CHAPTER 36

(593 B.C.)

THE REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ

¹Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his fathers stead in Jerusalem.

²Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem (this was the shortest of any reign in Judah; in II Kings 23:32, we read that he did that which was evil in the sight of God).

JEHOAHAZ IS DEFEATED: TAKEN CAPTIVE TO EGYPT BY NECHO

³And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold (now Judah will become a vassal state of Egypt).

⁴And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

JEHOIAKIM REIGNS OVER JUDAH

⁵Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God (the words, his God, mean that God fervently dealt with him to bring him to the true way; nevertheless, despite the heavy dealings by the Holy Spirit, Jehoiakim continued to do evil).

JEHOIAKIM TAKEN CAPTIVE BY NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO BABYLON

⁶Against him (Jehoiakim) came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon (at this stage, Egypt begins to wane in power, which now sees the advent and rise of mighty Babylon).

⁷Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the House of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. (These articles were put in the temple of the god Bel [a derivative of Baal]. Inasmuch as there was no god in the Temple, Nebuchadnezzar no doubt took some of the Holy Vessels, such as the Golden Lampstands, etc. This was the first deportation, which included Daniel and the three Hebrew children [II Ki. 24:14; Dan. 5:1-3, 23].)

⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

THE REIGN AND CAPTIVITY OF JEHOIACHIN

⁹Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign (should be eighteen, as in II Kings 24:8; the error was made, no doubt, by a copyist), and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the House of the LORD (more of these Vessels, which had evidently been left), and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem (this was the second deportation, which included Mordecai and Esther, as well as Ezekiel; they were taken to Babylon [II Ki. 24:10-16]).

ZEDEKIAH REIGNS OVER JUDAH

¹¹Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

¹²And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the Prophet speaking from the Mouth of the LORD (once again, the words, his God, refer to the fact that the Holy Spirit through Jeremiah the Prophet dealt strongly with this man, but all to no avail! Millions presently fall into the same category, refusing to humble themselves before God).

THE REBELLION OF ZEDEKIAH

¹³And he (Zedekiah) also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel (the criticism by the Prophet Ezekiel concerning this oath violation on the part of Zedekiah is to be found in Ezek. 17:12-20 and 21:25).

¹⁴Moreover all the chief of the Priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the House of the LORD which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. (This, with the following three Verses, may be regarded as the formal and final indictment of the people of Judah. This Passage tells us that even the Priests practiced abominations!)

¹⁵And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place (however, as we shall see, Gods compassion can be exhausted; the messengers addressed here could very well have been Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, with the emphasis on Jeremiah):

¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His Words, and misused His Prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy. (It is one thing for man to say that there is no remedy, but quite something else altogether for the Lord to say, Till there was no remedy. In these very words, one can feel the sob of the Holy Spirit!)

¹⁷Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees (Nebuchadnezzar), who killed their young men with the sword in the House of their Sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him who stooped for age: He (the Lord) gave them all into his hand.

¹⁸And all the Vessels of the House of God, great and small, and the treasures of the House of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon (this was the last deportation, with Jerusalem, as well as the Temple, being completely destroyed).

¹⁹And they burnt the House of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof (by the Lord allowing this, in effect, He was saying that Judah was no longer His people; now they belonged to the Babylonian king).

²⁰And them who had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia (a total of seventy years):

²¹To fulfill the Word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years. (The Law of Moses had demanded that every seventh year the entirety of the land [Israel] should rest. It was called a Sabbath of rest unto the land. On the seventh year, the Lord said, You shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard [Lev. 25:3-4].

For some 490 years, Israel ignored this Law of God; consequently, Israel owed the Lord 70 years of Sabbaths. Her deportation to Babylon would be for 70 years, thereby guaranteeing that the land would then lay fallow and would enjoy her Sabbaths. God says what He means, and means what He says.)

THE DECREE OF CYRUS TO BUILD THE TEMPLE

²²Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia (a period of about half a century had elapsed between the last date of the foregoing Verses and the date signalized here; as well, Cyrus was Esthers son), that the Word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished (Jer. 29:10), the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation through out all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

²³Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the Earth has the LORD God of Heaven given me (the Medo-Persian Empire had defeated the Babylonian Empire; no doubt, Cyrus had been greatly influenced by his Godly mother, Esther, in that he now recognizes that it is the Lord Who has raised up the Persian Empire); and He (the Lord) has charged me to build Him an House in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up. (This concerned the re-building of the Temple under Ezra. All the Israelites were now free to go back to the land of Israel. Chapter 2 of Ezra gives us a list of the first group returning from captivity.)