In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim was his servant three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.
Jehoiakim began his reign paying tribute to Egypt. Then Babylon's king arrived, Judah changed masters, and commentators read this moment as the start of a far longer era of Gentile rule.
Jehoiakim did not choose his new master. A stronger empire pushed the older one aside, and Judah passed from one hand to another.
Pharaoh could not keep his hold over Judah. Judah did not break that hold either. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon pushed Pharaoh aside and took his place, making Jehoiakim his servant. For three years Jehoiakim stayed under Nebuchadnezzar, then rebelled. He did not rebel out of faith in the living God. He rebelled because he would not bow to the consequences God's government brought on his sin.
Three years as Babylon's vassal — a king paying tribute to a greater king — ended in revolt. One writer sees a man who could not wait, and follows what that haste cost him.
Jehoiakim had changed masters. He could not wait to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. Part of his land became prey for all his neighbors. Then Nebuchadnezzar came up against him, bound him with bronze chains, and took him away to Babylon. Jeremiah tells us what the Lord had said about him: none of his descendants would sit on the throne of David, and his dead body would be thrown out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.
The punishment that came was not bad luck. Another writer names who stood behind it.
Jehoiakim became a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar. Three years later he rebelled. Punishment came quickly. It came at the LORD's command.
Jehoiakim was not acting in ignorance. God's word came to him again and again, and the way he treated the messengers shows what he thought of it.
Jehoiakim first paid tribute to Pharaoh. Then he paid tribute to Nebuchadnezzar, whose reign began in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah and other prophets poured the Lord's warnings out on him, and he paid no attention. He killed Urijah, a prophet who prophesied against Jerusalem and against Judah, but who had no faith when he faced the king's murderous plans and fled to Egypt. Jeremiah ran the same risks, but this man of God trusted the word of the Lord… In his unbelief the king cut up the scroll of Jeremiah's prophecy with a knife and threw it into the fire. Then he tried to seize the prophet and his faithful companion Baruch. We are told that the LORD hid them.
More trouble followed his revolt. One writer weighs what it should have done to the king.
All this trouble at once should have humbled Jehoiakim's heart before God. But we read of no change in the man's character.
Nebuchadnezzar did not only take tribute. He took captives, and one of them was Daniel.
Daniel was one of the Jews whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive to Babylon at the first siege of Jerusalem, in 605 BC. This fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy to king Hezekiah, spoken about 100 years before Daniel's time. That prophecy said the descendants of Judah's king would become servants of the king of Babylon. Daniel was one of these nobles and members of the royal family of Judah who were to serve at the Babylonian court after deep training. He was probably no more than 15 to 20 years old when he was taken captive.
Jesus later spoke of "the times of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). Writers date that long stretch of history from precisely this point in Jehoiakim's reign.
Much of God's purpose for the earth is bound up with Jerusalem's future, and with the future of the land of Canaan. The throne once set up at Jerusalem will be given back to her in a coming day. Meanwhile sovereign power over her is in Gentile hands. This state of things started in the days of Nebuchadnezzar with the captivity in Babylon. It dates from the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, when power over men, animals, and birds passed into Nebuchadnezzar's hands as the head of gold.
- Displaced. Jehoiakim did not choose Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar pushed Egypt aside and took Pharaoh's place as his master.
- Warned. Jeremiah poured out God's warnings on this king for years. He answered by killing one prophet and burning another's scroll.
- Rebelled. He rebelled after three years because he would not accept the consequences of his own sin. It was not faith in God.
- Repaid. The punishment that followed was no accident. It came at the LORD's command, and still the man did not change.
- Replaced. Daniel went to Babylon with the first captives. From then on sovereign power over Jerusalem lay in Gentile hands, and it stays there until the throne returns to Jerusalem.
And Jehovah sent against him the bands of the Chaldeans, and the bands of the Syrians, and the bands of the Moabites, and the bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spoke through his servants the prophets.
Jehoiakim had just thrown off Nebuchadnezzar's rule (v. 1). The answer came not as one great army, but as raiding parties from four different peoples. And the verse says the Lord Himself sent them, exactly as He had warned through His prophets.
The raiders wrecked what they pleased. But they were serving a purpose none of them had in mind.
Again and again these nations invaded His land and destroyed life and property without restraint. Yet they were His instruments for correcting His stubborn and stiff-necked people. Doing the will of God was far from the thought of any one of them. God takes into account not only what men do, but their purpose in doing it.
The Chaldeans are named first. They had been out of Israel's story for a very long time.
The Chaldeans appear early on: Ur of the Chaldees in Genesis 11:28, 31 and Genesis 15:7, and the Chaldeans who raided Job's camels (Job 1:17). After that we do not read of them for some fifteen hundred years, until God sent them to punish Judah (2 Kings 24:2). By then we cannot tell them apart from the Babylonians.
Two of the other bands were old enemies. They shared a family line and a goal.
The Ammonites troubled Israel with mixed success until the days of Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24:2). Lot was the father of both Moab and Ammon, so it is no surprise that the Moabites often joined the Ammonites in attacking Israel. Hatred of God's people united them in one shared desire: to cut Israel off from being a nation.
Jehoiakim's revolt was not courage. It was refusal to accept where his own conduct had landed him.
For three years Jehoiakim stayed under Nebuchadnezzar, then rebelled (v.1). He did not do it out of faith in the living God. He did it because he would not bow to the consequences God had brought on him for his sin.
The pressure came from four directions at once, and it was meant to bend him.
All this trouble at once should have humbled Jehoiakim's heart before God, but we read of no change in the man's character.
Babylon's king was occupied elsewhere, so the blow fell through other hands.
And though Nebuchadnezzar could not immediately punish him, his punishment came from another quarter. "The Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, 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 the Lord which He spoke..."
The harassment was not a single raid but a running condition of his reign, and the land itself paid for it.
Nebuchadnezzar was busy elsewhere, so he did not march against Jehoiakim himself. Instead, at the urging of the king of Babylon, enemy bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites harassed Jehoiakim until the end of his reign.
The words "according to the word of the LORD" point back to warnings already spoken and ignored. They also carry a second edge. The nation God uses is not safe from His own justice.
God had kept warning them, and each warning was more solemn than the last. He had encouraged them with kindness too. They refused it all. So, because of their settled and deliberate idolatry, God announced the punishment they deserved at the hand of the king of Babylon. After their seventy years in captivity, the one who punished them must face the LORD's judgment in turn. Had the instrument of divine judgment lifted itself up in pride? Then God would surely judge it without mercy.
The judgment settled an account older than Jehoiakim, and its timing turned on the kings themselves.
This judgment was not only for the sins of Jehoiakim, but for the sins of earlier generations too. Verse 3 says it came on Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of His sight, for the sins of Manasseh, which the LORD would not pardon. Josiah's devotion had delayed the divine judgment (2 Kings 22:15–20), but the ungodliness of his sons brought it on fast.
- Warned — the raids were no surprise. They came "according to the word of the LORD," after years of patient warnings the people had refused.
- Delayed — Josiah's devotion had held the judgment back. His sons' ungodliness brought it down fast, and old sins were counted in too.
- Refused — Jehoiakim's revolt was not faith. He would not accept where his own sin had placed him.
- Sent — the four bands raided for their own reasons. Yet God used them to correct a stubborn people, and none of them knew it.
- Judged — the rod is never safe in its own pride. God would call the very power He used against Judah to account.
Verily, at the commandment of Jehovah it came to pass against Judah, that they should be removed out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done;
On the surface, Judah's collapse under Jehoiakim looks like ordinary politics — raiding bands, a rebel king, a rising Babylon. Verse 3 looks behind all of that. It traces the fall to a decision of the Lord, and it names a king who had been dead for decades as the reason.
