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25:1 Yerushalem’s defeat
25 In the ninth year of Tsedkiyyah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the Babylonian King Nevukadnetstsar brought all his army to Yerushalem. They made their camp outside the city, and then built attack structures all around it 2 and besieged the city for two years. 3 The people didn’t have enough to eat and the famine became severe. 4 Then the Babylonians began breaking into the city, but the local fighters sneaked out at night through a gate between two walls near the king’s garden and escaped down to the desert plain. 5 However, the Babylonian soldiers chased after the king and they overtook him on the Yericho plains, and his army scattered. 6 King Tsedkiyyah was captured and taken to the Babylonian king at Rivlah, where he was sentenced— 7 He was forced to watch as his sons were slaughtered, then his eyes were gouged out and he was taken to Babylon restrained with two bronze chains.
25:8 The demolition of the temple
8 On the seventh day of the fifth month of Babylonian King Nevukadnetstsar’s nineteenth year as king, his servant Nevuzaradan, who was his chief bodyguard, went to Yerushalem. 9 He set fire to Yahweh’s temple and the palace, and all of Yerushalem’s houses, so no important building remained. 10 Then the army under the command of Nevuzaradan tore down the walls surrounding Yerushalem. 11 He exiled all the rest of the people from the city, all the surrendered soldiers, and the rest of the population, 12 but he let some of the poorest people remain on the land to look after the vineyards and as farmers.
13 The Babylonians smashed the bronze pillars and the bases and the bronze ‘sea’ from the temple, and took all the bronze to Babylon. 14 They also took the pots and shovels, the snuffers and spoons, and all the bronze utensils used in the temple activities. 15 They took the fire-pans and the gold and silver bowls. 16 The bronze from the two pillars, the ‘sea’, and the bases that had been made for the temple by Shelomoh (Solomon) was too heavy to be weighed. 17 Each pillar was over eight metres high, plus a bronze capital on top that was over a metre high. They were decorated with latticework with bronze pomegranates all around.
25:18 The people of Yehudah get exiled to Babylon
18 Nevuzaradan exiled to Babylon the high priest Serayah, the second priest Tsefanyah, and the three temple entrance guards. 19 From the city, he took one official who was a military inspector, five of the king’s advisors, and the army commander’s secretary in charge of recruitment, plus sixty other important men. 20 Nevuzaradan took them all to the Babylonian king at Rivlah 21 in the Hamat region, but the king had them all executed there.
25:22 The governor there to Yehudah Gidaliyas www
So the large majority of the people of Yehudah were exiled out of their country. 22 From those who the Babylonian King Nevukadnetstsar allowed to remain, he appointed Gedalyah (son of Shafan’s son Ahikam) over them. 23 When all the army captains and their men heard that the Babylonian king had appointed Gedalyah, and they came to Gedaliah at Mitspah. This was Netanyah’s son Yishmael, Kareah’s son Yohanan, Tanhumet’s son Serayah the Netofatite, and the Maakatite’s son Yaazanyah,along with their men. 24 Gedaliah made an agreement with them and their men, telling them, “Don’t be afraid of the Babylonian officials. Stay in the land and serve the Babylonian king, and he’ll be good to you.” 25 But in the seventh month, Yishmael (the son of Netanyah, the son of Elishama who was a descendant of King David) brought ten men with him and attacked Gedalyah, and killed him, along with the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mitspah. 26 After that, all the people, with or without any official status, along with the army commanders fled to Egypt because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do to them.
25:27 Yehoyakin gets released from prison
27 Thirty-seven years after Yehudah’s King Yehoyakin had been exiled to Babylon, Evil-Merodak had just become the new king of Babylon and he released Yehoyakin from prison on the 27th of the twelfth month. 28 He spoke kindly to Yehoyakin and honoured him more than the other kings who’d been taken to Babylon. 29 He was allowed to change out of his prison clothes, and was permitted to eat at the king’s table for the rest of his life, 30 as well as being given a daily monetary allowance.
