Chapter Twenty-Four

1–6. The submission of Joiakim to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, his rebellion against him, and his death. 7–16. The three-month reign of Jehoiachin, his impiety and captivity. 17–20. The 20th and last king of Judah—Mattaniah-Zedekiah.

2 Kings 24:1. In his days Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up, and Joiakim became subject to him for three years; but then he rebelled against him. In the year 605 there occurred the battle at Carchemish: Necho of Egypt was utterly defeated by the Babylonians under their leader Nebuchadnezzar, then still a general of his father Nabopolassar, king of Babylon. Because of this battle Syria and all the lands west of the Euphrates were lost to Egypt (v. 7); Egypt itself was even threatened with destruction by Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Jer 46:2-20), but he at that time was forced to pause his campaign of conquest due to the death of his father Nabopolassar (604 BC), which compelled Nebuchadnezzar to hasten to Babylon and secure the throne for himself; Nebuchadnezzar reigned from 604 to 561 BC. When and under what circumstances Joiakim came under the dominion of Nebuchadnezzar is difficult to determine precisely: according to the book of the prophet Daniel (Dan 1:1-2), Nebuchadnezzar in the 3rd year of Joiakim’s reign besieged Jerusalem, took it and seized some of the vessels of the Jerusalem temple (in accordance with 2 Chr 36:6), and there Joiakim was placed in chains “to bring him to Babylon.” The 3rd year of Joiakim’s reign according to accepted chronology would correspond approximately to the year of Nebuchadnezzar’s accession (604 BC), but it is impossible to assume that Joiakim’s submission to Nebuchadnezzar occurred in this year, since then the period of Joiakim’s reign would be reduced from 11 years (2 Kgs 23:36; 2 Chr 35:5) to 5–6 years, since in any case after submitting to the Babylonian king Joiakim reigned no more than 3 years (v. 1). In this sense Josephus Flavius establishes the chronological dates of this period. Referring the battle at Carchemish and Nebuchadnezzar’s accession to the 4th year of Joiakim’s reign, Josephus says: “Only after four years of his reign had passed, when Joiakim had already been ruling the Hebrews for eight years, did the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar march with a large army against the Jews, demanding tribute from Joiakim or threatening him with war otherwise. Joiakim was frightened by this threat and, preferring peace to money, began to pay tribute” (Ant. 10:6, 1). In accordance with this testimony, and in modern biblical scholarship, the year of Judah’s submission under Joiakim to Nebuchadnezzar is considered to be 600 BC (Stade, Gesch. Isr, p. 678. Kittel, D. Bucher d. Konige, p. 306). Already within 3 years, in 597, after Joiakim ceased paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, he had to pay for his faithlessness to the Babylonian king with his throne and his life.

2 Kings 24:2. And the Lord sent against him raiding parties of Chaldeans, and raiding parties of Arameans, and raiding parties of Moabites, and raiding parties of Ammonites—He sent them against Judah to destroy it according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke through His servants the prophets. 2 Kings 24:3. This came upon Judah by the command of the Lord, to remove him from His presence on account of the sins of Manasseh, for all that he had done; 2 Kings 24:4. and for the innocent blood that he shed, filling Jerusalem with innocent blood—the Lord was unwilling to forgive. 2 Kings 24:5. As for the rest concerning Joiakim and all that he did, it is written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 2 Kings 24:6. And Joiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. 2 Kings 24:7. The king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, because the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Stream of Egypt to the River Euphrates. Presumably incited by the Egyptian faction at court, Joiakim rebelled against Babylon. But whereas Hezekiah, in his rebellion against Assyria (2 Kgs 18:7), could rely on his Asian neighbors, at the head of whose coalition he might stand, Joiakim not only received no such support but found in the Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites faithful servants of the Babylonian king, active helpers of Nebuchadnezzar: hordes of these peoples, led by the Chaldeans, began the devastation of Judah. Egypt, of course, rendered Judah no help whatsoever, being helpless and restricted in its domains (v. 7). Under such circumstances Joiakim died without witnessing, apparently, the siege of Jerusalem by the regular forces of Nebuchadnezzar himself. Joiakim died (v. 6) a dishonorable death, according to the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 22:13-23), deprived of a royal burial with the kings of Judah (Jer 36:30) and buried “with an ass’s burial” (Jer 22:19; cf. Josephus Flavius, Ant. 10:6,3). In verse 5 there is the last reference to the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

2 Kings 24:8. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem. 2 Kings 24:9. And he did what was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, in all respects as his father had done. Jehoiachin, son and successor of Joiakim, Hebrew Yeho-yakin, demonstrated during his three-month reign the same non-theocratic attitude as his father Joiakim. But Judean tradition, mindful of God’s mercy toward Jehoiachin—in preserving him in captivity for 37 years and his release from prison under Nebuchadnezzar’s successor Evil-merodach (2 Kgs 25:27; cf. Jer 52:31 and following)—preserved a memory of Jehoiachin’s good deeds as well (Josephus Flavius 10:7, 1, remarks in the Talmud; cf. Bar 1:2 and following).

2 Kings 24:10. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. 2 Kings 24:11. And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to the city while his servants were besieging it. 2 Kings 24:12. And Jehoiachin, king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his eunuchs—and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. In the 8th year of his reign (v. 12) or, according to Jer 52:28, in the 7th year of his reign, consequently in 598 or 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, without any apparent reason on Jehoiachin’s part (according to Josephus Flavius, Ant. 10:7, 1: “Nebuchadnezzar feared that Jehoiachin [in Josephus—Joiakim] might rebel in revenge for the death of his father”), besieged Jerusalem, probably completing the campaign of the Chaldeans begun earlier in alliance with other peoples (v. 2). “The king [Jehoiachin], being a man of propriety and justice, did not wish to allow the city to be endangered because of him, but took his mother and relatives and gave them as hostages” (Josephus Flavius). Such obedience of Jehoiachin (with his mother and chief ministers) and voluntary surrender of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar prompted the latter to grant Jehoiachin his life, but it did not save the city from plunder, nor the kingdom of Judah from the actual beginning of captivity.

