Difference between revisions of "Zedekiah" - New World Encyclopedia

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[[File:102.Zedekiah's Sons Are Slaughtered before His Eyes.jpg|thumb|220px|Zedekiah's Sons Are Slaughtered before His Eyes (2 King 25:1-7)]]
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'''Zedekiah''' ({{lang-he|צִדְקִיָּהוּ}}, '''Tzidkiyahu;''' [[Koine Greek|Greek]]: ζεδεκιας, ''Zedekias'') was the last king of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]]. He was a son of King [[Josiah]] and the younger brother of kings [[Jehoahaz]] and [[Jehoiakim]], but did not become king until after his nephew [[Jehoiachin]] had succeeded to the throne before him. In Hebrew, his name means "[[Tetragrammaton|YHWH]] (my) righteousness." [[William F. Albright]], [[archaeology|archaeologist]], and noted [[Bible|biblical scholar]], dates his reign from 597 B.C.E. to 587 B.C.E.
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Zedekiah became king after his immediate predecessors unsuccessfully rebelled against [[Babylon]]. This resulted in the first phase of the [[Babylonian exile]] of the [[Jews]]. His original name was '''Mattaniah,''' but when [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] placed him on the throne as the successor to [[Jehoiachin]], his name was changed to Zedekiah.
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{{toc}}
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The prophet [[Jeremiah]] urged Zedekiah to not resist the Babylonians, but he eventually listened to the words of other [[prophet]]s and advisers. He, thus, provoked a second siege of [[Jerusalem]] by Nebuchadnezzar, resulting in his own capture, the death of his sons, and the destruction of his kingdom. His demise sealed the doom of the nation of Judah and marked the second phase of the [[Babylonian exile]] of the Jews.
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==Background==
 
{{Kings of Judah}}
 
{{Kings of Judah}}
[[Image:Germany Zwiefalten Münster Nebuchadnezzer and Zedekiah.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Nebuchadrezzar II|Nebuchadnezzar]] faces off against Zedekiah, who holds a plan of [[Jerusalem]], in this [[Baroque sculpture|Baroque]]-era depiction in [[Zwiefalten Abbey]] in [[Germany]]]]
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A crisis had faced the [[Kingdom of Judah]] as a result of the end of the reign of King [[Josiah]] in the late seventh century C.E. Josiah is characterized by the [[Bible]] as the greatest king since [[David]], yet he was killed in battle against Pharaoh [[Necho II]] at the battle of [[Megiddo]]. The biblical writers would later blame his demise on the sins of his predecessor, King [[Manasseh of Judah|Manasseh]], which were seen as so great that God had already determined to send the Jews into exile.
'''Zedekiah''' ({{lang-he|צִדְקִיָּהוּ}}, '''Tzidkiyahu'''; [[Koine Greek|Greek]]: ζεδεκιας, ''Zedekias'') was the last king of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]].
 
  
He was the third son of [[Josiah]], and his mother was [[Hamutal]] the daughter of [[Jeremiah of Libnah]], thus he was the brother of King [[Jehoahaz]] ({{Niv|2Kings|23:31;24:17,18|2 Kings 23:31; 24:17,18}}). In Hebrew, his name means, ''Şidhqî Yāhû'' (צִדְקִי יָהוּ), "[[Tetragrammaton|YHWH]] [is] my righteousness." [[William F. Albright]] dates the reign of Zedekiah to [[597 B.C.E.|597]]-587 B.C.E., while [[E. R. Thiele]] to 597-586 B.C.E..
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Josiah had been killed in an effort to confront Egyptian forces who aimed to defeat the armies of the rising [[Babylonian Empire]], and his demise placed Judah under Egyptian control. [[Jehoahaz]], the second son of Josiah, reigned for only three months, after which he was dethroned by Necho II and exiled to Egypt. Josiah's eldest son, known by the throne name of [[Jehoiakim]], replaced him, ruling at Necho's pleasure. However, when [[Nebuchadrezzar II]] of Babylon defeated Egypt at Carchemish in 604, Jehoiakim became the vassal of Babylon.  
  
