Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
Zedekiah was the last king of David's line to reign in Jerusalem, and a foreign king put him on the throne. The verse gives only his age and the length of his reign. Everything that follows in the chapter hangs on how he used those years.
Zedekiah did not choose his own name. One writer explains where it came from.
Zedekiah was Josiah's youngest son, and the full brother of Jehoahaz. When his father died he was only ten years old. Nebuchadnezzar changed his name to show that Zedekiah was now under his rule. But he did not give him the name of some heathen god, as happened with Daniel and the three Hebrew young men. He "had made him swear by God," and his new name, Righteousness of Jehovah, may have been given to remind him of his oath.
At twenty-one he was old enough to know what God had already said and done.
At the age of twenty-one Zedekiah had his chance to show that he had profited from the hard and striking lessons God had taught the nation. God taught them through the words of the prophet and by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. But "he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done." He also rebelled against the king of Babylon, whom God had used to set him on the throne in Jerusalem.
His father Josiah had been a good king. Another writer marks how fast Judah fell after him:
Zedekiah was the last of the kings ruling in Judah before their complete captivity. He proved as evil as the kings before him, though he was a son of Josiah. So, following Josiah's good reign, the condition of Judah went downhill fast.
Breaking with Babylon looks like patriotism. One writer treats it instead as a refusal to accept what God had arranged.
One thing in particular provoked the anger of Jehovah: he rebelled against the king of Babylon. When Judah fell away, God had given that king the empire of the world. The faithful had a clear duty to bow to God's sovereignty in this. They had all the more reason, because it was the idolatry of the people of Judah and of the king of David's house that in the end brought on this solemn change in the government of the world.
In his own palace the king turned out to be the weakest man of all.
In fact the king is the prisoner of his own captains and princes, and he does not dare to resist them. He did not truly hate Jeremiah. He acted under the pressure of the fear of men, and not under the fear of the Lord, whom he had despised and dishonoured.
That same fear drove him to break his word:
This fear of his servants moved Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. He had already sworn an oath by God, an oath of loyalty to that king. This was plain dishonesty, and God could not excuse it on the grounds of his fear of men.
With Zedekiah, something larger than one man's reign ends.
While David's throne stood, it was still "the throne of Jehovah," however feeble and contemptible its occupants might be. The last king, Zedekiah, brought on the ruin by his treachery. Nebuchadnezzar "made him swear by God," but he despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Nothing was sacred in his eyes.
Yet one writer finds a signal in his two names:
Nebuchadnezzar made Mattaniah, the youngest son of Josiah, king over Judah. His name means "the gift of Jehovah," and Nebuchadnezzar changed it to Zedekiah, "the righteousness of Jehovah." Here is without doubt a prophetic hint. Judah and Jerusalem went down in judgment, in unspeakable ruin and shame. Yet in the very names of the last king God showed that One would still come from David's line. He is God's own precious gift, and in Him righteousness will be given and established.
- Given — Zedekiah was Josiah's youngest son. Nebuchadnezzar put him on the throne and renamed him "Righteousness of Jehovah," a mark of who now ruled him and perhaps a reminder of the oath he swore by God.
- Tested — at twenty-one he had the lessons of the prophet and of Babylon in front of him, and eleven years to profit from them. Instead he repeated the evil of Jehoiakim.
- Refused — his rebellion against Babylon was not courage. He would not bow to God's transfer of world rule, which Judah's own idolatry had brought on.
- Feared — the king was the captive of his own princes, ruled by fear of men and not by fear of the Lord. His broken oath was plain dishonesty, and his fear was no excuse.
- Kept — the throne of Jehovah fell with him. Yet his two names still pointed to One still to come from David's line: God's gift, in whom righteousness would be established.
And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah his God; he humbled not himself before the prophet Jeremiah speaking from the mouth of Jehovah.
Judah's last king ruled for eleven years. All through those years Jeremiah, a prophet living in the city, told him what God was doing and what he should do. This verse sums up the reign not with a list of crimes but with a refusal: he would not bow to a word that came from the mouth of the LORD.
Zedekiah came to the throne as the son of a good father, which makes the verdict on him sharper.
Zedekiah was the last of the kings ruling in Judah before their complete captivity. He became king at age 21 and reigned 11 years. In that time he proved as evil as the kings before him, even though he was a son of Josiah. So, following Josiah's good reign, the condition of Judah went downhill fast.
His evil was not the loud kind. He asked for God's word and then would not act on it. People judged him kindly; God did not.
