II Kings 25, To Babylon

It is 588 BC. Judah has been overrun by the Babylonians. King Zedekiah is rebelling against the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. This is not a good idea.

2 Kings 25:1-7, Zedekiah captured, sons killed

So in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

By the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah, but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him.

They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar moves quickly to put down Zedekiah's revolt. Archaeology suggests that Nebuchadnezzar advanced on the city from the southwest, via the fortified town of Lachish. From this period, archaeologists have recovered, in Lachish, a large collection of texts, sometimes called the Lachish Letters. 

After months of siege, the city is in dire straits.  The king and his army attempt to break out of the siege but are captured.  The king is brutally punished for his rebellion: his sons are murdered before his eyes (thus there will be no dynasty) and then his eyes are put out. 

We are given an exact date of the conquest, unusual for this book. This precise dating occurs in the next paragraph also.

There is considerable overlap between this account and that of Jeremiah 52.

2 Kings 25:8-12, Fire in Jerusalem

On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.

The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had gone over to the king of Babylon. But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

Nebuzaradan sets fire to Jerusalem, breaks down the walls and transports out most of the populace.  Only the unimportant poor are left.

2 Kings 25:13-17, Temple destroyed

The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the LORD and they carried the bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls--all that were made of pure gold or silver. The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the LORD, was more than could be weighed. Each pillar was twenty-seven feet high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was four and a half feet high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar.

Solomon's beautiful temple is looted.  The items in it, including its large Sea, are taken away to Babylon. The First Temple period, initiated by the reigns of David and Solomon, is over.

Compare this destruction with the statements of YHWH at the dedication of Solomon's temple in II Chronicles 7: 19-22. The curses there, due to rejection of YHWH, have come to fruition.

2 Kings 25:18-21, Priests and leaders executed

The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers. Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men and five royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and sixty of his men who were found in the city. Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.

 

The leaders, including the priests and doorkeepers to the temple, are taken away and executed.  In summary, "Judah went into captivity."  This event has been remembered with a deep feeling of loss for over two thousand years.

2 Kings 25:22-24, Gedaliah approinted

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to be over the people he had left behind in Judah. When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah--Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, and their men.

Gedaliah took an oath to reassure them and their men. "Do not be afraid of the Babylonian officials," he said. "Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you."

Gedaliah, appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, promises to take care of the people, as long as they settle down and do what they are told.

2 Kings 25:25-26, Assassination

In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated Gedaliah and also the men of Judah and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. At this, all the people from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians.

However, Ishmael, one of royal blood still living in the region, assassinated Gedaliah.  Then, rightly fearing vengeance from the east, they flee to Egypt. (As Hubbard points out, one of the last events of the kingdom of Judah involves officials running back to Egypt, the country that Israelites had left many centuries before.)

This episode is covered in more detail in Jeremiah 40-43.

2 Kings 25:27-30, Jehoiachin released

In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month.  He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king's table. Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.

Meanwhile, Jehoiachin, having been captured and taken to Babylon in the previous chapter, is released from prison and allowed to eat at the king's table. This occurs on the death of Nebuchadnezzar.

And thus ends the scroll of Kings.  Like the scroll of Judges, it includes a lot of sad tales of violence and depravity, and universal stubborn rebellion against YHWH. But, as possibly hinted at in these final verses, Jewish life will eventually improve in Babylon. Indeed, sometime later, the people will return to Jerusalem. This later return, The Second Temple Period, will be covered in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.