The Second Book of the Chronicles
2 Chronicles 36
Chapter XXXVI · Vol. II, pp. 888–890
1 Jehoahaz succeeding, is deposed by Pharaoh, and carried into Egypt. 5 Jehoiakim reigning ill, is carried bound into Babylon. 9 Jehoiachin succeeding, reigneth ill, and is brought into Babylon. 11 Zedekiah succeeding, reigneth ill, despiseth the prophets, and rebelleth against Nebuchadnezzar. 14 Jerusalem, for the sins of the priests and the people, is wholly destroyed. 22 The proclamation of Cyrus for building the temple.
1 Then the people of the land took aJehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem.
a Or, Shallum, 1 Ch.3.15. Je.22.11. 2 Ki.23.30-34.
2 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
3 And the king of Egypt bput him down1 at Jerusalem, and condemned2 the land in an hundred talents of silver[≈ 3.4 tonnes · 3.4 tons · silver worth ≈ US$5.9 million], and a talent of 3gold[≈ 34 kg · 75 lb · gold worth ≈ US$4.5 million].
b Heb. removed him, 2 Ki.23.33. Eze.19.3,4.
1 Dethroned him for some cause not recorded.—C.
2 Heb. mulcted.
3 i.e. £37,693, 15s. sterling.
4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took cJehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.4
4 Immediately after the battle of Megiddo Pharaoh-Necho continued his march against the king of Assyria. The Jews were thus left to themselves, and they placed Jehoahaz on the throne. His reign was very short, but it was very wicked. Instead of imitating the noble example of his father, he gave way to the follies and vices of the worst of his predecessors, 2 Ki. 23. 32. Necho returned in three months from his victorious campaign. Encamping for a time at Riblah, on the northern border of Canaan, he gave orders to dethrone Jehoahaz, probably because he had not himself nominated him; and then he placed Eliakim, another son of Josiah, on the vacant throne. The change of name to Jehoiakim was the badge of a tributary prince; he became the vassal of Necho.—P.
5 Jehoiakimd was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.
6 Against him ecame up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters,5 to carry him to Babylon.
e 2 Ki.24.1,2. Je.22.18,19; 36.29-31. Eze.19.5-9.
5 Or, chains.
7 Nebuchadnezzarf also carried off the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
f 2 Ki.24.13. Da.1.1,2; 5.3.
8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and ghis abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah: and hJehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
9 Jehoiachini was eight years6 old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
A.M. 3394. B.C. 610.
i 2 Ki.24.8-16.
6 In 2 Ki. 24. 8 he is said to have been eighteen years old when he ascended the throne; and the Syriac and Arabic versions have eighteen, as likewise have several MSS. of this verse. The statement of eight years in the text is accordingly pronounced a transcriber's error; it may, however, be as readily the error of our own ignorance of all the circumstances; as he may have been associated in the government even at eight, for some political purpose, and come finally to the sole possession at eighteen.—C.
10 And when the year7 was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon,8 with the goodly vessels9 of the house of the LORD, and made kZedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.1
7 Heb. at the return of the year.
8 B.C. 599.
9 Heb. vessels of desire.
k Or, Mattaniah, his uncle, 2 Ki.24.17. Je.37.1.
1 Jehoiachin's government did not satisfy the Babylonian monarch. Perhaps he may have aimed at independence, or he may have attempted to negotiate with Egypt. He was removed to Babylon after a reign of only three months.—P.
11 Zedekiahl was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and mhumbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the LORD.
13 And he also nrebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart, from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.
14 Moreover, all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed overy much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
15 Andp the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers,2 rising3 up betimes,4 and sending; because he had qcompassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place:
p Je.25.3,4; 26.5; 35.15; 44.4.
2 Heb. by the hand of his messengers.
3 God is said to arise, when he puts forth any act of mercy or judgment, Ps.3.7; 7.6; 44.26. 'His rising up betimes and sending,' signifies the early notice of impending calamities, which he always sent by his prophets.—C.
4 That is, continually and carefully.
q 2 Ki.13.23. Ju.10.16. Ho.11.8.
16 But they rmocked5 the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.s
r ch.30.10. Je.5.12,13; xi. xviii. xx. xxiii. xxvi. xxxvi.-xxxviii. Eze.11.3; 12.22; 20.49; 33.30. Mat.21.35,36; 23.31,37. 1 Th.2.16.
s Heb. healing.
