. Although 1-2 Kings does not mention this, the prophet Ezekiel was among the exiles; his prophetic ministry began a few years later in Babylon (Ezek. 1:2-3).
24:10-17 This first capture of Jerusalem occurred in , the seventh year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonian Chronicle tells of the king's army laying siege to Jerusalem, capturing it, and appointing his own king over it. He then took tribute from Judah.
24:18-25:7 Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah ruled next, under the name of Zedekiah, as a Babylonian vassal. Jeremiah 27-29 suggests that from early in his reign (Jer. 27:1; 28:1) he was plotting revolt, and eventually he rebelled. A of Jerusalem followed, and the city eventually fell in As the city wall was being breached on the northern side, Zedekiah managed to escape by night with his troops through an exit in the southeastern wall that is probably to be identified with the Fountain Gate of Neh. 3:15. He was captured while fleeing to the Arabah by way of the Wadi Kelt in the vicinity of Jericho (see also note on 2 Chron. 36:11-16).
25:8-12 And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem (v. 9). A few weeks after the fall of Jerusalem, the full vengeance of the Babylonian king was visited upon the city. Every important building was burned down (v. 9); the walls around Jerusalem (v. 10) were broken down; and a further section of the population was exiled, with some being executed.
25:9-10 Evidence has been found for Nebuchadnezzar's destruction of Jerusalem in , including Babylonian arrowheads of iron and bronze. See also note on 2 Chron. 36:17-21.
25:13-14 Pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord begins a detailed list of temple furnishings (vv. 13-17) carried off by the Babylonians for the value of their metal. The pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the rest were beautiful instruments used to worship the Lord of heaven and earth (see notes on 1 Kings 7:15-21; 7:23-47). But the Lord has abandoned this temple, so its outward beauty has become a deceptive illusion of his presence. Its destruction is a fitting end to the nation. No mention is made of the ark of the covenant; presumably that also was taken (cf. Jer. 3:16). "How lonely sits the city that was full of people!" (Lam. 1:1).
25:21 Almost all hope is gone in the summary statement, So Judah was taken into exile out of its land. (See map.) But the land is still "its land," holding out the promise of a future return.
25:22-26 Gedaliah, the new governor of the territory, was the grandson of King Josiah's secretary Shaphan. His subsequent assassination precipitated a general flight to Egypt.
25:27-30 Evil-merodach king of Babylon . . . freed Jehoiachin. Evil-merodach (in Akkadian, Amel-Marduk) was Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor, ruling His release of the Judean king from prison in gives the reader some hope that there is still a future for the Davidic line--that the words of 2 Sam. 7:15-16 are still true: "my steadfast love will not depart from him. . . . your kingdom shall be made sure forever." Cuneiform texts found in the excavations of Babylon throw light on the treatment of the Judahite king Jehoiachin after he went into captivity in The texts are ration receipts, probably of an officer in charge of delivering supplies to prisoners or foreigners in Babylon. Jehoiachin is mentioned by name as receiving oil (cf. 2 Kings 25:30).
