Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded Judah during the reign of King Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim became a vassal to Nebuchadnezzar for three years but then rebelled against him. Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, took some vessels from the temple, and took prisoners including Daniel to Babylon. Scholars debate the exact timeline but it appears Nebuchadnezzar's first campaign against Judah began in the third year of Jehoiakim and he captured Jerusalem in the fourth year after defeating the Egyptian army.

1. 2 KI GS 24 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, ebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim
became his vassal for three years. But then he
turned against ebuchadnezzar and rebelled.
BAR ES, "In his days - i. e., 605 B.C., which was the third completed Dan_1:1, and
fourth commencing Jer_25:1, year of Jehoiakim.
Nebuchadnezzar - or Nebuchadrezzar, which is closer to the original, Nabu-
kudurri-uzur. This name, like most Babylonian names, is made up of three elements,
Nebo, the well-known god Isa_46:1, kudur, of doubtful signification (perhaps “crown”
perhaps “landmark”), and uzur “protects.” Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Nabopolassar,
and second monarch of the Babylonian empire, ascended the throne, 604 B.C., and
reigned 43 years, dying 561 B.C. He married Amuhia (or Amyitis), daughter of Cyaxares,
king of the Medes, and was the most celebrated of all the Babylonian sovereigns. No
other pagan king occupies so much space in Scripture. He was not actual king at this
time, but only Crown Prince and leader of the army under his father. As he would be
surrounded with all the state and magnficence of a monarch, the Jews would naturally
look upon him as actual king.
Came up - Nebuchadnezzar began his campaign by attacking and defeating Neco’s
Egyptians at Carchemish Jer_46:2. He then pressed forward toward the south, overran
Syria, Phoenicia, and Judaea, took Jerusalem, and carried off a portion of the
inhabitants as prisoners Dan_1:1-4 : after which he proceeded southward, and had
reached the borders of Egypt when he was suddenly recalled to Babylon by the death of
his father.
Three years - Probably from 605 B.C. to 602 B.C. Jehoiakim rebelled because he
knew Nebuchadnezzar to be engaged in important wars in some other part of Asia.
CLARKE, "Nebuchadnezzar - This man, so famous in the writings of the
prophets, was son of Nabopolassar. He was sent by his father against the rulers of
several provinces that had revolted; and he took Carchemish, and all that belonged to
the Egyptians, from the Euphrates to the Nile. Jehoiakim, who was tributary to Nechoh
king of Egypt, he attacked and reduced; and obliged to become tributary to Babylon. At
the end of three years he revolted; and then a mixed army, of Chaldeans, Syrians,
Moabites, and Ammonites, was sent against him, who ravaged the country, and took
three thousand and twenty-three prisoners, whom they brought to Babylon, Jer_52:28.

2. GILL, "In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up,.... Against
Jerusalem; this was in the latter end of the third, or the beginning of the fourth of
Jehoiakim's reign, and the first of Nebuchadnezzar, Jer_25:1, when Jehoiakim was
taken, but restored upon promise of subjection and obedience, and hostages given, at
which time Daniel and his companions were carried captive, with some of the vessels of
the temple; See Gill on Dan_1:1, Dan_1:2.
and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: which were the fifth, sixth, and
seventh years of his reign:
then he turned and rebelled against him; being encouraged by the king of Egypt,
who promised to assist him against the king of Babylon; Nebuchadnezzar is the
Nabocolasser in Ptolemy's canon; and Berosus (n) testifies, that seventy years before the
Persian monarchy he made war against the Phoenicians and Jews, and it is from this
time the seventy years' captivity is to be dated.
HE RY, "We have here the first mention of a name which makes a great figure both
in the histories and in the prophecies of the Old Testament; it is that of
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (2Ki_24:1), that head of gold. He was a potent prince,
and one that was the terror of the mighty in the land of the living; and yet his name
would not have been known in sacred writ if he had not been employed in the
destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the Jews.
I. He made Jehoiakim his tributary and kept him in subjection three years, 2Ki_24:1.
Nebuchadnezzar began his reign in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. In his eighth year he
made him his prisoner, but restored him upon his promise of faithfulness to him. That
promise he kept about three years, but then rebelled, probably in hopes of assistance
from the king of Egypt. If Jehoiakim had served his God as he should have done, he
would not have been servant to the king of Babylon; but God would thus make him know
the difference between his service and the service of the kings of the countries, 2Ch_
12:8. If he had been content with his servitude, and true to his word, his condition would
have been no worse; but, rebelling against the king of Babylon, he plunged himself into
more trouble.
JAMISO , "2Ki_24:1-7. Jehoiakim procures his own ruin.
Nebuchadnezzar — the son of Nabopolassar, the founder of the Chaldee monarchy.
This invasion took place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s, and the first of
Nebuchadnezzar’s reign (Jer_25:1; compare Jer_46:2). The young king of Assyria being
probably detained at home on account of his father’s demise, dispatched, along with the
Chaldean troops on his border, an army composed of the tributary nations that were
contiguous to Judea, to chastise Jehoiakim’s revolt from his yoke. But this hostile band
was only an instrument in executing the divine judgment (2Ki_24:2) denounced by the
prophets against Judah for the sins of the people; and hence, though marching by the
orders of the Assyrian monarch, they are described as sent by the Lord (2Ki_24:3).
K&D, "“In his days Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babel, came up; and Jehoiakim

3. became subject to him three years, then he revolted from him again.” ‫ר‬ ַ ‫א‬ֶ‫נ‬ ְ‫ד‬ ַ‫כ‬ ֻ‫ב‬ְ‫,נ‬
Nebuchadnezzar, or ‫ר‬ ַ ‫א‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ְ‫ד‬ ַ‫בוּכ‬ְ‫,נ‬ Nebuchadrezzar (Jer_21:2, Jer_21:7; Jer_22:25, etc.),
Ναβουχοδονόσορ (lxx), Ναβουχοδονόσορος (Beros. in Jos. c. Ap. i. 20, 21),
Ναβοκοδρόσορος (Strabo, xv. 1, 6), upon the Persian arrow-headed inscriptions at
Bisutun Nabhukudracara (according to Oppert, composed of the name of God, Nabhu
(Nebo), the Arabic kadr, power, and zar or sar, prince), and in still other forms (for the
different forms of the name see M. v. Niebuhr's Gesch. pp. 41, 42). He was the son of
Nabopolassar, the founder of the Chaldaean monarchy, and reigned, according to
Berosus (Jos. l.c.), Alex. Polyh. (Eusebii Chr. arm. i. pp. 44, 45), and the Canon of Ptol.,
forty-three years, from 605 to 562 b.c. With regard to his first campaign against
Jerusalem, it is stated in 2Ch_36:6, that “against him (Jehoiakim) came up
Nebuchadnezzar, and bound him with brass chains, to carry him (‫ּו‬‫כ‬‫י‬ ִ‫ּול‬‫ה‬ ְ‫)ל‬ to Babylon;”
and in Dan_1:1-2, that “in the year three of the reign of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar
came against Jerusalem and besieged it; and the Lord gave Jehoiakim, the king of
Judah, into his hand, and a portion of the holy vessels, and he brought them (the
vessels) into the land of Shinar, into the house of his god,” etc. Bertheau (on Chr.)
admits that all three passages relate to Nebuchadnezzar's first expedition against
Jehoiakim and the first taking of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon, and rejects the
alteration of ‫ּו‬‫כ‬‫י‬ ִ‫ּול‬‫ה‬ ְ‫,ל‬ “to lead him to Babylon” (Chr.), into ᅊπήγαγεν αᆒτᆵν (lxx), for which
Thenius decides in his prejudice in favour of the lxx. He has also correctly observed, that
the chronicler intentionally selected the infinitive with ‫,ל‬ because he did not intend to
speak of the actual transportation of Jehoiakim to Babylon. The words of our text,
“Jehoiakim became servant (‫ד‬ ֶ‫ב‬ ֶ‫)ע‬ to him,” i.e., subject to him, simply affirm that he
became tributary, not that he was led away. And in the book of Daniel also there is
nothing about the leading away of Jehoiakim to Babylon. Whilst, therefore, the three
accounts agree in the main with one another, and supply one another's deficiencies, so
that we learn that Jehoiakim was taken prisoner at the capture of Jerusalem and put in
chains to be led away, but that, inasmuch as he submitted to Nebuchadnezzar and vowed
fidelity, he was not taken away, but left upon the throne as vassal of the king of Babylon;
the statement in the book of Daniel concerning the time when this event occurred, which
is neither contained in our account nor in the Chronicles, presents a difficulty when
compared with Jer 25 and Jer_46:2, and different attempts, some of them very
constrained, have been made to remove it. According to Jer_46:2, Nebuchadnezzar
smote Necho the king of Egypt at Carchemish, on the Euphrates, in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim. This year is not only called the first year of Nebuchadnezzar in Jer_25:1, but
is represented by the prophet as the turning-point of the kingdom of Judah by the
announcement that the Lord would bring His servant Nebuchadnezzar upon Judah and
its inhabitants, and also upon all the nations dwelling round about, that he would
devastate Judah, and that these nations would serve the king of Babylon seventy years
(Jer_25:9-11). Consequently not only the defeat of Necho at Carchemish, but also the
coming of Nebuchadnezzar to Judah, fell in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and not in the
third. To remove this discrepancy, some have proposed that the time mentioned, “in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim” (Jer_46:2), should be understood as relating, not to the year
of the battle at Carchemish, but to the time of the prophecy of Jeremiah against Egypt
contained in Jer 46, and that Jer 25 should also be explained as follows, that in this
chapter the prophet is not announcing the first capture of Jerusalem by

4. Nebuchadnezzar, but is proclaiming a year after this the destruction of Jerusalem and
the devastation of the whole land, or a total judgment upon Jerusalem and the rest of the
nations mentioned there (M. v. Nieb. Gesch. pp. 86, 87, 371). But this explanation is
founded upon the erroneous assumption, that Jer_46:3-12 does not contain a prediction
of the catastrophe awaiting Egypt, but a picture of what has already taken place there;
and it is only in a very forced manner that it can be brought into harmony with the
contents of Jer 25.
(Note: Still less tenable is the view of Hofman, renewed by Zündel (Krit. Unterss.
üb. d. Abfassungszeit des B. Daniel, p. 25), that Nebuchadnezzar conquered
Jerusalem in the third year of Jehoiakim, and that it was not till the following, or
fourth year, that he defeated the Egyptian army at Carchemish, because so long as
Pharaoh Necho stood with his army by or in Carchemish, on the Euphrates,
Nebuchadnezzar could not possibly attempt to pass it so as to effect a march upon
Jerusalem.)
We must rather take “the year three of the reign of Jehoiakim” (Dan_1:1) as the
extreme terminus a quo of Nebuchadnezzar's coming, i.e., must understand the
statement thus: that in the year referred to Nebuchadnezzar commenced the expedition
against Judah, and smote Necho at Carchemish at the commencement of the fourth year
of Jehoiakim (Jer_46:2), and then, following up this victory, took Jerusalem in the same
year, and made Jehoiakim tributary, and at the same time carried off to Babylon a
portion of the sacred vessels, and some young men of royal blood as hostages, one of
whom was Daniel (2Ch_36:7; Dan_1:2.). The fast mentioned in Jer_36:9, which took
place in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, cannot be adduced in disproof of this; for
extraordinary fast-days were not only appointed for the purpose of averting great
threatening dangers, but also after severe calamities which had fallen upon the land or
people, to expiate His wrath by humiliation before God, and to invoke the divine
compassion to remove the judgment that had fallen upon them. The objection, that the
godless king would hardly have thought of renewing the remembrance of a divine
judgment by a day of repentance and prayer, but would rather have desired to avoid
everything that could make the people despair, falls to the ground, with the erroneous
assumption upon which it is founded, that by the fast-day Jehoiakim simply intended to
renew the remembrance of the judgment which had burst upon Jerusalem, whereas he
rather desired by outward humiliation before God to secure the help of God to enable
him to throw off the Chaldaean yoke, and arouse in the people a religious enthusiasm for
war against their oppressors. - Further information concerning this first expedition of
Nebuchadnezzar is supplied by the account of Berosus, which Josephus (Ant. x. 11, and
c. Ap. i. 19) has preserved from the third book of his Chaldaean history, namely, that
when Nabopolassar received intelligence of the revolt of the satrap whom he had placed
over Egypt, Coele-Syria, and Phoenicia, because he was no longer able on account of age
to bear the hardships of war, he placed a portion of his army in the hands of his youthful
son Nebuchadnezzar and sent him against the satrap. Nebuchadnezzar defeated him in
battle, and established his power over that country again. In the meantime Nabopolassar
fell sick and died in Babylon; and as soon as the tidings reached Nebuchadnezzar, he
hastened through the desert to Babylon with a small number of attendants, and directed
his army to follow slowly after regulating the affairs of Egypt and the rest of the country,
and to bring with it the prisoners from the Jews, Syrians, Phoenicians, and Egyptian
tribes, and with the heavily-armed troops. So much, at any rate, is evident from this
account, after deducting the motive assigned for the war, which is given from a
Chaldaean point of view, and may be taken as a historical fact, that even before his
father's death Nebuchadnezzar had not only smitten the Egyptians, but had also

5. conquered Judah and penetrated to the borders of Egypt. And there is no discrepancy
between the statement of Berosus, that Nebuchadnezzar was not yet king, and the fact
that in the biblical books he is called king proleptically, because he marched against
Judah with kingly authority.
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:1. In his days — That is, in Jehoiakim’s reign; and,
according to Daniel 1:1, compared with Jeremiah 25:1, in the end of the third, or the
beginning of the fourth year of it; came up ebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Son
of ebopolassar, who, having subdued Assyria, soon made himself absolute
monarch of all that part of the world. He probably left Babylon in the third year of
Jehoiakim, and reduced him in his fourth year. According to Jeremiah 46:2, he
smote the army of Pharaoh- nechoh near the river Euphrates. He then attacked
Jehoiakim, as the friend and ally of Pharaoh, and having taken him prisoner, “put
him in chains to carry him to Babylon.” But as Jehoiakim submitted, and agreed to
become tributary to him, ebuchadnezzar released him. He carried away, however,
some of the gold and silver vessels of the temple, and some of the most considerable
persons of the kingdom, among whom were Daniel and his companions, Daniel 1:1-
7. And Jehoiakim became his servant three years — That is, was subject to him, and
paid him tribute. Then he turned and rebelled against him — Being instigated so to
do by the king of Egypt, who promised him his utmost assistance if he would shake
off the yoke of the king of Babylon, and threatened he would declare him an enemy,
and make war upon him, if he would not.
COFFMA , "Right here in 2 Kings 24:1 is the beginning of the seventy years of
captivity for the children of Israel, as Jeremiah had prophesied:
"And this whole land (Palestine) shall be a desolation and an astonishment; and
these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." (Jeremiah 25:11).
It should be noted that the `seventy years' of Jeremiah's prophecy should be applied
to the sovereignty of the king of Babylon and not uniquely to the actual period that
the people of God would be in captivity, although that too was approximately
seventy years.
"In his days ebuchadnezzar ... came up" (2 Kings 24:1). This is a reference to the
days of Jehoiakim.
"And he became his servant" (2 Kings 24:1). From this day, Judah was no longer an
independent nation. The exact date when Jehoiakim became the servant of
ebuchadnezzar is not exactly clear. Josephus thought that it was in the years 603-
601 B.C., but we agree with LaSor that it was, "Soon after Pharaoh-necoh withdrew
to Egypt in 608 B.C.,"[1] which would have been very near the year 606 B.C., the
year prior to the battle of Carchemish. This would mean that Jehoiakim's revolt
would have been in the year 605.
We have written extensive comments on all of these events in Jeremiah 20-39.

6. Helpful facts that help in understanding the complicated history of this period
include the following:
(1) There are four separate Biblical accounts of the fall of Jerusalem (1) Jeremiah
39; (2) Jeremiah 52; (2) 2 Kings 24, and (4) 2 Chronicles 36. Additionally, there is
the account of it in the works of Flavius Josephus. There are variations in these
reports, of course; and the exploration of these differences is an absolutely worthless
endeavor! (See my full comment on this in Vol. 2 (Jeremiah) of the major prophets,
p. 429.)
(2) There were no less than three deportations of the Israelites from, Jerusalem and
Judah. "These were in 597 B.C., 587 B.C. and 582 B.C."[2] Cawley, however, gave
the dates as 597 B.C., 586 B.C., and 581 B.C. respectively.[3] Daniel and his friends
were among the first deportees; Ezekiel was in the second group; and the conceited
residue of Judah which still remained in Jerusalem, who supposed that they alone
were the terminal heirs of all the promises to the patriarchs, were removed in the
last one.
Scholars disagree about the exact date when the bands of Chaldeans, Moabites,
Ammonites, and Syrians raided Jerusalem and Judah. Some think it was in the
interval when ebuchadnezzar returned to Babylon to receive the throne after his
father died, and others place it somewhat later. "During the interval (whenever it
was), ebuchadnezzar sent raiding bands to harass Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:2) as a
judgment from Jehovah."[4]
"And Jehovah sent against him bands of the Chaldeans ..." (2 Kings 24: 2). Of
course, it was the king of Babylon who commanded those raiding bands; "But after
the Lord had given Judah into the hands of the Chaldeans as a punishment of their
apostasy, all revolt against them was rebellion against the Lord."[5]
"And Jehovah would not pardon" (2 Kings 24:4). Jeremiah 15:1ff explains why this
was true. "It was because the measure of their sins was full, and in justice God had
no choice except to punish them. Even if the greatest intercessors such as Moses and
Samuel had come before the Lord (pleading for Judah), it would have done no
good."[6]
"So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; and Jehoiakin his son reigned in his stead" (2
Kings 24:6). "This does not contradict Jeremiah's prophecy (Jeremiah 22:19) that
Jehoiakim would receive the burial of an ass, carried off and cast away beyond the
gates of Jerusalem."[7] (See our comment on this under that reference in Jeremiah.)
LaSor explained what probably happened. "Jehoiakim had revolted again; and 2
Chronicles 36:6 states that, ` ebuchadnezzar bound him with fetters to take him to
Babylon,' but he had been wounded and died on the way; and his body was cast
away."[8]
Jeremiah gave another prophecy regarding Jehoiakim that, "He shall have none to
sit upon the throne of David" (Jeremiah 36:30). Yes, our text says that, "His son

7. Jehoiakin reigned in his stead," but it was no longer "the throne of David," nor had
it been since ebuchadnezzar had become Lord of the entire world of that era. Also,
as Keil stated in this connection, "Even though Jeconiah ascended the throne, his
brief three-months reign, quickly followed by his capture and removal to Babylon,
was quite properly described by the prophet as not sitting upon the throne of
David."[9]
"The king of Babylon had taken ... all that pertained to the king of Egypt" (2 Kings
24:7). At this point in history, ebuchadnezzar was supreme from the border of
Egypt to the Euphrates, and for seventy years Judah would lie under the heel of the
Chaldeans. In no real sense did the `throne of David' actually exist during this
period, nor would it ever on earth exist any more. God had completely and forever
removed the "sinful kingdom" (Amos 9:8) out of his sight.
THE THREE-MO TH REIG OF KI G JEHOIAKI
This king was also known as Jeconiah (or Coniah). See Matthew 1:11 and Jeremiah
22:24. He was just as wicked as any of his fathers.
ELLICOTT, "(1) In his days.—In his fifth or sixth year. In Jehoiakim’s fourth year
ebuchadnezzar defeated echo at Carchemish (Jeremiah 46:2), and was suddenly
called home by the news of the death of abopolassar his father, whom he
succeeded on the throne of Babylon in the same year (Jeremiah 25:1). From
Jeremiah 36:9 we learn that towards the end of Jehoiakim’s fifth year the king of
Babylon was expected to invade the land. When this took place, ebuchadnezzar
humbled Jehoiakim, who had probably made his submission, by putting him in
chains, and carrying off some of the Temple treasures (2 Chronicles 36:6-7). Left in
the possession of his throne as a vassal of Babylon, Jehoiakim paid tribute three
years, and then tried to throw off the yoke.
PARKER, "1. In his days 605 b.c.] ebuchadnezzar king [at this time Crown
Prince] of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he
turned and rebelled against him. [ ebuchadnezzar, son of abopolassar, and
second monarch of the Babylonian Empire, ascended the throne604 b.c, and reigned
forty-three years, dying561 b.c. He is acknowledged to be the most celebrated of all
the Babylonian sovereigns. o other heathen king occupies so much space in
Scripture. It would be an interesting exercise for the young to bring together into
one view all the passages in which the name of ebuchadnezzar occurs.]
BI 1-18, "In his days Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came up.
Wickedness, retribution and divine control, as revealed in
Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Judah
In glancing through these chapters there are two objects that press on our attention.