Verse 2 lists raiding parties from four surrounding nations. One writer points to God as the one who sent them, and to sins older than Jehoiakim's own:
God's judgment on the godless Jehoiakim was not carried out by the king of Babylon alone. Scripture says that "the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites" (2 Kings 24:2). This divine judgment was not only for the sins of Jehoiakim, but for the sins of earlier generations. Josiah's godliness had delayed this judgment (2 Kings 22:15–20), but the ungodliness of his sons brought it on quickly.
Verses 3 and 4 together give two grounds: what Manasseh did, and the innocent blood he shed. One commentator names both causes. He also shows that the sentence had been put on hold, and could have stayed that way:
From the time of Manasseh this decree had gone out from the Lord, and it could not be reversed. During Josiah's reign it was put on hold. It would have stayed on hold under the kings who followed him, if they had been willing to listen (Jer. 25:1–11). Two things caused this final judgment: idolatry, and innocent blood. Jehoiakim, like Manasseh, shed all the innocent blood he could in Jerusalem — the city that has killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to it.
Manasseh humbled himself, and God heard him. Yet the judgment still fell. Writers answer this by separating personal forgiveness from God's government:
God heard and answered Manasseh's prayer when he humbled himself. Yet the righteous government of God fell upon the guilty nation he had led astray.
Another writer shows how far this reached. Judah shared in the provocation, so Judah shared in the consequences:
Repentance, and a humble walk with God afterwards, will not always turn aside the governmental consequences of a person's wrongdoing. God's Word states plainly, to His glory, that king David deeply repented of his sin in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Yet David still had to suffer in his own family for that cruel use of absolute power. Manasseh may have found mercy and forgiveness for his wickedness. But Judah shared in his provocations, so Judah must suffer the consequences from the hand of God.
Judah's removal from God's sight sounds like one nation's misfortune. One writer weighs it as far more — Judah went the way Israel had already gone, and what was lost reached far past Jerusalem:
God had placed the family of David on His own throne at Jerusalem and made them responsible there. That family was unfaithful, and the sin of Manasseh made their rule unbearable to the Lord. Judah was removed out of His sight, as Israel had been. So what was left of the place where God ruled directly by a law He had given? Nothing. His glory left Jerusalem and the earth, for it had filled the temple of Jerusalem. So this judgment was far weightier and far more important. It removed the government of God from the earth, and entrusted power to the head of the Gentiles.
Manasseh's name still stands over a judgment that fell long after he died. His story leaves a warning:
Manasseh forsook his wicked way, he did indeed "return to the LORD," and the Lord had mercy upon him. Then Manasseh served the Lord; but sadly, he could not undo all the evil he had done (see 2 Kings 24:3–4). How sorry he must have been as he thought of his past life. Dear reader, I urge you, take warning. If Manasseh had sought the Lord when he was a boy, how much good he might have done before he became a man. We can never make up for lost time.
- Spoken — God passed sentence on Judah back in Manasseh's day. Verse 3 shows that sentence carried out, not started.
- Delayed — Josiah's faithfulness held it back. It would have stayed on hold if his sons had listened.
- Doubled — Two causes are named: idolatry, and innocent blood filling Jerusalem. Jehoiakim added his own share of the blood.
- Forgiven — God forgave Manasseh himself. The nation he led astray still met God's government. As with David, pardon and consequence are not the same thing.
- Costly — More than a city fell. God's government left the earth, and power passed to the Gentiles. One life's sin leaves a trail it cannot later undo.
and also [because of] the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Jehovah would not pardon.
Judah's last kings ruled under a sentence already passed. This verse gives the reason: Manasseh had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon it. So how could God forgive Manasseh himself, and still refuse to forgive his crime?
Two charges lie behind the fall of Judah, and the sentence goes back to Manasseh's reign:
From the time of Manasseh this irrevocable decree had gone out from the Lord. It was suspended during Josiah's reign. It would have stayed suspended under his successors too, if they had been willing to listen. There were two causes for this final judgment: idolatry, and innocent blood. And Jehoiakim, like Manasseh, had shed innocent blood in Jerusalem as far as his power allowed. This is the city that has killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to it.
Manasseh's guilt was not idolatry alone. One writer draws a rule from it:
Added to Manasseh's guilt was his cruelty in shedding much innocent blood. So violence went along with his corruption. Usually, when someone becomes corrupt in his attitude toward God, he becomes violent toward others.
Jehoiakim carried the same guilt. One writer follows Jeremiah's words against him:
"But your eyes and your heart are set only on your own greed, and on shedding innocent blood, and on oppression, and on violence, to do it. Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah: They shall not mourn for him... He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem." For the innocent blood he shed, the Lord would not pardon.
One writer compares Manasseh's case to David's. God pardoned the sin, yet His government still took its course:
Although God was so merciful, the evil of Manasseh brought the government of God upon the nation... When king David sinned, the Lord pardoned his sin, but the government of God on his house took its course. So it was with Manasseh. God heard and answered his prayer when he humbled himself. Even so, the righteous government of God fell upon the guilty nation he had led astray.
At the personal level the door stays open, even for the worst sinner:
In one sense his sin could not be pardoned, and Jerusalem was destroyed because of it. Yet personally, even a sinner like Manasseh may receive a free and full pardon from the God of Israel. Manasseh prayed for pardon in the prison in Babylon. God valued that prayer so highly that He had it recorded. It encourages other repentant sinners to come back to the same God, who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and of great kindness.
Manasseh was long dead when the judgment fell, yet Scripture still names his sins as the reason. One writer explains the principle behind that:
God, in His goodness, has always renewed His testimony. In His patience He sent His prophets, rising up early, as it says, to send them until there was no remedy... So all the righteous blood, from Abel to Zechariah, came upon that generation. They filled up the measure of their fathers' sin by rejecting God's last witness. Here we see sin inherited, and the people held responsible, as to the government of God, for the sins of their fathers. Morally, their sins were all the earlier sins piled together. God had borne with those sins patiently. They despised His patience and used it as an excuse to plunge deeper into evil.
An older law stands behind this: blood defiles the land, and only blood can clear it. One writer applies it to Israel's guilt:
Deuteronomy 21 gives another rule to keep blood from defiling the land. It declares, as elsewhere, that life belongs to God. When someone violates His rights, He will not overlook it. We cannot fail to see that the blood of Christ is, above all, what Israel is guilty of here. The blood of Jesus is the only atonement for the sin that shed it... There is nothing but the blood of the heifer that never bore the yoke that can wipe away sin. That is how the guilt of innocent blood will be taken away from the people.
- Two charges. Idolatry alone did not end Judah. Innocent blood was added, and together the two made the sentence final.
- Blood follows idols. Corruption toward God turns into violence toward people. Manasseh shed innocent blood, and Jehoiakim did the same as far as his power reached.
- Patience despised. God sent prophet after prophet until there was no remedy. The long delay was mercy. Treating it as permission only filled up the measure of sin.
- Pardon and government. God forgave Manasseh when he humbled himself. Yet the nation he led astray still bore the judgment. As with David, God pardons the sinner while His government runs its course.
- One blood that cleanses. Land stained by blood is cleared only by blood. The blood of Christ is the one atonement for the innocent blood shed.
And 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 last word on Jehoiakim points to another book — a royal record that held more about his reign. That raises two questions. Why does Scripture tell so little about this king? And if the Bible's record is this short, who keeps the full account?
This is not the only place where Kings sends the reader to an outside record. One writer explains where the author of Kings got his material.
In several places the writer points to books that contain more about the life of the king in question — books he may have based his account on. He refers, for example, to the book of the acts of Solomon, then several times to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel and to the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah... The author of the books of Kings was able to use these "references" under the guidance of the Holy Spirit while writing his God-inspired work.
These were state records, and that is one clear difference between Kings and Chronicles.