Zedekiah has been rightly described as "weak, wavering, and treacherous." … He was hypocritical too. He pretended to want the prophet's prayers, saying, "Please pray for us to the LORD our God" (Jer. 37:3). At times he also pretended to trust Jeremiah's prophecies ("Inquire of the LORD for us," Jer. 21:2). Then, when they came, he refused to heed or believe them. He was perhaps not as openly wicked as his three predecessors, and not one who willingly persecuted. That is probably why the historian Josephus, judging by human standards, speaks of "his gentle and righteous disposition." But the LORD does not see as man sees. His thoughts are not man's thoughts.
The verse ties the refusal to a man who spoke from the mouth of the LORD. Zedekiah half sensed that, and still would not act. In that he matched the nation he led.
The king was a moral picture of the people; for they, like him, had a dim, feeble, ineffective sense that Jeremiah had the mind of Jehovah. But neither of them had the energy of faith that resists what seems to serve their own interest right now… The same spirit that rebelled against Jehovah was bound to refuse to bow to His discipline and to their own humbling. But this is the only path of godly feeling and repentance.
By this point what God asked had changed. Bowing no longer meant escaping the disaster; it meant accepting it.
More than once the prophet did not shrink back from speaking directly to King Zedekiah. His message was not like the one given in the time of the earlier kings. Back then, repentance would have held judgment back. More than one had already been exiled; God now commanded the people to submit to discipline. They were not to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, but to accept the yoke, to surrender, and to serve the king of Babylon. Instead of humbling themselves, Zedekiah and the rest of the people kept resisting the Lord's command.
What kept him from bowing was not argument but other people's opinion. He asked Jeremiah in secret, then did what his officials wanted.
The Book of Jeremiah speaks at length of God's warnings to Zedekiah through Jeremiah (Jer. 34:2, 21). It also shows Zedekiah's fear of men. He spoke with Jeremiah in secret, concerned about what God had said, but he gave in to his nobles in fear and so disobeyed the word of the Lord (Jer. 37:16-21; 38:4-27).
God deals with His people in a settled way. Other kings bowed under His hand, and their stories show what Zedekiah gave up.
We may well trace God's ways in grace, but His ways in government too. God must be glorified. If His people fail in this, He must act against them; but if they humble themselves, He can show mercy, and He surely will. … "Who has hardened himself against Him, and succeeded?" asked Job. Shall a sinner humble himself before God without receiving mercy at His hand? Let Rehoboam, Ahab, and Manasseh answer.
- The word came. God kept a prophet in Jerusalem to the very end. Jeremiah spoke from the mouth of the LORD, not from himself.
- The bow refused. Zedekiah's sin was not open cruelty. It was a will that would not bend to a message he half believed.
- Half-faith failed. He asked for prayer and for God's word, then did what looked safest. The whole nation shared that weakness.
- Fear decided. He feared his officials more than God. A belief that folds under pressure is disobedience.
- Mercy waited. Rehoboam, Ahab and Manasseh show that God gives mercy to anyone who humbles himself under His hand. Zedekiah shows the cost of refusing to bend.
And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him take oath by God; and he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from returning to Jehovah the God of Israel.
A foreign conqueror put Judah's last king on the throne and sealed the deal with an oath sworn in God's own name. This verse shows Zedekiah breaking that oath, and then names the hard heart behind it.
Nebuchadnezzar did not ask for a political promise alone. He made Zedekiah swear "by God."
This king made Zedekiah swear by the LORD. By that oath Zedekiah acknowledged the authority of that Name over his conscience. In this he was more sinful than Nebuchadnezzar. He despised his oath and the name of the LORD. He resisted for a time, but it was useless, and he kept going despite Jeremiah's testimony. Then he fell into the hands of the king of Babylon, who completely destroyed the city and the sanctuary.
Zedekiah's rank made the offence worse, not lighter.
The LORD charges the son of David then on the throne with treachery against Himself as well as against Nebuchadnezzar. He had violated his covenant with the Chaldeans, and this when it was sealed with the name of the LORD. Had it come to this, that the heathen king Nebuchadnezzar had more respect for the oath of the LORD than David's son, the king of Judah?... Sin is always sin, but it is least excusable where His word is known and His name is held up before men.
Read with the verse before it, this record lists specific charges.
Chronicles registers four reasons for the judgment of this king: He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke to him on behalf of the LORD; this was rebellion against the word of the Spirit of God. He revolted against Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against returning to the LORD.
Babylon's rule over Judah was not an accident of politics.
