Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
Judah's last king was Babylon's choice — twenty-one years old, renamed by the man who put him on the throne. Why did God grant him eleven more years, and what was that borrowed name meant to tell him?
Zedekiah came from Josiah's own family. One commentator gives his line, and explains what the change of name stood for.
Zedekiah was Josiah's youngest son, and full brother of Jehoahaz. He was, at his father's death, only ten years old. Nebuchadnezzar changed his name to mark that he was a vassal. But he did not give him the name of a pagan god, as he did with Daniel and his three Hebrew friends. Nebuchadnezzar "had made him swear by God." He may have given him the new name, Righteousness of the Lord, to remind him of that oath. Or the name may have had some link, even in this pagan king's mind, with the Lord's righteousness in taking away the political independence of this wicked people, who were called by His name, and putting them under his own rule.
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His birth name was Mattaniah. Commentators differ on the exact force of the new name — some read it as "righteousness of the Lord," others as "the Lord is might" — but one writer finds in the pair of names a promise buried in the wreckage.
His name means "the gift of the Lord," and Nebuchadnezzar changed it to Zedekiah, "the righteousness of the Lord." This is surely a prophetic hint. Judah and Jerusalem went down in judgment, in ruin and shame beyond words. Yet in the very names of the last king, God showed that One would still come from David's line — He who is God's own precious gift, and in whom righteousness will be given and established.
Read the other way, the name was a warning he failed to hear.
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." Zedekiah means "The Lord is might," and the king proved that his own evil, and the evil of his fathers, could not escape the might of the God of Israel.
The verse names his mother. One writer describes where she came from, and why a mother like her no longer counted.
From now on, mothers who come from among the people of God have no influence. Either there is no ear left to hear them, or they share in the ruin themselves. Hamutal, the wife of Josiah and mother of Jehoahaz, was the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, and it seems she came from a priestly family.
The same writer draws a wider lesson from these kings: godly parents do not produce a godly son.
Grace alone explains the characters of Hezekiah and of Josiah. The last kings of Judah prove it: they were ungodly, even though they had Jewish mothers and a godly father.
The eleven years were not just a countdown to the end. In that time, something could still have been saved.
Zedekiah gained nothing from the disasters that struck the kings before him. He was Israel's last hope. He was "a spreading vine of low stature" (Ezekiel 17:6) — a very humiliating picture indeed! But there might still have been crumbs of blessing for the unhappy people had he walked humbly with God.
He did not walk humbly. His sin was not open cruelty but pretence.
He pretended to want the prophet's prayers, saying, "Pray now to the Lord our God for us." At times he also pretended to trust Jeremiah's prophecies — "Ask the Lord for us" — yet when the answers came, he refused to listen or believe. He was perhaps not as openly wicked as the three kings before him, and not eager to persecute. But the Lord does not see as man sees, and His thoughts are not man's thoughts.
With him, an era closed and another opened.
Zedekiah was the last man to wear the crown, though perhaps he wore it in name only. He added treachery to his many sins, and dishonoured the name of his God. Then Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, and the rule passed into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. So "the times of the Gentiles" began.
- Named — Nebuchadnezzar renamed Mattaniah, "gift of the Lord," as Zedekiah. The new name marked him as a vassal, and may have recalled the oath he swore by God.
- Warned — the name he wore preached to him. He did not live up to it, and proved instead that his evil could not escape the might of Israel's God.
- Untaught — a mother from among God's people and a godly father still produced an ungodly son. Grace alone, not parentage, explains a Hezekiah or a Josiah.
- Offered — he was Israel's last hope, a vine of low stature, with eleven years still given. Had he walked humbly with God, crumbs of blessing might still have come.
- Ended — he asked for the prophet's prayers but refused his word. With his fall the crown passed to Babylon, and the times of the Gentiles began.
And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
Zedekiah was the last king to sit on David's throne, and Nebuchadnezzar put him there. This verse is God's verdict on his reign in one line: he did the same evil as his fathers.
The king had two names, and both spoke of God. Neither shaped him.
The name Mattaniah means "gift of the Lord." But the king did not answer to his name, for "he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done." Zedekiah means "The Lord is might." The king proved that his own evil, and the evil of his fathers, could not escape from the might of the God of Israel.
Nebuchadnezzar chose that second name. It may have carried a message:
Nebuchadnezzar changed his name as a sign that he was now under Babylon's rule. But he did not give him the name of a foreign god, as with Daniel and the three Hebrew young men. Nebuchadnezzar "had made him swear by God," and perhaps he gave him the new name, Righteousness of Jehovah, to remind him of that oath.
Zedekiah did not sin in the dark. Two kings before him had been carried off, and the prophet Jeremiah was still speaking in the city.
At the age of twenty-one opportunity was given to Zedekiah to show that he had benefited from the stern and striking lessons which God had taught the nation through the lips of the prophet and by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, but "he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done."
Everything that could have held him steady was still standing around him:
At that time Judah represented the nation of Israel. It still had the city of government and a king of David's line on the throne. The House of the Lord still stood before them, and spoke to them of the preserving mercy of God. The chief priest and others still carried on the ministry. Yet they did not merely fail to do good — they did what was evil in God's sight.
The charge against him is not left general:
Chronicles registers four reasons for the judgment of this king: He did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke to him for Jehovah. That was rebellion against the word of the Spirit of God. He revolted against Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against returning to Jehovah.
Measured by human standards, Zedekiah was not the worst of his line. God's measure was different.