In Kings the material plainly comes from state records every time: "the book of the acts of Solomon"; "the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah"; "the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel," and so on. Chronicles draws more on the writings of individual men, or selections from them — "Samuel the seer," "Nathan the prophet," "Gad the seer."
Gaps like this are normal in Scripture. One writer points to the gap in the record of King Josiah's reign.
Thirteen years of silence on the part of the Holy Spirit! Nothing is recorded of Josiah from the eighteenth year of his reign until his thirty-first and last year! Men's biographical works are not written this way, but it is the usual way of the Holy Spirit. He brings many interesting characters before us, but in no single case do we have a full life-story.
Kings says almost nothing about what Jehoiakim was like. The prophets say a great deal. One writer lists three charges against him.
The prophets record a great deal about Jehoiakim. Three sins in particular are charged against him. (1) Oppression of the people... The people were already suffering, and as if that were not enough, Jehoiakim forced them to build palaces for himself without wages. Evil as the people were, the Lord was angry at this cruel tyranny... The Lord loves to see a shepherd leading the flock, but Jehoiakim was a wolf, ravaging the sheep. (2) Jehoiakim not only oppressed the people; he also persecuted to death those who spoke out against his deeds. He chased the faithful prophet Urijah into Egypt, brought him back with an armed force, and put him to death... (3) On top of all this, Jehoiakim wickedly threw Jeremiah's manuscript containing the words of God into the fire.
Kings closes the account of other kings the same way. One writer answers the question by pointing past any earthly archive.
Yes, and they are written in God's books above, along with the wicked acts recorded here. Those books are not merely books of "the chronicles of the kings of Israel." They record the deeds and doings of every man's life, whether good or evil. Solemn facts for us all!
Scripture does record one of his acts: he burned the scroll of God's words that Jeremiah had written. One writer draws out the irony.
The foolish king had no idea what would follow. The judgment of God that Jeremiah had announced was carried out to the letter. Centuries later, the very words Jeremiah had written would still be read by millions. And his own wicked, foolish act would be written down and read too. It stands there to teach the people of God, and to warn anyone who, like him, would dare to tamper with the written word of God.
This verse closes Jehoiakim's file. One writer notes what he lost, and what began in his reign.
His name, like that of his brother, is left out of the royal genealogy of Matthew 1... During his reign (when Nebuchadnezzar took the kingdom) "the times of the Gentiles" began. And until they are "fulfilled," Jerusalem "shall be trodden under foot," even as it is this day.
- Written in a state book. The book named here was a state record. The writer of Kings used such records under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
- Written selectively. No Bible life-story is complete. Silence about a reign is the Spirit's normal method, not a missing page.
- Written by the prophets. The prophets fill in what Kings leaves out: oppression, unpaid labour, a murdered prophet, a king who acted like a wolf.
- Written above. The verse asks where the rest of his deeds are written. The highest answer is not an archive: God's books record every life, good or evil.
- Written despite him. Jehoiakim burned God's scroll. Millions now read the words he destroyed, and his own act stands as a warning.
And Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
Verse 6 records two facts: Jehoiakim died, and his son took the throne. Yet Scripture never mentions his burial — and Jeremiah had already said why.
The phrase sounds peaceful. How does it fit Jeremiah's word that this king would be thrown out unburied? One writer weighs the exact words Scripture uses. He also holds that the silence of the record proves nothing against the prophecy:
Now as to his end, Scripture is historically silent. 2 Chronicles 36:6 states that Nebuchadnezzar "bound him in chains to take him to Babylon." It does not say he was taken there... And though there is no historical record in Scripture about his death, that is no reason to think Jeremiah's prophecies about his end were not fulfilled to the letter. We do not really need the history of it, for prophecy in Scripture is only pre-written history — printed ahead of the event, we might say. It is enough to know what God had foretold; the fulfilment is certain. Josephus records that Nebuchadnezzar finally came and killed Jehoiakim, "whom he commanded to be thrown before the walls, without any burial." "So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers" simply states that he died. It is a distinct expression in Scripture from "buried with his fathers," as a comparison of 2 Kings 15:38 and 16:20 will readily show.
Jeremiah had said of him: "With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (Jeremiah 22:19). One commentator sees the missing funeral notice as part of that fulfilment. He also ties the sentence to what this king did to God's Word:
Then his shameful burial, the burial of a donkey, is predicted. It means that a donkey has no burial, and so Jehoiakim would have no burial; he is the only king of Judah whose burial is not recorded... Most likely because he had done that wicked work of cutting the Word of God to pieces and casting it into the fire, this specially shameful end was announced. Beware, you cutters of the Bible, you mutilators of the Word of God — your end, too, will be a shameful end!
Commentators differ on where and how he died, because verse 6 does not say. Some read 2 Chronicles 36 as pointing to Babylon:
In 2 Chronicles 36:5-6 we read that he was taken in chains to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. Evidently he died there after his eleven-year reign.
Another writer places his death at Jerusalem, and reads verse 6 as allowing a first, honourable burial:
According to Jeremiah's prophecy, Jehoiakim died a violent death, and his body, dragged and cast out beyond the walls of Jerusalem where it lay exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night, was "buried with the burial of a donkey" (Jeremiah 22:19; 36:30). Yet it is said that he "slept with his fathers" (2 Kings 24:6), an expression which seems to imply that at first he was placed in the tombs of the kings.
The second half of the verse looks like an ordinary handover from father to son. But God had already spoken against this father:
Jehoiakim had changed masters. He could hardly wait to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar... We learn through Jeremiah what word the Lord had pronounced about him: "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night" (Jeremiah 36:30).
The son did reign. One writer explains how the prophecy still held:
Jeremiah said of Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin's father, "He shall have none to sit on the throne of David" (Jeremiah 36:30). The word "sit" here means to "sit firmly," or "dwell"; and Jehoiachin's short three months' reign was certainly not that. And Zedekiah, Jehoiachin's successor, was Jehoiakim's brother, not his son.
Jehoiakim's name is also missing from a genealogy of the royal line. One writer sees a pattern in such gaps:
There are several cases in Scripture where people are left out, or time is left out of the history. God does this to show His thoughts: where His rights have been violated, He refuses recognition. Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, is left out of this list. He was the immediate father of Jeconiah.
- Word spoken. Jeremiah announced no burial for Jehoiakim. Verse 6 records his death and then says nothing about a grave.
- Word kept. He is the only king of Judah whose burial goes unrecorded. The silence itself shows the prophecy came true.
- Word enough. Prophecy is pre-written history. We do not need the record of the event to be sure God's word came true.
- Word measured. "He shall have none to sit" means none who sits firmly; his son's three months on the throne was no firm reign.
- Word final. The man whose knife cut up God's book had his own name left out of the royal line.
And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the torrent of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
Judah's last kings were pawns between two empires: Egypt had put Jehoiakim on the throne, and Babylon then took him away. Here the first of those powers leaves the story for good. The question is who moved the pieces.
Egypt had real reach in the years just before this verse. One writer follows Pharaoh Necho from his march north to his defeat at Carchemish, a city on the Euphrates:
In the days of Josiah, Pharaoh Necho set out to attack the king of Assyria and to win back Egypt's long-lost rule over Syria. Josiah opposed Necho and was killed at Megiddo. Necho won every battle and went as far as Carchemish on the Euphrates. On his way back to Jerusalem he removed Jehoahaz from the throne and carried him off to Egypt, where he died. He made Jehoahaz's brother Eliakim king in his place, and called him Jehoiakim... That Necho could attack the king of Assyria at a place as distant as Carchemish shows the strength of Egypt at that time. But the power of Babylon was increasing. After three years Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho's army at Carchemish, and took control of every place from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates.