8. (1) A national crisis. The peace, the dignity, the wealth, the religious privileges of
Judah are converging to a close. Israel has already been carried away by a despot
to a foreign land, and now Judah is meeting its fate. All nations have their
crises—they have their rise, their fall, their dissolution
(2) A terrible despot. The name of Nebuchadnezzar comes for the first time
under our attention.
I. The wickedness of man. The wickedness here displayed is marked—
1. By inveteracy. It is here said of Jehoiachin, “He did that which was evil in the sight
of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.” In 2Ki_24:18 the same is also
said of Zedekiah, “He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all
that Jehoiachin had done.” The wickedness here displayed is marked—
2. By tyranny. “At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came
up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar King of
Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it.” What right had
Nebuchadnezzar to leave his own country, invade Judah, plunder it of its wealth, and
bear away by violence its population? The wickedness here displayed is marked—
3. By inhumanity. “And the King of Babylon . . . he carried out thence all the
treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in
pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon King of Israel had made in the temple of
the Lord, as the Lord had said. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the
princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the
craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the
land.” The wickedness here displayed is marked—
4. By profanity. “He burnt the house of the Lord,” etc. Thus this ruthless despot
desecrated the most holy things in the city of Jerusalem and in the memory of
millions.
II. The retribution of heaven. In the retribution here displayed we are reminded of two
facts: That the sins of one man may bring misery on millions. “Surely at the
commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of His sight, for
the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; and also for the innocent blood that he
shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the Lord would not pardon,” All
the misery here recorded comes to the people “for the sins of Manasseh.” Here is the
hereditary principle of Divine government. Will not the following facts anyhow modify
the severity of the complaint?
(1) That no man is made to suffer more than he actually deserves on account of
his own personal sin.
(2) That the evils which thus descend to us from our ancestors are not to be
compared with those we produce ourselves.
(3) That whilst the hereditary principle of the Divine government entails evils, it
also entails good. Great as are the evils that have come down to us from posterity,
great also is the good.
(4) This hereditary principle tends to restrain vice and stimulate virtue. The
parent knowing, as all parents must know, the immense influence he exerts upon
his offspring, and having the common natural affection, will be set more or less
on his guard; he will restrain evil passions which otherwise he would allow to
sport with uncontrolled power, and prosecute efforts of a virtuous tendency,

9. which otherwise he would entirely neglect.
2. The pernicious influence of a man’s sin in the world may continue after his
conversion. Manasseh repented of the sins he had committed, and received the
favours of his God. Notwithstanding we find men here suffering on account of the
sins he had committed.
3. That retribution, though it may move slowly, yet will move surely. A hundred
years had well-nigh passed away, and several generations had come and gone since
Manasseh had gone to his grave. Yet avenging justice appears at last, and wreaks
upon others the terrible effects of his crimes. The tardy march of retribution men
have made the occasion and the reason of continued depravity,” Because sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily,” etc. (David Thomas, D. D.)
GUZIK, "A. The reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah.
1. (2 Kings 24:1) Nebuchadnezzar makes Judah a vassal kingdom.
In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal
for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.
a. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up: Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian
Empire, was concerned with Judah because of its strategic position in relation to the
empires of Egypt and Assyria. Therefore it was important to him to conquer Judah and
make it a subject kingdom (his vassal), securely loyal to Babylon.
i. Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem because the Pharaoh of Egypt invaded
Babylon. In response the young prince Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians at
Charchemish, and then he pursued their fleeing army all the way down to the Sinai.
Along the way (or on the way back), he subdued Jerusalem, who had been loyal to the
Pharaoh of Egypt.
ii. This happened in 605 B.C. and it was the first (but not the last) encounter between
Nebuchadnezzar and Jehoiakim. There would be two later invasions (597 and 587 B.C.).
iii. 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.

10. iv. 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.
v. 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.
b. Then he turned and rebelled against him: When Nebuchadnezzar had to make a
hurried return to Babylon, Jehoiakim took advantage of his absence and rebelled against
him.
PETT, "‘In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became
his servant three years.
The arrival of Nebuchadnezzar (Nabu-kudurri-usur) of Babylon in 605/4 BC put an end
to Egyptian supremacy, with the result that, on Egypt’s withdrawal behind its borders,
Jehoiakim had to submit to him as his vassal. This took place in the third year of his
reign (Daniel 1:1), when Jerusalem was invested and prominent men were taken as
hostages to Babylon, including among them Daniel and his three compatriots. It may
have been at this time that Jehoiakim was himself taken in chains to Babylon (2
Chronicles 36:6) where he would be forced to make an oath of allegiance. We can
compare how similar ignominious treatment, followed by restoration, had been meted
out to Manasseh without being mentioned by the author, whilst a similar thing had
happened to Pharaoh Tirhakah under Assyrian rule.
This arrival of Nebuchadn(r)ezzar in force, followed subsequently by two further raids, is
described in the Babylonian Chronicle as follows:
“In the twenty first year the king of Babylon (Nabopolassar) stayed in his own country
while the crown-prince Nebuchadrezzar, his eldest son, took personal command of his
troops and marched to Carchemish which lay on the bank of the River Euphrates. He
crossed the river against the Egyptian army -- they fought with each other and the
Egyptian army retreated before him. He defeated them, annihilating them. As for the
remains of the Egyptian army which had escaped from the defeat so that no weapon
touched them, the Babylonian army overtook and defeated them in the district of
Hamath, so that not a single man got away to his own country. At that time
Nebuchadrezzar captured the whole land of Hatti (which included Aram, Samaria and
Judah). --- In his accession year Nebuchadrezzar went back again to the Hatti-land and
marched victoriously through it until the month of Sebat. In the month of Sebat he took
the heavy tribute of the Hatti-land back to Babylon. --- In the first year of
Nebuchadrezzar (the year after the accession year) he mustered his army in the month of

11. Sivan and went to the Hatti-land. He marched about victoriously in the Hatti-land until
the month of Kislev. All the kings of the Hatti-land (including Damascus, Tyre and
Sidon, and Judah) came before him and he received their heavy tribute. He marched to
the city of Ashkelon and captured it in the month of Kislev.”
2 Kings 24:1
‘Then he turned and rebelled against him.’
Nebuchadnezzar’s attempt to invade Egypt three of four years after his succession (i.e. in
c 601 BC) resulted in a set back for his army and he had to return to Babylon to recoup.
This may well have been what caused Jehoiakim to rebel, probably with promises of
support from Egypt. To him things were beginning to look promising.
2 The Lord sent Babylonian,[a] Aramean,
Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him to
destroyJudah, in accordance with the word of the
Lord proclaimed by his servants the prophets.
BAR ES, "See the marginal references. Instead of coming up in person
Nebuchadnezzar sent against Jehoiakim his own troops and those of the neighboring
nations.
The ravages of the Moabites and the Ammonites are especially alluded to in the
following passages: Jer_48:26-27; Jer_49:1; Eze_25:3-6; Zep_2:8.
CLARKE, "According to the word of the Lord - See what Huldah predicted,
2Ki_22:16, and see chap. 14, 15, and 16 of Jeremiah.
GILL, "And the Lord sent against him,.... By Nebuchadnezzar, against whom he
rebelled:
bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites,
and bands of the children of Ammon; who were all subject to the king of Babylon,
or were voluntary troops in his service, and bore an hatred to the Jews: according to
Eupolemus (o), this army consisted of Medes and Babylonians, and, besides 10,000

12. chariots, there were in it 180,000 foot, and 120,000 horse:
and sent them against Judah to destroy it; this was not until the eleventh of
Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar being diverted by the siege of Tyre, or other important
business, from chastising the king of Judah until this time:
according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the
prophets; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Huldah the prophetess.
HE RY, "II. When he rebelled Nebuchadnezzar sent his forces against him to
destroy his country, bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, Ammonites, who were all
now in the service and pay of the king of Babylon (2Ki_24:2), and withal retained, and
now showed, their ancient enmity to the Israel of God. Yet no mention is here made of
their commission from the king of Babylon, but only of that from the King of kings: The
Lord sent against him all these bands; and again (2Ki_24:3), Surely at the
commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, else the commandment of
Nebuchadnezzar could not have brought it. Many are serving God's purposes who are
not aware of it. Two things God intended in suffering Judah to be thus harassed: - 1. The
punishment of the sins of Manasseh, which God now visited upon the third and fourth
generation. So long he waited before he visited them, to see if the nation would repent;
but they continued impenitent, notwithstanding Josiah's endeavours to reform them,
and ready to relapse, upon the first turn, into their former idolatries. Now that the old
bond was put in suit they were called up upon the former judgment; that was revived
which God had laid up in store, and sealed among his treasures (Deu_32:34; Job_
14:17), and in remembrance of that he removed Judah out of his sight, and let the world
know that time will not wear out the guilt of sin and that reprieves are not pardons. All
that Manasseh did was called to mind, but especially the innocent blood that he shed,
much of which, we may suppose, was the blood of God's witnesses and worshippers,
which the Lord would not pardon. Is there then any unpardonable sin but the
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? This is meant of the remitting of the temporal
punishment. Though Manasseh repented, and we have reason to think even the
persecutions and murders he was guilty of were pardoned, so that he was delivered from
the wrath to come; yet, as they were national sins, they lay still charged upon the land,
crying for national judgments. Perhaps some were now living who were aiding and
abetting; and the present king was guilty of innocent blood, as appears Jer_22:17. See
what a provoking sin murder is, how loud it cries, and how long. See what need nations
have to lament the sins of their fathers, lest they smart for them. God intended hereby
the accomplishment of the prophecies; it was according to the word of the Lord, which
he spoke by his servants the prophets. Rather shall Judah be removed out of his sight,
nay, rather shall heaven and earth pass away, than any word of God fall to the ground.
Threatenings will be fulfilled as certainly as promises, if the sinner's repentance prevent
not.
K&D, "To punish Jehoiakim's rebellion, Jehovah sent hosts of Chaldaeans,
Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites against him and against Judah to destroy it
(‫ּו‬‫ד‬‫י‬ ִ‫ב‬ ֲ‫א‬ ַ‫ה‬ ְ‫.)ל‬ Nebuchadnezzar was probably too much occupied with other matters relating
to his kingdom, during the earliest years of his reign after his father's death, to be able to
proceed at once against Jehoiakim and punish him for his revolt.
(Note: Compare the remarks of M. v. Niebuhr on this point (Gesch. pp. 208,209)
and his summary at p. 209: “Nebuchadnezzar had enough to do in Babylon and the

13. eastern half of his kingdom, to complete the organization of the new kingdom, to
make the military roads to the western half of the kingdom along the narrow valley of
the Euphrates and through the desert, and also to fortify them and provide them
with watering stations and every other requisite, to repair the damages of the
Scythian hordes and the long contest with Nineveh, to restore the shattered
authority, and to bring Arabs and mountain-tribes to order. All this was more
important than a somewhat more rapid termination of the Egyptian war and the
pacification of Syria.”)
He may also have thought it a matter of too little importance for him to go himself, as
there was not much reason to be afraid of Egypt since its first defeat (cf. M. v. Niebuhr,
p. 375). He therefore merely sent such troops against him as were in the neighbourhood
of Judah at the time. The tribes mentioned along with the Chaldaeans were probably all
subject to Nebuchadnezzar, so that they attacked Judah at his command in combination
with the Chaldaean tribes left upon the frontier. How much they effected is not distinctly
stated; but it is evident that they were not able to take Jerusalem, from the fact that after
the death of Jehoiakim his son was able to ascend the throne (2Ki_24:6). - The sending
of these troops is ascribed to Jehovah, who, as the supreme controller of the fate of the
covenant-nation, punished Jehoiakim for his rebellion. For, after the Lord had given
Judah into the hands of the Chaldaeans as a punishment for its apostasy from Him, all
revolt from them was rebellion against the Lord. “According to the word of Jehovah,
which He spake by His servants the prophets,” viz., Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah,
and others.
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:2. The Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees —
Including, probably, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, who were all now subject
to the king of Babylon, and many of them engaged as soldiers in his service.
Doubtless they were ordered by ebuchadnezzar to attack and chastise Jehoiakim
and the revolted Jews; yet no mention is here made of their commission from the
king of Babylon, but only of that from the King of kings: the Lord sent them. And
again, (2 Kings 24:3,) Surely upon the commandment of the Lord came this upon
Judah; otherwise the order of ebuchadnezzar could not have brought it. Many are
serving God’s purposes, who are not aware of it.
ELLICOTT, "(2) And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees.—
Jehoiakim’s revolt was no doubt instigated by Egypt. Whilst ebuchadnezzar
himself was engaged elsewhere in his great empire, predatory bands of Chaldeans,
and of the neighbouring peoples the hereditary enemies of Judah, who had
submitted to ebuchadnezzar, and were nothing loth to make reprisals for the
power which Josiah had, perhaps, exercised over them, ravaged the Judæan
territory (comp. Jeremiah 12:8-17, concerning Judah’s “evil neighbours”).
According to the word of the Lord.—Isaiah, Micah, Urijah (Jeremiah 26:20),
Huldah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and doubtless others whose names and writings have
not been transmitted, had foretold the fate that was now closing in upon Judah.
PARKER, "2. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of
the Syrians [ Jeremiah 35:11], and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children

14. of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the
Lord [the expression "according to the word of the Lord" should be compared with
Leviticus 26:17-25; Deuteronomy 28:25; Jeremiah 4:20-29; Jeremiah 5:15-18;
Habakkuk 1:6-10], which he spake by his servants the prophets.
GUZIK, "2. (2 Kings 24:2-4) The troubled reign of Jehoiakim.
And the LORD sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians,
bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon; He sent them against Judah
to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken by His
servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of the LORD this came upon
Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to
all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he
had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD would not pardon.
a. The LORD sent against him: We might think that God would honor the Judean
Independence movement of Jehoiakim, but He did not bless it. God sent against him
many adversaries because Jehoiakim was a patriot of the kingdom of Judah, but not
a man submitted to God.
i. Bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon:
â ebuchadnezzarâs army was made up of several nations, who were willing to fight
under the banner of such a puissant and victorious emperor.â (Poole)
b. Surely at the commandment of the LORD this came upon Judah: Many in the
days of Jehoiakim believed that Godâs will was to deliver them from their enemies
and to preserve an independent Judah. Yet that was not Godâs will; it was His will
to bring Judah into judgment (knowing they had not genuinely repented and would
not). The best thing for Judah to do was to submit to this will of God, as Jeremiah
told them to do - despite great opposition.
c. Also because of the innocent blood that he had shed: This tells us that one of the
great sins of Manasseh was that he persecuted the godly in his day and he had filled
Jerusalem with innocent blood.
i. âHis name, like that of his brother, is omitted from the royal genealogy of
Matthew 1.â (Knapp)
PETT, "‘And YHWH sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the
Aramaeans, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and
sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of YHWH, which he
spoke by his servants the prophets.’
Being in no position to return immediately to Judah himself, ebuchadrezzar
nevertheless arranged for Judah to be attacked by marauders (who would be
tributaries of Babylon) from all sides. The Chaldeans (Babylonians) were possibly

15. occupying troops stationed in Aram and were effective enough to make people take
refuge in Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 35:11). They were supported by bands of
Aramaeans. The Moabites and Ammonites would harry the land east of Jordan, and
possibly also cross the Jordan looking for spoils as they had done in the days of the
Judges (Judges 3).
But in the eyes of the author the main cause for this activity was not
ebuchadnezzar, but the word of YHWH (after all, unknown to ebuchadnezzar,
he was YHWH’s servant - Jeremiah 25:9). Thus in the author’s view it was
primarily because of Judah’s sins that these attacks were being carried out, in
accordance with the words of YHWH’s servants the prophets. History was being
seen as subject to His will.
3 Surely these things happened to Judah
according to the Lord’s command, in order to
remove them from his presence because of the sins
of Manasseh and all he had done,
GILL, "Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to
remove them out of his sight,.... It was the sure and certain decree of God they
should be carried captive, and therefore he stirred up the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar, and
gave him orders to go against it:
for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; which were still continued
among the Jews, and committed by them, though repented of by Manasseh, and he
returned from them.
K&D, "2Ki_24:3-5
‫יי‬‫יי‬‫יי‬‫יי‬ ‫י‬ ִ ‫ל־‬ ַ‫ע‬‫י‬ ִ ‫ל־‬ ַ‫ע‬‫י‬ ִ ‫ל־‬ ַ‫ע‬‫י‬ ִ ‫ל־‬ ַ‫ע‬ ְ‫ך‬ፍְ‫ך‬ፍְ‫ך‬ፍְ‫ך‬ፍ: “only according to the mouth (command) of Jehovah did this
take place against Judah,” i.e., for no other reason than because the Lord
had determined to put away Judah from before His face because of
Manasseh's sins (cf. 2Ki_21:12-16, and 2Ki_23:27). “And Jehovah would not
forgive,” even if the greatest intercessors, Moses and Samuel, had come
before Him (Jer_15:1.), because the measure of the sins was full, so that God
was obliged to punish according to His holy righteousness. We must repeat

16. ְְְְ from the preceding words before ‫י‬ ִ‫ק‬ָ ַ‫ה‬‫י‬ ִ‫ק‬ָ ַ‫ה‬‫י‬ ִ‫ק‬ָ ַ‫ה‬‫י‬ ִ‫ק‬ָ ַ‫ה‬ ‫ם‬ ַ‫ם‬ ַ‫ם‬ ַ‫ם‬ ַ .
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:3-4. To remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasseh
— Properly and directly for their own sins, and remotely for the sins of Manasseh;
who had so corrupted the whole body of the people, that they were become
incurable, and Josiah’s reformation had no lasting influence to recover them: for,
immediately upon his death, they relapsed into their old idolatry, and other vices.
Manasseh’s personal sins, although, as he was their chief ruler, they were to be
considered as national sins, and merited national punishment, yet would never have
been charged on the nation, unless they had made them their own by their
impenitency for them, and repetition of them. And for the innocent blood which he
shed — amely, of those prophets and saints, who either reproved, or would not
comply with his idolatrous worship. Which the Lord would not pardon — That is,
would not remit the temporal punishment of the land, though he did pardon it so as
not to inflict eternal punishment upon his own person, for from that God
undoubtedly exempted him upon his repentance. God is the righteous governor of
the world, and the guardian of civil society, and in it order could not be preserved, if
he did not interpose in his providence, and, on proper occasions, cause signal and
national judgments to follow public and national crimes.
ELLICOTT, "(3) Surely at the commandment.—Literally, Only (i.e., upon no other
ground than) upon the mouth (i.e., at the command of; 2 Kings 23:35) of Jehovah
did it happen in Judah. The LXX. and Syriac read wrath instead of mouth, which
Ewald prefers (so 2 Kings 24:20).
Out of his sight.—From before his face, i.e., as the Targum explains, from the land
where he was present in his Temple.
For the sins of Manasseh.—Comp. 2 Kings 21:11 seq., 2 Kings 23:26 seq.; Jeremiah
15:4.
PETT, "2 Kings 24:3-4
‘Surely at the commandment of YHWH this came on Judah, to remove them out of
his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the
innocent blood that he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and
YHWH would not pardon.’
The author then again stressed that all that was happening was ‘at the
commandment of YHWH’. And this was because He had determined to remove
Judah out of His sight as He had warned as long ago as Leviticus 18:28. He was sick
of them. And this situation had come about because of the sins of Manasseh and
what he had done, and because of the innocent blood which he had shed, and the
fact that he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. It had been so bad that it was
something that YHWH could not overlook because, although the reign of Josiah had
at first altered the picture, Judah had turned back to the same behaviour as before,

17. something evidenced by the slaying of Uriah the prophet by Jehoiakim (Jeremiah
26:20-23). Josiah’s death had resulted in YHWH’s covenant being openly slighted
on a continual basis and it revealed Judah’s permanent hardness of heart,
something which even Josiah had been unable to remedy. That was why Judah was
doomed. Compare Deuteronomy 29:20.
4 including the shedding of innocent blood. For he
had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the
Lord was not willing to forgive.
GILL, "And also for the innocent blood that he shed, for he filled Jerusalem
with innocent blood,.... See 2Ki_21:16 which cruel usage of the prophets, and
servants of the Lord, was still continued; see Jer_26:21,
which the Lord would not pardon; he pardoned the sins of Manasseh, who
repented, but not the sins of those persons who imitated him, but repented not; or
though he personally pardoned the sins of Manasseh, so that he was saved everlastingly,
yet the temporal punishment of the nation for those sins, in which they were involved
with him, was not averted.
JAMISO , "the Lord would not pardon — (see on 2Ki_23:26; Jer_15:1).
ELLICOTT, "4) The innocent blood.—Heb., blood of the innocent; an expression
like hand of the right, i.e., the right hand; or, day of the sixth, i.e., the sixth day.
Thenius thinks the murder of some prominent personage, such as Isaiah, may be
intended, and wishes to distinguish between the statement of the first clause of the
verse and the second; but 2 Kings 21:16, where the two statements are connected
more closely, does not favour this view.
Which the Lord would not pardon.—Literally, and Jehovah willed not to pardon.
We must not soften the statement of 2 Kings 24:3-4, as Bähr does, by asserting the
meaning to be that the nation was punished, not for the sins of Manasseh, but for its
persistence in the same kind of sins. The sins of Manasseh are regarded as a climax
in Judah’s long course of provocation: the cup was full, and judgment ready to fall.
It was only suspended for a time, not revoked, in the reign of the good king Josiah.
In short, the idea of the writer is that the innocent blood shed by Manasseh cried to
heaven for vengeance, and that the ruin of the kingdom was the answer of the All
righteous Judge. It is no objection to say, that in that case children suffered for their
fathers’ misdeeds; that was precisely the Old Testament doctrine, until Ezekiel