Zedekiah's original name was '''Mattanyahu''' ({{lang-he|מַתַּנְיָהוּ}}, ''Mattanyāhû'', "Gift of [[Tetragrammaton|God]]"; traditional English: '''Mattaniah'''), but when [[Nebuchadrezzar_II|Nebuchadnezzar II]] placed him on the throne as the [[Siege of Jerusalem (597 B.C.E.)|successor]] to [[Jehoiachin]], he changed his name to Zedekiah. The prophet [[Jeremiah]] was his counsellor, yet "he did evil in the sight of the Lord" (''2 Kings'' 24:19, 20; ''[[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]]'' 52:2, 3).  
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Jehoiakim eventually rebelled against Nebuchadrezzar and died in 598 B.C.E. during the first Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. His son [[Jehoiachin]] succeeded him. The prophet [[Jeremiah]], who counseled a policy of non-resistance toward Babylon, had been a bitter opponent of his father, and strongly denounced Jehoiachin as well.
  
==Background==
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Nebuchadnezzar II's forces soon captured Jerusalem, removing Jehoiachin from office and taking him in chains to Babylon. Most of the royal household and those officials of Judah who had supported the rebellion against Babylon were forced into exile, along with many other leading citizens. The prophet Jeremiah, who had urged cooperation with the Babylonians, was allowed to remain, and Zedekiah—Jehoiachin's uncle—was identified as a suitable replacement as king under Babylonian supervision.
Zedekiah came to the throne in place of [[Jehoiachin]], whose reign in Jerusalem began upon the death of his father around 598 B.C.E. at the age of 18, near the beginning of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah, who counseled a policy of non-resistance toward Babylon, had been a bitter opponent of his father, and strongly denounced Jehoiachin as well.
 
  
King Nebuchadnezzar II succeeded in having Jehoiachin removed from office and taken in chains to Babylon. Most of the royal household and those officials of Judah who had joined the rebellion against Babylon were forced into exile. The prophet Jeremiah, who had urged cooperation with the Babylonians, was allowed to remain in Jerusalem, and Zedekiah—Jehoaiachin's uncle—was identified as a sutiable replacement as king under Babylonian supervision.
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==Reign==
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[[Image:Jeremiah-Hannaniah.jpg|thumb|left|[[Jeremiah]] predicts the doom of his fellow [[prophet]] Hananiah]]
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Zedekiah was only three years older than [[Jehoiachin]], ascending the throne at the age of 21. Nebuchadnezzer required an oath of fealty from him, which he made in the name of Israel's [[God]] (2 Chronicles 36:13). Zedekiah was initially cooperative, lifting the restrictions the previous administration had imposed against the prophet [[Jeremiah]], who was seen as a Babylonian sympathizer.  
  
Zedekiah was only three years older than Jehoiachin, ascending the throne at the age of 21. Nebuchadnezzer required an oath of fealty from him, which he made in the name of Israel's God (2 Chronicles 36:13). Zedekiah soon began to be influenced by the call to patriotism, made by prophets, priests, and other citizens who believed that God would side with Judah in a rebellion against the pagan Babylonians. Jeremiah, however, counseled caution.
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However, in Zedekiah's fourth year as king, talk of independence from Babylonian [[vassal]]age began to circulate once again. In opposition to this, Jeremiah dramatically appeared in the marketplace with a wooden [[yoke]] around his neck urging a policy of continued submission. The Temple-affiliated prophet Hananiah, however, prophesied against Jeremiah:
  