Pharaoh "did not come again out of his land." That was not his choice:
Nebuchadnezzar crushed Pharaoh's army at Carchemish. The result was more than the loss of all his possessions in Asia. From then on the king was also shut up inside his own land.
Judah did not go free in the change. Babylon now held what Egypt had held:
But the king of Egypt did not come back to Judah. Nebuchadnezzar had proved himself stronger than Egypt, and had taken control of the land Egypt once ruled.
Egypt was the ally Judah kept running to. One writer says God had to break that support Himself, and takes the lesson wider than Judah:
Egypt has been a breaking staff to Israel. It was a staff of reed, which promised much but never kept its promises, and brought only ruin to all who trusted it. Going down to Egypt for help was the constant snare of the people of God. God had rescued them from that land, and in their own rescue they had seen His judgment on it. Yet they could turn back to it again and again. Sad to say, it is an inconsistency that none of us who knows himself can claim to be free from... So God Himself must break, for Israel, this staff that they leaned on... The lesson is as plain as it is basic. It is the lesson, "Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?"
Ezekiel pictures two great eagles. One writer names the second eagle, and says who decided the contest:
Here the second great eagle is the king of Egypt, who sought the empire of the world and fought Nebuchadnezzar for it. But God rules, and He gave it to the king of Babylon.
Read this way, the verse is not a stray note about borders but one rung on a ladder:
The first man to gain the empire of the world — Nebuchadnezzar — comes up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Afterwards he rebels. The Lord puts him down. His son Jehoiachin reigns in his place. And the king of Egypt came no more out of his own land, because Nebuchadnezzar had put him down. These are the steps by which Nebuchadnezzar comes to the throne of the world. He gets it as the sovereign gift of Jehovah.
Once Egypt is out and Babylon is in, a long period opens that has not yet closed:
Here "the times of the Gentiles" began. ... 2 Kings 24 and 25 record three separate successful campaigns against Jerusalem by this same Nebuchadnezzar. The last was the complete and decisive one. Since then Israel has been subject to Gentile rule. Its kings have been only vassals. The nation has paid tribute to one Gentile power after another, and depended on its will. These times of Gentile rule, we say again, are the times of the Gentiles.
- Cause. Egypt stopped marching because Nebuchadnezzar beat Pharaoh at Carchemish. Pharaoh lost every possession outside his borders and stayed inside them.
- Prop. Judah's favourite ally was a reed that promised much and gave ruin. God broke that staff Himself, so the only confidence left was in Him.
- Reach. The land from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates passed whole from one hand to another. Babylon took everything that had belonged to Egypt.
- Ruler. Egypt and Babylon both wanted the empire of the world. God gave it to Babylon; no army won it for itself.
- Result. These steps brought Nebuchadnezzar to the throne of the world. The times of the Gentiles began here, and Israel's kings have been vassals ever since.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
Jehoiachin came to the throne at eighteen and held it for three months. Behind that short entry lie a puzzle about his age, a prophecy already spoken against him, and a name that held hope for a ruined kingdom.
The same man appears in Scripture under several different names.
Son and successor of Jehoiakim king of Judah. He reigned only three months. Then Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, and the great captivity of Judah took place. They carried Jehoiachin to Babylon and kept him in prison for thirty-six years. When Evil-merodach came to the throne, he freed him from prison and raised him above the other captive kings. Jehoiachin ate bread before the king all the days of his life. He is called JECONIAH in 1 Chr. 3:16-17; Esther 2:6; Jer. 24:1. He is also called CONIAH in Jer. 22:24, 28, and JECHONIAS in Matt. 1:11-12.
The parallel record in Chronicles gives a different age. Which number is right?
2 Chronicles 36:9 says he was eight years old when his reign began, not eighteen as here. The Greek and Latin versions say the same. But some Hebrew manuscripts read "eighteen" in Chronicles, and so do the Syriac and Arabic. So "eight" must be a copying error. All the internal evidence is in favour of eighteen.
A brief reign is not a mild one.
It was a very short reign. But it was long enough for him to show what he was, for "he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done" (verse 9).
Another writer reads the surrender to Babylon that followed as the one sensible thing he did.
Jehoiachin (also called Coniah) was only 18 years of age when he reigned for three months. But this was time enough to prove his evil character. He followed the course of his father, apparently in idol worship (vv. 8-9). Jehoiachin took the wise course of surrendering to Babylon. He and his servants were taken prisoner (v. 12).
The record of these last kings keeps naming the queen mother, and one commentator sees a pattern in it.
Jehoiachin, otherwise known as Coniah, continues in his father's path. His mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. It becomes more and more clear that the mothers of these last kings had forgotten the Lord, just as their sons had.
Her name itself reads like a warning of what was coming: "Nehushta, his mother's name, means copper. It refers to anything made of copper, whether a copper coin, a copper mirror, or fetters: and both she and her son, with all his family and household, were carried captive to Babylon."
Even a wicked king's name could steady the faith of godly people watching the throne crumble.
His character was no different from that of his two predecessors. It is the same sad, unchanging record: "He did what was evil." How the godly must have longed for the "King" Isaiah spoke of, the one who would "reign in righteousness"! They little knew, or even suspected, all that their nation would have to suffer. Nor did they know how many long, weary centuries would pass before that day of "righteousness and peace" would come. But there was something about even this wicked king that could give them hope — his name, Jehovah will establish. They might not know the time; the fact they were assured of.
One word in the prophecy against his line is easy to misread.
"Childless" here does not mean he had no descendants. The prophecy itself mentions "his seed." It means he had no direct heir in line for the throne. Matt. 1:12 shows conclusively that he had descendants ("Jechonias begat Salathiel"), as does 1 Chron. 3:17. The prophecy probably refers to his uncle succeeding him to the throne instead of his son Assir. Anyway, God made no mistake. He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast.
The genealogy of Matthew names him, and then stops naming kings.
His name (as "Jechonias") is the last of the kings of Judah mentioned in the list of Matthew chapter 1. The next is "Jesus who is called Christ," anointed King, not of Israel or the Jews only, but of the nations also.
- Named — one man, four names: Jehoiachin here, Jeconiah in Chronicles, Coniah in Jeremiah, Jechonias in Matthew 1.
- Numbered — eighteen, not eight. The reading in Chronicles is a copying error, and all the evidence favours eighteen.
- Judged — three months on the throne was long enough to show he was his father's son in evil.
- Written childless — he had descendants, but no heir who would ever rule in Judah again.
- Replaced — the royal list closes with Jechonias. The next King named is Jesus, and in Him the meaning of Jehoiachin's name comes true: Jehovah will establish.
And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father had done.
Jehoiachin came to the throne of Judah at eighteen and lasted three months, and God's record of him repeats the record of his father. So how much time does a person need to show what he really is — and what happens to a royal line that keeps repeating the same sin?
His reign was one of the shortest in Judah's history. One commentator says it was still long enough to show what the young king was:
Jehoiachin (also called Coniah) was only 18 years old when he reigned for three months. But this was time enough to prove his evil character, following the course of his father, evidently in idol worship.
The verse measures the son by his father: "according to all that his father had done." One writer follows that pattern through Judah's last kings, and notes that their mothers were no help either:
Jehoiachin, otherwise known as Coniah, continues in his father's path. His mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. It appears more and more evident that the mothers of these latter kings had themselves, like their sons, forgotten the Lord.
One writer links the verdict of this verse to the army already on its way, and asks whether such a man could be said to sit on David's throne at all:
But did Jehoiakim not have a son? He did: Jehoiachin, a wretched man, who inherited his father's guilt and misery. How could he be said to sit on the throne of David? He reigned in Jerusalem only three months. Then the lion came up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the nations was on his way — the avenger, under God's providence, of one who did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.
