2 Chronicles

LAST KINGS OF JUDAH

Jehoahaz of Judeh (609)

The nation’s people took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem in succession to his father.

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king and reigned for three months in Jerusalem.

The king of Egypt took him prisoner and made the people of Judah pay , pounds of silver and pounds of gold as tribute.

The king of Egypt then made Eliakim, brother of Jehoahaz, king of Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took his brother Jehoahaz to Egypt.

Jehoiakim of Judah (609-598)

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king and reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord his God.

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked him, put him in chains, and carried him off to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar also carried some of the house’s treasures to Babylon and put them in his palace.

The rest of the history of Jehoiakim, the disgusting things he did, and those discovered to his discredit are recorded in the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him.

Jehoiachin of Judah (598-597)

Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.

When spring came, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and took him to Babylon as a prisoner, with the temple’s treasures, and made Zedekiah, his brother, king of Judah and Jerusalem in his place.

Zadekiah (597-587)

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king and reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem.

He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord his God. He did not listen humbly to the prophet Jeremiah, accredited by the Lord himself.

He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had forced him to swear in God’s name that he would be loyal. He became stubborn and obstinately refused to return to the Lord, the God of Israel.

Furthermore, all the heads of the priesthood and the people, too, were exceedingly unfaithful, following the disgusting example of the nations around them. So they defiled the house that the Lord himself had made holy.

The Lord, the God of their ancestors, continued to send prophets to warn his people since he had compassion for them and his dwelling place.

But they mocked the messengers of God, ignored his words, and laughed at his prophets until at last the anger of the Lord rose so high against his people that there was no further remedy.

Then he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed with the sword the young men of Judah even in the house; he spared neither youth nor virgin, neither old man nor aged cripple: God handed them all over to him.

All the furnishings of the house of God, large and small, the treasures of the Lord’s house, the treasures of the king and his officials, he carried off to Babylon.

They burned down the house of God, broke down the walls of Jerusalem, set fire to all its palaces, and destroyed everything of value in it.

Nebuchadnezzar deported the survivors to Babylon; they were to serve him and his descendants as slaves until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

This is how the work of the Lord was fulfilled. He spoke through Jeremiah, “The land will lie desolate for seventy years, to make up for its Sabbath rests that have not been observed.”

And in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, to fulfill what he had said through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, to issue the following command and send it out in writing to be read aloud everywhere in his kingdom:

“Thus speaks Cyrus, king of Persia: the Lord, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has ordered me to build him a house in Jerusalem, in Judah. Now, all of you who belong to his people, go there, and may the Lord your God be with you.”