Perhaps he was not as openly wicked as the three kings before him, and he was not eager to persecute. That is probably why Josephus, judging by human standards, speaks of "his gentle and righteous disposition." But the Lord does not see as man sees, and His thoughts are not man's thoughts. The Lord says, "He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel." So God took him away in His anger.
The king's evil was his own. Yet God was working through it:
God used the very wickedness of king Zedekiah to carry out His will… How very wonderful are the ways of God! Here He uses the evil of Israel, and above all the evil of their king, to carry out the judgment He had foretold. Another wonderful case comes before us in an entirely different way. God used the dreadful wickedness of Israel and of the rulers of the Jews to secure His will and counsels — the blessing of the nation under the new covenant, and the blessing of millions of Gentiles. As it is written in Acts 2:23, "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."
One man's evil closed a line of kings that had stood since David.
While David's throne stood, it was still "the throne of Jehovah," however weak and unworthy its occupants might be. The last king, Zedekiah, brought on the ruin by his treachery… Now note the words of Jehovah to him: "And you, O profane wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of your final punishment, thus says the Lord God: Remove the turban and take off the crown… A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also shall not be until He comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to Him."
- Gift. His first name meant "gift of the Lord," his second "The Lord is might" — he answered to neither.
- Warning. The temple still stood and Jeremiah still spoke for God — he sinned with mercy in plain sight.
- Charge. Chronicles lists four counts: evil in God's sight, refusing to humble himself under God's word, breaking an oath sworn in God's name, and a hardened heart.
- Verdict. Men called him gentle; God called him stiff-necked — the Lord does not see as man sees.
- Overturned. The crown came off David's line, and it stays off until the rightful One comes. The same God who used this king's rebellion to carry out judgment later used men's worst act to bless millions.
For, because the anger of Jehovah was against Jerusalem and against Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Zedekiah was the last king to sit on David's throne, and his revolt against Babylon happened "because of the anger of the LORD." So how could one king's political gamble be the very thing God's anger used, and what made it so serious?
The verse does not present Zedekiah's revolt as an accident that upset God's plan. It presents the revolt as the way God carried out a judgment He had already announced.
God used the very wickedness of king Zedekiah to carry out His will... How very wonderful are the ways of God! Here He uses the evil of Israel, and above all the evil of their king. That evil becomes the means of carrying out the judgment He had foretold. Another wonderful case comes before us in a completely different way. God used the dreadful wickedness of Israel, and of the rulers of the Jews, to secure His will and His counsels: the blessing of the nation under the new covenant, and the blessing of millions of Gentiles. This is just what Acts 2:23 says.
Zedekiah had sworn loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in God's own name. That oath turned a political revolt into an offence against God.
But Zedekiah rebelled against his lord, and the rebellion was through the anger of the Lord; it was part of the judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem, and it brought special judgment upon himself. Nebuchadnezzar's terrible revenge on his helpless captive was due perhaps not so much to the rebellion of a subject king as to the guilt of breaking the oath he had taken in the name of Jehovah to obey Nebuchadnezzar. This sin filled up the measure of his guilt. He made a covenant with the king of Babylon. He took an oath in the name of Jehovah to obey Nebuchadnezzar, so much so that Jehovah said "My oath," and "My covenant." Afterwards he rebelled against the king that Jehovah had set over him, and sent to Egypt for horses and men. He despised the covenant and oath so solemnly taken, and so presented the name of the Holy One of Israel to the heathen king as nothing. This brought things to a climax: there was "no remedy."
In political terms the revolt made sense, and it was popular. But God Himself had put that yoke on Judah.
Zedekiah's revolt might have had plausible political motives in the eyes of the world. As happens today too, it won the sympathy of all those who chafed under Babylon's yoke. But this yoke was according to God, and the Lord announced it in a visible way through the prophet Jeremiah, who walked through the city with a wooden yoke on his neck. The king of Judah ought to have known and remembered this, had he had the least concern to serve the Lord. But deep down this man, so brave in revolt, was full of fear. He was afraid of compromising himself in front of the leading men of the people.
The broken oath pointed back to something missing in the man himself.
"Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon." He had no real faith in Jehovah, Israel's covenant-keeping God, and therefore had no scruples about breaking his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar. But how dearly he paid for this violation of his oath!
The last words of the verse are the heaviest. Judah lost more than a war, and one writer ties that loss to the king's refusal to bow to a sentence God had already passed.
Zedekiah ought to have been a pattern of submission, owning the just judgment of God... And now Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon. That was rebellion against the sentence of Jehovah, who was then, as it were, morally compelled to cast out the Jews from His presence.
What ended with him was not one man's career but a throne.
While David's throne stood, it was still "the throne of Jehovah," however weak and contemptible its kings might be. The last king, Zedekiah, brought on the ruin by his treachery... Nothing was sacred in his eyes... Ever since that day David's throne has lain in the dust, and the crown of rule over the nations has been taken away.
- Anger — The revolt did not surprise God. It happened "because of the anger of the LORD," and God used the king's own wickedness to carry out a judgment He had already announced.
- Oath — Zedekiah had sworn loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar in the name of the Lord. God called it "My oath" and "My covenant," so breaking it presented God's name to a foreign king as nothing.
- Yoke — Jeremiah carried a wooden yoke through the city to show that Babylon's rule was God's will. Resisting it was popular politics and open defiance of God.
- Unbelief — The broken promise revealed the man. He had no real faith in God, so he had no conscience about breaking his word.
- Cast out — The end was removal from God's presence. David's throne fell into the dust, and the crown of rule over the nations was taken away.