God's sentence on this king reached past his three months. One writer explains what it did and did not mean:
The significance of that sentence is not that he should have no family, for it speaks of his offspring; and Matthew 1:11-12 shows his descendants. What we are told is that God had decreed that, as far as the throne of David was concerned, he was to be written down as childless, for none of his offspring should rule any more in Judah. God had determined the end of this sinful stock.
So where did that leave the promise of a King from David's family? One writer follows the family tree:
He had children; no offspring of the line of Solomon was ever to occupy the throne of David. But there were the descendants of David through another line, that is, Nathan's; no curse rested upon that line. The virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, was of David through Nathan (Luke 3:31). Joseph, to whom Mary the virgin was betrothed, was a son of David through Solomon's line.
Even this king's name carried a promise. One writer shows what the godly could still hold on to:
His character was no different from that of his two predecessors. It is the same sad, unchanging record: "He did what was evil." How the godly must have longed for that "King" mentioned by Isaiah, who should "reign in righteousness"! ... But there was something about even this wicked king that could give them hope — his name, Jehovah will establish. They might not know the time, but they were sure of the fact. And so they could "with patience wait for it."
- Evil — three months was long enough to show what Jehoiachin was — his father's son in conduct, not just in birth.
- Inheritance — the verse ties him to his father's path, most likely idol worship. One writer notes that even the mothers of these last kings had forgotten the Lord.
- Verdict — his three months ended with the destroyer of the nations on his way — the avenger, under God's providence, of a king who did evil.
- Curse — God wrote him down as childless as far as the throne was concerned. He still had descendants, but none of them would rule in Judah, and one writer traces the promised King to David's other line, through Nathan.
- Hope — his name means "Jehovah will establish." The godly could not know the time, but they were sure of the fact, and could wait patiently for the King who would reign in righteousness.
At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
Jehoiachin had been king for only three months when Babylon's army closed in on Jerusalem. Two questions sit behind this short report: why did God allow it, and why has Israel lived under foreign rule ever since?
Commentators trace the siege back long before Jehoiachin. God had passed sentence on Judah generations earlier:
From the time of Manasseh this unchangeable decree had gone out from the Lord. He held it back during Josiah's reign, and would have kept holding it back under his successors had they been willing to listen. There were two causes for this final judgment: idolatry, and innocent blood. Jehoiakim, like Manasseh, had shed innocent blood as far as he was able in Jerusalem, the city that has killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to it.
The son also paid for his father's broken word:
It was against Jehoiachin and his people that Nebuchadnezzar poured out the anger that had built up in his heart because of the false, disloyal conduct of Jehoiakim.
Jeremiah had spoken about this siege before it happened. He even named the king by his other name, Coniah:
In Coniah's day, Nebuchadnezzar's servants besieged Jerusalem. Then this great king came to take part in the siege in person. Jehoiachin went out to him. He was carried captive to Babylon, along with his mother, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah: "As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off."
Another writer ties the whole outcome back to God's word:
This was all "as the Lord said," through His prophet Jeremiah. Heaven and earth will pass away and perish, but not one word of God.
Jehoiachin does not fight. He walks out of the city and gives himself up:
Jehoiachin took the wise course of surrendering to Babylon and, with his servants, was taken prisoner.
Judah's last king, Zedekiah, chose the opposite:
Jehoiachin went to Babylon, yielding there to the judgment of God, and in the end he was exalted. Zedekiah stayed at home, and instead of accepting the punishment of his sin by submitting to the king of Babylon, the Lord's rod, he rebelled against him, and at last perished.
Later God showed Jeremiah two baskets of figs. His view of them was the opposite of the world's:
To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness rested on this: they had submitted to the judgment God passed on their iniquity. This same principle holds true for us. Only thanks be to God, we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, condemned in our place on the cross. Once God had carried out the sentence, He could look down with favour on those who had borne it.
This siege was one of three. Together they moved world rule from Jerusalem to the nations:
Now here began "the times of the Gentiles." In 2 Kings 24 and 25 there is a record of no fewer than three separate successful expeditions against Jerusalem by this same Nebuchadnezzar. The last was the complete and decisive one. Since then Israel has been subject to Gentile rule.
Yet the godly in Judah still had one thing to hold on to. This king's name meant something his life did not:
But there was something about even this wicked king that could give them hope — his name, "The LORD will establish." They might not know when it would come, but they were sure it would come. And so they could wait for it patiently.
- Cause — The siege was no accident of politics. Idolatry and innocent blood had already brought God's sentence. Josiah's reign delayed it, and Jehoiakim's treachery set it off.
- Word — Every detail matched what Jeremiah had spoken. Even if this king had been the signet ring on God's right hand, God would still have torn him off, because not one word of His fails.
- Surrender — Jehoiachin walked out and gave himself up. Zedekiah resisted the rod and perished; submission to God's judgment is the wiser path.
- Reversal — God called the exiles the good figs and the ones left behind the bad. Those who accept His verdict come under His favour, as believers do through Christ judged in their place.
- Hope — World rule passed to the nations here, and Israel has lived under them since. But the captive king's name still says the LORD will establish, so His people can wait for that day.
And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, while his servants were besieging it.
Judah's new king had reigned just three months when Babylon's army surrounded Jerusalem, and then the emperor came in person. Was this only a strong empire crushing a weak one, or was Someone else directing the siege?
One writer traces what happened, and ties the outcome to words Jeremiah had already spoken.
Jehoiachin, otherwise known as Coniah, continues in his father's path... It grows more and more clear that the mothers of these last kings had forgotten the Lord, just as their sons had. In Coniah's day, Nebuchadnezzar's servants besieged Jerusalem. This great king himself then came to take part in the siege in person. Jehoiachin went out to him. He was carried captive to Babylon, along with his mother, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah.
The king at the city wall was not the real mover of these events. One writer sets out the place God gave him.
He was the man in whom God set up the Gentiles. The house of David, the throne of Judah, had corrupted itself. The people's sin had reached its full measure, and God's patience with them had run out in Nebuchadnezzar's day. So the Lord used him as the rod of His anger against Jerusalem, and as the hand that took from Him the sword of rule and judgment in the earth.
The king, his mother, and his whole household went into exile. One writer draws the weight of the whole account from one short phrase in it.
The king's mother and her son, with all his family and household, were carried captive to Babylon... This was all "as the Lord said," through His prophet Jeremiah. Heaven and earth will pass away and perish, but not one word of God.
Babylon's armies — the Chaldeans — came against Judah more than once. This deportation was one stage in a longer collapse, and it swept up Ezekiel, who would later prophesy among the exiles.
The Chaldeans overthrew the kingdom of Judah and carried away her king, princes, priests, and people on three separate occasions. In 599 B.C. Jehoiachin, the second last king of Judah, had reigned only three months. He was then taken captive, along with the leading people of the land, including Ezekiel (2 Kings 24).
What began with these invasions outlasted the exile itself.
In 2 Kings 24 and 25 we have a special record of three separate successful expeditions against Jerusalem. All were made by this same Nebuchadnezzar. The last was the complete and decisive one. Since then Israel has been under Gentile rule. Its kings have been only servants of other masters. The nation has had to pay tribute to one Gentile power after another, and has depended on their will.
Jehoiachin did not fight. At eighteen, after three months on the throne, he walked out and gave himself up.
Jehoiachin (also called Coniah) was only 18 years old when he reigned for three months. But this was time enough to prove his evil character. He followed the course of his father, evidently in idol worship (vv.8-9). Jehoiachin took the wise course of surrendering to Babylon, and Babylon took him and his servants prisoner (v.12).
Another king of Judah, Zedekiah, went the opposite way. One writer draws the contrast and turns it on us.
We must be broken to be blessed... We would sooner "bend our roots" towards whatever may help us in the world. But that way, which is our own way, will end, as with Zedekiah, in shame and ruin. Accepting the judgment of God, submitting under His mighty hand, will end, as with Jehoiachin, in blessing and exaltation.
