2 Kings 25:27
And 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;
The verse belongs to the final closing section of the history of the kings, which covers the remaining kingdom of Judah after the ten tribes were swept away and ends with the Babylonian captivity. That closing record of Judah's kings follows the account of Israel's breakup.
It stands in the closing account of Nebuchadnezzar's taking of Jerusalem, the carrying of many of the children of God into captivity, the rebellion of Zedekiah and the final capture of the Jewish nation, after which a little company under Gedaliah was left in the land. It records the kind treatment shown to Jehoiachin by the king of Babylon after Judah's kingdom and Jerusalem had been devastated.
Jehoiachin had reigned only three months before surrendering to Nebuchadnezzar, when he was carried captive to Babylon with his mother and family and servants and princes and officers and the mighty of the land and the craftsmen and smiths and the treasures of the house of the Lord. He was then kept in prison at Babylon for thirty-seven years until the death of Nebuchadnezzar and the thirty-seventh year of his captivity.
Evil-merodach, whose Babylonian name Amil-Marduk means servant of Marduk, was the son of Nebuchadnezzar and succeeded him when Nebuchadnezzar died a converted man in B.C. 561, reigning only briefly until B.C. 560. In the year he began to reign, the first year of his reign, he lifted Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison, released him and showed him royal favor and kind treatment. He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, and so he remained all the days of his life.
That release of Jehoiachin with royal favor is the chief recorded event of Evil-merodach's brief reign. The favor shown to Jehoiachin angered the hierarchical or national party and led to Evil-merodach falling a victim to assassination.
The long imprisonment was unusual and unnecessary, since Jehoiachin had only contemplated rebellion. It proves a real cruelty of disposition in Nebuchadnezzar, who was not content with severity needed to secure his own interests but took pleasure in the wanton infliction of suffering on those who had provoked his resentment.