Jehoiakim Reigns over Judah
36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as all his ancestors had done.
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a Heb lacks image of
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
c Heb Asherim
d Heb Asherah
e Gk: Heb proclaimed, who had predicted these things
f Or household gods
23.1–27 Although Josiah’s religious reforms were clearly inspired by Deuteronomic regulations concerning worship, some scholars have suggested that the cultic practices he curtailed were of Assyrian origin and that the reforms therefore constituted a revolt against Assyria. However, most of the practices involved seem to have been Canaanite rather than Assyrian, and many of them appear elsewhere in Kings associated with one or another of the native rulers. Yet the lack of connection with Assyrian religion does not necessarily mean that Josiah’s reforms did not have political as well as religious motives. In addition to purifying worship of the Lord in Judah and Jerusalem, he also went into the North and destroyed shrines throughout Ephraim, concentrating particularly on Bethel, one of the royal sanctuaries of the old Northern Kingdom (vv. 15–20). At this time Ephraim was technically an Assyrian province, Samaria, and Josiah’s activities there could certainly have been understood as hostile acts. Josiah’s reforms in the North symbolically made the country fit for the worship of the Lord and may have been intended as a prelude to a political claim that would have reconstituted the old Davidic empire.
23.1–3 Strictly speaking, both the making of the covenant and the reformation of Israelite religion are an exercise in futility, since irrevocable judgment has already been decreed against the city and the people (22.16–17). In the context of the present narrative, Josiah’s actions therefore can only be interpreted as a sign of his willingness to obey God’s law even though obedience will not bring future benefit.
23.3 Covenant, an important Deuteronomic concept constituting an oath of loyalty to the Lord.
23.4 On the worship of Baal, Asherah, and the host of heaven, which had been introduced (or reintroduced) into Judah by Manasseh, see notes on 1 Kings 14.15; 2 Kings 17.16. Kidron. See note on 1 Kings 2.37. Cf. 1 Kings 15.13. Carrying the ashes to Bethel shows Josiah’s zeal to defile the old royal sanctuary of the Northern Kingdom.
23.7 On the cultic role of prostitutes, see note on 1 Kings 14.24. The women were probably weaving clothes for the statue of the goddess.
23.8 Priests, here priests of the Lord, in contrast to the idolatrous priests of v. 5. High places. See note on 1 Kings 3.2. The removal of the high places effectively centralizes worship in Jerusalem in accordance with Deut 12. Geba lies to the north of the Dead Sea and marks Judah’s northern boundary. Beer-sheba is the traditional marker of the southern boundary. Gate of Joshua. Location unknown.
23.9 The treatment of the priests of the high places contradicts Deut 18.6–8, which allows outlying priests to sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem.
23.10 Topheth, an installation for the worship of Molech. See note on 16.3.
23.11 The horses and chariots of the sun were probably thought to convey the sun across the sky and must have been part of a solar cult.
23.12 On Manasseh’s altars, see 21.5.
23.13 Mount of Destruction, the Mount of Olives. On Solomon’s altars to foreign gods, see 1 Kings 11.5–7 and notes.
23.14 Pillars, sacred poles. See notes on 1 Kings 14.15; 14.23.
23.15–18 Josiah’s reforms at Bethel fulfill the prophecy against the altar in 1 Kings 13.
23.18 The old prophet referred to here came from Bethel rather than Samaria (1 Kings 13.11, 31).
23.19–20 The reforms outside of Bethel may have also been considered a fulfillment of prophecy (see 1 Kings 13.32).
23.21–23 Josiah’s command resumes the narrative of vv. 1–3. According to Deuteronomic law (Deut 16.5–6), the Passover must be celebrated at the central sanctuary rather than in individual homes. The text claims that the last Passover celebrated in this way took place just after Israel entered Canaan (Josh 5.10–11).
23.24 Diviners are prohibited by Deut 18.9–14. Teraphim, images of household deities possibly also used in divination.
23.25 The narrator makes the same statement about Hezekiah in 18.5.
23.26–27 An allusion to the substance of the prophetic oracle against Manasseh in 21.10–15.