After this deportation Jeremiah saw two baskets of figs. God's view of them turned the popular verdict upside down.
What people saw was exactly the opposite of what God reveals to Jeremiah. To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness lay in this: they had submitted to God's judgment, which their sin deserved. This same principle holds true for us, only thanks be to God, we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, condemned in our place upon the cross.
- Siege — Nebuchadnezzar's officers surrounded the city. Then the emperor came himself, and the greatest power of the day pressed on one small capital.
- Servant — That conqueror was God's rod. Judah's guilt was full and God's patience had run out. Rule over the earth passed from David's house to the Gentiles.
- Said — Every loss matched what God had spoken through Jeremiah. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not one word of His.
- Submission — Jehoiachin gave himself up and came to blessing. Zedekiah went his own way and ended in shame and ruin. Breaking comes before blessing.
- Selection — The world pitied the exiles, but God called them the good figs. They had bowed to His judgment — and believers now see that judgment borne for them at the cross.
And Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his chamberlains; and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.
Jerusalem is under siege, and Judah's king walks out of the gate to give himself up to Nebuchadnezzar. It looks like a small political note, but commentators treat it as the moment the throne of David passed out of Jewish hands.
Jehoiachin's surrender did not surprise God. One writer sets it beside words Jeremiah spoke years before.
Jehoiachin, also known as Coniah, continues in his father's path. In Coniah's day, Nebuchadnezzar's servants besieged Jerusalem. Then the great king came to take part in the siege in person. Jehoiachin went out to him. Nebuchadnezzar carried him and his mother captive to Babylon. This fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy: "As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off… I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die."
There is no battle in this verse. One writer notes what left the temple with the king.
2 Kings 24:10-12 records that the Babylonians came to besiege the city, though we are not told the immediate reason for this. Jehoiachin and his servants surrendered without resistance. 2 Chronicles 36:10 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar sent for him to come to Babylon. The valuable articles from the house of God went to Babylon too, though not all of them yet. This pictures how the truth of God has been stolen from the Church little by little in our own day, through the failure and disobedience of the people.
Nebuchadnezzar looks like the decisive figure here. One writer gives him a smaller part.
Nebuchadnezzar was only the executor of God's sentence. No son of David has since that time sat upon his throne. Here Matthew's second period closes. The foreigner has ruled them ever since, and will until the true Heir, the next King of the house of David, even the Lord Jesus, come. Until then they lie under the judgment of God.
What changed hands was more than a crown. Writers call the period that opened here "the times of the Gentiles" — the stretch of history in which nations other than Israel hold the ruling power.
The whole order of things that came from His dwelling at Jerusalem was set aside. Universal supremacy passed to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, the first great chief of the Gentiles. It was with him that the times of the Gentiles began.
Jeremiah's sentence on this same king sounds absolute. One writer weighs the word "childless" against the rest of the same verse.
The significance of this verse is not that he should have no family, for it speaks of his seed; and Matthew 1:11-12 shows his descendants. What we are told is this: God had decreed that, as far as the throne of David was concerned, he was to be written childless. That is because none of his descendants would rule in Judah any more. God had determined the end of this sinful stock.
So how could the promised King still come from David? One writer points to a second branch of the family:
A curse was thus pronounced upon the house of David in the line of Solomon. But there was still the line of Nathan the son of David. Messiah, the Son of David, could therefore not spring from the line of Solomon; He must come from the line of Nathan. Joseph, the husband of the virgin Mary of Nazareth, was a son of David through the line of Solomon, the disinherited line. But Mary of Nazareth was a daughter of David through the line of Nathan.
Those taken away with Jehoiachin looked like the losers. One writer sets what people saw beside what God told Jeremiah.
What men saw was exactly the opposite of what God reveals to Jeremiah. To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness rested on one thing: they had submitted to the judgment their sin deserved. The same principle holds true for us. Thank God, we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, who was condemned in our place on the cross. Once God had carried out the sentence, He could look down with favour on those who had borne it.
- Word first. Jeremiah had already named Coniah and said God would tear him off like a signet ring. The surrender carried out a word already spoken.
- Surrender, not siege. Jehoiachin gave himself up without resistance. The temple's treasures went to Babylon by stages — a warning picture of truth lost little by little.
- Sentence, not accident. Nebuchadnezzar was the executor of God's sentence, and no son of David has sat on that throne since.
- Handover. With him the times of the Gentiles began. Power over Jerusalem passed to the nations, and stays there until the true Heir comes.
- Grace to the exiles. God called the captives the good figs, because they had bowed to His judgment. Christ has borne ours.
And he brought out thence all the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of Jehovah, as Jehovah had said.
Nebuchadnezzar strips the temple and the palace, breaks up the gold vessels Solomon had made, and hauls them all to Babylon. The verse ends by tying this to a word God had already spoken, which turns a military looting into something far more solemn: God keeping His own word against His own house.
This loss was announced in advance. Commentators tie it to a warning the prophet Isaiah once gave King Hezekiah:
Nebuchadnezzar cut in pieces the articles of gold that Solomon had made in the house of the Lord, probably to transport them to Babylon more easily. This fulfilled the word of the Lord to Hezekiah by Isaiah in chapter 20:16-18.
What Hezekiah showed off to the world is what the world came and took:
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 displayed his treasures to the world, and these very treasures the world was about to carry away; but the "peace and truth" — in other words, the treasures which he had in God — the world could neither give nor take away.
Commentators point to more than one prophecy behind the closing words. Another writer traces them to Jeremiah:
This was all "as the Lord said," through His prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 20:5). Heaven and earth will pass away and perish, but not one word of God.
Babylon had already looted the temple once. This second raid reached different objects:
The temple was stripped of its remaining treasures. A few years before, the king of Babylon had carried away the solid and smaller vessels (2 Chron. 36:7). On this occasion he literally "cut the gold off" the larger plated vessels — the ark, the altar of incense, the showbread table, and so on. There is no contradiction here, or anywhere in Scripture, for "the Scripture cannot be broken."
God was not defeated here. One writer asks who Nebuchadnezzar really was, and follows the stolen vessels through to their end in Babylon:
What was this Nebuchadnezzar but the whip the Lord had chosen and used to punish His guilty, lawbreaking people Israel? God raised him up for that purpose … The lesson to be learned from this is that God will never take part in hypocrisy, nor will He keep His people going in a false condition. He knows how to take care of His own glory, even though His people fail completely, so He allows the vessels of His sanctuary on earth to be carried into captivity. But then Belshazzar, drunk with wine, waved these trophies of victory in the face of the Lord. He praised gods of gold and silver, of brass, iron, wood and stone, as if they had won the victory. He insulted God to His very face, and God resented the insult.
The gold sat in a pagan treasure-house, but God still counted it as His:
In God's eyes the holy vessels were holy still, however much the sins of His kings and priests had polluted them. They had been used in the house where He had put His name for ever, the house where His eyes and His heart would always be (1 Kings 9:3). True, in judgment He had let them share the captivity of His people. But He could not let the Gentile king and his immoral companions defile them. That would not fit with all that He was and all that He purposed.
The story did not end in Babylon. The vessels came home again, though not everything did:
It was not policy but the Lord who stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the conqueror of Babylon. The holy vessels were counted and restored, as far as was fitting, for the Lord's house in Jerusalem. The ark was not there — the centre, the highest in value, the nearest to the glory. Sadly, the glory itself had withdrawn. But in the day that the salvation of Israel comes out of Zion, the glory will return, never to leave again.
- Said — The gold did not leave Jerusalem by accident of war. The verse ties the loss to a word God had already spoken, and not one word of His fails.
