2 Kings 24:12, commentary and pictures

The verse records the surrender of Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, a youth of eighteen after a merely nominal reign of three months, while Nebuchadnezzar's army occupied Judah and besieged Jerusalem. He went out to the king of Babylon with his mother, his household and servants, his princes and officers and all the royal family, and was carried with his court to Babylon, together with ten thousand of the leading people, the wealthy and the artisans and the treasures and sacred vessels of the temple, so that only the poorest were left in the land. It marks the second capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the second stage of Judah's overthrow and the second Babylonian captivity, though those who counted the later captures alone called it the first. Nebuchadnezzar then placed Mattaniah, Jehoiakim's brother and Jehoiachin's uncle, on the throne and changed his name to Zedekiah, while Jehoiachin remained imprisoned in Babylon for thirty-seven years until Evil-merodach released him and gave him an honored place among the captive kings. The deportation came as the downfall that followed Judah's rebellion and disobedience to God's warnings, as Judah followed Israel in departure from God and inclination to idolatrous worship, with Babylon thus becoming the first power to subvert the kingdom and scatter the people through whom the promise came.

Surrender and Deportation History

The surrender recorded here is that of Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, a youth of eighteen, whose reign in Jerusalem lasted only three months and was merely nominal while Nebuchadnezzar's army occupied Judah and besieged the city. When Nebuchadnezzar himself came against Jerusalem, Jehoiachin went out to the king of Babylon with his mother, his household and servants, his princes and officers, and all the royal family, and he with his court was carried to Babylon. With him were deported the leading people of the land, the wealthy and the artisans, including survivors from the royal family and priesthood, while the treasures of the Lord's house and the golden and sacred vessels of the temple were taken or destroyed, so that only the poorest people were left in Judah.

The deportation numbered ten thousand people. In one account, after Jerusalem's destruction only a few thousand escaped the sword to be carried to Babylon, a small remnant of a nation that had numbered millions, with survivors from the royal family and priesthood among them. The taking is reckoned as the second capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the second stage of Judah's overthrow, and the second Babylonian captivity, when Jehoiachin and many others were taken with much treasure. Those who reckoned it otherwise described the same taking in 2 Kings 24:12-16 as the first of Jerusalem's later captures by Babylon.

The taking is dated about 599 B.C., when Judah was already subject to Babylon. It is also dated to 598 B.C., in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh-year campaign. In that campaign, after Jehoiakim renounced allegiance trusting a promise of Egyptian aid and Phoenicia revolted under Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar marched into Palestine with a vast army of his own subjects and Mede allies, invested Tyre but left part of his army to continue the tedious thirteen-year blockade of the island city while he pressed on to Jerusalem, and when Egypt failed to help he punished Jehoiakim's submission and rebellion with death and indignity to his dead body contrary to common Oriental practice, then after three months deposed Jehoiachin on suspicion of unfaithfulness and brought him captive to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar then placed Mattaniah on the throne in Jerusalem, Jehoiakim's brother and Jehoiachin's uncle and brother of Jehoahaz, dethroning Jehoiachin after three months and changing Mattaniah's name to Zedekiah. Jehoiachin remained imprisoned in Babylon for thirty-seven years until Nebuchadnezzar's death, when Evil-merodach released him, treated him kindly, and gave him an honored place among the captive kings. The verse belongs to the history of Judah after the ten tribes had been swept away and soon after Josiah's death, in the period leading through Nebuchadnezzar's taking of Jerusalem and carrying many of God's people into captivity to Judah's final capture and Babylonian captivity.

It forms part of the history behind Daniel 1, when in the reign of Jehoiakim Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem and carried away some of the chief men, among whom were Daniel and his three companions. It belongs also to the fuller account in 2 Kings 24 and 25 of the downfall of Zedekiah, the last king of the chosen people, whose eyes Nebuchadnezzar put out before taking him to Babylon where he died in captivity, after which Judah never again had independent government but held whatever self-rule it afterward enjoyed only as a province subservient to the great ruling kingdoms.

Causes and Theological Significance

The surrender of Jehoiachin belongs to the downfall that followed Judah's rebellion and disobedience to God's warnings, with Jehoiakim renouncing allegiance and Jehoiachin himself suspected of unfaithfulness, and with continued apostasy under Zedekiah leading on to the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people. It marks the second capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, when after Jehoiachin rebelled the Babylonian king took him and his court to Babylon, stripped the temple of its treasures, and deported ten thousand people, leaving only the poorest people in the land, and then made Zedekiah king in Jerusalem. During Jehoiachin's brief reign Babylon's forces besieged Jerusalem, took the king to Babylon, and placed Zedekiah on Judah's throne. The taking occurred in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh-year campaign, in B.C. 598, after Jehoiakim renounced allegiance trusting a promise of Egyptian aid and Phoenicia revolted under Tyre. Nebuchadnezzar marched into Palestine with a vast army of his own subjects and Mede allies, invested Tyre but left part of his army to continue the tedious blockade of the island city, which resisted thirteen years, while he pressed on to Jerusalem.

When Egypt failed to help, Jehoiakim submitted, but Nebuchadnezzar punished his rebellion with death and had his dead body treated with indignity, contrary to common Oriental practice. Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, a youth of eighteen, was placed on the throne, but after three months was deposed on suspicion of unfaithfulness and brought captive to Babylon, and his uncle Zedekiah, brother of Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz, was substituted in his place. Captivity came upon Judah as it had upon Israel, because Judah followed Israel in departure from God. Judah was taken captive by Babylon because its people were inclined to imitate Babylonian idolatrous worship, and the resulting chastisement and reverses were meant to bring any remaining truth to light through affliction.

Babylon's capture of Judah's king was part of the conquest that brought Judah into captivity, subverted its kingdom, and scattered its people. Babylon was the first power to succeed in this effort to destroy or oppress the people through whom the promise came.