Zedekiah's revolt might have looked politically reasonable in the eyes of the world. As happens today too, it won the sympathy of all those who chafed under Babylon's yoke. But this yoke was according to God. The Lord showed this in a visible way through the prophet Jeremiah, who walked through the city carrying a wooden yoke on his neck. The king of Judah should have known and remembered this, if he had any concern at all to serve the Lord.
Courage was not what moved him to break the oath.
Fear of his servants moved Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. He had already sworn an oath by God, an oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar. This was plain dishonesty, and God could not excuse it because of his fear of men. In fact, God says that Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against all God's gracious advances.
Zedekiah was not the most openly scandalous of Judah's kings. That is what makes God's verdict on him so searching.
Zedekiah has been rightly described as "weak, wavering, and treacherous." He was weak and gave way to his princes. That marks him as a man completely unfit to wear a crown or sit on a throne... He was not so openly wicked as his three predecessors, perhaps, and he did not persecute willingly. This is probably why Josephus, judging by human standards, speaks of "his gentle and righteous disposition." But the Lord does not see as man sees, and His thoughts are not man's thoughts. He says, "He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel." So God took him away in His anger.
Hardening the heart has an end result.
To harden the heart against God and His wonderful mercy can only end in a harvest of sorrow, because whoever refuses God's gift must receive the wages of sin. "Whoever is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing."
(Mawson quotes Proverbs 29:1 in an older wording: "cut off, and that without remedy.")
- Sworn. Zedekiah swore his loyalty "by God." Breaking that oath was treachery against God before it was treachery against Babylon.
- Shamed. A pagan king honoured that oath more than David's own son did. Sin is least excusable where people know God's word and carry His name before others.
- Scared. The rebellion looked bold, but fear of his own princes drove it. Fear of men never excuses dishonesty before God.
- Stiffened. Chronicles lists four counts against him. He did evil in God's sight. He would not humble himself before Jeremiah. He broke his oath. He hardened his heart against returning to God.
- Sealed. Zedekiah was not the most scandalous of Judah's kings. But God reads the heart, not the reputation. A neck stiffened under repeated warnings breaks beyond healing.
All the chiefs of the priests also, and the people, increased their transgressions, according to all the abominations of the nations; and they defiled the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
Second Chronicles closes its record of Judah's kings with a verdict that spares no one: priests, leaders and people alike. Why did the rot reach inside the temple itself, the one house on earth God had set apart for Himself?
Edward Dennett asks why this verse names the priests first. His answer runs on to the trial of Jesus.
The house of Levi stands here especially for the priestly family. In setting out the causes of God's intervention in judgment in the reign of Zedekiah, the Holy Spirit says [the words of this verse]. And it was the chief priests who, to secure the condemnation of Jesus, cried out — deliberately denying their national history and their national hopes — "We have no king but Caesar."
The verse names the officers before the people. Dennett notes how such a slide usually starts.
It would seem then that the princes and rulers had first set the example, and that the others had only been too ready to follow. "One sinner destroys much good," especially when that one has a place of position and influence.
William Kelly weighs the guilt of people who know God against the guilt of outsiders.
How much more guilty were those who knew far better! They stood in national relationship with God as His own special and favoured people. They had God's own tent of testimony among them, speaking for Him and against their ways. ... There is no corruption so grievous as that of God's people, and so His discipline is in proportion: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2).
They did not drop the Lord and take up other gods instead. Kelly weighs their mixture against plain idolatry.
What made this idolatry so offensive was the joining of the idols of the nations with Jehovah. To be a plain, outright idolater was not nearly so bad. Far worse is to show that you know the true God and still put false gods on a level with Him.
H. A. Ironside traces the same pattern past Judah to every group God has set apart.
She failed to keep the place of separation God had called her to. She mixed without restraint among her pagan neighbours. She soon proved, as all do who follow her steps, that "bad company ruins good morals." Walking with idolaters, she learned their ways; and as a result God gave her up to wander among the nations until she sickened of their practices. Has not this been the repeated history of every company which God separated from the world and owned as His people?
The defiling was deliberate. Kelly describes what Judah set up inside God's house, and where it drove Him.
It was certainly an idol which defied the God of Israel and courted the homage of all who entered the temple. Judah was so set on insulting Jehovah, and on morally forcing Him to carry out His threat to abandon His house.
Why did judgment fall at this point and not sooner? F. B. Hole points to a pattern that runs through Scripture.
This, we believe, is always God's way. He does not act in judgment until the evil has fully come out. It was so with the Amorite nations, as shown in Genesis 15:16. It was so with the kings and people in Jerusalem, as testified in 2 Chronicles 36:11-20.