- Shown — Hezekiah displayed his treasure to Babylon's envoys; Babylon came back for it. What we parade before the world, the world comes to carry off.
- Surrendered — God let Babylon loot His own sanctuary instead of keeping His people in a hollow, hypocritical condition. He can guard His glory without propping up their pretence.
- Sacred — Captivity did not make the holy things common. In a pagan treasure-house the vessels were holy still, and God answered Belshazzar when he abused them.
- Restored — Cyrus, stirred up by God, sent the vessels back. Yet the ark and the glory were missing. The recovery was real but incomplete, waiting for the day the glory returns for good.
And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths none remained but the poorest sort of the people of the land.
Nebuchadnezzar stripped Jerusalem of everything that made it strong: its king, its nobles, its soldiers, its craftsmen and its metalworkers. Ten thousand went to Babylon and only the poorest stayed, so commentators ask what God was doing in this loss.
The deportation did not catch heaven by surprise. One writer points back to Jeremiah, who had said this would happen.
This was all "as the Lord said," through His prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 20:5). Heaven and earth will pass away and perish, but not one word of God.
The list is not random. One writer sees a deliberate strategy in whom Nebuchadnezzar chose.
More than this, Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive all the captains and mighty men of valour, 10,000 of them (v.14), and all the craftsmen and smiths, one thousand (v.16). Only the poorest of the people remained. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make sure Jerusalem could never rise to greatness again.
A smith is a worker in metal, and Scripture elsewhere shows what a nation loses when its smiths are gone.
When the Philistines were oppressing Israel, we read that "there was no blacksmith to be found in all the land of Israel," because the Philistines meant to stop the Hebrews making swords or spears. So God's people stood unarmed before their enemies. They even had to go to the Philistines to get their farm tools sharpened (1 Sam. 13:19-20). Later this changed: when the people went into captivity, smiths are named among the captives (2 Kings 24:14, 16).
The king went into exile too, and the sentence on him reached past his own lifetime.
Jeremiah 22:24-30 speaks with great seriousness about God's judgment on Jehoiachin, who is also called Jeconiah or Coniah. "Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol, a vessel no one wants? Why are he and his children thrown out, cast into a land they do not know? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord: record this man as childless. He will not prosper in his days, and none of his descendants will prosper, sitting on the throne of David and ruling in Judah again."
After this deportation, Jeremiah saw two baskets of figs in a vision — one very good, one very bad. Anyone watching would have sorted the people into the wrong baskets.
What people saw was the exact opposite of what God reveals to Jeremiah. To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness rested on one thing: they had submitted to the judgment God brought on them for their sin.
The two baskets matched two responses to Babylon.
The bad figs resisted. Instead of yielding, they turned to Egypt, hoping that political power and military help would offset the strength of the king of Babylon. The Lord tells them that the good figs were those who had submitted, the ones carried away captive to Babylon in the days of Jeconiah.
This deportation has a date attached to it. One writer uses it to fix when Ezekiel left Judah.
Eleven years before the King of Babylon destroyed the city and the temple, Ezekiel went into captivity. 2 Kings 24:14 records this deportation. Others had already been taken to Babylon before Ezekiel went with the princes and the mighty men — Daniel and his three companions among them.
The verse reads like an ending. One writer finds a beginning in it.
In the midst of the ruin God opened a door of hope to the people. God would raise up a remnant from among those carried away — the core of the Israel of the future. Over them the king of righteousness, the Anointed of the Lord, would reign, after all the sons of David had failed completely in their responsibility.
- Carried, as said. The Lord had said through Jeremiah that this would come. The empty city shows that no word of God ever fails.
- Carried, and stripped. Nebuchadnezzar took the soldiers and the smiths together, leaving Jerusalem with no defenders and no way to arm them.
- Carried, yet chosen. People saw the exiles as the losers and those left in Jerusalem as the fortunate ones. God called the exiles the good figs.
- Carried, and named. Ezekiel went into captivity in this deportation, and Daniel had gone to Babylon before him.
- Carried, for a future. From these captives, not from those left behind, God would raise the remnant over whom His Anointed would reign.
And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his chamberlains, and the mighty of the land, he led into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon;
Judah's independent history ends here, with the young king Jehoiachin and his whole court walking to Babylon as prisoners. The verse reads like a bare list. Yet commentators find in it a prophecy fulfilled word for word, a throne shut down, and the people God Himself called good.
Jehoiachin surrendered, and his family went with him. Jeremiah had named this outcome in advance, including the mother's exile. The women of this royal house were no better than the men.
It is more and more clear that the mothers of these last kings, like their sons, had forgotten the Lord... He was carried captive to Babylon, along with his mother, just as Jeremiah had prophesied: "As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you... into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die."
One writer stops on the meaning of her name.
Nehushta, his mother's name, means copper. It refers to anything made of copper — a copper coin, a copper mirror, or fetters. Both she and her son, with all his family and household, were carried captive to Babylon.
The verse counts "the chief men of the land" among the exiles. One writer adds the numbers.
Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the captains and brave fighting men, 10,000 of them (v.14), and all the craftsmen and metalworkers, one thousand (v.16). Only the poorest people stayed. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make sure that Jerusalem could never become important again.
In Babylon the captives needed direction. Jeremiah wrote to tell them how to live under a foreign king.
In Jeremiah 29, the prophet sent a letter to the rest of the elders taken captive to Babylon in the time of Jeconiah the king of Judah (2 Kings 24:12-16). And the word of the LORD of hosts commanded them to submit completely to Nebuchadnezzar. They were not only not to rebel; they were to obey. They were no longer Jews under the direct government of God in their own land. They were to recognise the authority of the Gentile king whom God had now set over them because of their sins.
After this deportation Jeremiah saw two baskets of figs in a vision, one good and one bad.
What people saw was exactly the opposite of what God reveals to Jeremiah. To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness rested on their submission to God's judgment on their sin. The same principle holds true for us. Only, thanks be to God, we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, condemned in our place on the cross.
Jehoiachin's removal ends the working monarchy. Jeremiah's sentence on him is easy to read too widely.
The point of this verse is not that he would have no family, for it speaks of his offspring, and Matthew 1:11-12 lists his descendants. What we are told is that God had decreed that, as far as the throne of David was concerned, he was to be written childless, for none of his offspring should rule any more in Judah. God had determined the end of this sinful stock.
So how does the promise to David reach Christ? One writer answers that the cursed line kept the legal title and could pass it on:
As far back as Irenaeus, writers drew this conclusion: a curse strikes the direct line of descent, yet the line still keeps the legal title. So it could hand on to another what could be of no benefit to itself. The marriage of Joseph and Mary was, in God's wisdom, the means of bringing this about. The Lord's birth from Mary made Him the real Son of David (Luke 1:32), while His mother's marriage made Him David's legal heir.
- Carried away as promised — the king, his mother and the nobles went into exile just as Jeremiah had said.
- Carried away in strength — Babylon took the captains, the fighting men and the craftsmen, and left only the poorest, so the city could never rise again.
- Carried away from rule — they no longer lived under God's direct government in their own land. God set Nebuchadnezzar over them, and they had to submit.
- Carried away and counted good — the world wrote these exiles off, but God called them the good figs, because they accepted His judgment on their sin.
- Carried away, not cast off — no descendant of Jehoiachin would rule, yet the line still held the legal title, and God's promise to David reaches its heir in Christ.
and all the men of valour, seven thousand, and the craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all strong men apt for war, and the king of Babylon brought them captive to Babylon.
The final count of Jehoiachin's deportation reads like a military inventory. Babylon took seven thousand fighting men and a thousand skilled workers, every one fit for war. Two questions press on those numbers: why did God hand over the strength of His people, and what did He think of the ones He sent away?