23.28–30 Josiah’s sudden death comes as a shock and seems to be an anticlimax after the praise the narrator lavishes on the king’s reign.
23.29 Pharaoh Neco, who had just come to the throne in 610 BCE, was apparently on his way to join the Assyrians in an attempt to curb the growing power of the Babylonians. He met Josiah in 609 BCE at Megiddo, which was strategically located in the Plain of Esdraelon in northwestern Palestine on the standard trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is usually assumed that Josiah attempted to block the Egyptian advance, but the text does not actually mention a battle. It may be that Neco simply murdered Josiah.
23.30 People of the land. See note on 11.14.
23.31–35 Jehoahaz’s brief reign ends when Neco interferes directly in Judean affairs and places a puppet king on the throne. The text gives no details about the evil Jehoahaz is said to have done.
23.31 Jehoahaz ruled in 609 BCE.
23.33 Riblah lay about seven miles south of Kadesh on the Orontes River on the trade route connecting Egypt, northern Syria, and Mesopotamia. Talents. See note on 1 Kings 9.14.
23.36–37 Jehoiakim was the king upon whom God’s judgment finally fell. Like all of the other Judean kings after Josiah, he is evaluated negatively by the narrator.
23.36 Jehoiakim ruled ca. 609–598 BCE.
2 KINGS 24
Judah Overrun by Enemies
1In his days King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up; Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him. 2The LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, bands of the Arameans, bands of the Moabites, and bands of the Ammonites; he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servants the prophets. 3Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, for all that he had committed, 4and also for the innocent blood that he had shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was not willing to pardon. 5Now the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 6So Jehoiakim slept with his ancestors; then his son Jehoiachin succeeded him. 7The king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken over all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Wadi of Egypt to the River Euphrates.
Reign and Captivity of Jehoiachin
8Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. 9He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his father had done.
10At that time the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. 11King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it; 12King Jehoiachin of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself, his mother, his servants, his officers, and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign.
Capture of Jerusalem
13He carried off all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the LORD, which King Solomon of Israel had made, all this as the LORD had foretold. 14He carried away all Jerusalem, all the officials, all the warriors, ten thousand captives, all the artisans and the smiths; no one remained, except the poorest people of the land. 15He carried away Jehoiac
hin to Babylon; the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the elite of the land, he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 16The king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, seven thousand, the artisans and the smiths, one thousand, all of them strong and fit for war. 17The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
Zedekiah Reigns over Judah
18Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done. 20Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah so angered the LORD that he expelled them from his presence.
The Fall and Captivity of Judah
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
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24.1–7 Because in the mind of the narrator the fate of Judah has already been sealed, little time is spent in describing the achievements of Jehoiakim; the text concentrates completely on his relationship with the Babylonians.
24.1 At the battle of Carchemish (605 BCE), Nebuchadnezzar had won a decisive victory over the Egyptians, and he followed this triumph with a campaign in Syria and Palestine. It was during this time that Jehoiakim thought it prudent to conclude a treaty with Nebuchadnezzar, and Judah was a Babylonian vassal from 604 to 602 BCE. In 601/600 BCE, however, the Babylonians were driven back to their homeland by the Egyptians. Jehoiakim concluded that the political tide had turned, and so he rebelled.
24.2 The rebellion was badly timed, for after resupplying his army Nebuchadnezzar again moved west and began to punish the rebels. This invasion is interpreted by the narrator as the promised punishment against Judah and Jerusalem. The OT frequently uses the name Chaldeans to refer to the inhabitants of Babylonia during this period. The Arameans (Syrians), Moabites, and Ammonites were Judah’s neighbors to the east and had periodically been at war with Israel and Judah during the monarchical period.
24.3–4 On the sins of Manasseh, see 21.1–16.
24.7 The battle of Carchemish put an end to Egyptian power, at least temporarily (see v. 1).
24.8–17 Jehoiakim apparently died during Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of Judah, so the brunt of the Babylonian attack fell on the new king, Jehoiachin. The narrator naturally focuses the account on the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem and on the exile of the king and the royal court.
