The Fall of Jerusalem (1 of 2)

In context

Zedekiah, the son of Josiah whom Nebuchadnezzar put on the throne, rebels against Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar’s army surrounds Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:17–25:1). When Pharaoh’s army comes out of Egypt, the Chaldeans (the Babylonians) pull back, but Jeremiah says they will return and burn the city (Jeremiah 37:5–10). Seized at the gate as a deserter, Jeremiah is beaten and imprisoned; the king brings him out in secret and asks, “Is there any word from Yahweh?” and Jeremiah answers, “There is” (37:13–17).

It is a hard reading: after a long siege and famine the city is broken into, and Zedekiah, caught near Jericho, sees his sons killed before his eyes are put out (2 Kings 25:3–7). About 586 BC Nebuzaradan burns the Lord’s house and every great house in Jerusalem and breaks up the bronze Solomon had made (25:8–17). Chronicles says the land lay desolate “to fulfill seventy years,” as the Lord had said through Jeremiah (2 Chronicles 36:21).

Gedaliah, Shaphan’s grandson, is made governor at Mizpah and is murdered there (2 Kings 25:22–25). 2 Kings ends with King Jehoiachin, thirty-seven years a captive, released from prison by the king of Babylon, and he “ate bread before him continually” (25:27–30), and Chronicles ends with Cyrus of Persia telling the Lord’s people, “let him go up” (2 Chronicles 36:22–23).