Nebuchadnezzar did not take random plunder. He stripped out the nation's whole fighting and working strength, and one commentator names the policy behind the numbers:
More than this, Nebuchadnezzar carried away as captives all the captains and mighty warriors, 10,000 of them (v.14), and all the craftsmen and metal workers, one thousand (v.16). Only the poorest of the people stayed. Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make sure that Jerusalem could never rise to importance again.
The ESV calls them "metal workers." Older translations say "smiths." Under Philistine rule, Israel once had no smiths at all:
A smith is the well-known worker in metal. When the Philistines were oppressing Israel we read, "Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, 'Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears'" (1 Sam. 13:19). So the people of God had no weapons to face their enemies. They even had to go to the Philistines to sharpen their farm tools (1 Sam. 13:20). Later this changed. When the people went into captivity, the record names smiths among the captives (2 Kings 24:14, 16).
This was more than a change of address. The captives now had a Gentile master, and a prophet's letter told them how to live under him:
In Jeremiah 29, the prophet sent a letter to the elders who were left, the ones taken captive to Babylon in the time of Jeconiah the king of Judah (2 Kings 24:12-16). The word of the LORD of hosts commanded them to submit completely to Nebuchadnezzar. They were not merely to avoid rebellion; they were to obey. They were no longer Jews living under God's direct government in their own land. They had to recognise the authority of the Gentile king whom God had now set over them because of their sins.
One writer traces a wider shift to this moment. Power over the earth passed from Jerusalem into Gentile hands:
The wickedness of the kings of the house of David had led to God pronouncing on them the sentence of "Lo-ammi," that is, "not my people" (Hosea 1:9). When Nebuchadnezzar carried them away captive to Babylon, the people truly became "Lo-ammi" (though God still watched over them in mercy), and the "times of the Gentiles" began. So when Israel failed and turned to idolatry, God gave power into Gentile hands. His throne was no longer on earth at Jerusalem, where He had lived in the house built for His name.
Human eyes would count the deported as the losers and those left behind as the survivors. A vision given to Jeremiah after this deportation says the opposite, and it reaches all the way to us:
One of these baskets was full of figs that were very good in God's eyes, like figs that ripen first; the other was full of very bad figs. What men saw was the exact opposite of what God shows Jeremiah. To the world, the good figs were the people still at Jerusalem under Zedekiah. To God's heart they were the ones carried away from Judah. Their goodness rested on one thing: they had submitted to God's judgment, which their sin deserved. The same principle holds true for us, only — thanks be to God — we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, condemned in our place on the cross. Once the sentence had fallen, God could look with favour on the very people it fell on.
The dividing line was how they took God's discipline:
There were no intermediate figs. They were either 'very good' or 'very bad'. This shows that God would not accept a middle ground or a neutral position. The good figs were the ones that accepted the discipline and bowed under it.
The exiles did not go alone. God placed a prophet among them, and gave him a sight he could never have had in Jerusalem:
But Nebuchadnezzar carried Ezekiel into captivity with Jehoiachin, and gave him his place with others at Tel-Abib on the river Chebar. In the fifth year of the Jewish king's captivity he saw the vision of Ezekiel 1. It was the throne of the Lord in unsparing majesty, seen in Chaldea, judging Jerusalem and His sanctuary there. What a solemn change — not reigning, but vengeance on His house and city!
- Stripped — Babylon took the fighting men and the metal workers and left only the poorest, so Jerusalem could never rise again.
- Transferred — God no longer governed them directly in their own land. Because of their sins, they now had to obey a Gentile king.
- Reversed — the world saw ruin; God saw favour. The exiles were His good figs, and those left at Jerusalem the bad.
- Submitted — the good figs bowed under God's discipline. He allowed no neutral middle ground.
- Accompanied — Ezekiel went with them. By a foreign river he saw the throne no longer reigning at Jerusalem, but judging it.
And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his uncle king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
Judah still had a king after Nebuchadnezzar carried Jehoiachin off to Babylon. But a foreign ruler chose that king, and renamed him. Who was Mattaniah? Why did his name change? And what happened to David's throne once a foreign king could hand it out?
The throne was no longer Judah's to fill. One writer lists what Nebuchadnezzar did with Josiah's sons, one after another.
See how completely Judah is under Nebuchadnezzar's power! He puts this king in chains and sets a child of eight years on the throne. Three months later he replaces the boy with his uncle Mattaniah (Zedekiah). Even the change of his name proved Nebuchadnezzar's supreme authority. He did the same to Daniel and his three friends.
Mattaniah was Jehoiachin's uncle — a son of Josiah, and so from the royal family. One commentator points out what the new name did not include.
Zedekiah was Josiah's youngest son... Nebuchadnezzar changed his name, as a sign that he was now under Babylon's rule. But he did not give him the name of some heathen god, as he did with Daniel and the three Hebrew children. Nebuchadnezzar "had made him swear by God." His new name, Righteousness of Jehovah, may have been meant to remind him of that oath. Or it may have had some connection, even in the heathen king's mind, with Jehovah's righteousness in taking the political independence of this wicked people (called by His name) away from them, and putting them under his rule.
Commentators differ on how to translate Zedekiah. Some read it as "righteousness of Jehovah," others as "The Lord is might." Either way, God spoke through the names of this last king just as the kingdom fell.
His name means "the gift of Jehovah," and he changed it to Zedekiah, "the righteousness of Jehovah." Without doubt there is a prophetic hint here. Judah and Jerusalem went down in judgment, in ruin and shame beyond words. Even then God showed, in the very names of the last king, 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.
Another writer sets both names against the record of his reign:
The name Mattaniah means "gift of the Lord," but the king did not live up to his name. He "did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done" (verse 19). Zedekiah means "The Lord is might." The king proved it: his own evil, and the evil of his fathers, could not escape the might of the God of Israel.
Nebuchadnezzar had a political reason for this choice. One writer retells it as a picture of eagles and a vine.
By putting Zedekiah in office, Nebuchadnezzar counted on a king who depended on him and would not stir up new revolts... He had then taken the seed of the land — Zedekiah — and planted it by great waters like a willow tree. It had become a vine, spreading, but not high, because the king of Babylon wanted a humbled kingship in Judah that depended on him. This vine turned toward another great eagle, the Pharaoh of Egypt, instead of staying in submission to the first.
The plan failed because the man failed. Another writer sums up his reign:
Jeremiah 37-39 records the history of Zedekiah's reign. It shows the utter weakness of the man, and yet his stubborn persistence in evil.
One writer looks past the man to the throne he sat on, and to what his broken oath cost it.
While David's throne stood, it was still "the throne of Jehovah," however weak and despicable the men who sat on it might be. The last king, Zedekiah, brought on the ruin by his treachery. Nebuchadnezzar "made him swear by God" (2 Chron. 36:13), but he despised the oath by breaking the covenant (Ezek. 17:17-18). Nothing was sacred in his eyes... Ever since that day David's throne has lain in the dust.
Yet the overturning was not the end of the story. Reading God's word to Zedekiah in Ezekiel 21 — "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is" (an older translation; the ESV reads "A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs") — one commentator draws the conclusion in a sentence:
Messiah shall come and reign: subversion and only subversion till then. His is the right.
- Placed — Nebuchadnezzar chose Judah's king and renamed him. The new name showed who now held power, as it did with Daniel and his friends.
- Named — Mattaniah, "gift of the Lord," became Zedekiah; the new name may have been meant to remind him of the oath he swore by God.
- Failed — He lived up to neither name. He did evil like Jehoiakim, he was weak yet stubborn, and he broke the covenant he had sworn.
- Overturned — David's throne was still "the throne of Jehovah," even under weak kings. With Zedekiah it fell, and it has lain in the dust ever since.
- Waiting — The names of the last king point ahead to One from David's line. In Him righteousness will be established. Until He comes whose right it is, there is only overthrow.