24.8 Jehoiachin ruled briefly in 598/7 BCE, before the Babylonians deported him.
24.12 The eighth year, the year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in which the deportations actually began. The city was captured in March, 597 BCE, the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingship.
24.13 The prediction of the deportation was made by the prophet Isaiah during the reign of Hezekiah (20.12–21).
24.14 Here the number of exiles is set at ten thousand, while in v. 16 the figure is eight thousand.
24.18–25.21 Although Zedekiah ruled for eleven years, the narrator concentrates on the last significant events of the king’s reign: the fall of Jerusalem and the exile. A condensed version of this account is found in 2 Chr 36.11–21, and the whole account, with small variations, has been appended to the book of Jeremiah (Jer 52). A shortened version of 25.1–21 is also found in Jer 39.1–14. The unusually large number of accounts of the fall indicates the extraordinary political and religious significance of this traumatic event.
24.18 Zedekiah reigned 597–587/6 BCE.
24.20 Zedekiah’s reign was marked by political indecision as the king struggled unsuccessfully to chart a safe course through troubled Near Eastern waters. Although Egyptian power had been broken in 605 BCE (see note on 24.1), Pharaoh Psammetichus II began to extend his influence into Palestine in 592 BCE, and thereafter Zedekiah was torn between maintaining his status as a Babylonian vassal and seeking a new alliance with Egypt. He finally decided on the latter course, with disastrous results.
25.1–2 The siege of Jerusalem finally began in January of 587 BCE and lasted for eighteen months.
25.4 The city wall was finally breached in July of 586 BCE. In their unsuccessful attempt to escape, the king and his court fled through a gate in the southeast wall of Jerusalem, where Hezekiah had built a second wall to protect the pool of Siloam (see note on 20.20–21). Arabah, land in the Jordan Valley rift between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
25.5 Jericho. See note on 2.4.
25.6 Riblah. See note on 23.33.
25.9 The temple was destroyed in August of 586 BCE.
25.11 This is the second deportation of Jerusalem’s inhabitants.
25.13–17 On the origin of these temple furnishings, see 1 Kings 7.15–50 and notes.
25.17 A cubit is 18 inches.
2 KINGS 25
1And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; they built siegeworks against it all around. 2So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 4Then a breach was made in the city wall;a the king with all the soldiers fledb by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went in the direction of the Arabah. 5But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; all his army was scattered, deserting him. 6Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, who passed sentence on him. 7They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah; they bound him in fetters and took him to Babylon.
8In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9He burned the house of the LORD, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. 10All the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. 11Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon—all the rest of the population. 12But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.
13The bronze pillars that were in the house of the LORD, as well as the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried the bronze to Babylon. 14They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the dishes for incense, and all the bronze vessels used in the temple service, 15as well as the firepans and the basins. What was made of gold the captain of the guard took away for the gold, and what was made of silver, for the silver. 16As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands, which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weighing. 17The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and on it was a bronze capital; the height of the capital was three cubits; latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were on the capital all around. The second pillar had the same, with the latticework.
18The captain of the guard took the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, and the three guardians of the threshold; 19from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the soldiers, and five men of the king’s council who were found in the city; the secretary who was the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city. 20Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 21The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile out of its land.
Gedaliah Made Governor of Judah
22He appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam so
n of Shaphan as governor over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had left. 23Now when all the captains of the forces and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite. 24Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials; live in the land, serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” 25But in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men; they struck down Gedaliah so that he died, along with the Judeans and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26Then all the people, high and low,c and the captains of the forces set out and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
Jehoiachin Released from Prison
27In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released King Jehoiachin of Judah from prison; 28he spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the other seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 29So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes. Every day of his life he dined regularly in the king’s presence. 30For his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, a portion every day, as long as he lived.
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a Heb lacks wall
b Gk Compare Jer 39.4; 52.7: Heb lacks the king and lacks fled
c Or young and old
25.22–26 In an attempt to maintain political stability, Nebuchadnezzar appoints an administrator from an important Judean family. A more detailed account of Gedaliah’s activities is found in Jer 40.7–41.18.
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