5 Mocking, in the lips of infidelity and licentiousness, is the invariable substitute for argument. When the reprover can be made ridiculous, the reproof is held contemptible. This cancer of the heart, the prophet pronounces incurable; it notes a 'vessel of wrath,' self-fitted for destruction.—C.
17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men6 with the sword in the house of their sanctuary,7 and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.
A.M. 3405. B.C. 599.
6 2 Ki.25.1-10,18-22. Je.52.4-17; xxxix. with Le.26.14-39. De.28.15,68; 29.18-28; 30.18; 31.16-18; 32.15-28.
7 The temple was a place of great strength, and had been garrisoned as the chief or last place of defence.—C.
18 And tall the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.
19 And they uburnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
20 And them that had escaped from the sword8 carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants xto him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia;
21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of yJeremiah, until the land zhad enjoyed her sabbaths:9 for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.1
y Je.25.9-12; 29.10. Da.9.2.
z Le.26.34-43.
9 The land was entitled to a sabbatical year, Le. 25. 4, and this, it would appear, the Jews had not conceded. They were accordingly threatened by Jeremiah (25. 9-12; 29. 10) with a captivity of seventy years—an emblematic number—seven for the division of time, ten for the division of property.—Note, 'The days of our years are threescore years and ten,' and are they not the days of our spiritual captivity? Ro. 7. 24. But we have a greater than Cyrus, who has proclaimed 'deliverance to the captives' (Lu. 4. 18), and enriched the poor in spirit by his heavenly gifts, Ezr.1.5. Mat.5.3. Ep.4.8.—C.
1 The commencement of the 'threescore and ten years' was in B.C. 607, and its close in B.C. 536.—P.
22 Now,a in the first year2 of Cyrus king of Persia, (that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of bJeremiah might be accomplished,) cthe LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made da proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
Notes
[Ver. 6. It was in the third year of Jehoiakim's reign that Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, Da. 1. 1, and put fetters on the king. At first it was the intention of the conqueror to take Jehoiakim to Babylon, but for some reason he changed his purpose, and restored the crown to him. Many Jews of high rank were at that time taken captive, and among them was the prophet Daniel, Da. 1. 1-7. A large proportion of the treasures and sacred vessels of the temple were also taken and placed in the great temple of Babylon. Jehoiakim became tributary to Nebuchadnezzar for three years. He then, taking advantage of some troubles in Assyria, ventured to rebel; Judea was invaded, Jerusalem captured, Jehoiakim slain, and his son Jehoiachin placed on the throne. P.]
Ver. 17. [The details of the terrible sufferings to which the people of Jerusalem were exposed during the long siege, which is only just referred to in this passage, may be learned by a careful study of the prophecies of Jeremiah and the history of Josephus. The siege lasted two years. It has been ever since regarded as the darkest period of Jewish history; and is still commemorated by a fast. Famine and pestilence committed frightful ravages in the city. Jeremiah was in prison, but received a daily supply of bread by order of the king, Je. 37. 21; 38. 9. The children died of hunger in the streets. Parents devoured the flesh of their own children, Eze. 5. 10. At length the enemy effected an entrance; Zedekiah with the royal family escaped in the night, fled through the wilderness, but were captured at Jericho. The king's fate was a cruel one. Jerusalem and its temple were completely destroyed. The captivity dates from the third year of Jehoiakim, B.C. 607, nineteen years previous to the final siege and destruction of Jerusalem. P.]
Reflections.—For the transgressions of a land many and unprofitable are the princes of it. Quickly do things ripen for the ruin of nations when their day of punishment is at hand. But to what obstinate and aggravated wickedness are they permitted to arrive before the Lord measures his righteous justice upon them! None are usually more deeply involved in it than the rulers in church and state: and none share more of their contempt, hatred, and persecution than faithful ministers. But the righteous Lord at last marks their sins in their punishments; and makes up the loss of his honour, which he ought to have had from them, in the form or duration of his executed judgments. And yet in wrath he remembers mercy. Strangely he preserves his people's property for them against their return, even when they have provoked him to cast them out of it. In his providence he exactly adheres to his word. Nor will he, in his pardoning goodness, contend for ever, even where his honour requires him to contend long.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.