I will do this because they have abandoned me and sacrificed to other gods in order to make me furious. Therefore, my burning anger directed at this place will never be extinguished.’ ”
During Jehoiakim’s reign King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked ⌞Judah⌟, and Jehoiakim became subject to him for three years. Then Jehoiakim turned against him and rebelled.
Without a doubt, this happened to Judah because the Lord had commanded it to happen. He wanted to remove the people of Judah from his sight because of Manasseh’s sins—everything he had done,
Zedekiah also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had made Zedekiah swear an oath of allegiance to him in God’s name. But Zedekiah became so stubborn and so impossible to deal with that he refused to turn back to the Lord God of Israel.
“Ask these rebellious people, ‘Don’t you know what this means?’ Tell them, ‘The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and captured its king and its leaders. He brought them home with him to Babylon.
Fire has spread from the vine’s main branch. Fire has destroyed its fruit. It no longer has any strong branches that could be used as a king’s scepter. This is a funeral song. It is to be used as a funeral song.
But King Sihon of Heshbon wouldn’t allow us to pass through. The Lord your God made him stubborn and overconfident in order to hand him over to you, as he has now done.