18. proclaimed another (Ezekiel 18:19; comp. Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 5:9). Looking
at the catastrophe from a different standpoint, we may remember that national
iniquities must be chastised in the present life, if at all; and that the sufferings of the
exile were necessary for the purification of Israel from its inveterate tendency to
apostatise from Jehovah.
5 As for the other events of Jehoiakim’s reign, and
all he did, are they not written in the book of the
annals of the kings of Judah?
BAR ES, "Comparing Jer_22:19; Jer_36:6, Jer_36:30; and Eze_19:8-9, it would
seem that Nebuchadnezzar must in the fifth or sixth year after Jehoiakim’s revolt have
determined to go in person to Riblah, to direct operations, first against Tyre and then
against Jerusalem. Jehoiakim was taken prisoner, and brought in chains to
Nebuchadnezzar, who at first designed to convey him to Babylon, but afterward had him
taken to Jerusalem, where he was executed. Afterward, when the Babylonians had
withdrawn, the remains were collected and interred in the burying-place of Manasseh,
so that the king ultimately “slept with his fathers” 2Ki_24:6.
GILL, "Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim,.... In 2Ch_36:8, it is added, "his
abominations, and that which was found in him": which besides his rebellion against the
king of Babylon, and his shedding innocent blood, is interpreted of marks made in his
body for superstitious and idolatrous purposes; so Lyra.
COKE, ". The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim— Jeremiah prophesied in the time of
this prince, as did also Urijah; see Jeremiah 26:20; Jeremiah 26:24. About this time
also lived the prophets Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and ahum, who, being called to the
prophetic office in the reign of Josiah, continued, very probably, to this time,
because we find them prophesying the same things which Jeremiah did; namely, the
destruction and desolation of Judah and Jerusalem for the many heinous sins they
were guilty of. As to Habakkuk, neither the time in which he lived, nor the parents
from whom he descended, are anywhere named in Scripture; but his prophesying
the coming of the Chaldeans in the same manner with Jeremiah, gives us reason to
think that he lived in the same time. Of Zephaniah it is expressly said, (chap. 1:) that
he prophesied in the time of Josiah; and in his pedigree, which is also given us, his
father's grandfather is called Hezekiah, whom some take for the king of Judah, and
consequently reckon this prophet to have been of royal descent. As to ahum, lastly,
it is certain that he prophesied after the captivity of the ten tribes, and before that of

19. the other two, which he foretold, chap. 1: Though, therefore, the Jews do generally
place him in the reign of Manasseh, yet others choose to refer him to the latter part
of Josiah's, as being nearer to the destruction of ineveh and the Assyrian
monarchy, to which several prophesies of his do principally relate.
ELLICOTT, "(5) ow the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim . . .—Assuming with Hitzig
that the passage Habakkuk 2:9-14 refers to him, we gather that he severely
oppressed his people by his exactions of forced labour upon the defences of
Jerusalem. Thenius concludes from the words, “that he may set his nest on high,”
&c., that Jehoiakim strengthened and enlarged the fortress on Ophel erected by
Manasseh. (Comp. also Jeremiah 22:13-17.)
Are they not written . . .—The last reference to this authority. Bähr concludes that
the work did not extend beyond the reign of Jehoiakim.
PARKER, "5. ow the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not
written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? [The most eminent
critics concur in regarding the latter part of Jehoiakim"s reign as a period of
considerable obscurity. In2Chronicles we read: "Against him came up
ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to
Babylon" ( 2 Chronicles 36:6). Jeremiah says: "He shall be buried with the burial of
an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem" ( Jeremiah 22:19). In
the text before us we are simply told that "Jehoiakim slept with his fathers." The
most circumstantial account of Jehoiakim"s later years is given in the book of
Ezekiel: "Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and
spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit; And they put him in ward in
chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that
his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel" ( Ezekiel 19:8-9).
In attempting to reconcile these various statements The Speaker"s Commentary
says: " ebuchadnezzar must in the fifth or sixth year of Jehoiakim"s revolt have
determined to go in person to Syria, where matters were progressing ill, the revolt of
Judaea in602 b.c. having been followed by that of Tyre in598 b.c. On his arrival he
proceeded, probably from his headquarters at Riblah, to direct operations first
against Tyre and then against Jerusalem. The troops which he employed against
Jerusalem took Jehoiakim prisoner, and brought him in chains to
ebuchadnezzar"s presence, who at first designed to convey him to Babylon, but
afterwards had him taken to Jerusalem, where he was executed, and his body
ignominiously treated ( Jeremiah 22:19, and Jeremiah 36:30). Afterwards, when the
Babylonians had withdrawn, the remains were collected and interred in the
burying-place of Prayer of Manasseh , so that the king ultimately "slept with his
fathers."]
GUZIK, "3. (2 Kings 24:5-7) The passing of Jehoiakim.

20. ow the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the
book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? So Jehoiakim rested with his fathers.
Then Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. And the king of Egypt did not come
out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the
king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates.
a. ow the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim: 2 Chronicles 36:6 tells us that
ebuchadnezzar intended to take Jehoiakim to Babylon, bound in bronze fetters.
Yet Jeremiah 22:19 tells us that he would be disgracefully buried outside of
Jerusalem.
i. âThe closing formulae make no reference to the burial of Jehoiakim, whose death
occurred about December 598 before the first capture of Jerusalem by
ebuchadnezzar. 2 Chronicles 36:7 implies that he was taken to Babylon, but
Jeremiah 22:19 tells how he was thrown unmourned outside Jerusalem, perhaps by
a pro-Babylonian group who gave him the unceremonial burial of âan assâ.â
(Wiseman)
ii. â2 Chronicles 36:6 states that ebuchadnezzar âbound him in fetters, to carry
him to Babylon.â It does not say he was taken there. He may have been released
after promising subjection to his conqueror.â (Knapp)
b. The king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore: In the geopolitical
struggle between Egypt and Babylon, ebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt. They were
then the dominant power in that part of the world.
i. âAbout three years later, in 601 B.C., Egypt tried one more time to return to
power by attacking Babylonâs army. . . . It was after this brief Egyptian victory that
Jehoiakim, hoping to renew his alliance with the Pharaoh against Babylon, rebelled
against ebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:3), an action Jeremiah sharply condemned.â
(Dilday)
PETT, "‘ ow the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not
written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?’
As usual the author was not interested in political activities which were not relevant
to his case and in respect of them refers his readers to the official annals of the kings
of Judah (for the last time).
6 Jehoiakim rested with his ancestors. And
Jehoiachin his son succeeded him as king.

21. BAR ES, "Jehoiachin - Also called Jeconiah and Coniah. Jehoiachin and Jeconiah
both mean “Yahweh will establish,” Coniah, “Yahweh establishes.” Probably his original
name was Jehoiachin. When he ascended the throne, and was required to take a new
name, anxious not to lose the good men contained in his old one, he simply transposed
the two elements. Jeremiah shortened this new name from Jeconiah to Coniah, thus
cutting off from it the notion of futurity, to imply that that would not be which the name
declared would be. In other words, “Yahweh establishes,” but this prince he will not
establish.
CLARKE, "Jehoiachin his son - As this man reigned only three months and was a
mere vassal to the Babylonians, his reign is scarcely to be reckoned; and therefore
Jeremiah says of Jehoiakim, He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, Jer_
36:30, for at that time it belonged to the king of Babylon, and Jehoiachin was a mere
viceroy or governor. Jehoiachin is called Jechonias in Mat_1:11.
GILL, "So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers,.... He died as they did, but was not
buried with them, and indeed had no burial at all, according to the prophecy of
Jeremiah, Jer_22:18 for, falling into the hands of the king of Babylon, he was bound in
chains, in order to be carried to Babylon, but died as soon as he came out of Jerusalem,
at the gates of which he was cast, and had no burial, 2Ch_36:6. At this time also some of
the vessels of the temple were carried away, and put in the idol's temple at Babylon,
2Ch_36:7, and Eupolemus (p) says, that whatever gold, silver, and brass, were in the
temple, were carried away:
and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead; called sometimes Jeconiah, and by
contempt Coniah, Jer_22:24.
JAMISO , "Jehoiakim slept with his fathers — This phraseology can mean
nothing more than that he died; for he was not buried with his royal ancestors; and
whether he fell in battle, or his body was subjected to posthumous insults, he was,
according to the prediction (Jer_22:19), not honored with the rites of sepulture (Jer_
36:30).
Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead — The very brief reign of this prince,
which lasted only three months, during which he was a humble vassal of the Assyrians,
is scarcely deserving to be taken into account, and therefore is in no way contradictory to
the prophetic menace denounced against his father (Jer_36:30).
K&D 6-7, "2Ki_24:6-7
“Jehoiakim lay down to (fell asleep with) his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became

22. king in his stead.” That this statement is not in contradiction to the prophecies of Jer_
22:19 : “Jehoiakim shall be buried like an ass, carried away and cast out far away from
the gates of Jerusalem,” and Jer_36:30 : “no son of his shall sit upon the throne of
David, and his body shall lie exposed to the heat by day and to the cold by night,” is now
generally admitted, as it has already been by J. D. Michaelis and Winer. But the solution
proposed by Michaelis, Winer, and M. v. Niebuhr (Gesch. p. 376) is not sufficient,
namely, that at the conquest of Jerusalem, which took place three months after the
death of Jehoiakim, his bones were taken out of the grave, either by the victors out of
revenge for his rebellion, or by the fury of the people, and cast out before the city gate;
for Jeremiah expressly predicts that he shall have no funeral and no burial whatever. We
must therefore assume that he was slain in a battle fought with the troops sent against
him, and was not buried at all; an assumption which is not at variance with the words,
“he laid himself down to his fathers,”' since this formula does not necessarily indicate a
peaceful death by sickness, but is also applied to king Ahab, who was slain in battle (1Ki_
22:40, cf. 2Ki_22:20).
(Note: The supposition of Ewald (Gesch. iii. p. 733), that Jehoiakim was enticed
out of the capital by a stratagem of the enemy, and taken prisoner, and because he
made a furious resistance was hurried off in a scuffle and mercilessly slaughtered, is
at variance with the fact that, according to v. 10, it was not till after his death that the
army of the enemy advanced to the front of Jerusalem and commenced the siege.)
- And even though his son Jehoiachin ascended the throne after his father's death and
maintained his position for three months against the Chaldaeans, until at length he fell
into their hands and was carried away alive to Babylon, the prophet might very truly
describe this short reign as not sitting upon the throne of David (cf. Graf on Jer_22:19).
- To the death of Jehoiakim there is appended the notice in 2Ki_24:7, that the king of
Egypt did not go out of his own land any more, because the king of Babylon had taken
away everything that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the brook of Egypt to the
river Euphrates. The purpose of this notice is to indicate, on the one hand, what attitude
Necho, whose march to the Euphrates was previously mentioned, had assumed on the
conquest of Judah by the Chaldaeans, and on the other hand, that under these
circumstances a successful resistance to the Chaldaeans on the part of Judah was not for
a moment to be thought of.
BE SO ,"2 Kings 24:6. So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers — But it is not said he
was buried with them. o doubt the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled, that he
should not be lamented as his father was, but buried with the burial of an ass.
Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead — Called also Jechoniah, 1 Chronicles 3:16,
and in a way of contempt Coniah, Jeremiah 22:24.
COKE, "2 Kings 24:6. Jehoiakim slept with his fathers— It is plain that this
expression can signify no more than that he died as his fathers did; for he neither
died in his bed, nor was he buried with his fathers, but lay above ground, unburied,
according to the prediction of Jeremiah, ch. Jeremiah 36:30.
ELLICOTT, "(6) So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers.—The usual notice of the
king’s burial is omitted, and the omission is significant, considered in the light of

23. Jeremiah’s prophecy: “Thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah
king of Judah; they shall not lament for him . . . He shall be buried with the burial
of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem”(Jeremiah 22:18-19;
comp. Jeremiah 36:30). Jehoiakim appears to have been slain in an encounter with
the bauds of freebooters mentioned in 2 Kings 24:2, so that his body was left to
decay where it fell, all his followers having perished with him. Ewald supposes that
he was lured out of Jerusalem to a pretended conference with the Chaldeans, and
then treacherously seized, and, as he proved a refractory prisoner, slain, and his
body denied the last honours, his family craving its restoration in vain. (The words
of the text do not necessarily imply a natural and peaceful death, as Thenius alleges,
but simply death without further qualification.)
PETT, "‘So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned instead
of him.’
The closing formula is also used for the last time, for the author is now moving into
a description of ‘current affairs’ concerning which he was fully informed. It is
significant that we are not told how or where Jehoiakim was buried, leaving us to
infer that there was something unusual about it, and indeed his end as a whole is
shrouded in mystery. Jeremiah 22:18-19 tells us that he would be buried ‘with the
burial of an ass’ and that his body would be thrown unmourned outside Jerusalem.
(Josephus tells us that he sought to surrender to ebuchadnezzar, but was put to
death and his body tossed ignominiously outside the walls of Jerusalem, although
that may simply be an inference from the words of Jeremiah). However, 2
Chronicles 36:6 ff. tells us that he was bound in fetters in order to be carried off to
Babylon, although it is not said that that actually happened. Perhaps he died while
in custody outside the walls of Jerusalem and never actually commenced the journey
to Babylon. Daniel 1:1-2 is also equally ambiguous.
7 The king of Egypt did not march out from his
own country again, because the king of Babylon
had taken all his territory, from the Wadi of
Egypt to the Euphrates River.
BAR ES, "Neco, from the year of the battle of Carchemish, confined himself to his
own country and made no efforts to recover Syria or Judaea.

24. CLARKE, "The king of Egypt came not again - He was so crushed by the
Babylonians that he was obliged to confine himself within the limits of his own states,
and could no more attempt any conquests. The text tells us how much he had lost by the
Babylonians. See on 2Ki_24:1 (note).
GILL, "And the king of Egypt came not any more out of his land,.... To receive
the tribute he imposed on the land of Judah, or to help the kings there of, Jehoiakim and
Jehoiachin; not till the times of Zedekiah, and then was obliged to retire, without giving
any assistance, Jer_37:7 the reason follows:
for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river
Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt; all that lay between the river
Nile, or the Rhinocolura, and the river Euphrates so that he could not stir out of his
dominions, which lay beyond.
HE RY, "III. The king of Egypt was likewise subdued by the king of Babylon, and a
great part of his country taken from him, 2Ki_24:7. It was but lately that he had
oppressed Israel, 2Ki_23:33. Now he is himself brought down and disabled to attempt
any thing for the recovery of his losses or the assistance of his allies. He dares not come
any more out of his land. Afterwards he attempted to give Zedekiah some relief, but was
obliged to retire, Jer_37:7.
IV. Jehoiakim, seeing his country laid waste and himself ready to fall into the enemy's
hand, as it should seem, died of a broken heart, in the midst of his days (2Ki_24:6). So
Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; but it is not said that he was buried with them, for no
doubt the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled, that he should not be lamented, as his
father was, but buried with the burial of an ass (Jer_22:18, Jer_22:19), and his dead
body cast out, Jer_36:30.
JAMISO , "the king of Egypt — that is, Pharaoh-nechoh.
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:7. The king of Egypt came not again out of his own land —
In this king’s days. He could not now come to protect the king of Judah, being
scarce able to defend his own kingdom.
COKE, "2 Kings 24:7. Came not again any more— Or, Came no more as yet. 2
Kings 24:8. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old, &c.] There is a great difference
between this passage and 2 Chronicles 36:9 where it is said that Jehoiachin was
eight years old when he began to reign. But both the Syriac and Arabic versions
read eighteen in that place in the Chronicles. Jehoiachin's succeeding his father in
the throne of Judah may seem to disagree with the threat which the prophet
denounces against his father, Jeremiah 36:30. He shall have none to sit upon the
throne of David; but as Jehoiachin's reign lasted little more than three months,

25. during which time he was absolutely subject to the Chaldeans, a reign of so short
continuance, and of so small authority, may well-be looked upon as nothing. See
Ezekiel 19:6; Ezekiel 19:14.
ELLICOTT, "(7) And the king of Egypt came not again any more . . .—The verse
indicates the posture of political affairs at the time when Jehoiachin succeeded his
father. echo had been deprived by ebuchadnezzar of all his conquests, and so
crippled that he durst not venture again beyond his own borders. Thus Judah was
left, denuded of all external help, to face the consequences of its revolt from
Babylon, which speedily overtook it (2 Kings 24:10).
From the river (torrent) of Egypt—i.e., the Wady-el-Arish. The details of this
campaign of ebuchadnezzar are not recorded. It is clear, from the statement
before us, that before the battle of Carchemish echo had made himself master of
the whole of Syria and the country east of the Jordan.
PETT, "‘And the king of Egypt did not come again any more out of his land, for the
king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that
pertained to the king of Egypt.’
In typical fashion the author added to the closing formula an appropriate comment
concerning events. Compare 2 Kings 15:12; 2 Kings 15:16; 2 Kings 15:37; 1 Kings
15:23; 1 Kings 15:32. In this case it was a summary as to the situation with regard to
Egypt. ebuchadnezzar’s control of the land south of the Euphrates, down almost
to the borders of Egypt (to the Wadi of Egypt, just north of the border), had become
such that the king of Egypt did not venture beyond his borders. All that he had
previously gained had been lost and any assistance that he may have promised to
Judah would thus come to nothing. He was no match for the forces of
ebuchadnezzar.
Jehoiachin King of Judah
8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he
became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three
months. His mother’s name was ehushta
daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem.

26. BAR ES, "His mother’s name - On the position of the “queen mother” see 1Ki_
15:10 note. Nehushta’s rank and dignity are strongly marked by the distinct and express
mention which is made of her in almost every place where her son’s history is touched
(2Ki_24:12; compare Jer_22:26; Jer_29:2).
CLARKE, "Jehoiachin was eighteen years old - He is called Jeconiah, 1Ch_
3:16, and Coniah, Jer_22:24. In 2Ch_36:9, be is said to be only eight years of age, but
this must be a mistake; for we find that, having reigned only three months, he was
carried captive to Babylon, and there he had wives; and it is very improbable that a child
between eight and nine years of age could have wives; and of such a tender age, it can
scarcely be said that, as a king, he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. The
place in Chronicles must be corrupted.
That he was a grievous offender against God, we learn from Jer_22:24, which the
reader may consult; and in the man’s punishment, see his crimes.
GILL, "Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign,.... In 2Ch_
36:9 he is said to be but eight years old; which may be reconciled by observing, that he
might be made and declared king by his father, in the first year of his reign, who reigned
eleven years, so that he was eight years old when he began to reign with him, and
eighteen when he began to reign alone (q). Dr. Lightfoot (r) gives another solution of this
difficulty, that properly speaking he was eighteen years old when he began to reign, but,
in an improper sense, the son of eight years, or the eighth year, as the Hebrew phrase is;
that is, he fell in the lot of the eighth year of the captivity of Judah, which was in the
latter end of the third, or the beginning of the fourth of his father's reign, and the first of
Nebuchadnezzar's, and it was now in the eighth of Nebuchadnezzar that he was king, see
2Ki_24:12, but very probably in 2Ch_36:9 there is a mistake in the copyist of eight for
eighteen, since in the Arabic and Syriac versions it is there eighteen, as here:
he reigned in Jerusalem three months; the ten days besides are here omitted for
shortness, 2Ch_36:9.
and his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of
Jerusalem; a person no doubt well known in those times.
HE RY, "This should have been the history of king Jehoiachin's reign, but, alas! it is
only the history of king Jehoiachin's captivity, as it is called, Eze_1:2. He came to the
crown, not to have the honour of wearing it, but the shame of losing it. Ideo tantum
venerat, ut exiret - He came in only to go out.
I. His reign was short and inconsiderable. He reigned but three months, and then was
removed and carried captive to Babylon, as his father, it is likely, would have been if he
had lived but so much longer. What an unhappy young prince was this, that was thrust
into a falling house, a sinking throne! What an unnatural father had he, who begat him
to suffer for him, and by his own sin and folly had left himself nothing to bequeath to his

27. son but his own miseries! Yet this young prince reigned long enough to show that he
justly smarted for his fathers' sins, for he trod in their steps (2Ki_24:9): He did that
which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as they had done; he did nothing to cut off the
entail of the curse, to discharge the incumbrances of his crown, and therefore (transit
cum onere - the incumbrance descends with the crown) with his own iniquity that of his
fathers shall come into the account.
JAMISO , "2Ki_24:8, 2Ki_24:9. Jehoachin succeeds him.
Jehoiachin — that is, “God-appointed,” contracted into Jeconiah and Coniah (Jer_
22:24).
eighteen years old when he began to reign — At the age of eight his father took
him into partnership in the government (2Ch_36:9). He began to reign alone at
eighteen.
K&D 8-9, "(cf. 2Ch_36:9 and 2Ch_36:10). Jehoiachin, ‫ין‬ ִ‫כ‬ָ‫ּוי‬‫ה‬ְ‫י‬ or ‫ין‬ ִ‫כ‬ָ‫ּוי‬‫י‬ (Eze_1:2), i.e.,
he whom Jehovah fortifies, called ‫הוּ‬ָ‫י‬ְ‫נ‬ ָ‫כ‬ְ‫י‬ in 1Ch_3:16-17, and Jer_27:20; Jer_28:4, etc.,
and ‫הוּ‬ָ‫י‬ְ‫נ‬ ָⅴ in Jer_22:24, Jer_22:28; Jer_37:1, probably according to the popular twisting
and contraction of the name Jehoiachin, was eighteen years old when he ascended the
throne (the eight years of the Chronicles are a slip of the pen), and reigned three months,
or, according to the more precise statement of the Chronicles, three months and ten
days, in the spirit of his father. Ezekiel (Eze_19:5-7) describes him not only as a young
lion, who learned to prey and devoured men, like Jehoahaz, but also affirms of him that
he knew their (the deceased men's) widows, i.e., ravished them, and destroyed their
cities-that is to say, he did not confine his deeds of violence to individuals, but extended
them to all that was left behind by those whom he had murdered, viz., to their families
and possessions; and nothing is affirmed in Jer_22:24 and Jer_22:28 respecting his
character at variance with this. His mother Nehushta was a daughter of Elnathan, a ruler
of the people, or prince, from Jerusalem (Jer_26:22; Jer_36:12, Jer_36:25).
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:8. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign
— In 2 Chronicles 36:9, it is said that he was eight years old when he began to reign.
But as both the Syriac and Arabic versions in that place read eighteen, it seems most
reasonable to believe that the transcriber of the book of Chronicles made a mistake,
and wrote eight for eighteen. Poole, however, and many other commentators,
suppose that both places are correct, and that in his eighth year he began to reign
with his father, who made him king with him, as divers other kings of Israel and
Judah had acted in times of trouble; and that in his eighteenth year he reigned
alone. Jehoiachin’s succeeding his father in the throne of Judah may seem to
disagree with the threat which the prophet denounces against his father, Jeremiah
36:30, He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; but as Jehoiachin’s reign
lasted little more than three months, during which time he was absolutely subject to
the Chaldeans, a reign of so short continuance, and of so small authority, may well
be looked upon as nothing: see Ezekiel 19:6, &c.

