Study Desk

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

For all this came about in Jerusalem and Judah because of the anger of the LORD, and [in the end] He cast them from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Now it came about in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem; and they camped against it and built moveable towers and siege mounds all around it.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and his entire army was scattered from him.

The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the princes of Judah at Riblah.

Then the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon and there he put him in prison [in a mill] until the day of his death.

Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin [also called Coniah and Jeconiah] king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, showed favor to Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.

Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly at the king's table all the days of his life.

And his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a daily portion [according to his needs] until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

The adversary has spread out his hand Over all her precious and desirable things; For she has seen the [Gentile] nations enter her sanctuary (the Jerusalem temple)— The ones whom You commanded That they should not enter into Your congregation [not even in the outer courts].

"Is it nothing to you, all you who pass this way? Look and see if there is any pain like my pain Which was severely dealt out to me, Which the LORD has inflicted [on me] on the day of His fierce anger.

"The yoke of my transgressions is bound; By His hand they are knit and woven together. They have come upon my neck. He has made my strength fail; The Lord has put me into the hand Of those against whom I cannot stand.

Zion stretches out her hands, But there is no comforter for her. The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob That his neighbors should be his enemies; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing [an object of contempt] among them.

"The LORD is righteous and just; For I have rebelled against His commandment (His word). Hear now, all you peoples, And look at my pain; My virgins and my young men Have gone into captivity.

How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem) With a cloud in His anger! He has cast down from heaven to the earth The glory and splendor of Israel And has not remembered His footstool In the day of His anger.

The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared All the country places of Jacob. In His wrath He has thrown down The strongholds of the Daughter of Judah (Jerusalem). He has brought them down to the ground [in disgrace]; He has debased the kingdom and its princes.

In fierce anger He has cut off and destroyed Every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn His right hand From the presence of the enemy. And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire Consuming all around.

He has bent His bow like an enemy; He has set His right hand like an adversary And slain all that were delightful and pleasing to the eye; In the tent of the Daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath like fire.

And He has violently broken down His temple like a [fragile] garden hedge; He has destroyed His appointed meeting place. The LORD has caused the appointed feast and Sabbath To be forgotten in Zion And has despised and rejected the king and the priest In the indignation of His anger.

The Lord has rejected His altar; He has abandoned His sanctuary. He has given into the hand of the enemy The walls of her palaces; They have made a noise in the house of the LORD As on a day of an appointed feast.