And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by 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 Hand Behind the Raiders
The raiders wrecked what they pleased. But they were serving a purpose none of them had in mind.
James BoydAgain 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.
Who the Raiders Were
The Chaldeans are named first. They had been out of Israel's story for a very long time.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe 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.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe 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.
A King Who Would Not Bend
Jehoiakim's revolt was not courage. It was refusal to accept where his own conduct had landed him.
Leslie M. GrantFor 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.
Leslie M. GrantAll this trouble at once should have humbled Jehoiakim's heart before God, but we read of no change in the man's character.
Punishment From Another Direction
Babylon's king was occupied elsewhere, so the blow fell through other hands.
C. KnappAnd 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.
H. L. RossierNebuchadnezzar 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.
Exactly as the Prophets Had Said
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.
William KellyGod 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.
An Outline of Sound WordsThis 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.
Summary
- 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.