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.