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The Histories · Old Testament

2 Kings 25

2 Kings 25: Jerusalem burned, Zedekiah blinded, Gedaliah murdered, and Jehoiachin released

General context

In Zedekiah's ninth year Nebuchadnezzar and his host besiege Jerusalem. The siege lasts into the eleventh year, and famine leaves no bread. The city is broken up, the men of war flee by night, and the king goes toward the plain. The Chaldean army overtakes him near Jericho and brings him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where Zedekiah's sons are killed before his eyes, his eyes are put out, and he is carried to Babylon in fetters. In the fifth month Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, burns the house of the Lord, the king's house and every great house, and the army breaks down the walls. He carries away the people left in the city, leaving some of the poor as vinedressers and husbandmen. The Chaldees break up the brass pillars, bases and sea and take the brass and the gold and silver vessels to Babylon. Nebuzar-adan takes the chief priest Seraiah, the second priest Zephaniah, the doorkeepers, officers and sixty men of the land to Riblah, where the king of Babylon kills them. The narrator says Judah is carried out of its land. Nebuchadnezzar makes Gedaliah the son of Ahikam ruler over those who remain; at Mizpah he swears to the captains that they may safely serve Babylon. In the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, of the royal seed, kills Gedaliah and those with him, and all the people flee to Egypt. In the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity, Evil-merodach king of Babylon releases him from prison, speaks kindly, sets his throne above the other kings in Babylon, changes his prison garments, and gives him bread and a daily allowance for life.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 25:1, 2 Kings 25:2, 2 Kings 25:3, 2 Kings 25:4, 2 Kings 25:5, 2 Kings 25:6, 2 Kings 25:7, 2 Kings 25:8, 2 Kings 25:9, 2 Kings 25:10, 2 Kings 25:11, 2 Kings 25:12, 2 Kings 25:13, 2 Kings 25:16, 2 Kings 25:18, 2 Kings 25:19, 2 Kings 25:21, 2 Kings 25:22, 2 Kings 25:24, 2 Kings 25:25, 2 Kings 25:26, 2 Kings 25:27, 2 Kings 25:28, 2 Kings 25:29, 2 Kings 25:30

2 Kings 25 (KJV)

1And 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.

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

3And 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.

4And 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.

5And 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.

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

7And 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.

8And 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:

9And 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.

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

11Now 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.

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

13And 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.

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

15And 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.

16The 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.

17The 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.

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

19And 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:

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

21And 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.

22And 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.

23And 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.

24And 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.

25But 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.

26And 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.

27And 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;

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

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

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

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Historical context

The chapter is dense with dates: the siege begins in the ninth year, tenth month, tenth day of Zedekiah's reign; the famine is dated to the ninth day of the fourth month; Nebuzar-adan arrives in the fifth month, seventh day, which the narrator equates with Nebuchadnezzar's nineteenth year; Gedaliah is killed in the seventh month; Jehoiachin is released in the thirty-seventh year of his captivity. The text does not say how long after the fall Gedaliah's murder came, only the month. Zedekiah's judgment at Riblah is told without recorded speech; the killing of his sons before his eyes and his blinding are stated plainly. His death is not narrated; Jeremiah 52 adds that he stayed in prison until he died. Gedaliah is the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, the family that served Josiah in chapter 22, and Ishmael is of the seed royal; the narrator gives no motive for the killing. The people who flee to Egypt are all the people, both small and great, with the captains. The chapter ends not with Zedekiah but with Jehoiachin, the king taken in chapter 24, and the closing notice reports favour, a throne above other captive kings and a lifelong allowance, without saying anything of a return. The book gives no report of what became of the exiles in Babylon beyond this. Jeremiah 52 tells the same events, and Jeremiah 40 and 41 tell Gedaliah's story at greater length.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 25:1, 2 Kings 25:3, 2 Kings 25:8, 2 Kings 25:25, 2 Kings 25:27, 2 Kings 25:6, 2 Kings 25:7, 2 Kings 25:22, 2 Kings 22:12, 2 Kings 25:26, 2 Kings 24:15, 2 Kings 25:28, 2 Kings 25:30, Jeremiah 52:11, Jeremiah 41:2

Literary context

The chapter is told almost entirely by the narrator, with a single quoted speech, Gedaliah's oath of safety, which the next verse contradicts with his murder. Dates give the fall the form of a record rather than a story, and the pace slows only for the temple furnishings, where the narrator lists pots, shovels, snuffers and spoons and measures the pillars, so the reader sees Solomon's work broken in the same detail with which it was built. Zedekiah's story ends in darkness, sons killed before his eyes and then the eyes put out, and the narrator moves on without comment. The phrase so Judah was carried away out of their land matches the earlier verdict on Israel, closing the two kingdoms in the same words. The Gedaliah episode is a small repetition of the whole book, a ruler appointed, a promise of peace, a killing, a flight. The final scene reverses direction: after a chapter of taking away, a king of Babylon lifts up a head, changes garments, and gives bread continually. The book ends on that allowance, all the days of his life, without stating what it means for Judah.

Cited passages: 2 Kings 25:24, 2 Kings 25:25, 2 Kings 25:14, 2 Kings 25:17, 2 Kings 25:16, 2 Kings 25:7, 2 Kings 25:21, 2 Kings 17:23, 2 Kings 25:22, 2 Kings 25:26, 2 Kings 25:27, 2 Kings 25:29, 2 Kings 25:30

Key moments

  1. Famine in the besieged city (2 Kings 25:3). After a siege into the eleventh year, there is no bread for the people.
  2. Zedekiah overtaken at Jericho (2 Kings 25:5). The Chaldean army catches the fleeing king in the plains of Jericho and his army scatters.
  3. Sons killed, eyes put out (2 Kings 25:7). At Riblah Zedekiah's sons are killed before him, he is blinded and taken to Babylon in fetters.
  4. The house of the Lord burned (2 Kings 25:9). Nebuzar-adan burns the temple, the palace and every great house in Jerusalem.
  5. Judah carried out of its land (2 Kings 25:21). After the priests and officers are killed at Riblah, the narrator says Judah is carried away.
  6. Gedaliah killed at Mizpah (2 Kings 25:25). Ishmael of the royal seed kills Gedaliah and those with him, and the people flee to Egypt.
  7. Jehoiachin's head lifted up (2 Kings 25:27). Evil-merodach releases Jehoiachin from prison in the thirty-seventh year of his captivity.

For reflection

The book ends with Jehoiachin eating at the king of Babylon's table for the rest of his life, after a chapter of burning, blinding and deportation. What does it do to a reader that the last word of Kings is an allowance rather than a return?

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