 +
<blockquote>This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon" (28:2-3).</blockquote>
  
and became a strong leader. The kingdom was at that time tributary to [[Nebuchadrezzar_II|Nebuchadnezzar II]]. Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah and others, as well as the example of [[Jehoiachin]], he revolted against [[Babylon]], and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh [[Apries|Hophra]], king of [[Egypt]]. This brought up Nebuchadnezzar, "with all his host" (''2 Kings'' 25:1), against [[Jerusalem]]. Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Jerusalem 589 B.C.E. During this siege, which lasted about eighteen months, "every worst woe befell the devoted city, which drank the cup of God's fury to the dregs" (''2 Kings'' 25:3; ''[[Book of Lamentations|Lamentations]]'' 4:4, 5, 9).  
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Hananiah then grabbed the yoke from Jeremiah's shoulders and broke it. Jeremiah withdrew to consider, and later countered with a prophecy of his own predicting Hananiah's doom within the same two-year period. Jeremiah had come to view Nebuchadnezzar as God's "servant" (Jer. 25:9), who had the mission of executing divine judgment on Judah because of her sins. He, thus, urged a policy of non-resistance to the Babylonians and even wrote those who had been taken into exile instructing them to pray for the Babylonian king and settle permanently into life there (Jer. 29).
  
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in conquering Jerusalem. The city was plundered and reduced to ruins. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape, making their way out of the city, but were captured on the plains of [[Jericho]], and were taken to [[Riblah]].  
+
===Rebellion===
 +
As the son of the great King [[Josiah]], the man the Bible calls Judah's greatest king since [[David]], Zedekiah was understandably swayed by the patriotic call of Hananiah and others urging him to throw off the Babylonian yoke. He thus decided to support the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, entering into an alliance with Pharaoh [[Apries|Hophra]], king of [[Egypt]]. This act, however, brought Nebuchadnezzar, "with all his host" (2 Kings 25:1), to conduct a new siege of [[Jerusalem]].
  
There, after seeing his own sons put to death, his own eyes were put out, and, being loaded with chains, he was carried captive (587 B.C.E.) to [[Babylon]] (''2 Kings'' 25:1-7; ''[[Books of Chronicles|2 Chronicles]]'' 36:12; ''[[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]]'' 32:4,5; 34:2, 3; 39:1-7; 52:4-11; ''[[Book of Ezekiel|Ezekiel]]'' 12:12), where he remained a prisoner, how long is unknown, to the day of his death.
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Jeremiah confronted Zedekiah directly, warning that resistance against Babylon constituted rebellion against God and would bring disaster. The distant voice of the prophet [[Ezekiel]], already in Babylonian exile, was added to this warning, but in the current political climate—with other prophets claiming exactly the opposite of what Jeremiah and Ezekiel said—the independence-minded king refused to listen. When the Babylonians temporarily lifted their siege to deal with Zedekiah's Egyptian allies, Jeremiah left Jerusalem on business in the nearby land of Benjamin and was arrested on the pretext of being a deserter. Beaten by palace guards, he was placed in a [[dungeon]], but was soon released at Zedekiah's command, remaining confined within the palace court. The prophet, however, stubbornly refused to keep silence, predicting Jerusalem's imminent doom and affecting the morale of the soldiers, leading the king's officers to silence him by imprisoning him in an empty [[cistern]], where he nearly died until he was rescued by an Egyptian [[eunuch]].
  
After the fall of Jerusalem, [[Nebuzaraddan]] was sent to carry out its complete destruction. The city was razed to the ground. Only a small number of vinedressers and husbandmen were permitted to remain in the land (Jer. 52:16). [[Gedaliah]], with a [[Chaldean]] guard stationed at [[Mizpah in Benjamin|Mizpah]], was left to rule over Judah (''2 Kings'' 25:22, 24; Jer. 40:1, 2, 5, 6).
+
During the siege, which began 589 B.C.E. and lasted about 18 months, "every worst woe befell the devoted city, which drank the cup of God's fury to the dregs" (''2 Kings'' 25:3; ''[[Book of Lamentations|Lamentations]]'' 4:4-9). In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in conquering Jerusalem. The city was plundered and reduced to ruins. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape, making their way out of the city, but were captured on the plains of [[Jericho]], and were taken to [[Riblah]]. There, after seeing his sons put to death, Zedekiah's own eyes were put out. Placed in chains, he was carried captive to [[Babylon]], where he remained a prisoner to the day of his death.
  
