2 Chronicles 36:12

Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah,.... Of whose reign, and of the three following, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, and the account of them, from hence to the end of 2 Chronicles 36:13 , what needs explanation or reconciliation; see Gill on 2 Kings 23:31 , 2 Kings 23:32 , 2 Kings 23:33 , 2 Kings 23:34 , 2 Kings 23:35 , 2 Kings 23:36 , 2 Kings 23:37 , 2 Kings 24:5 , 2 Kings 24:6 , 2 Kings 24:8 , 2 Kings 24:10 , 2 Kings 24:17 , 2 Kings 24:18

36:1-21 The ruin of Judah and Jerusalem came on by degrees. The methods God takes to call back sinners by his word, by ministers, by conscience, by providences, are all instances of his compassion toward them, and his unwillingness that any should perish. See here what woful havoc sin makes, and, as we value the comfort and continuance of our earthly blessings, let us keep that worm from the root of them. They had many times ploughed and sowed their land in the seventh year, when it should have rested, and now it lay unploughed and unsown for ten times seven years. God will be no loser in his glory at last, by the disobedience of men. If they refused to let the land rest, God would make it rest. What place, O God, shall thy justice spare, if Jerusalem has perished? If that delight of thine were cut off for wickedness, let us not be high-minded, but fear.

12 . humbled not himself ] Jeremiah consistently advised Zedekiah to submit to the Chaldeans; but the king partly through fear of his princes, partly through illusive hopes, could never bring himself to do this; cp. Jeremiah 21:1-7 ; Jeremiah 34:8-22 ; Jeremiah 37:1-10 ; Jeremiah 37:17 ; Jeremiah 38:17-23 .

2Ch 36:11-21. Zedekiah's Reign. 11. Zedekiah—Nebuchadnezzar appointed him. His name, originally Mattaniah, was, according to the custom of Oriental conquerors, changed into Zedekiah. Though the son of Josiah (1Ch 3:15; Jer 1:2, 3; 37:1), he is called the brother of Jehoiachin (2Ch 36:10), that is, according to the latitude of Hebrew style in words expressing affinity, his relative or kinsman (see 2Ki 24:18; 25:1-21).

The reign of Zedekiah; the destruction of Jerusalem, and Judah carried away into exile. Cf. 2 Kings 24:18-25:21 . - Zedekiah, made king at the age of twenty-one years, reigned eleven years, and filled up the measure of sins, so that the Lord was compelled to give the kingdom of Judah up to destruction by the Chaldeans. To that Zedekiah brought it by the two main sins of his evil reign, - namely, by not humbling himself before the prophet Jeremiah, from the mouth of Jahve ( 2 Chronicles 36:12 ); and by rebelling against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had caused him to swear by God, and by so hardening his neck (being stiff-necked), and making stout his heart, that he did not return to Jahve the God of Israel. Zedekiah's stiffness of neck and hardness of heart showed itself in his refusing to hearken to the words which Jeremiah spoke to him from the mouth of God, and his breaking the oath he had sworn to Nebuchadnezzar by God. The words, "he humbled himself not before Jeremiah," recall Jeremiah 37:2 , and the events narrated in Jeremiah 37 and 38, and 21:4-22:9, which show how the chief of the people ill-treated the prophet because of his prophecies, while Zedekiah was too weak and languid to protect him against them. The rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, to whom he had sworn a vassal's oath of fidelity, is mentioned in 2 Kings 24:20 , and Ezekiel 17:13 . also, as a great crime on the part of Zedekiah and the chief of the people; see the commentary on both passages.

In consequence of this rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar marched against Judah with a powerful army; and after the capture of the fenced cities of the land, he advanced to the siege of Jerusalem, which ended in its capture and destruction, 2 Kings 25:1-10 . Without further noticing these results of this breach of faith, the author of the Chronicle proceeds to depict the sins of the king and of the people. In the first place, he again brings forward, in 2 Chronicles 36:13 , the stiffness of neck and obduracy of the king, which manifested itself in the acts just mentioned: he made hard his neck, etc. Bertheau would interpret the words וגו ויּקשׁ, according to Deuteronomy 2:30 , thus: "Then did God make him stiff-necked and hardened his heart; so that he did not return to Jahve the God of Israel, notwithstanding the exhortations of the prophets." But although hardening is not seldom represented as inflicted by God, there is here no ground for supposing that with ויּקשׁ the subject is changed, while the bringing forward of the hardening as an act of God does not at all suit the context. And, moreover, ערף הקשׁה, making hard the neck, is nowhere ascribed to God, it is only said of men; cf. 2 Kings 17:14 ; Deuteronomy 10:16 ; Jeremiah 19:15 , etc. To God only את־לב הקשׁה or את־רוּח is attributed, Exodus 7:3 ; Deuteronomy 2:30 .

Verse 27 And his deeds, first and last - "The former things which he did in his childhood, and the latter things which he did in his youth; and all the judgments which he pronounced from his eighth year, when he came to the kingdom, to his eighteenth, when he was grown up, and began to repair the sanctuary of the Lord; and all that he brought of his substance to the hand of judgment, purging both the house of Israel and Judah from all uncleanness; behold, they are written in the book of the Kings of the house of Israel, and of the house of Judah." - Targum. These general histories are lost; but in the books of Kings and Chronicles we have the leading facts. [ 2 Chronicles 36 ]2 CHRONICLES 2CHRONICLES 36: 1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem. Jehoahaz made king on the death of his father Josiah, and reigns only three months, 2 Chronicles 36:1, 2 Chronicles 36:2. He is dethroned by the king of Egypt, and Jehoiakim his brother made king in his stead, who reigns wickedly eleven years, and is dethroned and led captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Chronicles 36:3-8. Jehoiachin is made king in his stead, and reigns wickedly three months and ten days, and is also led captive to Babylon, 2 Chronicles 36:9, 2 Chronicles 36:10. Zedekiah begins to reign, and reigns wickedly eleven years, 2 Chronicles 36:11, 2 Chronicles 36:12.