2 Kings 25 - Fleming Don Bridgeway Bible - Commentary

2 Kings 25

¹ And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

² And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

³ And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

⁴ And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.

⁵ And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.

⁶ So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.

⁷ And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

⁸ And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem:

⁹ and he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire.

¹⁰ And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

¹¹ Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carry away.

¹² But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

¹³ And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.

¹⁴ And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.

¹⁵ And the firepans, and the bowls, and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away.

¹⁶ The two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

¹⁷ The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these had the second pillar with wreathen work.

¹⁸ And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:

¹⁹ and out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in the king's presence, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, which mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the city:

²⁰ and Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah:

²¹ and the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.

²² And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.

²³ And when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.

²⁴ And Gedaliah sware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you.

²⁵ But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah.

²⁶ And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldees.

²⁷ And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;

²⁸ and he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon;

²⁹ and changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread continually before him all the days of his life.

³⁰ And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.

2 Kings 25

In Egypt and Babylon (25:22-30)

Gedaliah was appointed governor of those who remained in Judah, and with Jeremiah’s support he followed a pro-Babylon policy. He took no action against Judah’s anti-Babylon military leaders who had escaped the Babylonians. Rather he encouraged them, along with others who had fled the country, to return and settle around Mizpah, north of Jerusalem (22-24; Jer 40:7-12).

Within a few months Gedaliah was murdered by the leaders of the anti-Babylon group. Fearing a revenge attack by Nebuchadnezzar, the remaining Judeans in the resettlement area fled for safety to Egypt, taking the protesting Jeremiah with them (25-26; Jer 40:13-43:7). It is believed that Jeremiah was stoned to death in Egypt by his fellow Judeans. The Babylonians, meanwhile, made their punishing raid on Judah as expected, and took captive any that they found (582 BC; Jer 52:30).

After all the centuries of God’s dealings with his people, most of them were now back in Chaldea (Babylon) from where Abraham had been called, and others were back in Egypt where their ancestors had been slaves. Yet God had not cast off his people. They received a sign of hope for the future when the Babylonians released Jehoiachin from prison and promoted him to a place of honour in the Babylonian palace (in 568 BC). God was still in charge of his people’s affairs, and one day a remnant would return to the homeland and rebuild the nation (27-30; cf. Jer 29:10-14).

Obadiah’s accusations against Edom

When Babylon attacked and destroyed Jerusalem in 587 BC, Edom joined in, welcoming the opportunity to enrich itself and to help wipe out what remained of the Israelite nation (Psa 137:7). The prophet Obadiah, apparently one of those left behind in Judah, announced God’s judgment on Edom for its hostility, particularly since Edom and Israel were brother nations (being descended from Esau and Jacob respectively) (Oba 1:10-14).

Ezekiel in Babylon

Among the important citizens of Jerusalem taken captive to Babylon in 597 BC (see 24:10-17) was the young priest Ezekiel. If he had hoped to return to Jerusalem to serve God in the temple, he was soon to be disappointed. Jeremiah wrote to the exiles to tell them plainly that they would probably spend the remainder of their lives in Babylon (Jer 29:1-14). Ezekiel’s work for God was to be as a prophet in Babylon, not as a priest in Jerusalem. He began his prophetic ministry five years after his arrival in Babylon, and continued it for at least twenty-two years (Eze 1:2; Eze 29:17).

In the early days of his preaching, Ezekiel repeatedly condemned the sins of the citizens of Jerusalem. He made it clear that the suffering of the people, both those in Jerusalem and those in Babylon, was a fitting judgment from God. He warned that for those left in Jerusalem worse was yet to come. The city would be destroyed and the temple burnt when the Babylonians invaded the city for the third and final time (Eze 6:1-7; Eze 7:20-27; Eze 11:9-10; Eze 21:21-22).

At first the exiles rejected Ezekiel’s message (Eze 12:27-28). A few years later, when news reached them that Jerusalem had fallen as Ezekiel had predicted, they realized that Ezekiel was a true prophet who knew God’s mind. They began to listen to his messages again, though few genuinely changed their ways (Eze 33:21; Eze 33:30-33).

Nevertheless, Ezekiel was encouraged to move ahead with the next and most important part of his ministry, which was to prepare God’s people for the new era that lay ahead. He looked for the day when God’s people would be cleansed from their sins and worship him in spirit and in truth.

The long career of Daniel

Daniel was among the first citizens of Jerusalem to be taken captive to Babylon. (This was in 605 BC; see 24:1a; Dan 1:1-6.) He was probably only a teenager when he entered the Babylonian court to be trained as an administrator. During his long career he held some of the most important positions in Babylon’s government. He outlasted the Babylonian Empire, and was still alive in the third year of the Persian king Cyrus, who had conquered Babylon in 539 BC (Dan 10:1). He therefore lived to see the first of the Jews return to Jerusalem to rebuild the nation (2Ch 36:22-23).

The first half of the book of Daniel records stories of Daniel and his friends that illustrate the overruling control of God in the lives of his people. The second half shows, through a series of unusual visions, how God would continue this government in the affairs of his people: first, during the confusion and conflict that would follow the period of Persian rule; second, during the events of Christ’s ministry and death; and third, during the final great events connected with the return of the Messiah and the end of the world’s history.