==Zedekiah in the Book of Mormon==
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After the fall of Jerusalem, the Babylonian general [[Nebuzaraddan]] was sent to carry out its complete destruction. The city was razed to the ground, and the [[Temple of Jerusalem]], the crucial center of Judah's religious life, was utterly destroyed.
According to the [[Book of Mormon]], Zedekiah's son [[Mulek]] escaped death and travelled across one of the oceans (Atlantic or Pacific) to the [[Americas]], where he founded a nation that later merged with the [[Nephite]]s.<ref>[http://scriptures.lds.org/en/hel/6/10#10 Helaman 6:10]</ref><ref>[http://scriptures.lds.org/en/hel/8/21#21 Helaman 8:21]</ref>
 
  
==Notes==
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==Legacy==
<references/>
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{{readout||right|250px|Zedekiah was the [[Kingdom of Judah]]'s last king}}
 
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After the destruction of [[Jerusalem]], the Babylonians established a new capital of [[Judea]] in [[Mizpah]], appointing the pro-[[Babylon]]ian administrator [[Gedaliah]] as governor. Jeremiah remained captive in the Jerusalem palace prison until his liberation by the Babylonians, who honored him as a man of God and allowed him to choose his place of residence. He chose to move to the new capital in Mizpah. Gedaliah, however, identified as a Babyonian collaborator was assassinated soon afterward. His successor, Johanan, rejected Jeremiah's counsels and fled to [[Egypt]], supposedly taking the [[prophet]] with him.
==References==
 
{{eastons}}
 
  
 +
As for Zedekiah himself, when his sons were killed by the Babylonians, he left no heir. It was to be through another branch of his father Josiah's lineage that the [[Davidic line]] continued, in whom the Jewish hope of the coming [[Messiah]], "son of David," would be kept alive. The direct result of Zedekiah's rebellion against Babylon was that Jerusalem was taken, plundered, and burned. Its leading population was deported to Babylon as captives, and the Jewish kingdom perished. His demise, and that of the [[Kingdom of Judah]], marked the beginning of the second phase of the [[Baylonian exile]] of the Jews.
  
 
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{{s-aft|after=[[Shealtiel]]}}
 
{{s-aft|after=[[Shealtiel]]}}
 
{{end}}
 
{{end}}
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==References==
 +
* Bright, John. ''A History of Israel.'' Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000. ISBN 0664220681.
 +
* Galil, Gershon. ''The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah.'' Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1996. ISBN 9004106111.
 +
*Job, John B. ''Jeremiah's Kings: A Study of the Monarchy in Jeremiah. Society for Old Testament Study Monographs''. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2006. ISBN 978-0754655053.
 +
* Keller, Werner. ''The Bible as History.'' New York: Bantam, 1983. ISBN 0553279432.
 +
* Miller, J. Maxwell. ''A History of Ancient Israel and Judah.'' Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1986. ISBN 066421262X.
 +
* Pritchard, Elizabeth. ''A Sword at the Heart: The Story of Jeremiah and the Last Kings of Judah, 639-586 B.C.E.'' New Delhi, India: Masihi Sahitya Sanstha, 1970. {{OCLC|13422670}}.
 +
* Roncace, Mark. ''Jeremiah, Zedekiah, and the Fall of Jerusalem''. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies, 423. New York: T&T Clark, 2005. ISBN 978-0567026712.
 +
 +
*''This article incorporates text from the [[Jewish Encylopedia]], a publication in the [[public domain]]''.
  
 
[[Category:Bible]]
 
[[Category:Bible]]
 
[[Category:religion]]
 
[[Category:religion]]
[[category:Old testament]]
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[[category:Judaism]]
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[[category:religious figures]]
 
{{credit|243576831}}
 
{{credit|243576831}}

Latest revision as of 15:24, 30 April 2019

Zedekiah's Sons Are Slaughtered before His Eyes (2 King 25:1-7)

Zedekiah (Hebrew: צִדְקִיָּהוּ, Tzidkiyahu; Greek: ζεδεκιας, Zedekias) was the last king of Judah. He was a son of King Josiah and the younger brother of kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, but did not become king until after his nephew Jehoiachin had succeeded to the throne before him. In Hebrew, his name means "YHWH (my) righteousness." William F. Albright, archaeologist, and noted biblical scholar, dates his reign from 597 B.C.E. to 587 B.C.E.