- Nearness measures guilt. The priests stood closest to God, so their sin weighed heaviest: "there is no corruption so grievous as that of God's people."
- Nearness spreads. Leaders set the example and the people followed; one person in a place of influence "destroys much good."
- Nearness gets mixed. Judah did not swap the Lord for the gods of the nations. They set them beside Him, and knowing better made it worse.
- Nearness can be polluted. Judah defiled the house He had made holy, and drove God out of His own sanctuary.
- Nearness is no shield. A holy building protected nobody. God waited only until the evil had fully come out, then judged.
And Jehovah the God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending; because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place.
Chronicles ends with Judah's last kings and the burning of the temple. Just before the Babylonian armies arrive, the writer stops to explain why God had waited so long. This verse is that explanation: messenger after messenger, and the reason God kept sending them.
The ESV says God "sent persistently to them by his messengers." Older translations read "rising up early and sending." One writer explains the phrase, and why God sent prophets at all:
Israel failed, as all have except Christ, who was perfect in every way. Yet God still tests man. He sends prophets to call the people back to the law, and so "the Law and the Prophets were until John." Under God's government of the world, obedience was the way to happiness. So the prophets called the people back to obedience. This failed too, and God says, in touching grace, that He "sent to them by His messengers, rising up early [or continually and carefully] and sending."
The sending went on for generations. One writer puts it as God's unwillingness to withdraw:
God did not know how to withdraw His prophets from Israel, still rising up early and sending them, though generations had refused them.
The verse names two objects of compassion. The second one explains why God bore with Judah so long:
God bore long with Ephraim: "How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?" He bore with even greater long-suffering the greater provocations of Judah. For His house was in Jerusalem, and His name was recorded there. Later Judah broke the covenant too, and judgment became certain. Even then divine pity lingered — for we know Who wept with human tears over Jerusalem.
God sent these messengers in compassion, yet the next verse says the people mocked them. A prophet's work explains why:
The prophets dealt with the people's sin, exposing it fearlessly in the light of truth, righteousness, and God's judgment... They held man's wicked will up against the light of God, and that light condemned it. This is what drew out Israel's hostility. It made the prophet a man dishonoured and hated, nowhere more than in his own country. God was brought near; and guilty man will not have God at any price.
The verse is the first half of a sentence that ends in disaster. One writer sees in that delay a principle God always follows:
This, we believe, is always God's way. He does not act in judgment until the evil is fully shown. It was so with the Amorite nations, as Genesis 15:16 shows. It was so with the kings and people in Jerusalem, as 2 Chronicles 36:11-20 testifies.
Another writer traces the same pattern down to our own day:
In infinite patience the Lord still waited for the return of His people. Judgment is His strange work, but He delights in mercy... But they mocked the messengers, despised God's gracious offers and misused His prophets, till there was no remedy. An awful statement... And this age too, with its rejection of God's best, is approaching a day when there will be no remedy and the judgment will fall.
The sending did not end with the prophets. One writer sees the same story continued:
It reads like a continuation of the historical statements made in 2 Chronicles 36:15-16. There it was God appealing by His "messengers, rising up early and sending;" but the people mocked and mistreated them all until "there was no remedy," and "He brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans." Here the story goes one step further: God sends the "Beloved Son," and they cast Him out and kill Him.
Some treat a Bible full of rebukes and failures as an embarrassment. One writer turns that around:
Inspired history is true history, and gives the evil as well as the good... That the patience of God went on rising up early and sending prophets, till there was no remedy, unbelief throws back in God's face. I adore Him for it, as for all His goodness.
- Compassion first. The whole activity of this verse has one stated cause — God had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. Judgment is His strange work; He delights in mercy.
- Compassion sends. "Rising up early" means continually and carefully. He kept sending long after refusal. He did not know how to withdraw His prophets from a people who had refused them for generations.
- Compassion is resisted. Prophets held man's will up against God's light, and men hated them for it. God was brought near, and guilty man will not have God at any price.
- Compassion has a limit. God holds back judgment until evil has shown itself in full — but when refusal hardens till there is no remedy, the Chaldeans come.
- Compassion sends the Son. The story does not stop at messengers. God sent the Beloved Son last of all, and men cast Him out and killed Him. The same warning stands over every age that rejects God's best.
But they mocked at the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the fury of Jehovah rose against his people, and there was no remedy.