25:17 Variant note: אמה: (x-qere) ’אַמּוֹת֒’: lemma_520 a n_1.1 morph_HNcfpa id_12YoY אַמּוֹת֒
Daniel 1; 2 Kings 24-25; 2 Chronicles 36; Jeremiah 39; 52
One of the most significant events in the story of the Old Testament is the exile of Judah to Babylon in 586 B.C. This event–actually the third in a series of exiles to Babylon (the others occurring in 605 B.C. and 597 B.C.)–precipitated several crises in the nation and in Judaism. The northern kingdom of Israel had already been exiled to Assyria over a century earlier in 722 B.C. (2 Kings 15:29; 17:1-6; 1 Chronicles 5:26; see also “Israelites Are Exiled to Assyria” map), and in some ways that exile was even more devastating. Nevertheless, the Temple of the Lord remained intact in Jerusalem as a place where the faithful could continue to offer their sacrifices. With the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord at the hands of the Babylonians, however, sacrifices could no longer be offered at the Tabernacle or Temple of the Lord (Leviticus 17:2-4; Deuteronomy 12:5-7), and the Lord’s promise to provide a land for his people and a descendant on the throne of David no doubt seemed abandoned. At the same time, however, the Judean exiles were allowed to maintain their religious traditions in Babylon, and many even began to thrive there, including Daniel and his friends, who served at the royal court (Daniel 1; see also “The Land of Exile” map). One of the last kings of Babylon expanded Babylonia further by capturing the desert oases of Dumah, Tema, Dedan, and Yathrib (see “Oases of the Arabian Desert” map), but eventually the Median Empire to the north merged with the Persian Empire to the southeast and conquered the Babylonian Empire. King Cyrus of Persia then decreed that the exiled Judeans, now called “Jews,” could return to their homeland if they desired (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1-2; see also “Jews Return from Exile” map).
The Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, where all Israelite males were commanded to offer sacrifices to the Lord (Exodus 23:14-19; Deuteronomy 16:16-17), underwent several stages of reconstruction and development over hundreds of years. The first Temple was built by King Solomon to replace the aging Tabernacle, and it was constructed on a threshing floor on high ground on the north side of the city (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21). Hundreds of years later King Hezekiah expanded the platform surrounding the Temple. When Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 586 B.C., the Temple was completely destroyed (2 Kings 25:1-21; 2 Chronicles 36:17-21; Jeremiah 39:1-10; 52:1-30). It was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after a group of Jews returned to Judea from exile in Babylon (Ezra 1:5-6:15; Nehemiah 7:5-65). Herod the Great completely rebuilt and expanded the Temple once again around 20 B.C., making it one of the largest temples in the Roman world. Jesus’ first believers often met together in Solomon’s Colonnade, a columned porch that encircled the Temple Mount, perhaps carrying on a tradition started by Jesus himself (John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12). But Herod’s Temple did not last long: After many Jews revolted against Rome, the Romans eventually recaptured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple in A.D. 70.
2 Kings 23:19-25:30; Jeremiah 39
The final collapse of the southern kingdom of Judah as an independent nation came at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 B.C. Judah had already become a vassal of Egypt in 609 B.C. when King Josiah was killed by Pharaoh Neco at Megiddo (see “Josiah Battles Neco” map). Then in 605 B.C., after Egypt and Assyria were defeated by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, Judah’s vassal loyalty transferred to Babylon. At that time, some of the Judean nobility were sent into exile, including Daniel and his friends (Daniel 1:1-7). Several years later in 597 B.C. a second exile occurred in retaliation for King Jehoiakim’s refusal to continue paying tribute to Babylon, and this likely included the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:1-3). Finally, in 586 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar conquered many of the fortified towns throughout Judah and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple after King Zedekiah refused to submit to his Babylonian overlords any longer. Nebuchadnezzar began this campaign into Judah by heading south along the Great Trunk Road and dividing his forces near Aphek, sending some of them to Jerusalem from the north and others from the southwest. At some point during his siege of Jerusalem, King Hophra of Egypt advanced toward Judah to support Judah’s rebellion against Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar lifted the siege to confront Hophra (Jeremiah 37:5-8). It is unclear exactly what transpired between Hophra’s forces and Nebuchadnezzar’s forces, but apparently Hophra’s forces returned to Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar’s forces returned to finish besieging Jerusalem. When the Babylonians finally breached the main northern wall, it became clear that all hope was lost, and King Zedekiah and his sons fled on horseback through a gate at the southeastern corner of Jerusalem (see “Jerusalem during the Early Old Testament” map). They followed the Ascent of Adummim toward Jericho, perhaps seeking to escape to Ammon, but the Babylonians captured Zedekiah and his sons on the plains of Jericho and sent them to Riblah. There they killed Zedekiah’s sons, blinded Zedekiah, and sent him to Babylon to die in exile. After completely destroying Jerusalem and the Temple, the Babylonians sent many other Judean nobles and their families to Babylon (see “Judah Is Exiled to Babylon” map) and appointed a Judean named Gedaliah as governor over the region at Mizpah, thus bringing an end to the independent kingdom of Judah. Around this time it also appears that the Edomites took advantage of Judah’s vulnerable situation and captured territory for themselves in the Negev. In response, the prophets Obadiah and Ezekiel pronounced blistering curses upon the Edomites (Obadiah 1:1-21; Ezekiel 25:12-14).
2KI Intro C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25