Zedekiah became king after his immediate predecessors unsuccessfully rebelled against Babylon. This resulted in the first phase of the Babylonian exile of the Jews. His original name was Mattaniah, but when Nebuchadnezzar II placed him on the throne as the successor to Jehoiachin, his name was changed to Zedekiah.

The prophet Jeremiah urged Zedekiah to not resist the Babylonians, but he eventually listened to the words of other prophets and advisers. He, thus, provoked a second siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, resulting in his own capture, the death of his sons, and the destruction of his kingdom. His demise sealed the doom of the nation of Judah and marked the second phase of the Babylonian exile of the Jews.

Background

Kings of Judah

A crisis had faced the Kingdom of Judah as a result of the end of the reign of King Josiah in the late seventh century C.E. Josiah is characterized by the Bible as the greatest king since David, yet he was killed in battle against Pharaoh Necho II at the battle of Megiddo. The biblical writers would later blame his demise on the sins of his predecessor, King Manasseh, which were seen as so great that God had already determined to send the Jews into exile.

Josiah had been killed in an effort to confront Egyptian forces who aimed to defeat the armies of the rising Babylonian Empire, and his demise placed Judah under Egyptian control. Jehoahaz, the second son of Josiah, reigned for only three months, after which he was dethroned by Necho II and exiled to Egypt. Josiah's eldest son, known by the throne name of Jehoiakim, replaced him, ruling at Necho's pleasure. However, when Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon defeated Egypt at Carchemish in 604, Jehoiakim became the vassal of Babylon.

Jehoiakim eventually rebelled against Nebuchadrezzar and died in 598 B.C.E. during the first Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him. The prophet Jeremiah, who counseled a policy of non-resistance toward Babylon, had been a bitter opponent of his father, and strongly denounced Jehoiachin as well.

Nebuchadnezzar II's forces soon captured Jerusalem, removing Jehoiachin from office and taking him in chains to Babylon. Most of the royal household and those officials of Judah who had supported the rebellion against Babylon were forced into exile, along with many other leading citizens. The prophet Jeremiah, who had urged cooperation with the Babylonians, was allowed to remain, and Zedekiah—Jehoiachin's uncle—was identified as a suitable replacement as king under Babylonian supervision.

Reign

Jeremiah predicts the doom of his fellow prophet Hananiah

Zedekiah was only three years older than Jehoiachin, ascending the throne at the age of 21. Nebuchadnezzer required an oath of fealty from him, which he made in the name of Israel's God (2 Chronicles 36:13). Zedekiah was initially cooperative, lifting the restrictions the previous administration had imposed against the prophet Jeremiah, who was seen as a Babylonian sympathizer.

However, in Zedekiah's fourth year as king, talk of independence from Babylonian vassalage began to circulate once again. In opposition to this, Jeremiah dramatically appeared in the marketplace with a wooden yoke around his neck urging a policy of continued submission. The Temple-affiliated prophet Hananiah, however, prophesied against Jeremiah:

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon" (28:2-3).

Hananiah then grabbed the yoke from Jeremiah's shoulders and broke it. Jeremiah withdrew to consider, and later countered with a prophecy of his own predicting Hananiah's doom within the same two-year period. Jeremiah had come to view Nebuchadnezzar as God's "servant" (Jer. 25:9), who had the mission of executing divine judgment on Judah because of her sins. He, thus, urged a policy of non-resistance to the Babylonians and even wrote those who had been taken into exile instructing them to pray for the Babylonian king and settle permanently into life there (Jer. 29).

