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The Histories · Old Testament

2 Chronicles 36

2 Chronicles 36: the last kings, the burning of the house and Cyrus's proclamation

General context

The people of the land make Jehoahaz the son of Josiah king; he is twenty-three and reigns three months. The king of Egypt deposes him, fines the land, makes his brother Eliakim king under the name Jehoiakim, and carries Jehoahaz to Egypt. Jehoiakim is twenty-five, reigns eleven years and does evil; Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon comes against him, binds him in fetters to carry him to Babylon, and takes vessels of the house of the Lord to his temple there. Jehoiachin is eight, reigns three months and ten days and does evil; at the year's end Nebuchadnezzar brings him to Babylon with the goodly vessels and makes his brother Zedekiah king. Zedekiah is twenty-one, reigns eleven years and does evil, ignores Jeremiah the prophet, and rebels against Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. The Lord sends messengers early and often out of compassion for his people and his dwelling, but they mock the messengers and misuse the prophets until wrath rises and there is no remedy. The king of the Chaldees kills young men in the sanctuary, spares no one, and takes all the vessels and treasures to Babylon; the house of God is burned, the wall broken down, the palaces burned, and the survivors carried to Babylon as servants until the kingdom of Persia, fulfilling Jeremiah's word that the land would enjoy its sabbaths for seventy years. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to accomplish Jeremiah's word, the Lord stirs Cyrus's spirit, and he proclaims in writing that the Lord God of heaven has charged him to build a house in Jerusalem, and that his people may go up.

Cited passages: 2 Chronicles 36:1, 2 Chronicles 36:2, 2 Chronicles 36:3, 2 Chronicles 36:4, 2 Chronicles 36:5, 2 Chronicles 36:6, 2 Chronicles 36:7, 2 Chronicles 36:9, 2 Chronicles 36:10, 2 Chronicles 36:11, 2 Chronicles 36:12, 2 Chronicles 36:13, 2 Chronicles 36:14, 2 Chronicles 36:15, 2 Chronicles 36:16, 2 Chronicles 36:17, 2 Chronicles 36:18, 2 Chronicles 36:19, 2 Chronicles 36:20, 2 Chronicles 36:21, 2 Chronicles 36:22, 2 Chronicles 36:23

2 Chronicles 36 (KJV)

1Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s stead in Jerusalem.

2Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

3And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

4And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

5Jehoiakim 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.

6Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.

7Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.

8Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his 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 Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

9Jehoiachin was eight years 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.

10And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

11Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

12And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord.

13And he also rebelled 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.

14Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.

15And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:

16But they mocked 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.

17Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.

18And all 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.

19And they burnt 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.

20And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

21To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

22Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

23Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.

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Historical context

Four kings follow Josiah. Jehoahaz is deposed by Egypt and Jehoiachin is taken to Babylon; Jehoiakim is bound in fetters to be carried to Babylon, but the chapter does not say he was taken. It records no death for Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin or Zedekiah. Eliakim is called Jehoahaz's brother, and Zedekiah is called Jehoiachin's brother; the text gives these relations without further genealogy. Jehoiachin's age is given as eight. Jeremiah is named three times: as the prophet Zedekiah ignored, and twice as the source of the word fulfilled by the exile and by Cyrus. The destroyer is called the king of the Chaldees, and no number of the dead or of the exiles is given. The seventy years are explained as the land keeping the sabbaths it had missed. Cyrus's proclamation is quoted, and the book ends inside it; Ezra opens with the same proclamation in slightly different wording, adding the instruction to build the house. The chapter gives no dates beyond regnal years and the first year of Cyrus. Only Jehoiakim receives a reference to the book of the kings; the others have no summary formula.

Cited passages: 2 Chronicles 36:3, 2 Chronicles 36:10, 2 Chronicles 36:6, 2 Chronicles 36:4, 2 Chronicles 36:9, 2 Chronicles 36:12, 2 Chronicles 36:21, 2 Chronicles 36:17, 2 Chronicles 36:23, Ezra 1:3, 2 Chronicles 36:22, 2 Chronicles 36:8

Literary context

The chapter accelerates. Four reigns pass in eleven verses, each with the same formula of age, years and evil, and each narrated more briefly, so that by Zedekiah the account has become a list of refusals: not humbled, rebelled, stiffened, hardened. The vessels of the house of the Lord leave in three stages, some under Jehoiakim, the goodly vessels under Jehoiachin, and all of them great and small at the end, before the house itself burns. The narrator's summary of cause turns on compassion: the Lord sends messengers early because he has compassion, and the king of the Chaldees has no compassion on young or old. The phrase till there was no remedy closes the possibility of return, and then the land's sabbaths reopen it as a period with an end. The book's last word belongs to a foreign king and is an invitation to go up rather than an account of anyone going, so Chronicles stops at an open door.

Cited passages: 2 Chronicles 36:5, 2 Chronicles 36:13, 2 Chronicles 36:7, 2 Chronicles 36:10, 2 Chronicles 36:18, 2 Chronicles 36:19, 2 Chronicles 36:15, 2 Chronicles 36:17, 2 Chronicles 36:16, 2 Chronicles 36:21, 2 Chronicles 36:23

Key moments

  1. Jehoahaz deposed (2 Chronicles 36:3). After three months the king of Egypt removes Jehoahaz and fines the land.
  2. Vessels to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:7). Nebuchadnezzar carries temple vessels to his own temple at Babylon.
  3. Zedekiah breaks his oath (2 Chronicles 36:13). Zedekiah rebels against the king who made him swear by God and hardens his heart.
  4. No remedy (2 Chronicles 36:16). The people mock God's messengers until wrath rises past cure.
  5. The house burned (2 Chronicles 36:19). The Chaldeans burn the house of God and the palaces and break down the wall.
  6. Seventy years of sabbaths (2 Chronicles 36:21). The desolate land keeps its sabbaths to fulfil Jeremiah's word.
  7. Cyrus's proclamation (2 Chronicles 36:23). Cyrus announces the Lord's charge to build a house in Jerusalem and invites the people to go up.

For reflection

The book ends not with the burning of the house but with a foreign king's proclamation and the words let him go up, before anyone has gone. Why might the account stop on an invitation rather than a return, and what does that leave with the reader?

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