2 Kings 24:13. And he brought out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces, as the Lord had declared, all the gold vessels which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the house of the Lord; 2 Kings 24:14. and he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor—ten thousand captives—and all the craftsmen and the smiths; no one remained except the poorest people of the land. 2 Kings 24:15. And he took Jehoiachin to Babylon; and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his eunuchs, and the mighty men of the land he brought into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 Kings 24:16. And all the troops, numbering seven thousand, and the craftsmen and blacksmiths, a thousand, all of them mighty men fit for war, the king of Babylon brought into captivity to Babylon. The king of Babylon plundered the precious vessels of the Jerusalem temple (Jer 27:18-20) and of the royal palace (he could not “cut in pieces” the vessels of the temple, as the Hebrew verb katzatz is rendered in the Russian and other translations; LXX: συνεκοψε, Vulgate: concidit, Slavonic: “broke in pieces”—otherwise Cyrus could not have returned these vessels to the Jews later: Ezra 1:7). At the same time, wishing to completely weaken the kingdom of Judah, to deprive it of military, material, and cultural strength, Nebuchadnezzar, together with King Jehoiachin (v. 15), took into captivity to Babylon the noblest officials, the finest warriors, members of the wealthy classes, and finally representatives of the arts necessary for the national economy (cf. Jer 29:1-2). The total number of those taken into captivity at this time is given by two figures: 10,000 (v. 14) and 7,000 (v. 16), consequently more than seventeen thousand. However, it is very difficult to determine the number of those taken to Babylon in this first captivity and in the subsequent ones (cf. Jer 52:28-30) in view of the differing numerical data in the books of 4 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Jeremiah (cf. in the work of E. Blagonravov, “The Babylonian Captivity and Its Significance in the History of the Jews,” Moscow, 1902, p. 121 ff.). Among the captives taken with Jehoiachin were prophets and priests (Jer 29:1), and the prophet Ezekiel was also there (cf. Ezek 1:1-3), as Josephus Flavius directly states (“Among the military captives was the prophet Ezekiel, who was at that time still a young man,” Ant. 10:6, 3). Only the poor population of the land was left in the country (v. 14, cf. Jer 39:10).

2 Kings 24:17. And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, uncle of Jehoiachin, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. 2 Kings 24:18. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 2 Kings 24:19. And he did what was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, in all respects as Joiakim had done. 2 Kings 24:20. The wrath of the Lord was upon Jerusalem and Judah, so that He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. The 20th and last king of Judah—Mattaniah, renamed Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar (Hebrew Tzidkiyahu), was the uncle of Jehoiachin, the youngest son of Josiah, born of the same mother as Jehoahaz (cf. v. 18 with 2 Kgs 23:31-36; cf. Jer 37:1). The fact itself of Nebuchadnezzar’s changing the name of the new king of Judah (cf. 2 Kgs 23:24) indicated that the royal power the latter received was only under the condition of absolute vassal dependence on the Babylonian king. But Nebuchadnezzar, moreover, took from Zedekiah an oath by the name of God, or a pledge of loyalty to himself (2 Chr 36:13; Ezek 17:13); this oath, however, he subsequently violated (the year of his rebellion against the Babylonian king is not indicated in the biblical text). Zedekiah’s general attitude and conduct were displeasing to God (v. 19, cf. Jer 37:3); the kingdom of Judah, as a result of its internal decay, was ready to become the object and victim of God’s wrath (v. 20, cf. v. 3). Apparently, with the aim of bringing back some of the captive Jews from Babylon, Zedekiah first sent an embassy there (Jer 29:3 and following), and then in the 4th year of his reign, probably with the same purpose, undertook a journey there (Jer 51:59), but both efforts were in vain. Meanwhile, neighboring peoples—the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Phoenicians—determined to unite and jointly throw off the yoke of Babylon, and they encouraged Zedekiah as well, inviting him to join their coalition (Jer 27:3). Having resolved to do so (Ezek 21:20), contrary to the exhortations of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 27:4 and following) and under the influence and encouragement of false prophets (Jer 28:1), Zedekiah sent to the Egyptian pharaoh Apries for help and alliance (26th Saitic dynasty, 589–570 BC) (Ezek 17:15 and following). Subsequently came an open rebellion of Zedekiah against the Babylonian king, which provoked a new and fatal campaign by Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem and Judah (2 Kgs 25:1). The account (2 Kgs 24:18–2 Kgs 25) is almost word-for-word identical with the last (Jer 52) chapter of the book of the prophet Jeremiah, except that the latter contains no notice (2 Kgs 25:22-26), while 4 Kings does not have the calculation (Jer 52:28-30). The mutual relationship of these parallel accounts, the sacred-historical and prophetic, is completely analogous to the relationship between (2 Kgs 18:13-20) on one hand and (Isa 36-39) on the other, that is, each of the parallel accounts had at its base the same source—the sacred chronicle of events, compiled by one of the contemporary prophets who were historiographers. * * * See the dissertation by M. I. Skaballanovich, “The First Chapter of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel,” Mariupol, 1904, p. 68 ff.