This verse is God's last word about Judah before the exile to Babylon, and it is not about their idols but about His patience. It also raises a hard question: how can mercy reach a point where nothing helps?
The mocking in verse 16 answers something God did first. One writer shows why God kept sending prophets, and what moved Him to do it.
God still tries man, however. He sends prophets to call the people back to law... Obedience was the way of happiness for man under God's government of the world, so the prophets called back to obedience as the way of man's happiness. This, too, failed. God says it with touching grace: "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up early [or continually and carefully] and sending; because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place."
The verse names three targets: the messengers, His words, His prophets. One writer traces that hatred to its root.
The prophets dealt with the people's sin. They exposed it boldly in the light of truth, righteousness, and God's judgment... The light of God met the wicked will of man and condemned it. That is what drew out the hatred of Israel, and made the prophet a target of dishonour and opposition — nowhere so much as in his own country. God was brought near; and guilty man will not have God at any price.
The word "until" marks a limit. One writer sees a settled rule in the way God waits.
This, we believe, is always God's way. He does not act in judgment until evil has fully shown itself. It was so with the Amorite nations, as shown in Genesis 15:16. It was so with the kings and people in Jerusalem, as testified in 2 Chronicles 36:11-20.
Their refusal of God's messengers had a cost, and one writer notes the shape that cost took.
This proud refusal of both God's goodness and His authority brought on the final attack of the king of the Chaldeans. He killed their young men even in the house of their sanctuary (v. 17). They had no regard for the holiness of the place. But after all, Judah had shown contempt for God's house. How could they expect anything better from godless nations?
One writer sees a parable of Jesus as this chapter carried further.
The parable reads like a continuation of what 2 Chronicles 36:15-16 records. There God appealed through His "messengers, rising up early and sending." The people mocked and mistreated them all, until "there was no remedy," and "He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees." Here the story goes one step further. God sends the "Beloved Son," and they cast Him out and kill Him. So a worse punishment than the Chaldeans was to come upon them.
One writer applies the same warning to our own day.
Their turning away from God and their defiance of Him grew so great that there was no remedy. At last the storm clouds of judgment broke, and the people were carried away into captivity... And this age too, with its rejection of God's best, is approaching a day when there will be no remedy and the judgment will fall.
The story does not stop at the ruin. One writer sees in Cyrus a picture of someone greater.
In all their past history God's patience rises above their sin. Still they turned a deaf ear and refused His correction... Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans (2 Chron. 36:15, etc.) until Cyrus arose — a picture of their Messiah, who will bring in a greater and final restoration.
- Compassion sends. God rose early and kept sending, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.
- Compassion is mocked. The prophets brought God near, and guilty man would not have Him. So they hated the messenger, not just the message.
- Compassion has a limit. God never judges until evil has fully shown itself. But "no remedy" shows the limit is real.
- Compassion despised. Judah showed contempt for God's house, and the Chaldeans showed none either. The punishment took the shape of the sin.
- Compassion has a last word. After the prophets came the Son, and after the Chaldeans came Cyrus — a picture of the Messiah who brings the greater and final restoration.
And he brought up [against] them the king of the Chaldees, and slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and spared not young man nor maiden, old man nor him of hoary head he gave [them] all into his hand.
The last chapter of 2 Chronicles records the moment when God's long patience with Judah ran out. The verse names the agent He used: the king of the Chaldeans, the Babylonian power under Nebuchadnezzar. Two questions follow. Why did it come to this? And who stood behind the sword that spared neither young nor old?
The verse opens with "therefore," so the reason lies in what came just before. One writer shows how long God waited:
In infinite patience the Lord still waited for the return of His people. Judgment is His strange work, but He delights in mercy. Because He had compassion, He sent them messengers who urged them and brought God's messages. But they mocked the messengers. They despised God's gracious offers and misused His prophets, till there was no remedy. An awful statement. Apostasy and defiance of God increased to such an extent, till there was no remedy. The threatening clouds of judgment broke at last, and the people were carried away into captivity.
One thing tipped the scale under Zedekiah, Judah's last king. He had sworn loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar in the name of Israel's God, and then broke that oath:
He brings the disasters of Jerusalem to their last crisis. He was the one put under the oath of Jehovah, and he broke it. So he showed the world a shocking sight: a pagan had more respect for the name of Jehovah than the king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar trusted that that name, at least, would carry moral weight. Zedekiah feared it less than Nebuchadnezzar did. So God could not leave such a stain on the throne and the house of David. Destruction came in full.