28. COFFMA , "It is amazing that so short a reign could have been marked by so
much evil. Ezekiel described him as ... a young lion who devoured men and also that
he knew, ravished, the widows of those whom he murdered (Ezekiel 19:5-7). Keil
commented that, "Jehoiakin did not confine his deeds of violence to individuals, but
extended them to all who were left behind by his murders, viz., their families and
possessions. Also, nothing is affirmed in Jeremiah 22:24,28 respecting his character
that is at variance with this."[10] There must have been a sigh of relief in Judah
when ebuchadnezzar came up and carried him off to Babylon.
ELLICOTT, "THE REIG OF JEHOIACHI . BEGI I G OF THE
BABYLO IA CAPTIVITY
(2 Kings 24:8-16).
(8) Jehoiachin.—“Jah will confirm.” Four or five different forms of this name occur
in the documents. Ezekiel 1:2 gives the contraction Joiachin. In Jeremiah we find a
popular transposition of the two elements, thus: Jechonjahu (once, viz., Jeremiah
24:1, Heb.), and usually the shorter form, Jechoniah (Jeremiah 27:20; Esther 2:6);
which is further abridged into Coniah (Heb., Chonjahu) in Jeremiah 22:24;
Jeremiah 22:28. Ewald thinks this last the original name; but Hengstenberg
supposes that the prophet altered the name, so as to make of it a “Jah will confirm”
without the “will,” in order to foreshadow the fate which awaited this king.
ehushta.—Referring, perhaps, to her complexion (as we say “bronzed”).
Elnathan.—See Jeremiah 26:22; Jeremiah 36:12; Jeremiah 36:25; one of
Jehoiakim’s “princes.”
GUZIK, "B. The reign of Jehoiachin.
1. (2 Kings 24:8-9) Jehoiachin, another evil king over Judah.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in
Jerusalem three months. His motherâs name was ehushta the daughter of
Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all
that his father had done.
a. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king: 2 Chronicles 36:9 says
that Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king. The difference between
these two accounts is probably due to the error of a copyist in Chronicles.
i. â2 Chronicles 36:9 makes him eight years old at the beginning of his reign . . . But
some Hebrew MSS., Syriac, and Arabic, read âeighteenâ in Chroniclesâ so âeightâ
must be an error of transcription.â (Knapp)

29. ii. Jehoiachin âWas probably the throne-name of Jeconiah, abbreviated also to
Coniah.â (Wiseman)
b. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD: He carried on in the tradition of the
wicked kings of Judah.
i. âJeremiah said of Jehoiakim, (Jehoiachinâs father) âHe shall have none to sit
upon the throne of Davidâ (Jeremiah 26:30). The word âsitâ here means to âfirmly
sit,â or âdwellâ; and Jehoiachinâs short three monthsâ reign was not that surely.
And Zedekiah, Jehoiachinâs successor, was Jehoiakimâs brother, not his son.â
(Knapp)
ii. âThat he was a grievous offender against God, we learn from Jeremiah 22:24,
which the reader may consult; and in the manâs punishment, see his crimes.â
(Clarke)
EBC, "Verses 8-16
JEHOIACHI
B.C. 597
2 Kings 24:8-16
B.C. 597
"There are times when ancient truths become modern falsehoods, when the signs of
God’s dispensations are made so clear by the course of natural events as to
supersede the revelations of even their most sacred past."
- STA LEY, "Lectures," 2:521
JEHOIACHI -"Jehovah maketh steadfast"-who is also called Jeconiah, and-
perhaps with intentional slight-Coniah, succeeded, at the age of eighteen, to the
miserable and distracted heritage of the throne of Judah. The "eight years old" of
the Chronicler must be a clerical error, for he had a harem. He only reigned for
three months; and the historian pronounces over him, as over all the four kings of
the House of Josiah, the stereotyped condemnation of evil-doing. Was there
anything in the manner in which Josiah had trained his family which could account
for their unsatisfactoriness? In Jehoiachin’s case we do not know what his
transgressions were, but perhaps his mother’s influence rendered him as little
favorable to the prophetic party as his brother Jehoiakim had been. For the
Gebirah was ehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. Her name means
apparently "Brass," and nothing can be deduced from it; but her father Elnathan
was (as we have seen) the envoy who, by order of Jehoiakim, had dragged back
from Egypt the martyr-prophet Urijah. {Jeremiah 26:22} Brief as was his reign of
three months and ten days {2 Chronicles 36:9}-a hundred days, like that of his

30. unhappy uncle Jehoahaz-he is largely alluded to by the contemporary prophets.
Indignant at the sins and apostasies of Judah, and convinced that her retribution
was nigh at hand, Jeremiah took with him an earthen pot to the Valley of Hinnom,
and there shivered it to pieces at Tophet in the presence of certain elders of the
people and of the priests, explaining that his symbolic action indicated the
destruction of Jerusalem. On ‘hearing the tenor of these prophecies, the priest
Pashur, who was officer of the Temple, smote Jeremiah in the face, and put him in
the stocks in a prominent place by the Temple gate. Jeremiah in return prophesied
that Pashur and all his family should be carried into captivity, so that his name
should be changed from Pashur to Magor-Missabib, "Terror on every side."
Against the king himself he pronounced the doom: "‘As I live,’ saith the Lord,
‘though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, were the signet on My right
hand, yet will I pluck thee thence; and I will give thee into the hands of them that
seek thy life even into the hand of ebuchadrezzar. And I will hurl thee, and thy
mother that bare thee, into another country; and there shall ye die.’ Is this man
Coniah a despised broken piece of work? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure?
wherefore are they hurled, he and his seed, and cast into a land which they know
not? O land, land, land! hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, ‘Write ye
this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed
shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, or ruling any more in Judah."’
Yet there must have been something in Jeconiah which impressed favorably the
minds of men. Brief as was his reign, his memory was never forgotten. We learn
from the Mishna that one of the gates of Jerusalem-probably that by which he left
the city-forever bore his name. Josephus says that his captivity was annually
commemorated. Jeremiah writes in the Lamentations:-
"Our pursuers are swifter than the eagles of heaven: they have pursued us upon the
mountains, they have laid wait for us in the wilderness. The breath of our nostrils,
the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, ‘Under his
shadow we shall live among the heathen."’
Ezekiel compares him to a young lion:-
"He went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to
catch the prey. And he knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land
was desolate, and the fullness thereof, by the noise of his roaring. Then the nations
set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he
was taken in their pit. And they put him in ward in hooks, and brought him to the
King of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be
heard upon the mountains of Israel."
A prince of whom a contemporary prophet could thus write was obviously no
fainéant. Indeed, the energetic measures which ebuchadrezzar adopted against
him may have been due to the fact that he had endeavored to rouse his discouraged
people. But what could he do against such a power as that of the Chaldaeans?
ebuchadrezzar sent his generals against Jerusalem; and when it was ripe for

31. capture, advanced in person to take possession of it. Resistance had become
hopeless; there lay no chance in anything but that complete submission which might
possibly avert the worst effects of the destruction of the city. Accordingly, Jeconiah,
accompanied by his mother, his court, his princes, and his officers, went out in
procession, and threw themselves on the mercy of the King of Babylon.
ebuchadrezzar was far less brutal than the Sargons and Assurbanipals of Assyria;
but Judah had twice revolted, and the defection of Tyre showed him that the affairs
of Palestine could no longer be neglected. He thoroughly despoiled the Temple and
the palace, and carried the spoils to Babylon, as Isaiah had forewarned Hezekiah
should be the case. That he might further weaken and humiliate the city, he stripped
it of its king, its royal house, its court, its nobles, its soldiers, even its craftsmen and
smiths, and carried ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-two captives to Babylon
(Jos., "Antt.," X 7. I), among whom was the prophet Ezekiel. He naturally spared
Jeremiah, who regarded him as "the sword of Jehovah," {Jeremiah 47:6} and as
"Jehovah’s servant, to do His pleasure". {Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 27:6; Jeremiah
43:10} On the whole, ebuchadrezzar is not treated with abhorrence by the Jews.
There was something in his character which inspired respect; and the Jews deal
with him leniently, both in their records and generally in their traditions.
" ebuchadnezzar," we read in the Talmud ("Taanith," f. 18, 2), "was a worthy
king, and deserved that a miracle should be performed through him."
From the allusion of Ezekiel we might infer that Jehoiachin was violent and self-
willed; but Josephus speaks of his kindness and gentleness. Was he, as Jeremiah had
prophesied, literally "childless"? It is true that in 1 Chronicles 3:17-18, eight sons
are ascribed to him, and among them Shealtiel, in whom the royal line was
continued. But it was far from certain that these sons were not the sons of his
brother eri, of the House of athan {Luke 3:27; Luke 3:31 Matthew 1:12} and it
seems that they were only adopted by the unhappy captive. The Book of Baruch
describes him weeping by the Euphrates. But if we may trust the story of Susannah,
his outward fortunes were peaceful, and he was allowed to live in his own house and
gardens in peace and in a certain degree of splendor.
PETT, "Verses 8-17
The Reign Of Jehoiachin King Of Judah 597 BC (2 Kings 24:8-17).
In typical fashion the prophetic author of Kings has not told us in detail about the
closing years of Jehoiakim’s life, except in so far as it can be concluded from 2 Kings
24:2, for as his death approached Judah was not only under constant attack by
marauding bands, but by ebuchadnezzar’s main forces under his generals, which
had arrived outside the walls of Jerusalem, with the result that large numbers of
Judeans were being besieged in Jerusalem by an even larger ‘band of Chaldeans’. A
number of other cities of Judah were also no doubt under siege. Thus after the
initial manoeuvrings described in 2 Kings 24:2 YHWH’s wrath has come upon
Judah to the uttermost. It was in such circumstances that Jehoiakim died in a way
that is not described, but seemingly violently and without decent burial, and his son
Jehoiachin came to the throne. Jehoiachin bravely maintained the resistance for a

32. short while (‘three months’), but on the arrival of ebuchadnezzar outside
Jerusalem in person he surrendered himself and the city to him. Judah’s short
period of independence was over, and it was all YHWH’s doing (2 Kings 24:2-3).
This surrender of Jerusalem is described by the Babylonian Chronicle as follows:
“In the seventh year (598 BC), in the month of Kislev ( ovember/December), the
Babylonian king mustered his troops and, having marched to the land of Hatti,
besieged the (main) city of Judah, and on the second day of the month Adar (16th
March 597 BC) took the city, and captured the king. He appointed therein a king of
his own choice (Zedekiah), received its heavy tribute, and despatched them
(Jehoiachin and the tribute) to Babylon.”
But it was not to be the end for Jehoiachin, for although he was carried off to
Babylon, he remained the recognised ‘king of Judah’ even there, and details of the
daily rations allocated to ‘Ya’u kinu, king of the land of Yahudu’ and his sons, have
been discovered in Babylon. He would eventually be released from prison by Amel-
Marduk (Evil-Merodach) and be restored to honour ‘above the kings who were with
him in Babylon’, sitting continually at the table of the king of Babylon as the king’s
pensioner (2 Kings 25:29-30). In spite of all YHWH had not forgotten His promises
to the son of David, and hope for the future had dawned. But before that Judah had
to sink into the depths of despair.
Analysis.
a Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in
Jerusalem three months, and his mother’s name was ehushta the daughter of
Elnathan of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:8).
b And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, according to all that his
father had done (2 Kings 24:9).
c At that time the servants of ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to
Jerusalem, and the city was besieged (2 Kings 24:10).
d And ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants
were besieging it (2 Kings 24:11).
e And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and
his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers, and the king of
Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign (2 Kings 24:12).
d And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of YHWH, and
the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which
Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of YHWH, as YHWH had said (2
Kings 24:13).
c And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty
men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths,
none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land (2 Kings 24:14).
b And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the
king’s wives, and his officers, and the chief men of the land, carried he into captivity
from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the men of might, even seven thousand, and the

33. craftsmen and the smiths a thousand, all of them strong and apt for war, even them
the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon (2 Kings 24:15-16).
a And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s father’s brother,
king instead of him, and changed his name to Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:17).
ote that in ‘a’ Jehoiachin became king, and in the parallel he was replaced by
Zedekiah. In ‘b’ he did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, and in the parallel he
was as a result carried away to Babylon along with the cream of the people. In ‘c’
ebuchadnezzar’s generals besieged Jerusalem, and in the parallel they carried
away ‘all Jerusalem’ into exile. In ‘d’ ebuchadnezzar himself arrived and in the
parallel he carried away all the treasures of the house of YHWH. Centrally in ‘e’
Jehoiachin and all his house surrendered to the king of Babylon.
2 Kings 24:8
‘Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in
Jerusalem three months, and his mother’s name was ehushta the daughter of
Elnathan of Jerusalem.’
In some ways Jehoiachin patterned Jehoahaz earlier (2 Kings 23:31-34). Both came
to the throne after their fathers had offended against a great power, and both were
carried off as hostages within three months, Jehoahaz to Egypt and Jehoiachin to
Babylon. Jehoiachin was also known as Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 3:16-17; Esther 2:6;
Jeremiah 24:1; Jeremiah 27:20; Jeremiah 28:4; Jeremiah 29:2), and as Coniah
(Jeremiah 22:24; Jeremiah 22:28; Jeremiah 37:1). The name appears as Ykyn on
contemporary jar handles. He began his reign at eighteen years old, with Jerusalem
surrounded by the forces of ebuchadnezzar, and within three months he
surrendered when ebuchadnezzar himself arrived. (It may be that he had become
co-regent with his father at eight years old - 2 Chronicles 36:9 - with the Chronicler
there deliberately seeking to parallel him with Josiah). It is significant that his
mother was a ‘local’. This might suggest that there had no longer been outlying
cities whose favour had to be won. Judah was now of limited extent.
9 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his
father had done.
GILL, "And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to
all that his father had done. Being partner with him in his throne, he was in his sins,
and continued therein, see 2Ki_23:37.

34. JAMISO , "he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord — Untaught by
experience, and deaf to the prophetic warnings, he pursued the evil courses which had
brought so many disasters upon the royal family as well as the people of Judah. This bad
character is figuratively but strongly depicted (Eze_19:5-7).
ELLICOTT, "(9) And he did that which was evil . . .—Ezekiel 19:5-9 refers to him,
according to Keil and Ewald; but Thenius asks how, in his position, and during his
brief reign of ninety (?) days, a considerable number of which must probably be
allowed for the siege, he could possibly do what is there described. Hitzig refers the
passage to Zedekiah; and so Thenius. Josephus calls Jehoiachin “naturally good and
just;” probably misunderstanding the words of Jeremiah 22:24; Jeremiah 22:28.
PETT, "‘And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, according to all that his
father had done.’
On coming to the throne Jehoiachin made no attempt to reverse the idolatries of his
father. He continued with Jehoiakim’s idolatrous worship. Thus he found no favour
with YHWH.
10 At that time the officers of ebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid
siege to it,
BAR ES, "Came up against Jerusalem - The cause and circumstances of this
siege are equally obscure. Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar detected Jehoiachin in some
attempt to open communications with Egypt.
GILL, "At that time,.... When Jehoiachin reigned:
when the year was expired; so it is in 2Ch_36:10 or at the revolution of the year;
which some take to be autumn, the beginning of the civil year with the Jews; but rather
it was the spring, the time when kings went out to battle, 2Sa_11:1.
the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against
Jerusalem; that is, his army, under proper generals and officers, and by his orders:

35. and the city was besieged; in form by the Chaldean army.
JAMISO 10-13, "2Ki_24:10-16. Jerusalem taken.
At that time — within three months after his accession to the throne. It was the
spring of the year (2Ch_36:10); so early did he indicate a feeling hostile to the interests
of his Assyrian liege lord, by forming a league with Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar sent his
generals to besiege Jerusalem, as Jeremiah had foretold (Jer_22:28; Jer_34:20), and
soon after he followed in person. Convinced of the hopelessness of making any effectual
resistance, Jehoiachin, going to the camp of the besiegers, surrendered (2Ki_24:12), in
the expectation, probably, of being allowed to retain his throne as a vassal of the
Assyrian empire. But Nebuchadnezzar’s clemency towards the kings of Judah was now
exhausted, so that Jehoiachin was sent as a captive to Babylon, according to Jeremiah’s
prediction (Jer_22:24), accompanied by the queen mother (the same who had held that
dignity under Jehoahaz) (2Ki_23:31), his generals, and officers. This happened in the
eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, computing from the time when he was associated
with his father in the government. Those that were left consisted chiefly of the poorer
sort of people and the unskilled workmen. The palace and the temple were ransacked.
The smaller golden vessels had been taken on the first capture of Jerusalem and placed
by Nebuchadnezzar in the temple of his god as tokens of victory. They were used by
Belshazzar at his impious feast [Dan_5:2], for the purpose of rewarding his army with
these trophies, among which were probably the golden candlesticks, the ark, etc.
(compare 2Ch_36:7; Dan_1:2). Now the gold plating was torn off all the larger temple
furniture.
K&D, "“At that time,” i.e., when Jehoiachin had come to the throne, or, according to
2Ch_36:10, “at the turn of the year,” i.e., in the spring (see at 1Ki_20:22), the servants
(generals) of Nebuchadnezzar marched against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
The Keri ‫לוּ‬ ָ‫ע‬ is substantially correct, but is an unnecessary alteration of the Chethîb ‫ה‬ ָ‫ל‬ ָ‫,ע‬
since the verb when it precedes the subject is not unfrequently used in the singular,
though before a plural subject (cf. Ewald, §316, a.). The ‫נב‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ד‬ ְ‫ב‬ ַ‫ע‬ are different from the
‫ים‬ ִ‫דוּד‬ְ‫ג‬ of 2Ki_24:2. As the troops sent against Jehoiakim had not been able to conquer
Judah, especially Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar sent his generals with an army against
Jerusalem, to besiege the city and take it.
BE SO ,"2 Kings 24:10. The servants of ebuchadnezzar came up against
Jerusalem — Either, 1st, Because the people had made Jehoiachin king without his
consent: or, 2d, Because he had some notice, or at least a suspicion, of his intentions
to rebel and join with Egypt against him, as Zedekiah his successor did. But
whatever was the second and immediate cause of it, the chief cause was God’s
commandment, or the direction of his providence, as was said 2 Kings 24:3.
COFFMA , "These tragic words describe the fall of Jerusalem and the deportation
of the cream of its population to Babylon. Daniel and his companions were among

36. the princes carried away. These, in all probability, were emasculated and made
eunuchs in the pagan establishment at Babylon. The Book of Daniel relates the
fortunes of some of those princes. Significantly, God blessed Daniel with great
preferment and power in ebuchadnezzar's capital.
"In the eighth year of his reign" (2 Kings 24:12). "The eighth year of
ebuchadnezzar's reign was 597 B.C. The siege extended from December (Chislev)
598 B.C. to March (Adar) of 597 B.C., according to Babylonian records."[11]
"And Jehoiakin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon" (2 Kings 24:12).
Evidently, Jehoiakin believed that by such submission to ebuchadnezzar he might
retain his throne as a vassal of Babylon. Of course, that is what took place earlier at
the first conquest of Jerusalem, with the result that Jehoiakim retained his throne as
a vassal, but on this occasion, " ebuchadnezzar showed Jehoiakin no favor at all,
treated him as a rebel, and carried him and all the nobility of Jerusalem into
captivity in Babylon."[12]
A significant element in this chapter was the plundering and looting of Solomon's
temple. " ebuchadnezzar spoiled Solomon's temple three times: (1) He took some of
the treasures away when Jehoiakim was king, placing the golden vessels in the
temple of his god in Babylon (Daniel 1:2). These were the vessels profaned by
Belshazzar (Daniel 5:2). (2) He continued the destruction by taking many other
treasures, breaking and cutting them into pieces when he came up against Jeconiah
(as in this chapter). (3) He thoroughly looted and destroyed the temple, even cutting
up the brass and all other metal objects of value when the city fell a third time at the
end of the reign of Zedekiah (2 Kings 25:13-16)."[13]
"And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah ... king in his stead, and changed his
name to Zedekiah" (2 Kings 24:17). Zedekiah, of course, was another wicked son of
Josiah; and ebuchadnezzar's placing him on the throne of Judah should be
understood as a full and complete submission of Zedekiah to the will of the king of
Babylon. He had evidently sworn with a most solemn oath absolute and continual
fealty to the king of Babylon, even invoking the name of Jehovah in that solemn
oath. The change of his name to Zedekiah was an essential element in the whole
procedure. The meaning of this was that Zedekiah's ultimate rebellion against
Babylon was also interpreted by the prophet Jeremiah as rebellion against Jehovah.
This matter is discussed at length at Jeremiah 31.
ELLICOTT, "(10) At that time.—In the spring of the year (2 Chronicles 36:10).
Thenius infers from Jeremiah 13:19 (“the cities of the south land are shut up”), that
ebuchadnezzar drew a cordon across that part of the country, to cut off any
succours from Egypt.
The servants—i.e., generals. (Comp. 2 Kings 19:6.)

