2 Kings 24 Study Notes

24:1 The background for this verse was the Babylonian capture of Carchemish (605 BC) that drove Egypt from Syria and Palestine. The object of the Babylonian attack was the Egyptian armies, and Jehoiakim yielded peaceably to Nebuchadnezzar. Then, after three years, Jehoiakim rebelled because Egypt temporarily drove the Babylonians northward again (601 BC).

24:2 The Babylonians, as God’s instruments, compensated for this setback by encouraging the other local vassals mentioned here to harass Judah.

24:3-4 As in the condemnation of Judah at the time of Manasseh (21:15), the writer of 2 Kings took a longer, backward view in accounting for God’s judgment on sin. He linked God’s judgment and intent to remove the Hebrews from his presence to the sins of Manasseh. The sin of the times was the continuation of a sinful national character that had already been established and judged.

24:5-6 The Babylonians counterattacked and were soon approaching Jerusalem. Jehoiakim died either just before or during the Babylonian siege. His rebellion was discredited. The absence of any formal statement about Jehoiakim’s burial could confirm Jeremiah’s prediction about the shameful circumstances of his death (Jr 22:18-19).

24:7 By this time Egypt had been driven out of Palestine, and all land north of the Brook of Egypt (the Wadi Arish) belonged to Babylon.

24:8-9 D. J. Wiseman suggests that Jehoiachin was the throne name of Jeconiah (1 Ch 3:16; Jr 24:1), which was shortened to Coniah in Jr 22:24.

24:10-12 After a brief siege, Jehoiachin and all his high officials surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Significantly, the expression eighth year of his reign must refer to Nebuchadnezzar’s eighth year. This change to a pagan dating of events marked the impending end of Judah. The year was 597 BC.

24:13 The plundering of the city of Jerusalem seemed to be very thorough. It is remarkable that there was still some gold from the time of Solomon left to be plundered after more than three centuries of foreign plundering. This fulfilled the prophecy to Hezekiah in 20:17.

24:14-16 Everyone except the poorest classes of the city were taken into captivity. The able-bodied soldiers might have been conscripted into the Babylonian army.

24:17 Mattaniah (“gift of Yahweh”) became Zedekiah (“Yahweh is righteous” or “righteousness of Yahweh”).

24:18-19 The formal opening statements and evaluation of Zedekiah are routine for a wicked, faithless king.

24:20 The grounds for Zedekiah’s poor evaluation predated the wickedness of the current king. God was already angry, and judgment was inevitable (vv. 3-4; see 21:15).