The most shocking detail is where the killing happened — inside the sanctuary itself. One writer notes that the invaders treated the temple as Judah had already treated it:
This proud refusal of both God's goodness and His authority brought on the final attack of the king of the Chaldeans. He killed their young men even in the house of their sanctuary (v. 17). They had no regard for the holiness of the place. But Judah had been guilty of showing contempt for God's house. How could they expect anything better from godless nations? The invaders killed young men and virgins, the aged and the weak.
The verse does not say Babylon rose; it says God brought Babylon up. The conquerors themselves had no idea whose errand they were running:
Despite the unbelief of man, the work of God goes on, whether in grace or in government. So, in his own day, God told the prophet that He had raised up the Babylonians to carry out His work of government. The Babylonians never guessed why God had lifted them to the height of power. They were simply an instrument in His hand, to chastise His people and hold back the evils of the nations.
Being used by God gave the conqueror no protection:
God uses the pride and sin of the wicked to chastise His people. Afterwards He destroys the instrument.
That closing clause marks more than one nation's defeat. Authority over the earth changed hands:
He was the man in whom God set up the Gentiles. The house of David, the throne of Judah, had corrupted itself. The measure of the people's sin was full, and God's long patience had run out in Nebuchadnezzar's day. So the Lord uses him as the rod of His anger against Jerusalem, and as the hand that takes from Him the sword of rule and judgment in the earth.
Commentators see the same order — delay, then judgment — in other places:
This, we believe, is always God's way. He does not act in judgment until the evil has come out in full. It was so with the Amorite nations, as shown in Genesis 15:16. It was so with the kings and people in Jerusalem, as testified in 2 Chronicles 36:11-20. It will be so again in the sad history of Christendom, as predicted in Revelation 17 and 18.
- Patience — God waited and sent messenger after messenger, because He had compassion. Judgment is His strange work.
- No remedy — They mocked His messengers and misused His prophets. The wrath came only when warning had nothing left to offer.
- Measure for measure — Judah despised God's house first. So the sword reached them inside it.
- The rod — Babylon rose only as an instrument in God's hand, and never knew it. Afterwards God destroys the instrument.
- The transfer — God gave the people into Nebuchadnezzar's hand, and the sword of rule passed from Jerusalem to the Gentiles. The same long patience before judgment now hangs over Christendom.
And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, he brought all to Babylon.
Babylon's army emptied both the temple and the palace and carried everything east. Two questions follow: why did God let holy things fall into pagan hands, and did they ever come back?
The looting was only the first blow:
Also, all the treasures of the house of God, large and small, and the treasures of Zedekiah and his nobles were taken to Babylon (v. 18). The Chaldeans also burned the house of God, a terrible insult for Judah to have to bear. They broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned its palaces, and destroyed everything of value in the city (v. 19).
A century earlier King Hezekiah had shown his treasure to visitors from Babylon. God's word to him then is what this verse carries out:
"Behold," says He, "the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons ... shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." Here, I say, Hezekiah was led to see the end of his kingdom, of his house and himself. All was to go to that very Babylon whose ambassadors had ensnared him. Everything in which his poor heart might boast before the men of this world must go to ruin. He had shown his treasures to the world, and the world was about to carry those very treasures away. But the "peace and truth" — in other words, the treasures he had in God — the world could neither give nor take away. That was "a better and an enduring substance" because it was "in heaven."
Why do the 70 years of captivity count from the first deportation, the least damaging of the three?
This matter of the vessels is extremely important. There had been three deportations... The last of these three was the most significant one in terms of the damage done. The temple was burnt, and very large numbers led captive. But the 70 years of captivity count from the first deportation — the one we would call minor. Why was this first one the important one in God's eyes? Well, it's because of the vessels. Nebuchadnezzar had taken the vessels of the Temple to Babylon, and even put them in the house of his idols. Such a thing had never happened before. True, some kings had taken silver from the treasure, and even from the temple doors, to buy off the king of Assyria. Ahaz and Hezekiah did this. But the holy vessels had never been touched.
Losing the vessels meant more than losing property. The same writer brings the loss into our own day:
Without vessels, it was impossible to bring sacrifices as prescribed. No vessels, no worship! This is the tragedy. Does it not remind us of a sad fact? Much of the Christian world has lost the whole idea of worship, above all worship together. Concerts, performances, and all kinds of things have taken the place of meetings for worship.