37. Was besieged.—See margin; and 2 Kings 25:2; Jeremiah 52:5.
GUZIK, "2. (2 Kings 24:10-12) Jehoiachin surrenders to ebuchadnezzar.
At that time the servants of ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against
Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. And ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came
against the city, as his servants were besieging it. Then Jehoiachin king of Judah, his
mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers went out to the king of Babylon;
and the king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, took him prisoner.
a. Then Jehoiachin . . . went out to the king of Babylon: The previous king of Judah
(Jehoiakim) led a rebellion against ebuchadnezzar. ow the king of Babylon came
with his armies against Jerusalem, and Jehoiachin hoped to appease
ebuchadnezzar by submitting himself, his family, and his leaders to the
Babylonian king.
b. Took him prisoner: Like his rebellious father, God allowed Jehoiachin to be
taken as a bound captive back to Babylon.
i. âHis presence in Babylon is attested by tablets listing oil and barley supplies to
him, his family and five sons in 592-569 B.C. and naming him as âYaukin king of
the Judeans.ââ (Wiseman)
ISBET, "THE GOD-FORSAKE CITY
‘The city was besieged.’
2 Kings 24:10
When wrong has been going on for some time it gathers a momentum, which gets
beyond men’s power to control. It is like a carriage without a brake descending a
steep hill. All is easy and pleasant at first, but as the descent continues the carriage
gets beyond the driver’s control, and is dashed to pieces, and not only does the
careless driver suffer, but those who are in the carriage suffer also, and some of
them may even be killed.
I. King after king had done wrong in Judah, and as each king came to the throne he
inherited the evil that his predecessors had done.—For a time the catastrophe was
stayed by the long reigns of good men like Hezekiah and Josiah. But it had got
beyond control, beyond the possibility of prevention. And as the new kings came—
Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah—they seemed to grow more reckless the
nearer the danger came, till at last the hand of God came down upon them and they
and their country suffered the due reward of their deeds.
II. Yes, it was the hand of God. That is stated in a most striking way.—It is said that
Zedekiah went on with his wickedness, and even rebelled against ebuchadnezzar,
because God was angry with him. We may think that God should have warned him
and prevented him from doing so disastrous a thing as to rebel against the powerful

38. King of Babylon. But God had warned till warning was no use. othing was of any
use now except punishment. And so God must punish. If He did not punish He
would not be the merciful God that He is. He punishes that the evil and all its misery
may be stopped.
III. Zedekiah suffered terribly.—He first saw his sons killed before his eyes, and
then his eyes were put out. After that he was loaded with chains and carried to
Babylon. He suffered more, you may think, than his sins deserved. But he suffered
for the sins of his friends as well as for his own. Just as we are benefited if we live
with those who are good, so also we suffer if we live with those who are bad. We are
bound together, and one who does wrong may not only suffer for it himself, but
cause great suffering to others also. And one who does right will be blessed himself
and a blessing to all who know him.
Illustrations
(1) ‘In the place of Jehoiachin, ebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin’s uncle
Zedekiah as tributary king of Judah.
For the first few years of his reign Zedekiah was faithful to the Babylonian
supremacy. Egypt, however, was, as usual, busily employed in trying to form a
Palestinian alliance against Babylon. In the fifth year of his reign (593 b.c.), when
the Babylonians were busily engaged in suppressing the Elamite insurgents in the
east, Zedekiah suffered himself to be entangled in this conspiracy. Four years later
(589 b.c), in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, ebuchadnezzar found himself free
to deal with the Palestinian insurrection. Again the Babylonian army appeared in
Syria. And now what Jeremiah had predicted so often was about to come to pass.’
(2) ‘Jeremiah wrote a book of sorrow over the distress. While food or money lasted,
a few who had hoarded it away could have a little bread, or buy a drink of water or
a little wood to cook the last meal. But the days came when people fainted for
hunger, were parched with thirst; children cried for bread, but no one could give it;
ladies who had worn robes of scarlet searched in heaps of filth for a mouthful of
food. Sickness came with starvation; wounds with war; arrows tipped with fire
came flying in the streets; noises like thunder were heard night and day, as great
battering-engines pushed by companies of men shook the walls or hurled great
stones which wounded and killed the brave soldiers within, who were doing their
best to keep their enemies out.’
PETT, "‘At that time the servants of ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to
Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.’
The arrival of ‘the servants of ebuchadnezzar’, prior to the coming of the Great
King himself, must have occurred prior to Jehoiachin’s ascension to the throne,
while Jehoiakim was still reigning. It was in fact possibly Jehoiakim’s attempt to
surrender to ebuchadnezzar’s generals that resulted in his ignominious death, and
that caused Jehoiachin not to be willing to do so until ebuchadnezzar himself

39. arrived.
11 and ebuchadnezzar himself came up to the
city while his officers were besieging it.
GILL, "And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city,.... He
came in person, following his army:
and his servants did besiege it; very closely.
HE RY 11-16, "II. The calamities that came upon him, and his family, and people, in
the very beginning of his reign, were very grievous. 1. Jerusalem was besieged by the
king of Babylon, 2Ki_24:10, 2Ki_24:11. He had sent his forces to ravage the country,
2Ki_24:2. Now he came himself, and laid siege to the city. Now the word of God was
fulfilled (Deu_28:49, etc.), The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, of fierce
countenance, that shall first eat of the fruit of thy land and then besiege thee in all thy
gates. 2. Jehoiachin immediately surrendered at discretion. As soon as he heard the king
of Babylon had come in person against the city, his name having at this time become
very formidable, he beat a parley and went out to him, 2Ki_24:12. Had he made his
peace with God, and taken the method that Hezekiah did in the like case, he needed not
to have feared the king of Babylon, but might have held out with courage, honour, and
success (one should have chased a thousand); but, wanting the faith and piety of an
Israelite, he had not the resolution of a man, of a soldier, of a prince. He and his royal
family, his mother and wives, his servants and princes, delivered themselves up
prisoners of war; this was the consequence of their being servants of sin. 3.
Nebuchadnezzar rifled the treasuries both of the church and of the state, and carried
away the silver and gold of both, 2Ki_24:13. Now the word of God by Isaiah was fulfilled
(2Ki_20:17), All that is in thy house shall be carried to Babylon. Even the vessels of the
temple which Solomon had made, and laid up in store to be used as the old ones were
worn out, he cut off from the temple, and began to cut them in pieces, but, upon second
thoughts, reserved them for his own use, for we find Belshazzar drinking wine in them,
Dan_5:2, Dan_5:3. 4. He carried away a great part of Jerusalem into captivity, to
weaken it, that he might effectually secure to himself the dominion of it and prevent its
revolt, and to enrich himself with the wealth or service of those he took away. There had
been some carried away eight years before this, in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar and
the third of Jehoiakim, among whom were Daniel and his fellows. See Dan_1:1, Dan_
1:6. They had approved themselves so well that this politic prince coveted more of them.
Now he carried off, (1.) The young king himself and his family (2Ki_24:15), and we find
(2Ki_25:27-29) that for thirty-seven years he continued a close prisoner. (2.) All the
great men, the princes and officers, whose riches were kept for the owners thereof to
their hurt (Ecc_5:13), tempting the enemies to make a prey of them first. (3.) All the

40. military men, the mighty men of valour (2Ki_24:14), the mighty of the land (2Ki_
24:15), the men of might, even all that were strong and apt for war, 2Ki_24:16. These
could not defend themselves, and the conqueror would not leave them to defend their
country, but took them away, to be employed in his service. (4.) All the craftsmen and
smiths who made weapons of war; in taking them he did, in effect, disarm the city,
according to the Philistines' policy, 1Sa_13:19. In this captivity Ezekiel the prophet was
carried away (Eze_1:1, Eze_1:2) and Mordecai, Est_2:6. This Jehoiachin was also called
Jeconiah (1Ch_3:16), and in contempt (Jer_22:24, where his captivity is foretold)
Coniah.
K&D, "During the siege he came himself to punish Jehoiakim's revolt in the person
of his successor.
ELLICOTT, "(11) Did besiege.—Were besieging. The king arrived after the siege
had begun. Came against.—Came unto.
PETT, "‘And ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants
were besieging it.’
The arrival of ebuchadnezzar himself would have caused a great stir, and it is
probable that, in view of the fact that he would learn that Jehoiakim who had
instigated the rebellion was dead, he on arrival offered terms to the city. These
terms included the surrender of the royal house who would be transported to
Babylon, along with many of the great men of the land, and the seizing of all the
palace and Temple treasures, together with what remained of the golden vessels in
the Temple. But it would mean that the punitive war was at an end.
12 Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his
attendants, his nobles and his officials all
surrendered to him.
In the eighth year of the reign of the king of
Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner.
BAR ES, "The eighth year - Jeremiah calls it the seventh year Jer_52:28, a
statement which implies only a different manner of counting regnal years.

41. CLARKE, "Jehoiachin - went out - He saw that it was useless to attempt to
defend himself any longer; and he therefore surrendered himself, hoping to obtain better
terms.
GILL, "And Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon,.... Not
to fight with him, but to submit to him, and to surrender the city to him, and be at his
mercy:
he and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers; the
royal family, courtiers, and nobles:
and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign; Of
Nebuchadnezzar's reign, and which was the eighth of the first captivity, and from
whence the seventy years' captivity were reckoned.
K&D, "Then Jehoiachin went out to the king of Babylon to yield himself up to him,
because he perceived the impossibility of holding the city any longer against the
besiegers, and probably hoped to secure the favour of Nebuchadnezzar, and perhaps to
retain the throne as his vassal by a voluntary submission. Nebuchadnezzar, however, did
not show favour any more, as he had done to Jehoiakim at the first taking of Jerusalem,
but treated Jehoiachin as a rebel, made him prisoner, and led him away to Babylon,
along with his mother, his wives (2Ki_24:15), his princes and his chamberlains, as
Jeremiah had prophesied (Jer_22:24.), in the eighth year of his (Nebuchadnezzar's)
reign. The reference to the king's mother in 2Ki_24:12 and 2Ki_24:15 is not to be
explained on the ground that she still acted as guardian over the king, who was not yet of
age (J. D. Mich.), but from the influential position which she occupied in the kingdom as
‫ה‬ ָ‫יר‬ ִ‫ב‬ְ ַ‫ה‬ (Jer_29:2 : see at 1Ki_14:21). The eighth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar is
reckoned from the time when his father had transferred to him the chief command over
the army to make war upon Necho, according to which his first year coincides with the
fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer_25:1). As Nebuchadnezzar acted as king, so far as the
Jews were concerned, from that time forward, although he conducted the war by
command of his father, this is always reckoned as the point of time at which his reign
commenced, both in our books and also in Jeremiah (cf. 2Ki_25:8; Jer_32:1). According
to this calculation, his reign lasted forty-four years, viz., the eight years of Jehoiakim and
the thirty-six years of Jehoiachin's imprisonment, as is evident from 2Ki_25:27.
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:12. Jehoiachin went out to the king of Babylon — Yielded up
himself and the city into his hands; and this by the counsel of Jeremiah, and to his
own good. In the eighth year of his reign — Of ebuchadnezzar’s reign, as appears
by comparing this with 2 Kings 25:8; and because Jehoiachin reigned not half a
year. Had he made his peace with God, and taken the method that Hezekiah did in
the like case, he needed not to have feared the king of Babylon, but might have held
out with courage, honour, and success. But, wanting the faith and piety of an
Israelite, he had not the resolution of a man.

42. ELLICOTT, "(12) And Jehoiaehin the king of Judah went out . . .—Despairing of
the defence, he threw himself upon the clemency of ebuchadnezzar. The queen-
mother (Jeremiah 22:2) and all his grandees and courtiers accompanied the king,
who probably hoped to be allowed to keep his throne as a vassal of Babylon.
Took him—i.e., as a prisoner.
In the eighth year of his (i.e., ebuchadnezzar’s) reign.—This exactly tallies with the
data of Jeremiah 25:1; Jeremiah 46:2.
PETT, "‘And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and
his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers, and the king of
Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.’
The terms were accepted and Jehoiachin, the queen mother, his courtiers, his
princes and his military officers all went out and surrendered to ‘the king of
Babylon’ in the eighth year of ebuchadnezzar’s reign. They knew, of course, that
this could only result in their transportation. That was part of the agreement.
This is the first occasion in Kings when an incident has been dated by reference to
something external to Israel and Judah ‘in the eighth year of his
( ebuchadnezzar’s) reign’. It was a clear indication by the author that Judah was
living on borrowed time. As far as he was concerned ebuchadnezzar now ruled
over Judah with YHWH’s authority. (Jeremiah has ‘the seventh year of his reign’ -
Jeremiah 52:28. Jeremiah was omitting the accession year).
13 As the Lord had declared, ebuchadnezzar
removed the treasures from the temple of the
Lord and from the royal palace, and cut up the
gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made
for the temple of the Lord.
BAR ES, "On the first capture of the city in the fourth (third) year of Jehoiakim
Dan_1:2; 2Ch_36:7, the vessels carried off consisted of smaller and lighter articles;
while now the heavier articles, as the table of showbread, the altar of incense, the ark of
the covenant were stripped of their gold, which was carried away by the conquerors.

43. Little remained more precious than brass at the time of the final capture in the reign of
Zedekiah 2Ki_25:13-17.
CLARKE, "He carried out thence all the treasures - It has been remarked that
Nebuchadnezzar spoiled the temple three times. -
1. He took away the greater part of those treasures when he took Jerusalem under
Jehoiakim: and the vessels that he took then he placed in the temple of his god,
Dan_1:2. And these were the vessels which Belshazzar profaned, Dan_5:2; and
which Cyrus restored to Ezra, when he went up to Jerusalem, Ezr_1:2. It was at
this time that he took Daniel and his companions.
2. He took the remaining part of those vessels, and broke them or cut them in pieces,
when he came the second tine against Jerusalem under Jeconiah; as is mentioned
here, 2Ki_24:13.
3. He pillaged the temple, took away all the brass, the brazen pillars, brazen vessels,
and vessels of gold and silver, which he found there when he besieged Jerusalem
under Zedekiah, 2Ki_25:13-17.
GILL, "And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord,
and the treasures of the king's house,.... The gates of the city being thrown open to
him, he entered and plundered the temple, and the royal palace, and took from thence
all the riches thereof:
and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had
made in the temple of the Lord, as the Lord had said; 2Ki_20:17 and so the
prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled. No more is said of these vessels in 2Ch_36:10 than that
they were brought to Babylon; and so Piscator renders the word here, "took", or "carried
them away"; and certain it is that they were carried whole to Babylon, Dan_5:2 but as
Hezekiah is said to cut off the doors of the temple, that is, strip or scrape off the gold of
them, 2Ki_18:16 so Nebuchadnezzar cut off from the temple, or stripped it of the golden
vessels in it; of great part of them, the greater part thereof; for that there were some left
is plain from Jer_27:18.
JAMISO 13-16, "as the Lord had said — (compare 2Ki_20:17; Isa_39:6; Jer_
15:13; Jer_17:3). The elite of the nation for rank, usefulness, and moral worth, all who
might be useful in Babylon or dangerous in Palestine, were carried off to Babylon, to the
number of ten thousand (2Ki_24:14). These are specified (2Ki_24:15, 2Ki_24:16),
warriors, seven thousand; craftsmen and smiths, one thousand; king’s wives, officers,
and princes, also priests and prophets (Jer_29:1; Eze_1:1), two thousand; equal to ten
thousand captives in all.
K&D, "Nebuchadnezzar thereupon, that is to say, when he had forced his way into
the city, plundered the treasures of the temple and palace, and broke the gold off the

44. vessels which Solomon had made in the temple of Jehovah. ‫ץ‬ ֵ ִ‫,ק‬ to cut off, break off, as
in 2Ki_16:17, i.e., to bear off the gold plates. Nebuchadnezzar had already taken a
portion of the golden vessels of the temple away with him at the first taking of Jerusalem
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and had placed them in the temple of his god at Babylon
(2Ch_36:7; Dan_1:2). They were no doubt the smaller vessels of solid gold-basins,
scoops, goblets, knives, tongs, etc., - which Cyrus delivered up again to the Jews on their
return to their native land (Ezr_1:7.). This time he took the gold off the larger vessels,
which were simply plated with that metal, such as the altar of burnt-offering, the table of
shew-bread and ark of the covenant, and carried it away as booty, so that on the third
conquest of Jerusalem, in the time of Zedekiah, beside a few gold and silver basins and
scoops (2Ki_25:15) there were only the large brazen vessels of the court remaining (2Ki_
25:13-17; Jer_27:18.). The words, “as Jehovah had spoken,” refer to 2Ki_20:17 and Isa_
39:6, and to the sayings of other prophets, such as Jer_15:13; Jer_17:3, etc.
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:13. He carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the
Lord — ebuchadnezzar carried away the treasures and rich furniture of the
temple at three different times: First, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim,
when he first took Jerusalem, he carried a part of the vessels of the house of God
into the land of Shinar, and put them in the house of his god, Daniel 1:2. These were
the vessels which his son Belshazzar profaned, (Daniel 5:2,) and which Cyrus
restored to the Jews, (Ezra 1:7,) to be set up in the temple again, when rebuilt:
Secondly, In the reign of this Jehoiachin he took the city again, and cut in pieces a
great part of the vessels of gold which Solomon had made, and which, through some
means, had escaped his former plunder, and the plunder of the kings of Egypt and
Israel, who had rifled the city and temple more than once; perhaps being preserved
from them by the care of the priests, who hid them, or by the special providence of
God, disposing their hearts to leave them. Or if these vessels had been taken away
by any of these kings, they might afterward be recovered at the cost of the pious
kings of Judah: Thirdly, In the eleventh year of Zedekiah he pillaged the temple
once more, when he broke in pieces the pillars of brass, &c., and took away all the
vessels of silver and gold that he could find, and carried them to Babylon, 2 Kings
25:13. It is something strange, that among all this inventory, no mention is made of
the ark of the covenant, which, of all other things, was held most sacred. But it is
very probable that it was burned, together with the temple, in the last desolation;
for what some say of its being hidden by the Prophet Jeremiah in a certain cave in
mount ebo, is a mere fable. See Calmet’s Comment. and Dissert. on the Ark.
COKE, "2 Kings 24:13. And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of
the Lord, &c.— ebuchadnezzar carried away the treasures and rich furniture of
the temple at three different times: First, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim
when he first took Jerusalem, he carried half of the vessels of the house of God away
into the land of Shinar, and put them into the house of his god, Daniel 1:2. These
were the vessels which his son Belshazzar profaned, Daniel 5:2 and which Cyrus
restored to the Jews, Ezra 1:7 to be set up in the temple again when rebuilt.
Secondly, In the reign of Jehoiachin he took the city again, and cut in pieces a great
part of the vessels of gold which Solomon had made, and which by some means or

45. other had escaped his former plunder. Thirdly, In the eleventh year of Zedekiah he
pillaged the temple once more, when he broke in pieces the pillars of brass, &c. and
took along with them all the vessels of silver and gold which he could find, and
carried them to Babylon. See the next chapter, 2 Kings 24:13, &c. It is something
strange, that, among all this inventory, no mention is made of the ark of the
covenant, which, of all other things, was held most sacred. But it is very probable,
that it was burned together with the temple in the last desolation; for, what some
say, of its being hidden by the prophet Jeremiah in a certain cave in mount ebo, is
a mere fable. See Calmet.
ELLICOTT, "(13) And he carried out thence . . .—It is apt said, but implied, that
ebuchadnezzar entered the city. He may have done so at the time of his invasion
under Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24:1). On that occasion he had carried off some of the
sacred vessels (2 Chronicles 36:7; Daniel 1:2; Daniel 5:2-3; comp. Ezra 1:7 seq.) It is
certainly surprising to find that anything was left in the Temple treasury after the
repeated spoliations which it had undergone. The fact not only indicates the
probable existence of secret (subterranean) store-chambers, but also lends some
support to the chronicler’s representations of the great wealth stored up in the
sanctuary.
Cut in pieces.—2 Kings 16:17; 2 Chronicles 28:24. The meaning seems to be that the
gold-plating was now stripped off from such “vessels” as the altar of incense, the
table of shewbread, and the Ark. (Comp. 2 Kings 18:16.)
As the Lord had said—e.g., to Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:17; comp. Jeremiah 15:13;
Jeremiah 17:3).
GUZIK, "3. (2 Kings 24:13-16) Jerusalem is impoverished and taken captive.
And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the
treasures of the kingâs house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which
Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men
of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. one remained
except the poorest people of the land. And he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon.
The kingâs mother, the kingâs wives, his officers, and the mighty of the land he
carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. All the valiant men, seven
thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for
war, these the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
a. And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the
treasures of the kingâs house: On this second attack against Jerusalem,
ebuchadnezzar took whatever valuables remained in the temple or in the royal
palaces of Jerusalem.

