Nebuchadnezzar’s Campaigns Against Judah
25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign.
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon placed two sons of Josiah on the throne, with both swearing loyalty to him, but they rebelled. These acts were not only a rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, but it was rebellion against God Himself. Jeremiah had warned both kings to submit to Babylon. Since these kings refused to listen to God’s prophet, Nebuchadnezzar either killed or took captive the nobility of Judah to stop any further uprisings.
2 The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.
Hezekiah’s tunnel supplied water to the city for 2.5 years. Then, their food ran out.
3 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.
Just as Jeremiah predicted, the Babylonian siege caused many of the Jerusalem citizens to starve to death. Starvation is one of the worst ways to die. The Book of Lamentations gives some of the details of this judgment.
4 The enemy broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.
Jeremiah did not tickle any ears. He predicted the fall of Jerusalem. His own people considered him a traitor for telling them the truth.
5 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, and his entire army deserted him.
King Zedekiah was alone without an army. His royal body guard deserted him.
6 They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where he passed sentence on him.
Riblah was Nebuchadnezzar’s military headquarters during the Jewish campaign. According to the Latish Letters, Nebuchadnezzar was also conducting campaigns against Tyre and other Judean cities.
Jeremiah prophesied to Zedekiah that he would see Nebuchadnezzar. This prophecy was fulfilled, as Zedekiah saw Nebuchadnezzar as a royal prisoner of war.
7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.
Ezekiel prophesied that King Zedekiah would not see Babylon. Zedekiah was blinded and taken to Babylon, but he never saw the city. Both prophecies were accurately fulfilled.
It is interesting to note that King Zedekiah was deceived by false prophets, but he would not listen to God’s prophet. His judgment was that he was carried away into the Babylonian Captivity as a blind man. There was a Babylonian monument that was found with an engraving depicting the eyes of a captive king being put out.
8 On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.
General Nebuzaradan was in charge of destroying Jerusalem. It was dismantled and destroyed in a very orderly and efficient matter.
9 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.
General Nebuzaradan started his demolition by burning down Jerusalem’s most important buildings. The city was burned and leveled to such an extent that Nehemiah returned seventy years later and saw the rebuilding of the city as a hopeless case. The false prophets had insisted that God would not let Jerusalem be destroyed. They were wrong and Jeremiah was right.
10 The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.
Next, the walls were torn down. This eliminated the city’s main defense.
11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.
Third, the remainder of the skilled craftsman were forcibly marched to Babylon.
12 But he left behind some of the poor of the land and gave them fields and vineyards.
Only the poor and unskilled were left behind to tend the vineyards and farm the land. Babylon still wanted to extract agricultural tribute.
13 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the Lord’s temple, as well as the movable stands and the big bronze basin called the “The Sea.” They took the bronze to Babylon.
Fourth, valuable plunder from the temple was taken to Babylon.
14 They also took the pots, shovels, trimming shears, pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests.
These temple utensils would be kept in Babylonian storage for seventy years.
It is interesting to note that Jerusalem means “city of peace,” but it has never been a city of peace. It has been destroyed about twenty-seven times. Each time the city was rebuilt again on the rubble of the former destroyed city. The modern tours advertise that one can “walk where Jesus walked,” but this is false advertising. Jesus walked about 25-45 foot below the modern Jerusalem.
15 The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers and basins.
These utensils would later lead to Babylon’s downfall as a world power. King Belshazzar would later bring these Jewish temple utensils out of storage and blaspheme Jehovah. The Medes and Persians would attack that very night and bring down the mighty nation of Babylon.
16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple—including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” and the movable stands—was too heavy to be weighed.
The bronze basin was also taken, but it was too heavy to be weighed.
17 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.
The two pillars of the temple were taken off to Babylon.
18 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers.
Fifth, the leaders of Israel were taken out from among the poor. Seraiah was the grandson of Hilkiah and an ancestor of Ezra. Seraiah was executed, but his sons were deported to Babylon.
19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city.
These names of men were all of the leaders of Jerusalem.
20 Nebuzaradan, captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
Riblah was 180 miles away from Jerusalem. This was Nebuchadnezzar’s fortified city which was used as his base of operations.
21 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.
The Jewish leaders were executed, so that Judah would have no leaders to rebel against Babylon. Lamentations recorded the funeral dirge song of Jeremiah over this destruction of Jerusalem.
22 Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor over the people whom he allowed to remain in the land of Judah.
Nebuchadnezzar wanted to maintain political stability, so he appointed a governor from an important Judean family. Gedaliah was the grandson of Shaphan, who was Josiah’s secretary. Gedaliah’s father was a supporter of the prophet Jeremiah.
23 All of the officers of the Judahite army and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to govern. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite.
Mizpah became the new capital of Judah. Most of the cities of Judah were destroyed, so Mizpah may have been the largest city left inhabitable. Gedaliah’s seal has been found by archaeologists.
24 Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. He said, “You don’t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.”
Gedaliah knew from Jeremiah’s prophecies that the Babylonian Captivity was part of God’s plan. Gedaliah and the prophet Jeremiah informed the Jewish citizens to settle down and submit to Babylon. The people should have listened to them. Instead, they assassinated the governor Gedaliah.
25 But in the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.
Ishmael was a member of the line of David. He may have wanted to reestablish the Davidic line by assassination. Gedaliah had been warned of this possibility by Jeremiah, but had refused to take it seriously. Gedaliah’s associates were also slain.
26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.
Most of the people feared that Babylon would return and kill everyone in the city for the assassination of their vassal king, so they fled to Egypt. A great company fled there and became Jewish colonists. Jeremiah was forced to go with this group.
27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.
Evil-Merodach replaced his father as the next King of Babylon. To gain favor with the Jews, he released King Jehoiachin from prison.
28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
The Davidic line had survived the Babylonian Captivity. The promises of the Messiah were still in effect. There was still hope for Israel.
29 Jehoiachin took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.
Jehoiachin ate at the king’s table for the remainder of his life. Daniel most likely had a lot to do with this special treatment of the Davidic line, as this special act protected the Davidic line. There is a Babylonian tablet that lists the name of Jehoiachin, King of Judah, as one of the captives being fed by the Babylonians. The name of Jehoiachin was also found on a seal on a jar handle excavated at Kirjath-sepher.
30 He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died.
The book of 2 Kings opened with Elijah being carried away to heaven and ended with Judah in captivity to a foreign nation. Israel failed to keep their part of the conditional Mosaic Covenant, but God did not. He preserved the messianic line through all of the turmoil, even though Satan attempted to destroy it. This book concludes with kindness being shown to this last descendant of David who had grown old in a Babylonian prison.