In pagan hands the vessels lost their place. One writer insists they did not lose their standing with God:
The holy vessels were holy still in God's eyes, however polluted they had been by the sins of His kings and priests. They had served in the house where He had put His name for ever, and where His eyes and His heart would always be (1 Kings 9:3). True, in judgment He had let them share in the captivity of His people. But He could not let the Gentile king and his immoral companions defile them. That would go against all that He was and all that He purposed.
The story does not end in Babylon. One writer notes what came back, and what did not:
The holy vessels were counted and restored, as far as was fitting, for Jehovah's house in Jerusalem. The ark, the centre, the highest in value, the nearest to the glory, was not there. Alas! the glory itself had withdrawn. But in the day that the salvation of Israel comes out of Zion, the glory will return, no more to leave.
- Warned — What Babylon carried away, God's word had already named: nothing left. Judgment kept an appointment made a century before.
- Displayed — Hezekiah paraded his treasure before the world, and the world came back for it. The world cannot loot what you keep in God.
- Silenced — The vessels were not ornaments but working tools. No vessels, no sacrifices; no sacrifices, no worship — the deepest loss in the list.
- Holy — Captivity changed the vessels' address, not their ownership. God let them go down with His people, but He would not let a pagan king defile them.
- Counted — The vessels came home, counted one by one. The ark was missing and the glory gone; both wait for the day God restores them for good.
And they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire, and all the precious vessels thereof were given up to destruction.
Babylon's army burns God's house, pulls down the city wall, and destroys Jerusalem's treasures. This is the last page of the kingdom of Judah, and it raises the chapter's hardest question: why did God let His own house go up in flames?
The fire did not fall early. Commentators point out that God let the evil run its full course first, and that this is His settled way of acting.
This, we believe, is always God's way. He does not act in judgment until the evil is fully shown. It was so with the Amorite nations, as shown in Genesis 15:16. It was so with the kings and people in Jerusalem, as testified in 2 Chronicles 36:11-20. It will be so again in the sad history of Christendom, as predicted in Revelation 17 and 18.
Foreign soldiers treated the sanctuary as common ground. Judah had treated it that way first.
This proud refusal of both God's goodness and His authority brought on the final attack of the king of the Chaldeans. He killed their young men even in the house of their sanctuary (v. 17). They had no regard for the holiness of the place. But after all, Judah had been guilty of showing contempt for God's house: how could they expect anything better from ungodly nations?
God had put His honour in that temple. While it stood, He had to defend the people who held it. Its fall said what no lesser punishment could say.
This is not a simple treading down of the people by God's permission, as chastisement for their sins. For it to be more than that, the temple is allowed to be thrown down, as it was at the time of the captivity of Babylon. This must happen, so that God may show He has completely abandoned His people to the fruit of their ways. While He owns His honour there, He must stand up in their defence, even while He chastises them. But if that house is destroyed and their city laid flat, then He does leave them to the ripened fruit of their sins — though He may still intend to bring them back.
Babylonian troops lit the fire. But one writer looks past them to the hand really at work.
But even this was not the worst. The ruin and disgrace of their nation were dreadful, because their outward place and blessings came from God in a way that belonged to Israel alone. But what was that compared with His degrading His own earthly dwelling among them! … It was of no use to think about the Chaldeans. It was God who brought Zion and the temple, and their feasts and fasts and sacrifices, with king and priest, to nothing.
The wall and the gates meant more than defence.
This was the fact, and Nebuchadnezzar, through his army, had been the instrument that did it… There is also another meaning. The wall is the symbol of separation, and the wall of separation between Israel and the other nations had been broken down. The gate was the place of judgment, and so its symbol. This teaches us that justice and fairness were no longer given.
More burned than timber and stone. The fire ended a whole arrangement between God and a nation.
At the taking of Jerusalem we see the judgment of God carried out on His people. The ark of the covenant is taken. The house of God is burnt. Royal authority is taken from the family of David, and this until the coming of the true son of David. The Urim and the Thummim of the priesthood are lost. The throne of God is removed from off the earth, and sovereign authority is placed in the hands of the Gentiles.
The ruin had a limit. Its length even settled an old account.
So God fulfilled the word He spoke through Jeremiah. The land of Israel would lie desolate and enjoy the sabbaths it had not enjoyed for years. The people had been greedy: they wanted crops in the seventh year as well as in the six years God had allotted them. God had told them the land would stay desolate for 70 years — the length of Judah's captivity in Babylon (Jer. 25:9-12).
This fire was not the last of its kind.
Corrupt Christendom will be judged no less than corrupt Judaism was… When the truth is falsified and true godliness is gone, what can come but judgment from God? That is all the more true if this false thing bears His holy Name.