46. i. âThe fall of Jerusalem didnât come about in one cataclysmic battle; it occurred in
stages.â (Dilday)
· ebuchadnezzarâs initial subjugation of the city about 605 B.C.
· Destruction from ebuchadnezzarâs marauding bands, 601 to 598 B.C.
· The siege and fall of Jerusalem under ebuchadnezzarâs main army on 16
March, 597 B.C.
· ebuchadnezzar returns to completely destroy and depopulate Jerusalem in
the summer of 586 B.C.
b. He cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made:
This tells us what happened to the furniture and precious things of Solomonâs
temple. Some ancient traditions tell us that Jeremiah hid the ark of the covenant
before this, so that it was not among the things that were cut up and carried back to
Babylon.
c. one remained except the poorest people of the land: ebuchadnezzar not only
took the material treasures of Judah, but also the human treasures. Anyone with
any skills or abilities was taken captive to Babylon.
i. âThe like craft useth the devil, when he endeavoureth to take out of the way such
as are zealous and active, valiant for Godâs truth, and violent for his kingdom.â
(Trapp)
ii. Among these captives was the Prophet Ezekiel, who compiled his book of
prophecies while in captivity in Babylon.
iii. âWith only the poor and unskilled people of the land remaining, it might be
assumed that Jerusalem would cause no further trouble.â (Patterson and Austel)
PETT, "‘And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of YHWH,
and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which
Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of YHWH, as YHWH had said.’
ebuchadnezzar then cut up and removed from the Temple all that remained of the
golden vessels which Solomon had made which were in the Temple of YHWH,
together with all the treasures that remained in both the palace and the Temple.
These would not be overlarge. We must remember that Jehoiakim had had to tax
the ordinary people in order to pay tribute to Egypt, and that tribute had had to be
paid to Babylon since then. The Babylonian Chronicle’s description of it as ‘heavy
tribute’ was probably exaggerated. Jeremiah makes clear that some vessels
remained in the Temple, together with certain other items (Jeremiah 27:18-20).
They would follow later (2 Kings 25:13-17).

47. ‘All the treasures of the house of YHWH, and the treasures of the king’s house.’
This has been a regular refrain throughout Kings (2 Kings 12:18; 2 Kings 14:14; 2
Kings 16:8; 2 Kings 18:15; 1 Kings 14:26; 1 Kings 15:18) as the author has
demonstrated that disobedience to YHWH could only result in Judah regularly
losing all that it had. There could be no continuing prosperity without obedience.
Here the vessels of Solomon are mentioned along with the treasures in order to
connect back to the original record of Solomon’s enriching of the Temple. These
vessels had been continually spared as having great sentimental value, but now even
they had been taken. Together with 2 Kings 25:13-17 it was stressing that all that
Solomon had built up had finally gone. othing was left.
14 He carried all Jerusalem into exile: all the
officers and fighting men, and all the skilled
workers and artisans—a total of ten thousand.
Only the poorest people of the land were left.
BAR ES, "The entire number of the captives was not more than 11,000. They
consisted of three classes:
(1) the “princes” or “mighty of the land,” i. e., courtiers, priests, elders, and all who had
any position or dignity - in number 3,000 (compare 2Ki_24:14, 2Ki_24:16).
(2) the “mighty men of valor” or “men of might,” i. e., the soldier class, who were
7,000. And
(3) craftsmen or artisans, who numbered 1,000. The word here translated “craftsmen”
denotes artisans in stone, wood, or metal, and thus includes our “masons, carpenters,
and smiths.” The word translated “smiths” means strictly “lock-smiths.”
The object of carrying off these persons was twofold:
(1) it deprived the conquered city of those artisans who were of most service in war;
and
(2) it gave the conqueror a number of valuable assistants in the construction of his
buildings and other great works.
The Assyrian monarchs frequently record their removal of the skilled artisans from a
conquered country. The population of the ancient city has been calculated, from its area,
at 15,000. The remnant left was therefore about 5000 or 6,000.
CLARKE, "He carried away all Jerusalem - That is, all the chief men, the
nobles, and artificers. Among these there were of mighty men seven thousand; of

48. craftsmen and smiths, one thousand.
GILL, "And he carried away all Jerusalem,.... The inhabitants of it; not every
individual of them, but the chief of them, the more honourable, rich, and useful; for the
poorer sort were left, as afterwards expressed:
and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand
captives; which was the number of them in the whole; the particulars are after
delivered:
and all the craftsmen and smiths; besides the nobles and the soldiers, he took all
the artificers that exercised any handicraft trade or business; carpenters and
blacksmiths, as some interpret these two words; so that there were none left to make
arms for them; the last word may be rendered "enclosers", and are by some interpreted
of enclosers of jewels in metals, as gold and silver:
none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land; who were left
to till it, and to dress the vines; see 2Ki_25:12.
K&D 14-16, "Beside these treasures, he carried away captive to Babylon the cream of
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, not only the most affluent, but, as is evident from Jer_
24:1-10, the best portion in a moral respect. In 2Ki_24:14 the number of those who were
carried off is simply given in a general form, according to its sum-total, as 10,000; and
then in 2Ki_24:15, 2Ki_24:16 the details are more minutely specified. “All Jerusalem” is
the whole of the population of Jerusalem, which is first of all divided into two leading
classes, and then more precisely defined by the clause, “nothing was left except the
common people,” and reduced to the cream of the citizens. The king, queen-mother, and
king's wives being passed over and mentioned for the first time in the special list in 2Ki_
24:15, there are noticed here ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ָ ַ‫ל־ה‬ ָⅴ and ‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ח‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ּור‬ ִ ‫ּל‬ⅴ, who form the first of the leading
classes. By the ‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ are meant, according to 2Ki_24:15, the ‫ים‬ ִ‫יס‬ ִ‫ר‬ ָ‫,ס‬ chamberlains, i.e., the
officials of the king's court in general, and by ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ה‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫אוּל‬ (“the mighty of the land”) all the
heads of the tribes and families of the nation that were found in Jerusalem; and under
the last the priests and prophets, who were also carried away according to Jer_29:1, with
Ezekiel among them (Eze_1:1), are included as the spiritual heads of the people. The ‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ח‬ ַ‫ה‬
‫י‬ ֵ‫ּור‬ ִ are called ‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ח‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫שׁ‬ְ‫נ‬ፍ in 2Ki_24:16; their number was 7000. The persons intended are
not warriors, but men of property, as in 2Ki_15:20. The second class of those who ere
carried away consisted of ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫ר‬ ָ‫ֽח‬ ֶ‫ל־ה‬ ָⅴ, all the workers in stone, metal, and wood, that is to
say, masons, smiths, and carpenters; and ‫ר‬ֵ ְ‫ס‬ ַ ַ‫,ה‬ the locksmiths, including probably not
actual locksmiths only, but makers of weapons also. There is no need for any serious
refutation of the marvellous explanation given of ‫ר‬ֵ ְ‫ס‬ ַ‫מ‬ by Hitzig (on Jer_24:1), who
derives it from ‫ס‬ ַ‫מ‬ and ‫ר‬ֵ, and supposes it to be an epithet applied to the remnant of the
Canaanites, who had been made into tributary labourers, although it has been adopted
by Thenius and Graf, who make them into artisans of the foreign socagers. ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ם־ה‬ ַ‫ע‬ ‫ת‬ ַ ַ =

49. ‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ፎ ָ‫ת־ה‬ ַ ַ‫ד‬ (2Ki_25:12), the poor people of the land, i.e., the lower portion of the
population of Jerusalem, from whom Nebuchadnezzar did not fear any rebellion,
because they possessed nothing (Jer_39:10), i.e., neither property (money nor other
possessions), nor strength and ability to organize a revolt. The antithesis to these formed
by the ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ‫ח‬ ְ‫ל‬ ִ‫מ‬ ִ‫מ‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ּשׂ‬‫ע‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫ּור‬ ִ, the strong or powerful men, who were in a condition to
originate and carry on a war; for this category includes all who were carried away, not
merely the thousand workmen, but also the seven thousand ‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ ַ‫ח‬ ַ‫ה‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫שׁ‬ְ‫נ‬ፍ, and the king's
officers and the chiefs of the nation, whose number amounted to two thousand, since the
total number of the exiles was then thousand. There is no special allusion to warriors or
military, because in the struggle for the rescue of the capital and the kingdom from
destruction every man who could bear arms performed military service, so that the
distinction between warriors and non-warriors was swept away, and the actual warriors
are swallowed up in the ten thousand. Babel is the country of Babylonia, or rather the
Babylonian empire.
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:14. He carried away all Jerusalem — That is, the inhabitants
of Jerusalem; not simply all, but the best and most considerable part, as the
following words explain and restrain it. Even ten thousand captives — Which are
more particularly reckoned up 2 Kings 24:16, where there are seven thousand
mighty men, and a thousand smiths; and those mentioned 2 Kings 24:15 make up
the other two thousand. Craftsmen and smiths — Who might furnish them with
new arms, and thereby give him fresh trouble.
COKE, "2 Kings 24:14. And he carried away all Jerusalem— Among these were
Ezekiel the prophet, and Mordecai the uncle of Esther.
ELLICOTT, "(14) All Jerusalem.—Limited by what follows, and meaning the most
important part of the population.
The princes—i.e., the nobles, e.g., the grandees of the court, some of the priests
(Ezekiel 1:1), and the heads of the clans.
The mighty men of valour.—This is probably right. Thenius and Bähr prefer to
understand the men of property and the artisans, as in 2 Kings 15:20.
All the craftsmen and smiths.—The former were workers in wood, stone, and metal,
i.e., carpenters, masons, and smiths. (Comp. Genesis 4:22.) The “smiths” (properly,
“they who shut”) answer to what we should call locksmiths. They were makers of
bolts and bars for doors and gates (Jeremiah 24:1; Jeremiah 29:2). It is obvious that
by deporting “the craftsmen and smiths” the king of Babylon made further
outbreaks impossible (comp. 1 Samuel 13:19.) Kimchi’s explanation of “smiths” is a
curiosity of exegesis. He makes of them “learned persons, who shut other people’s
mouths, and propose riddles which nobody else can guess.” Hitzig and Thenius
derive the word (masgçr) from mas, “levy,” and gçr, “alien,” so that it would

50. originally mean “statute labourers,” “Canaanites compelled to work for the king;”
and afterwards, as here, “manual labourers” in general. But such a compound term
in Hebrew would be very surprising.
The poorest sort.—Those who had neither property nor handicraft. (Comp.
Jeremiah 39:10.)
PARKER, "14. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes [grandees of
the court, and heads of the clans], and all the mighty men of valour, even ten
thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths [literally "those who shut,"
corresponding to what we call locksmiths]: none remained, save the poorest sort of
the people of the land. ["He carried away all Jerusalem" is a phrase which must be
limited by what follows. It has been estimated that the entire number of the captives
did not exceed11 ,000 , and they consisted of the princes, the mighty men of valour,
and the craftsmen or artisans, who numbered about a thousand. The population of
modern Jerusalem, which seems to be nearly of the same size as the ancient city, is
estimated by the most judicious of modern observers at from10 ,000 to17 ,000. The
population of the ancient city has been calculated from its area at15 ,000. It is
supposed that when Jeremiah , in chap. Jeremiah 52:28, says that the number of
captives carried off at this time was3 ,023 , his text has been corrupted.]
PETT, "‘And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty
men of valour, even ten groups (ten alephim) of captives, and all the craftsmen and
the smiths, none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.’
Furthermore he carried off all the most important people in Jerusalem, including
the civil servants, together with all the princes of the tribes. These comprised
between them two recognisable units (alephim). Together with them were all the
professional warriors comprising seven military units (alephim), and all the
craftsmen and smiths who together comprised their own single unit (an eleph),
being all members of the one guild. That made ten differing units (alephim) of
people in all. Jeremiah 52:28 tells us that in all they amounted to three thousand and
twenty three heads of families (‘Jews’). Alternately the three thousand and twenty
three ‘Jews’ may refer to ‘all Jerusalem and all the princes, -- and all the craftsmen
and smiths’ with the ‘mighty men of valour’ being mercenaries and not Jews, and
therefore not included in Jeremiah’s figure. Only ‘the poorest sort of the people of
the land’ were left behind. Judah was being stripped of its leaders and its fighting
potential.
‘All Jerusalem’, when compared with the other groups, probably has in mind all the
important people in Jerusalem, those who were seen as being typical Jerusalemites.
These would include the civil servants, courtiers, chief priests, and many others, but
not necessarily ‘everyone’. After all Zedekiah was excluded from the definition, and
the ‘poorest sort of people’ would be ignored. Only a ‘residue of people’ would be
left. The result would be that Zedekiah would have to build up a new civil service
and re-inhabit Jerusalem as best he could, calling on experienced leaders from other

51. major cities.
15 ebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin captive to
Babylon. He also took from Jerusalem to Babylon
the king’s mother, his wives, his officials and the
prominent people of the land.
BAR ES, "The mighty of the land - Or “the great,” “the powerful.” The word used
is quite distinct from that in 2Ki_24:14, 2Ki_24:16. It refers, not to bodily strength or
fitness for war, hut to civil rank or dignity. The term would include all civil and all
ecclesiastical functionaries - the nobles, courtiers, and elders of the city on the one hand,
the priests, prophets (among them, Ezekiel), and Levites on the other.
GILL, "And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon,.... Where he continued at
least thirty seven years, 2Ki_25:27.
and the king's mother; whose name was Nehushta, 2Ki_24:8.
and the king's wives; for though he was so young, it seems he had many wives, as was
the custom of those times; or his "women", who were either his concubines, or servants
in his family:
and his officers; in his court: and the mighty of the land; the princes and nobles
thereof; or "the fools of the land", as the word is written; so the people generally were:
those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon; which, according to
Bunting (s), were six hundred and eighty miles distant from each other.
ELLICOTT, "(15) And he carried away.—The form of the verb is different from
that in 2 Kings 24:14. We might render: “Yea, he carried away;” for 2 Kings 24:15-
16 simply give the particulars of what was stated generally in 2 Kings 24:14. In the
present verse the “princes” are defined.
He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother.—Fulfilment of
Jeremiah 22:24-27.
The mighty of the land.—So the Targum, “the magnates of the land.” All who could

52. do so, must have taken refuge in Jerusalem at the approach of the Chaldæan army.
PETT, "‘And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and
the king’s wives, and his officers, and the chief men of the land, carried he into
captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the men of might, even seven thousand,
and the craftsmen and the smiths a thousand, all of them strong and apt for war,
even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.’
So Jehoiachin himself, the queen mother, all the king’s wives, his courtiers and
officers, and the chief men of the land were all taken into captivity together with
seven ‘thousand’ (seven military units) of warriors, and a recognised unit of
craftsmen and smiths who crafted Judah’s armaments who would all be members of
a guild. All were brought captive to Babylon, and among them was the young
prophet Ezekiel. The comparatively small numbers, compared with what Judah had
once been, bring out how low they had fallen.
2 Kings 24:17
‘And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s father’s brother, king
instead of him, and changed his name to Zedekiah.’
The king of Babylon then appointed as king Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah, (a son of
Josiah), and renamed him Zedekiah, a change of name which indicated his
vassalship. He remained behind to cope with what was left of Judah.
16 The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon
the entire force of seven thousand fighting men,
strong and fit for war, and a thousand skilled
workers and artisans.
GILL, "And all the men of might, even seven thousand,.... The particulars of the
10,000 carried captive are here given; 7000 of which were the principal men of the land:
and craftsmen and smiths one thousand; which made 8000:

53. all that were strong, and apt for war; of these consisted the other 2000; so
Abarbinel reckons them; but, according to the Jewish chronologer (t), which Jarchi and
other Jewish commentators follow, the 7000 were out of the tribe of Benjamin and the
rest of the tribes, and the 3000 out of the tribe of Judah, which are supposed to be those
Jeremiah speaks of, Jer_52:28,
even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon; among these were
Ezekiel the prophet, and Mordecai, the uncle of Esther.
ELLICOTT, "(16) And all the men of might.—“The mighty men of valour” of 2
Kings 24:14. (The words depend on the verb, “he carried away,” in 2 Kings 24:14.)
As there were 7,000 of these, and 1,000 “craftsmen and smiths,” and the total
number of the exiles was 10,000, there were 2,000 belonging to the aristocratic
classes. Jeremiah 52:28 gives a total of 3,023. Thenius explains his discrepancy as
resulting from a transcriber’s confusion of a large y, i.e. 10, with g, i.e. 3. Josephus
has made his total of 10,832 out of the 832 of the second deportation (Jeremiah
52:29) added to the 10,000 here assigned.
All that were strong and apt for war.—Literally, the whole, warriors and doers of
battle. This clause refers to both those which precede, and it states that the 8,000
were all men in their prime, and trained in the use of weapons (Thenius). But may
not the term “strong” (gibbôrûm, “heroes,” “warriors”) refer to the 7,000 as actual
fighting men; and the phrase “makers of war” denote the craftsmen as employed in
forging weapons and constructing defences? (The Syriac reads, and all the men that
made war.)
Even them the king of Babylon brought.—Literally, and the King of Babylon
brought them.
17 He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king
in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.
BAR ES, "Mattaniah, son of Josiah and brother of Jehoahaz, but thirteen years his
junior, adopted a name significant of the blessings promised by Jeremiah to the reign of
a king whose name should be “Yahweh, our righteousness” Jer_23:5-8.
CLARKE, "Made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead - He was
the son of Josiah, and brother to Jehoiakim.