Rebellion

As the son of the great King Josiah, the man the Bible calls Judah's greatest king since David, Zedekiah was understandably swayed by the patriotic call of Hananiah and others urging him to throw off the Babylonian yoke. He thus decided to support the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, entering into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt. This act, however, brought Nebuchadnezzar, "with all his host" (2 Kings 25:1), to conduct a new siege of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah confronted Zedekiah directly, warning that resistance against Babylon constituted rebellion against God and would bring disaster. The distant voice of the prophet Ezekiel, already in Babylonian exile, was added to this warning, but in the current political climate—with other prophets claiming exactly the opposite of what Jeremiah and Ezekiel said—the independence-minded king refused to listen. When the Babylonians temporarily lifted their siege to deal with Zedekiah's Egyptian allies, Jeremiah left Jerusalem on business in the nearby land of Benjamin and was arrested on the pretext of being a deserter. Beaten by palace guards, he was placed in a dungeon, but was soon released at Zedekiah's command, remaining confined within the palace court. The prophet, however, stubbornly refused to keep silence, predicting Jerusalem's imminent doom and affecting the morale of the soldiers, leading the king's officers to silence him by imprisoning him in an empty cistern, where he nearly died until he was rescued by an Egyptian eunuch.

During the siege, which began 589 B.C.E. and lasted about 18 months, "every worst woe befell the devoted city, which drank the cup of God's fury to the dregs" (2 Kings 25:3; Lamentations 4:4-9). In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in conquering Jerusalem. The city was plundered and reduced to ruins. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape, making their way out of the city, but were captured on the plains of Jericho, and were taken to Riblah. There, after seeing his sons put to death, Zedekiah's own eyes were put out. Placed in chains, he was carried captive to Babylon, where he remained a prisoner to the day of his death.

After the fall of Jerusalem, the Babylonian general Nebuzaraddan was sent to carry out its complete destruction. The city was razed to the ground, and the Temple of Jerusalem, the crucial center of Judah's religious life, was utterly destroyed.

Legacy

Did you know?
Zedekiah was the Kingdom of Judah's last king

After the destruction of Jerusalem, the Babylonians established a new capital of Judea in Mizpah, appointing the pro-Babylonian administrator Gedaliah as governor. Jeremiah remained captive in the Jerusalem palace prison until his liberation by the Babylonians, who honored him as a man of God and allowed him to choose his place of residence. He chose to move to the new capital in Mizpah. Gedaliah, however, identified as a Babyonian collaborator was assassinated soon afterward. His successor, Johanan, rejected Jeremiah's counsels and fled to Egypt, supposedly taking the prophet with him.

As for Zedekiah himself, when his sons were killed by the Babylonians, he left no heir. It was to be through another branch of his father Josiah's lineage that the Davidic line continued, in whom the Jewish hope of the coming Messiah, "son of David," would be kept alive. The direct result of Zedekiah's rebellion against Babylon was that Jerusalem was taken, plundered, and burned. Its leading population was deported to Babylon as captives, and the Jewish kingdom perished. His demise, and that of the Kingdom of Judah, marked the beginning of the second phase of the Baylonian exile of the Jews.


House of David
Cadet Branch of the Tribe of Judah
Regnal Titles


Preceded by:
Jeconiah
King of Judah
597 B.C.E. – 586 B.C.E.
Judah conquered by
Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon
Leader of the House of David Succeeded by: Shealtiel

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Bright, John. A History of Israel. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000. ISBN 0664220681.
  • Galil, Gershon. The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 1996. ISBN 9004106111.
  • Job, John B. Jeremiah's Kings: A Study of the Monarchy in Jeremiah. Society for Old Testament Study Monographs. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2006. ISBN 978-0754655053.
  • Keller, Werner. The Bible as History. New York: Bantam, 1983. ISBN 0553279432.
  • Miller, J. Maxwell. A History of Ancient Israel and Judah. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1986. ISBN 066421262X.
  • Pritchard, Elizabeth. A Sword at the Heart: The Story of Jeremiah and the Last Kings of Judah, 639-586 B.C.E. New Delhi, India: Masihi Sahitya Sanstha, 1970. OCLC 13422670.
  • Roncace, Mark. Jeremiah, Zedekiah, and the Fall of Jerusalem. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament studies, 423. New York: T&T Clark, 2005. ISBN 978-0567026712.
  • This article incorporates text from the Jewish Encylopedia, a publication in the public domain.

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