- Patience first. God does not strike until evil is fully shown; the fire came at the end of a long delay, not at the start.
- Contempt returned. Judah dishonoured God's house first. Its enemies only acted out what Judah had taught them.
- Sanctuary surrendered. While the temple stood, God defended His people. Its fall showed He had left them to the fruit of their own ways.
- God's hand, not Babylon's. Babylon was only the tool. God Himself brought temple, feasts, king and priest to nothing, and the throne on earth passed to Gentile hands.
- Measured ruin. The land rested as long as the sabbaths it had been denied. God's judgment kept to His word, and that standard still stands over anything that carries His name.
And them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they became servants to him and his sons, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia;
Chronicles closes with the death of a kingdom: the survivors of the sword go to Babylon as the property of a foreign court. Two questions press on the reader — why did God allow this, and why does the verse fix an end point to it?
This collapse was not sudden. Commentators note that God let the evil in Jerusalem run its full course before He struck. This is His consistent way:
This, we believe, is always God's way. He does not act in judgment until the evil has fully shown itself. It was so with the Amorite nations, as shown in Genesis 15:16. It was so with the kings and people in Jerusalem, as testified in 2 Chronicles 36:11-20. It will be so again in the sad history of Christendom, as predicted in Revelation 17 and 18.
The word that stings in this verse is "servants." Israel had held that title once, but from God's own lips:
As soon as the people had gone into captivity, the "sword" of government passes to the Gentile king... Israel had been God's servant until this point (it held that position, however unfaithful). See Isaiah 43:10 — "You are my... servant whom I have chosen." (See also Isa. 41:8; Isa. 42:19; Isa. 44:21.) The Gentile king now takes the place of the Lord's servant, though in another sense... During the times of the Gentiles, God takes the title "God of heaven," as we see all through the book of Daniel, which deals with these times. The people had proved themselves worse than the nations around them. They were completely false witnesses to the "Lord of all the earth." So God removes His presence from among them, and hands the government of the world over to the Gentile king.
This was more than one nation's misfortune. It was a hinge in the whole world's story — the moment God's throne left the earth:
When Nebuchadnezzar carried them away captive to Babylon, the people truly became "Lo-ammi" — "not my people" — though God still watched over them in mercy. The "times of the Gentiles" began. So when Israel failed and turned to idolatry, God gave power into the hands of the Gentiles. His throne was no longer found on earth. It had been at Jerusalem, where He lived in the house built for His name.
Nebuchadnezzar looks like the victor. But he did not author this, and what began here has never been undone:
Nebuchadnezzar was only the executor of God's sentence. No son of David has since that time sat upon his throne... The foreigner has ruled them ever since. He will go on ruling until the true Heir comes — the next King of the house of David, the Lord Jesus.
If Babylon's rule was God's own sentence, then fighting it was fighting Him. This is why Jeremiah's counsel sounded like treason:
The Lord meant their exile to be for their eventual good. In a day of ruin faith always recognises the chastening of God and bows to it. Unbelief always resists, and calls its opposition patriotism, or maybe religion. This is why the men of Judah saw Jeremiah as a very false Jew. He always advised them to submit to the king of Babylon. They thought themselves much better Jews, because they were willing to fight against the king of Babylon.
The verse does not end in Babylon. It ends with a change of empire — and one writer names the very night it came:
Those who were not killed were carried captive to Babylon. There they became slaves to Nebuchadnezzar and his sons, until the kingdom of Persia began to rule. That change came when the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon, on the same night that Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall (Dan. 5:24-30).
The length of the exile was no accident of politics:
The Lord measured the seventy-year stay in Babylon. It was long enough to do His chastening. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
Being under the yoke did not mean being abandoned. Among the captives were men God still honoured:
Not all who reached Babylon were like Ezekiel, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These men, and all who thought as they did, formed the true remnant during the seventy years of captivity. It is striking that they were not spared the nation's common lot of living under a Gentile yoke. Yet God honoured them: He trusted them with His secrets, and they confessed His name.
- No remedy — God struck only when the evil was fully out in the open. His delay was patience, not indifference.
- Only the rod — Babylon won nothing on its own. Nebuchadnezzar carried out a sentence God had passed.
- Servants — the nation once called God's servant now served a Gentile king. World government left Jerusalem.
- Bow, don't fight — faith accepts God's chastening and bows. Unbelief resists, and calls its resistance loyalty.
- Until — God measured the term. Long enough to correct, short enough to show mercy, and ending on a date He had already named.