54. Changed his name to Zedekiah - See the note on 2Ki_23:34.
GILL, "And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in
his stead,.... The third son of Josiah, 1Ch_3:15.
and changed his name to Zedekiah; for the same reason the king of Egypt changed
the name of Eliakim, 2Ki_23:34 to signify his subjection to him; though some think it
was to put him in mind of the justice of God, as the name signifies, that would overtake
him, should he be treacherous to him, and rebel against him; so the Jewish Midrash.
HE RY 17-20, "III. The successor whom the king of Babylon appointed in the room
of Jehoiachin. God had written him childless (Jer_22:30) and therefore his uncle was
entrusted with the government. The king of Babylon made Mattaniah king, the son of
Josiah; and to remind him, and let all the world know, that he was his creature, he
changed his name and called him Zedekiah, 2Ki_24:17. God had sometimes charged it
upon his people, They have set up kings, but not by me (Hos_8:4), and now, to punish
them for that, the king of Babylon shall have the setting up of their kings. Those are
justly deprived of their liberty that use it, and insist upon it, against God's authority.
This Zedekiah was the last of the kings of Judah. The name which the king of Babylon
gave him signifies The justice of the Lord, and was a presage of the glorifying of God's
justice in his ruin. 1. See how impious this Zedekiah was. Though the judgments of God
upon his three immediate predecessors might have been a warning to him not to tread in
their steps, yet he did that which was evil, like all the rest, 2Ki_24:19. 2. See how
impolitic he was. As his predecessor lost his courage, so he his wisdom, with his religion,
for he rebelled against the king of Babylon (2Ki_24:20), whose tributary he was, and so
provoked him whom he was utterly unable to contend with, and who, if he had
continued true to him, would have protected him. This was the most foolish thing he
could do, and hastened the ruin of his kingdom. This came to pass through the anger of
the Lord, that he might cast them out from his presence. Note, When those that are
entrusted with the counsels of a nation act unwisely, and against their true interest, we
ought to take notice of the displeasure of God in it. It is for the sins of a people that God
removes the speech of the trusty and takes away the understanding of the aged, and
hides from their eyes the things that belong to the public peace. Whom God will destroy
he infatuates.
JAMISO 17-19, "2Ki_24:17-20. Zedekiah’s evil reign.
the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father’s brother, king in his stead
— Adhering to his former policy of maintaining a show of monarchy, Nebuchadnezzar
appointed the third and youngest son of Josiah (1Ch_3:15), full brother of Jehoahaz, and
uncle of the captive Jehoiachin. But, according to the custom of conquerors, who
changed the names of the great men they took captives in war, in token of their
supremacy, he gave him the new name of
Zedekiah — that is, “The righteous of God.” This being a purely Hebrew name, it
seems that he allowed the puppet king to choose his own name, which was confirmed.
His heart towards God was the same as that of Jehoiakim, impenitent and heedless of
God’s word.
K&D, "Over the lower classes of the people who had been left behind

55. Nebuchadnezzar placed the paternal uncle of the king, who had been led away, viz.,
Mattaniah, and made him king under the name of Zedekiah. He was the youngest son of
Josiah (Jer_1:3; Jer_37:1); was only ten years old when his father died, and twenty-one
years old when he ascended the throne; and as the uncle of Jehoiachin, who being only a
youth of eighteen could not have a son capable of reigning, had the first claim to the
throne. Instead of ‫ּו‬‫ד‬ּ , his uncle, we have in 2Ch_36:10 ‫יו‬ ִ‫ה‬ፎ, his brother, i.e., his nearest
relation. On the change in the name see at 2Ki_23:34. The name ‫הוּ‬ָ ִ‫ק‬ ְ‫ד‬ ִ‫,צ‬ i.e., he who has
Jehovah's righteousness, was probably chosen by Mattaniah in the hope that through
him or in his reign the Lord would create the righteousness promised to His people.
BE SO ,"2 Kings 24:17. And changed his name to Zedekiah — That he might
admonish him of (what his name signifies) the justice of God, which had so severely
punished Jehoiakim for his rebellion; and would no less certainly overtake him, if
he should be guilty of the same perfidiousness.
ELLICOTT, "(17) Mattaniah his father’s brother.—He was the third son of Josiah
(comp. Jeremiah 1:3; Jeremiah 37:1), and full brother of Jehoahaz-Shallum (2
Kings 23:31). Jehoiachin was childless at the time (comp. 2 Kings 24:12; 2 Kings
24:15 with 2 Kings 25:7 and Jeremiah 22:30). In the exile he had offspring (1
Chronicles 3:17-18). (The LXX. reads, his son, υἱὸν, a corruption of θεῖον, uncle).
And changed his name to Zedekiah.—His former name meant “gift of Jah;” his new
one, “Jah is righteousness” (or “myrighteousness”). The prophecy of Jeremiah
(Jeremiah 23:1-9), denouncing “the shepherds that destroy and scatter the flock”
and promising a future king, whose name shall be “Jehovah is our righteousness”
(lahweh çidgçnu), evidently refers to the delusive expectations connected with
Zedekiah’s elevation. ebuchadnezzar’s act of clemency in putting another native
prince on the throne may have been the execution of a promise made at the
surrender of the city.
GUZIK, "C. The reign of Zedekiah.
1. (2 Kings 24:17) ebuchadnezzar makes Zedekiah king of Judah.
Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachinâs uncle, king in his place,
and changed his name to Zedekiah.
a. Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachinâs uncle, king in his place:
Since ebuchadnezzar had completely humbled Judah, he put a king on the throne
whom he thought would submit to Babylon. He chose an uncle of Jehoiachin, a
brother to Jehoiakim.

56. i. âThis king (597-587 B.C.) inherited a much reduced Judah, for the egeb was lost
(Jeremiah 13:18-19) and the land weakened by the loss of its experienced personnel.
There were both a pro-Egyptian element and false prophets among the survivors
(Jeremiah 28-29; Jeremiah 38:5).â (Wiseman)
b. Changed his name to Zedekiah: The name Zedekiah means, The Lord is
Righteous. The righteous judgment of God would soon be seen against Judah.
PARKER, "17. ¶ And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father"s brother
king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah. [It has been pointed out that
the tributary kings to whom their suzerain gave a new name were probably allowed
to suggest the name that they would prefer to take. Mattaniah in fixing upon his
seems to have aimed at securing the blessings promised by Jeremiah to the reign of a
king whose name should be Jehovah-Tsidkenu—Jehovah our righteousness,
Jeremiah 23:5-8.]
Zedekiah King of Judah
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he
became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven
years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter
of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
GILL, "Zedekiah was twenty years old when he began to reign,.... So that he
was but between nine and ten years of age when his father Josiah died; for Jehoahaz
reigned three months, Jehoiakim eleven years, and his son three months and ten days:
and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was
Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah; by which it appears that he was the
brother of Jehoahaz by father and mother's side, 2Ki_23:31. This and the two following
verses are expressed in the same words as in Jer_52:1, (see Gill on Jer_52:1, Jer_52:2,
Jer_52:3), in 2Ch_36:10, besides what is here said, is written, that he humbled not
himself before Jeremiah the prophet of the Lord, that spoke in his name, but opposed
him; and rebelling against the king of Babylon, broke his oath, and hardened his neck
and heart against the Lord, and was obstinate, stubborn, and self-willed.

57. K&D, "2Ki_24:18-19
Length and spirit of Zedekiah's reign (cf. Jer_52:1-3, and 2Ch_36:11-13). - Zedekiah's
mother Hamital, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, was also the mother of Jehoahaz
(2Ki_23:31); consequently he was his own brother and the half-brother of Jehoiakim,
whose mother was named Zebidah (2Ki_23:36). His reign lasted eleven years, and in its
attitude towards the Lord exactly resembled that of his brother Jehoiakim, except that
Zedekiah does not appear to have possessed so much energy for that which was evil.
According to Jer_38:5 and Jer_38:24., he was weak in character, and completely
governed by the great men of his kingdom, having no power or courage whatever to offer
resistance. but, like them, he did not hearken to the words of the Lord through Jeremiah
(Jer_37:2), or, as it is expressed in 2Ch_36:12, “he did not humble himself before
Jeremiah the prophet, who spake to him out of the mouth of the Lord.”
BE SO , "2 Kings 24:18-19. He reigned eleven years — In the end of which he was
carried captive, Jeremiah 1:3. He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord —
ot regarding the reproofs, exhortations, or predictions of Jeremiah, but shutting
him up in prison, Jeremiah 33:1-2; 2 Chronicles 36:12. And his servants, and the
people of the land, were as wicked and incorrigible as himself, Jeremiah 37:1-2.
COFFMA , "Jeconiah was the last king of Israel and was so recognized by the
Jews, because Zedekiah was merely a faithless puppet of ebuchadnezzar; and with
his foolish rebellion, Jerusalem fell a third time.
"Until he had cast them out from his presence" (2 Kings 24:20). There is no tragedy
in history quite as pathetic as that of the Jewish kingdom with its reprobate Davidic
dynasty. Here again, as repeatedly in the sacred text, it is stated that God could no
longer bear the sight of them and that he cast them out of his sight. Yet, racial Israel
never desired anything either in heaven or upon earth quite as fervently and
passionately as they desired the restoration of that godless "sinful kingdom." They
even maneuvered the crucifixion of the Son of God himself when they discovered
that Jesus Christ did not have the slightest intention of restoring any such kingdom!
Zedekiah violated his oath of allegiance to ebuchadnezzar, and when
ebuchadnezzar came up once more to destroy Jerusalem, Zedekiah asked
Jeremiah to pray for the city, evidently expecting another such deliverance as that
which had come in the days of Hezekiah, but God, on the other hand, declared that
he would fight against Zedekiah and the city and destroy them. That tragedy,
recorded in the next chapter, concludes the Book of 2Kings.
EBC, "Verses 18-20
ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KI G OF JUDAH
B.C. 597-586

58. 2 Kings 24:18-20; 2 Kings 25:1-7
"Quand ce grand Dieu a choisi quelqu’un pour etre l’instrument de ses desseins rien
n’arrete le cours, en enchaine, ou il aveugle, ou il dompte tout ce qui est capable de
resistance."
- BOSSUET, "Oraison funebre de Henriette Marie."
WHE Jehoiachin was carried captive to Babylon, never to return, his uncle
Mattaniah ("Jehovah’s gift"), the third son of Josiah, was put by ebuchadrezzar
in his place. In solemn ratification of the new king’s authority, the Babylonian
conqueror sanctioned the change of his name to Zedekiah ("Jehovah’s
righteousness"). He was twenty-one at his accession, and he reigned eleven years.
"Behold," writes Ezekiel, "the King of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took the
king thereof, and the princes thereof, and brought them to him to Babylon; and he
took of the seed royal" (i.e., Zedekiah), "and made a covenant with him; he also
brought him under an oath: and took away the mighty of the land, that the kingdom
might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it
might stand." {Ezekiel 17:12-14}
Perhaps by this covenant Zechariah meant to emphasize the meaning of his name,
and to show that he would reign in righteousness.
The prophet at the beginning of the chapter describes ebuchadrezzar and
Jehoiachin in "a riddle."
"A great eagle," he says, "with great wings and long pinions; full of feathers, which
had divers colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar" (Jehoiachin):
"he cropped off the topmost of the young twigs thereof, and carried it into a land of
traffic; he set it in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the land"
(Zedekiah), "and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside great waters, he set
it as a willow tree. And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose
branches turned towards him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a
vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs." {Ezekiel 17:1-6}
The words refer to the first three years of Zedekiah’s reign, and they imply,
consistently with the views of the prophets, that, if the weak king had been content
with the lowly eminence to which God had called him, and if he had kept his oath
and covenant with Babylon, all might yet have been well with him and his land. At
first it seemed likely to be so; for Zedekiah wished to be faithful to Jehovah. He
made a covenant with all the people to set free their Hebrew slaves. Alas! it was very
short-lived. Self-sacrifice cost something, and the princes soon took back the
discarded bond-servants. {Jeremiah 34:8-11} What made this conduct the more
shocking was that their covenant to obey the law had been made in the most solemn
manner by "cutting a calf in twain, and passing between the severed halves." But
the weak king was perfectly powerless in the hands of his tyrannous aristocracy.

59. The exiles in Babylon were now the best and most important section of the nation.
Jeremiah compares them to good figs; while the remnant at Jerusalem were bad and
withered. He and Ezekiel raised their voices, as in strophe and antistrophe, for the
teaching alike of the exiles and of the remnant left at Jerusalem, for whom the exiles
were bidden to entreat God in prayer. Zedekiah himself made at least one journey
northward, either voluntarily or under summons, to renew his oath and reassure
ebuchadrezzar of his fidelity. He was accompanied by Seraiah, the brother of
Baruch, who was privately entrusted by Jeremiah with a prophecy of the fall of
Babylon, which he was to fling into the midst of the Euphrates.
The last King of Judah seems to have been weak rather than wicked. He was a reed
shaken by the wind. He yielded to the influence of the last person who argued with
him; and he seems to have dreaded above all things the personal ridicule, danger,
and opposition which it was his duty to have defied. Yet we cannot withhold from
him our deep sympathy: for he was born in terrible times-to witness the death-
throes of his country’s agony, and to share in them. It was no longer a question of
independence, but only of the choice of servitudes. Judah was like a silly and
trembling sheep between two huge beasts of prey.
Only thus can we account for the strange apostasies-"the abominations of the
heathen"-with which he permitted the Temple to be polluted; and for the ill-
treatment which he allowed to be inflicted on Jeremiah and other prophets, to
whom in his heart he felt inclined to listen.
What these abominations were we read with amazement in the eighth chapter of
Ezekiel. The prophet is carried in vision to Jerusalem, and there he sees the
Asherah-"the image which provoketh to jealousy"-which had so often been erected
and destroyed and re-erected. Then through a secret door he sees creeping things,
and abominable beasts, and the idol blocks of the House of Israel portrayed upon
the wall, while several elders of Israel stood before them and adored, with censers in
their hands-among whom he must specially have grieved to see Jaazaneiah, the son
of Shaphan, flattering himself, as did his followers, that in that dark chamber
Jehovah saw them not. ext at the northern gate he sees Zion’s daughters weeping
for Tammuz, or Adonis. Once more, in the inner court of the Temple, between the
porch and the altar, he sees about twenty-five men with their backs to the altar, and
their faces to the east; and they worshipped the sun towards the east; and, lo! they
put the vine branch to their nose. Were not these crimes sufficient to evoke the
wrath of Jehovah, and to alienate His ear from prayers offered by such polluted
worshippers? Egypt, Assyria. Syria, Chaldaea, all contributed their idolatrous
elements to the detestable syncretism; and the king and the priests ignored,
permitted, or connived at it. {Ezekiel 16:15-34} This must surely be answered for.
How could it have been otherwise? The king and the priests were the official
guardians of the Temple, and these aberrations could not have gone on without
their cognizance. There was another party of sheer formalists, headed by men like
the priest Pashur, who thought to make talismans of rites and shibboleths, but had
no sincerity of heart-religion {Jeremiah 7:4; Jeremiah 8:8; Jeremiah 31:33;

60. Jeremiah 7:34} To these, too, Jeremiah was utterly opposed. In his opinion Josiah’s
reformation had failed. either Ark, nor Temple, nor sacrifice were anything in the
world to him in comparison with true religion. All the prophets with scarcely one
exception are anti-ritualists; but none more decidedly so than the prophet-priest.
His name is associated in tradition with the hiding of the Ark, and a belief in its
ultimate restoration; yet to Jeremiah, apart from the moral and spiritual truths of
which it was the material symbol, the Ark was no better than a wooden chest. His
message from Jehovah is, "I will give you pastors according to My heart and they
shall say no more, ‘The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord’: neither shall it come to
mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be
made any more." {Jeremiah 3:15-16} Doom followed the guilt and folly of king,
priests, and people. If political wisdom were insufficient to show Zedekiah that the
necessities of the case were an indication of God’s will, he had the warnings of the
prophets constantly ringing in his ears, and the assurance that he must remain
faithful to ebuchadrezzar. But he was in fear of his own princes and courtiers. A
combined embassy reached him from the kings of Edom, Ammon, Moab, Tyre, and
Sidon, urging him to join in a league against Babylon. {Jeremiah 27:3} This embassy
was supported by a powerful party in Jerusalem. Their solicitations were rendered
more plausible by the recent accession (B.C. 590) of the young and vigorous
Pharaoh Hophrah-the Apries of Herodotus- to the throne of Egypt, and by the
recrudescence of that incurable disease of Hebrew politics, a confidence in the idle
promises of Egypt to supply the confederacy with men and horses. In vain did
Jeremiah and Ezekiel uplift their warning voices. The blind confidence of the king
and of the nobles was sustained by the flattering visions and promises of false
prophets, prominent among whom was a certain Hananiah, the son of Azur, of
Gibeon, "the prophet." To indicate the futility of the contemplated rebellion,
Jeremiah had made "thongs and poles" with yokes, and had sent them to the kings,
whose embassy had reached Jerusalem, with a message of the most emphatic
distinctness, that ebuchadrezzar was God’s appointed servant, and that they must
serve him till God’s own appointed time. If they obeyed this intimation, they would
be left undisturbed in their own lands; if they disobeyed it, they would be scourged
into absolute submission by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence. Jeremiah
delivered the same oracle to his own king.
The warning was rendered unavailing by the conduct of Hananiah. He prophesied
that within two full years God would break the yoke of the King of Babylon; and
that the captive Jeconiah, and the nobles, and the vessels of the House of the Lord
would be brought back. Jeremiah, by way of an acted parable, had worn round his
neck one of his own yokes. Hananiah, in the Temple, snatched it off, broke it to
pieces, and said, "So will I break the yoke of ebuchadrezzar from the neck of all
nations within the space of two full years."
We can imagine the delight, the applause, the enthusiasm with which the assembled
people listened to these bold predictions. Hananiah argued with them, so to speak,
in shorthand, for he appealed to their desires and to their prejudices. It is always the
tendency of nations to say to their prophets, "Say not unto us hard things: speak
smooth things; prophesy deceits."

61. Against Hananiah personally there seems to have been no charge, except that in
listening to the lying spirit of his own desires he could not hear the true message of
God. But he did not stand alone. Among the children of the captivity, his promises
were echoed by two downright false prophets, Ahab and Zedekiah, the son of
Maaseiah, who prophesied lies in God’s name. They were men of evil life, and a
fearful fate overtook them. Their words against Babylon came to the ears of
ebuchadrezzar, and they were "roasted in the fire," so that the horror of their end
passed into a proverb and a curse. {Jeremiah 29:21-23} Truly God fed these false
prophets with wormwood, and gave them poisonous water to drink. {Jeremiah 23:9-
32}
After the action of Hananiah, Jeremiah went home stricken and ashamed:
apparently he never again uttered a public discourse in the Temple. It took him by
surprise; and he was for the moment, perhaps, daunted by the plausive echo of the
multitude to the lying prophet. But when he got home the answer of Jehovah came:
"Go and tell Hananiah, Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou hast made
for them yokes of iron. I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations,
that they may serve ebuchadrezzar. Hear now, Hananiah, The Lord hath not sent
thee: thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Behold, this year thou shalt die,
because thou hast spoken revolt against the Lord. What hath the chaff to do with
the wheat? saith the Lord." {Jeremiah 28:13-16; Jeremiah 23:28}
Two months after Hananiah lay dead, and men’s minds were filled with fear. They
saw that God’s word was indeed as a fire to burn, and as a hammer to dash in
pieces. {Jeremiah 23:29} But meanwhile Zedekiah had been over-persuaded to take
the course which the true prophets had forbidden. Misled by the false prophets and
mincing prophetesses whom Ezekiel denounced, {Ezekiel 13:1-23} who daubed
men’s walls with whitened plaster, he had sent an embassy to Pharaoh Hophrah,
asking for an army of infantry and cavalry to support his rebellion from Assyria.
{Ezekiel 17:15} In the eyes of Jeremiah and Ezekiel the crime did not only consist in
defying the exhortations of those whom Zedekiah knew to be Jehovah’s accredited
messengers, in mitigation of this offence he might have pleaded the extreme
difficulty of discriminating the truth amid the ceaseless babble of false pretenders.
But, on the other hand, he had broken the solemn oath which he had taken to
ebuchadrezzar in the name of God, and the sacred covenant which he seems to
have twice ratified with him. {2 Chronicles 36:13; Jeremiah 52:3} This it was which
raised the indignation of the faithful, and led Ezekiel to prophesy:-
"Shall he prosper? Shall he escape that doeth such things? Or shall he break the
covenant and be believed? ‘As I live,’ saith the Lord God, ‘surely in the place where
the king dwelleth that made him king, Whose oath he despised and whose covenant
he broke, Even with him in the midst of Babylon, shall he die.’" {Ezekiel 17:15-16;
Ezekiel 28:19}
Sad close for a dynasty which had now lasted for nearly five centuries!

