Fall and Captivity of Judah.2 Kings 25:1-12
The Decline and Fall of Israel and Judah
INTRODUCTION
The Second Book of Kings is a continuation of the First. It records the reigns of fifteen kings in Judah and of eleven kings in Israel. In Judah the dynasty of David continued to the end, while in Israel there were nine changes of dynasty.
The northern kingdom maintained an unbroken course of idolatry, until the nation was ripe for destruction. The end came in 722 B.C., when Samaria was taken by the Assyrians. Judah continued her course for nearly 150 years longer. But in spite of the efforts of prophets and good kings, the tide of idolatry could not be stayed, and Jerusalem fell before the Babylonians, 586 B.C. Nothing but the Exile could avail to purify the nation and restore the spirit of true worship.
II. FROM THE FALL OF SAMARIA TO THE FALL OF JERUSALEM,
5. The Fall of Jerusalem, 2Ki_24:10-20; 2Ki_25:1-30
59. What happened to the Temple and its furnishings?
FALL AND CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH
Now in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he with all his army, against Jerusalem, and camped against it and built siege works surrounding it.
The city came under siege [for nearly two years] until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine [caused by the siege] was severe in the city; there was no food for the people of the land.
Then the city [wall] was broken into [and conquered]; all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans (Babylonians) were all around the city. And they went by way of the Arabah (the plain of the Jordan).
The army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Then his entire army was dispersed from him.
So they seized the king (Zedekiah) and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah [on the Orontes River], and sentence was passed on him.
They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him [hand and foot] with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon. [Jer_34:3; Eze_12:13]
On the seventh day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
He burned the house (temple) of the LORD, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.
All the army of the Chaldeans (Babylonians) who were with the captain of the bodyguard tore down the walls around Jerusalem.
Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard deported [into exile] the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had joined the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.
But the captain of the bodyguard left some of the unimportant and poorest people of the land to be vineyard workers and farmers.
FALL AND CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH
THE CAPTIVITY MADE COMPLETE
As the final catastrophe approaches, the historian becomes more minute in his dates, marking the month and the day. From Eze_24:1 we gather that on the very day when the foe made his appearance before Jerusalem, the fact was revealed to Ezekiel in Babylon, and the fate of the city made clear. Jeremiah besought Zedekiah to submit, but to no purpose, Jer_38:17. The siege lasted eighteen months, and its calamities may be gathered from Lam_2:20-21; Lam_4:3-20. Finally famine triumphed, Lam_4:8; Lam_4:10; Eze_5:10. A third of the population perished of hunger and plague, Eze_5:12.
Such is the divine judgment upon sin. God pleads long with man, but if man will not turn, then God whets His sword, and becomes terrible in His retribution. Amid all this catastrophe, however, we recall the tears of the book of Lamentations, like those of Jesus afterward. There is that in God which sorrows as He chastises, and causes Him to say, “How shall I make thee as Admah, and set thee as Zeboim?” Deu_29:23; Hos_11:8. Notice how, in putting out the eyes of Zedekiah, two prophecies which appeared to be contradictory were reconciled and fulfilled, Jer_32:5; Jer_34:3; and Eze_12:13.
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