62. As for Pharaoh, he too was an eagle, as ebuchadrezzar was-a great eagle with
great wings and many feathers, but not so great. The trailing vine of Judah bent her
roots towards him, but it should wither in the furrows when the east wind touched
it. {Ezekiel 17:7-10}
The result of Zedekiah’s alliance with Egypt was the intermission of his yearly
tribute to Assyria; and at last, in the ninth year of Zedekiah, ebuchadrezzar was
aroused to put down this Palestinian revolt, supported as it was by the vague
magnificence of Egypt. Jeremiah had said, "Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, is but a
noise [or desolation]: he hath passed the time appointed." {Jeremiah 46:17}
This was about the year 589. In 598 ebuchadrezzar had carried Jehoachin into
captivity, and ever since then some of his forces had been engaged in the vain effort
to capture Tyre, which still, after a ten years’ siege, drew its supplies from the sea,
and remained impregnable on her island rock. He did not choose to raise this long-
continued siege by diverting the troops to beleaguer so strong a fortress as
Jerusalem, and therefore he came in person from Babylon.
In Ezekiel 21:20-24 we have a singular and vivid glimpse of his march. On his way
he came to a spot where two roads branched off before him. One led to Rabbath, the
capital of Ammon, on the east of Jordan; the other to Jerusalem, on the west. Which
road should he take? Personally, it was a matter of indifference; so he threw the
burden of responsibility upon his gods by leaving the decision to the result of
belomancy. Taking in his hand a sheaf of brightened arrows, he held them upright,
and decided to take the route indicated by the fall of the greater number of arrows.
He confirmed his uncertainty by consulting teraphim, and by hepatoscopy-i.e., by
examining the liver of slain victims. Rabbath and the Ammonites were not to be
spared, but it was upon the covenant-breaking king and city that the vengeance was
to fall. {Ezekiel 21:28-32} And this is what the prophet has to say to Zedekiah:-
"And thou, O deadly-wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come
in the time of the iniquity of the end; thus saith the Lord God, ‘Remove the miter,
and take off the crown. This shall be not thus. Exalt the low, and abase that which is
high. An overthrow, overthrow, overthrow, will I make it: this also shall be no more,
until He come whose right it is: and I will give it Him."’
So (B.C. 587) Jerusalem was delivered over to siege, even as Ezekiel had sketched
upon a tile. {Ezekiel 4:1-3} It was to be assailed in the old Assyrian manner-as we
see it represented in the British Musemn bas-relief, where Sennacherib is portrayed
in the act of besieging Lachish-with forts, mounds, and battering-rams; and Ezekiel
had also been bidden to put up an iron plate between him and his pictured city to
represent the mantelet from behind which the archers shot.
In this dread crisis Zedekiah sent Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and
Jehueal, to Jeremiah, entreating his prayers for the city, {Jeremiah 37:3} for he had
not yet been put in prison. Doubtless he prayed, and at first it looked as if
deliverance would come. Pharaoh Hophrah put in motion the Egyptian army with

63. its Carian mercenaries and Soudanese egroes, and ebuchadrezzar was
sufficiently alarmed to raise the siege and go to meet the Egyptians. The hopes of the
people probably rose high, though multitudes seized the opportunity to fly to the
mountains. {Ezekiel 7:16} The circumstances closely resembled those under which
Sennacherib had raised the siege of Jerusalem to go to meet Tirhakah the
Ethiopian; and perhaps there were some, and the king among them, who looked
that such a wonder might be vouchsafed to him through the prayers of Jeremiah as
had been vouchsafed to Hezekiah through the prayers of Isaiah. ot for a moment
did Jeremiah encourage these vain hopes. To Zephaniah, as to an earlier deputation
from the king, when he sent Pashur with him to inquire of the prophet, Jeremiah
returned a remorseless answer. It is too late. Pharaoh shall be defeated; even if the
Chaldaean army were smitten, "its wounded soldiers would suffice to besiege and
burn Jerusalem, and take into captivity the miserable inhabitants after they had
suffered the worst horrors of a besieged city."
GUZIK, "2. (2 Kings 24:18-20) The evil reign and rebellion of Zedekiah.
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven
years in Jerusalem. His motherâs name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of
Libnah. He also did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim
had done. For because of the anger of the LORD this happened in Jerusalem and
Judah, that He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled
against the king of Babylon.
a. He also did evil in the sight of the LORD: 2 Chronicles 36:11-20 tells us more of
the evil of Zedekiah, specifically that he did not listen to Jeremiah or other
messengers of God. Instead, they mocked and disregarded the message.
i. âZedekiahâs evil (2 Kings 24:19) is fully explained in 2 Chronicles 36:12-14. (i) He
was not willing to listen to Godâs word through Jeremiah; (ii) he broke an oath
made in Yahwehâs name as a vassal of Babylon; (iii) he was unrepentant and failed
to restrain leaders and priests from defiling the temple with the reintroduction of
idolatrous practices.â (Wiseman)
b. He finally cast them out from His presence: Godâs patience and longsuffering
had finally run its course and He allowed - even instigated - the conquering of the
Kingdom of Judah.
i. Ultimately, there were many reasons for the exile. One mentioned by 2 Chronicles
36:21 is that Judah was depopulated in exile to fulfill the word of the LORD by the
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay
desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
c. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon: Jeremiah tells us that there were
many false prophets in those days who preached a message of victory and triumph
to Zedekiah, and he believed them instead of Jeremiah and other godly prophets

64. like him. Therefore, he rebelled against the king of Babylon.
i. For example, Jeremiah 32:1-5 tells us that Jeremiah clearly told Zedekiah that he
would not succeed in his rebellion against Babylon. Zedekiah arrested Jeremiah and
imprisoned him for this, but the prophet steadfastly stayed faithful to the message
God gave him.
ii. âHe had no real faith in Jehovah, Israelâs covenant-keeping God, and therefore
did not scruple to break his covenant with ebuchadnezzar. But how dearly he paid
for this violation of his oath!â (Knapp)
PETT, "The Reign Of Zedekiah, King of Judah 597-587 BC (2 Kings 24:18 to 2
Kings 25:7).
It is a reminder of how quickly events were moving that it was a son of Josiah
himself who now came to the throne as the last king of Judah, and that he was only
twenty one years old, so short would be the time from the death of Josiah (609 BC)
to the final destruction of Jerusalem (586 BC). Furthermore he was not helped by
the fact that he was seen by many as only acting as deputy for Jehoiachin, who was
still looked on as king of Judah, and expected to return (Jeremiah 28:4).
But as with his brother Jehoiakim before him he did not follow in his father’s
footsteps. Instead he continued to encourage the syncretistic worship in high places,
and in the Temple, for he ‘did evil in the eyes of YHWH’. It was clear that Josiah’s
legacy had not been a permanent one. As we have learned above Judah had in fact
fallen too far before he came to the throne. Thus YHWH’s anger continued to be
directed against Judah with the result that in the end Zedekiah also foolishly
rebelled against the king of Babylon and withheld tribute. We can only assume that
it was largely at the instigation of Egypt, for it would have been obvious that Judah
and her local allies would have had little chance alone.
However, the author of Kings was not interested in the detail. As far as he was
concerned Zedekiah’s reign was doomed from the start. Thus he tells us nothing
about what led up to the rebellion. In his eyes it was all due to the fact that the
wrath of YHWH was levelled against His people so that He had determined to spew
them out of the land. This was not without reason. As Jeremiah reveals the people
had become totally corrupt, and the leadership were only out for themselves. And
yet, incredibly, they were ridiculously optimistic and responsive to prophets who
declared that there would be a quick end to Babylonian supremacy, and that it
would be within two years from the commencement of Zedekiah’s reign (Jeremiah
28:1-11). Such was the certainty that they had that YHWH would not allow their
desperate state to continue. They still remembered and held on to the earlier
promises of the prophets about the final establishment of YHWH’s kingdom
without recognising the need to fulfil the conditions which were required. The
consequence was that Zedekiah also ignored the warnings of Jeremiah the prophet
that he should remain in submission to the king of Babylon. But what they had one

65. and all ignored was the fact that they were not walking in YHWH’s ways and that
He had therefore deserted them. The promises of the prophets were not for them.
They awaited a day when they would have been restored to full obedience.
This passage divides up into three sections:
1) Introduction (2 Kings 24:18-19).
2) Zedekiah Rebels And Is Brought To Judgment (2 Kings 24:20 to 2 Kings
25:7).
3) The Final Destruction Of Jerusalem And The Death Of Its Leaders (2 Kings
25:8-22).
Verse 18-19
1). Introduction (2 Kings 24:18-19).
This is the last use of the opening formula which has been common throughout
Kings since 1 Kings 14:21, and it once more ends with the chilling words ‘and he did
what was evil in the sight of YHWH’. It sums up what the house of David had
finally come to. In spite of Solomon’s early promise the extravagance, pride and
idolatry which began with Solomon had come to its final fruition. Such is ever the
result of the outworking of the sinfulness of man. As the book has revealed, it was
only due to God’s constant activity through the prophets that hope has been
maintained. It is, however, the darkness before a new dawning in the ‘lifting up of
the head’ of Jehoiachin (2 Kings 25:27-30), that will finally result in the coming of
Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:11-17).
Analysis.
· Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign (2 Kings
24:18 a).
· And he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was
Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah (2 Kings 24:18 b).
· And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, according to all that
Jehoiakim had done (2 Kings 24:19).
2 Kings 24:18
‘Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
eleven years in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of
Jeremiah of Libnah.’
Zedekiah was twenty one years old when he began to reign and he reigned for
eleven years in Jerusalem ‘the city which YHWH had chosen out of all the tribes of
Israel to put His ame there’ for David’s sake (1 Kings 14:21). It was to be the last
eleven years of Jerusalem’s existence. The name of the queen mother was Hamutal.
Zedekiah was thus the full brother of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31), and the half-
brother of Jehoiakim.

66. 19 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as
Jehoiakim had done.
BAR ES, "He did that which was evil - The character of Zedekiah seems to have
been weak rather than wicked. Consult Jer. 34; 37: His chief recorded sins were:
(1) his refusal to be guided in his political conduct by Jeremiah’s counsels, while
nevertheless he admitted him to be a true Yahweh-prophet; and
(2) his infraction of the allegiance which he had sworn to Nebuchadnezzar.
CLARKE, "He did - evil - How astonishing is this! not one of them takes warning
by the judgments of God, which fell on their sinful predecessors.
ELLICOTT, "THE REIG OF ZEDEKIAH, the last KI G OF JUDAH (2 Kings
24:17 to 2 Kings 25:7; comp. 2 Chronicles 36:11 seq.; Jeremiah 52).
This section and the parallel in Jeremiah appear to have been derived from the
same historical work. The text of Jeremiah is generally, though not always, the best.
(19) And he did that which was evil . . .—The evidence of the prophet Jeremiah
should be compared with this statement. (See especially Jeremiah 24:8; Jeremiah
37:1-2; Jeremiah 38:5, and Comp. ote on 2 Chronicles 36:13.) The contemporary
state of religion is vividly reflected in the pages of Ezekiel (2Kings viii—11); who,
moreover, denounces Zedekiah’s breach of faith with the king of Babylon (Ezekiel
17:11-21).
According to all that Jehoiakim . . .—He is not compared with Jehoiachin, who only
reigned three months.
PETT, "‘And he did what was evil in the sight of YHWH, according to all that
Jehoiakim had done.’
He continued to walk in the same way as Jehoiakim had done, permitting the
continuation of the worship of Baal and Asherah, as well as necessarily having to
perpetuate the worship of the gods of Babylon. ( either Jehoahaz nor Jehoiachin
had reigned long enough to be seen as a pattern). All Josiah’s efforts had, in the long
term, seemingly been in vain. He had given Judah its last chance and it had rejected
it.

67. 20 It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this
happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end
he thrust them from his presence.
The Fall of Jerusalem
ow Zedekiah rebelled against the king of
Babylon.
BAR ES, "It came to pass - Some prefer “came this to pass:” in the sense.
“Through the anger of the Lord was it that another had king ruled in Jerusalem and in
Judah:” concluding the chapter with the word “presence;” and beginning the next
chapter with the words, “And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.”
Rebelled - The Book of Jeremiah explains the causes of rebellion. In Zedekiah’s early
years there was an impression, both at Jerusalem Jer_28:1-11 and at Babylon Jer. 29:5-
28, that Nebuchadnezzar was inclined to relent. By embassy to Babylon Jer_29:3, and a
personal visit Jer_51:59, Zedekiah strove hard to obtain the restoration of the captives
and the holy vessels. But he found Nebuchadnezzar obdurate. Zedekiah returned to his
own country greatly angered against his suzerain, and immediately proceeded to plot a
rebellion. He sought the alliance of the kings of Tyre, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Edom
Jer_27:3, and made overtures to Hophra, in Egypt, which were favorable received Eze_
17:15, whereupon he openly revolted, apparently in his ninth year, 588 B.C. Tyre, it must
be remembered, was all this time defying the power of Nebuchadnezzar, and thus setting
an example of successful revolt very encouraging to the neighboring states.
Nebuchadnezzar, while constantly maintaining an army in Syria, and continuing year
after year his attempts to reduce Tyre (compare Eze_29:18) was, it would seem, too
much occupied with other matters, such, probably, as the reduction of Susiana Jer_
49:34-38, to devote more than a small share of his attention to his extreme western
frontier. In that same year, however (588 B.C.), the new attitude taken by Egypt induced
him to direct to that quarter the main force of the Empire, and to take the field in
person.
CLARKE, "Zedekiah rebelled - This was in the eighth year of his reign: and he is
strongly reproved for having violated the oath he took to the king of Babylon: see 2Ch_
36:13. This was the filling up of the measure of iniquity; and now the wrath of God

68. descends upon this devoted king, city, and people, to the uttermost. See the catastrophe
in the next chapter.
GILL, "Zedekiah was twenty years old when he began to reign,.... So that he
was but between nine and ten years of age when his father Josiah died; for Jehoahaz
reigned three months, Jehoiakim eleven years, and his son three months and ten days:
and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was
Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah; by which it appears that he was the
brother of Jehoahaz by father and mother's side, 2Ki_23:31. This and the two following
verses are expressed in the same words as in Jer_52:1, (see Gill on Jer_52:1, Jer_52:2,
Jer_52:3), in 2Ch_36:10, besides what is here said, is written, that he humbled not
himself before Jeremiah the prophet of the Lord, that spoke in his name, but opposed
him; and rebelling against the king of Babylon, broke his oath, and hardened his neck
and heart against the Lord, and was obstinate, stubborn, and self-willed.
JAMISO , "through the anger of the Lord ... he cast them out from his
presence — that is, in the course of God’s righteous providence, his policy as king
would prove ruinous to his country.
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon — instigated by ambassadors
from the neighboring states who came to congratulate him on his ascension to the
throne (compare Jer_17:3, with Jer_28:1), and at the same time get him to join them in
a common league to throw off the Assyrian yoke. Though warned by Jeremiah against
this step, the infatuated and perjured (Eze_17:13) Zedekiah persisted in his revolt.
K&D, "2Ki_24:20
“For because of the wrath of the Lord it happened concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”
The subject to ‫ה‬ ָ‫ת‬ְ‫י‬ ָ‫ה‬ is to be taken from what precedes, viz., Zedekiah's doing evil, or that
such a God-resisting man as Zedekiah became king. “Not that it was of God that
Zedekiah was wicked, but that Zedekiah, a man (if we believe Brentius, in loc.) simple,
dependent upon counsellors, yet at the same time despising the word of God and
impenitent (2Ch_36:12-13), became king, so as to be the cause of Jerusalem's
destruction” (Seb. Schm.). On ‫וגו‬ ‫ּו‬‫כ‬‫י‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫ה‬ ‫ד‬ ַ‫ע‬ cf. 2Ki_24:3, and 2Ki_17:18, 2Ki_17:23. “And
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babel,” who, according to 2Ch_36:13, had made
him swear by God, to whom he was bound by oath to render fealty. This breach of
covenant and frivolous violation of his oath Ezekiel also condemns in sharp words (Eze_
17:13.), as a grievous sin against the Lord. Zedekiah also appears from the very first to
have had no intention of keeping the oath of fealty which he took to the king of Babel
with very great uprightness. For only a short time after he was installed as king he
despatched an embassy to Babel (Jer_29:3), which, judging from the contents of the
letter to the exiles that Jeremiah gave to the ambassadors to take with them, can hardly
have been sent with any other object that to obtain from the king of Babel the return of
those who had been carried away. Then in the fourth year of his reign he himself made a
journey to Babel (Jer_51:59), evidently to investigate the circumstances upon the spot,
and to ensure the king of Babel of his fidelity. And in the fifth month of the same year,
probably after his return from Babel, ambassadors of the Moabites, Ammonites, Tyrians,
and Sidonians came to Jerusalem to make an alliance with him for throwing off the

69. Chaldaean yoke (Jer_27:3). Zedekiah also had recourse to Egypt, where the enterprising
Pharaoh Hophra (Apries) had ascended the throne; and then, in spite of the warnings of
Jeremiah, trusting to the help of Egypt, revolted from the king of Babel, probably at a
time when Nebuchadnezzar (according to the combinations of M. v. Nieb., which are
open to question however) was engaged in a war with Media.
BE SO ,"2 Kings 24:20. For through the anger of the Lord, &c. — God was so
highly displeased with this wicked people, that he permitted Zedekiah to break his
faith with ebuchadnezzar, and to rebel against him, forgetting for what cause he
changed his name. Unto this revolt, it is probable, he was persuaded by the
ambassadors which the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon, sent unto
him, to solicit him to throw off the yoke of the king of Babylon, Jeremiah 27:2-4,
&c.; which was the greater crime, because he had taken a solemn oath that he would
be true to him, 2 Chronicles 36:13. The king of Egypt also, it is likely, promised him
help, Ezekiel 17:15; and Hananiah, a false prophet, assured him God would, in two
years time, break the yoke of the king of Babylon, and bring back all the vessels of
the house of God, with Jehoiachin and all the captives: see Jeremiah 28:1-4.
Jeremiah indeed proved that he made them trust in a lie, by predicting his death
that very year, which accordingly came to pass, 2 Kings 24:15-17. But they still
persisted in their vain hopes, there being other deceivers that prophesied falsely in
God’s name, Jeremiah 29:8-9 : and they most of all deceived themselves with proud
conceits that they were the true seed of Abraham, who had a right to that land,
Ezekiel 33:24. The people’s sins, therefore, as Poole has justly observed, were the
true cause why God gave them wicked kings, whom he suffered to act wickedly, that
they might bring the long-deserved and threatened punishments upon themselves
and their people.
ELLICOTT, "(20) For through . . . in Jerusalem.—Literally, for upon the anger of
Jehovah it befel Jerusalem. That which fell upon Jerusalem and Judah like a
ruinous disaster was the evil doing of Zedekiah, mentioned in 2 Kings 24:19. That
such a prince as Zedekiah was raised to the throne was itself a token of Divine
displeasure, for his character was such as to hasten the final catastrophe.
Until he had cast them out.—See ote on 2 Kings 17:23.
That Zedekiah rebelled.—Rather, and Zedelciah rebelled. There should be a full
stop after “presence.” Zedekiah expected help from Pharaoh Hophra (Apries), king
of Egypt, to whom he sent ambassadors (Ezekiel 17:15; comp. Jeremiah 37:5;
Jeremiah 44:30.) Moreover the neighbouring peoples of Edom, Ammon, and Moab,
as well as Tyre and Zidon, were eager to throw off the Babylonian yoke, and had
proposed a general rising to Zedekiah (Jeremiah 27:3 seq.) The high hopes which
were inspired by the negotiations may be inferred from the prophecy of Hananiah
(Jeremiah 28). Jeremiah opposed the project of revolt to the utmost of his power;
and the event proved that he was right. In the early part of his reign Zedekiah had
tried to procure the return of the exiles carried away in the last reign (Jeremiah

70. 29:3); and in his fourth year he visited Babylon himself, perhaps with the same
object, and to satisfy ebuchadnezzar of his fidelity (Jeremiah 51:59). The date of
his open revolt cannot be fixed.
PETT, "2). Zedekiah Rebels And Is Brought To Judgment (2 Kings 24:20 to 2 Kings
25:7).
It will be noted that as so often the prophetic author ignores the details of
Zedekiah’s reign and concentrates on what to him was theologically important. It
was Zedekiah’s rebellion and its consequences in the arrival of the king of Babylon
that highlighted the fact that YHWH’s anger was directed against Jerusalem and
Judah for it was an indication that He intended to cast them out of His presence, so
that was what he concentrated on. What happened to Jerusalem was not to be the
act of ebuchadnezzar, but the act of YHWH.
Analysis.
a For through the anger of YHWH did it come about in Jerusalem and Judah,
until he had cast them out from his presence (2 Kings 24:20 a).
b And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon (2 Kings 24:20 b).
c And it came about in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the
tenth day of the month, that ebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his
army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, and they built forts against it
round about, and the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah (2
Kings 25:1-2).
d On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was sore in the city, so that
there was no bread for the people of the land, and a breach was made in the city,
and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls,
which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city round
about), and the king went by the way of the Arabah (2 Kings 25:3-4).
c But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in
the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him (2 Kings 25:5).
b Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to
Riblah, and they gave judgment on him (2 Kings 25:6).
a And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of
Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon (2 Kings 25:7).
ote that in ‘a’ YHWH would cast them out of His presence, and in the parallel they
were carried off to Babylon. In ‘b’ Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon,
and in the parallel he was brought before the king of Babylon for judgment. In ‘c’
the Babylonian army came and the siege of Jerusalem began, and in the parallel the
Chaldean army pursued the king and he was taken and all his army scattered.
Centrally in ‘d’ famine was so intense in the city that they sought to escape.
2 Kings 24:20
‘For through the anger of YHWH did it come about in Jerusalem and Judah, until

71. he had cast them out from his presence.’
The fact of YHWH’s anger against Judah and Jerusalem, and their removal from
His sight has been a theme of these last few chapters (2 Kings 21:12-14; 2 Kings
22:13; 2 Kings 23:26; 2 Kings 24:2-3). It had been His continual purpose from the
time of Manasseh. The warnings of Leviticus 18:25; Leviticus 18:28; Leviticus
26:28-35; Deuteronomy 29:28 were being fulfilled. And it was being brought about
by YHWH Himself.
2 Kings 24:20
‘And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.’
The result of YHWH’s anger against Judah and Jerusalem was that Zedekiah
rebelled against the king of Babylon. This rebellion appears to have been inspired as
a result of news being received of an internal rebellion in Babylon in which many
Jews were involved (there was constant contact with Babylon), and was no doubt
partly stirred up by the continuing urgings of Egypt, who would indeed at one stage
send an army to temporarily relieve Jerusalem (Jeremiah 37:5). Tyre and Sidon,
Edom, Moab and Ammon all appear to have been involved (Jeremiah 27:1-11).