2 Kings 25

PLUS

CHAPTER 25

The Fall of Jerusalem (25:1-26)

(2 Chronicles 36:15-23; Jeremiah 39:1-10; 52:4-30)

1-7 In response to Zedekiah’s rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar and his whole army marched against Jerusalem in order to punish its leaders.93 For eighteen months the city was kept under siege; at the end of that time the famine in the city was severe (verses 2-3). Then the Babylonians broke through the city wall. Zedekiah and his army tried to escape, but the Babylonians captured Zedekiah and his sons and brought them to Nebuchadnezzar—just as Jeremiah had predicted (Jeremiah 34:1-7). The Babylonians put the sons to death, and then they put out Zedekiah’s eyes; he was then taken to Babylon where he remained a prisoner until his death (Jeremiah 52:11).

Zedekiah had been given the chance to avoid this fate. The prophet Jeremiah had advised him to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar’s officers; if he had done so, he could have saved both himself and his city (Jeremiah 38:14-23). But Zedekiah would not listen. Like their fathers before them, Zedekiah and his people mocked God’s messengers . . . and scoffed at his prophets (2 Chronicles 36:16).

8-12 Then the Babylonians completely destroyed Jerusalem; they burned all the buildings and broke down the walls (verses 9-10). They carried into exile all the survivors except some of the poorest people, who were left to work the land (verses 11-12). This was the third deportation of exiles to Babylon: the first had occurred during the reign of Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24:1); the second had occurred during the reign of his son Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:10-17). Now this was the third and final deportation; not only the city people were deported but the rest of the populace of Judah was deported as well.

13-17 In these verses, the writer describes how the Babylonians took from the temple all of the gold, silver, and bronze articles that Solomon had made for use in the temple (1 Kings Chapter 7). Those items that were too large to transport intact they broke into pieces. A more detailed description of what was taken is provided in Jeremiah 52:17-23.

18-21 Some of Zedekiah’s chief officers were executed rather than exiled; these included the chief priest. Nebuchadnezzar evidently felt that they couldn’t be trusted if they were allowed to live.

So Judah went into captivity, away from her land (verse 21). The judgment predicted during the reign of Manasseh had now come true (2 Kings 23:26-27). Because of Judah’s persistent and willful violation of God’s covenant, the worst of His covenant punishments had now been carried out (Leviticus 26:33).

22-26 Nebuchadnezzar appointed a respected Judean leader, Gedaliah,to be governor of Judah. Gedaliah was in agreement with Jeremiah’s earlier advice to Zedekiah (Jeremiah 27:12-13): namely, that the people of Judah should submit to Nehe invited any of the Lord’s people living buchadnezzar and serve him (verse 24).

However, some of the people opposed Gedaliah’s conciliatory position toward Babylon and within two months of his taking office they assassinated him; the ringleader of the assassins was Ishmael,a member of Judah’s royal family. A more detailed account of Gedaliah’s assassination is found in Jeremiah Chapters 40-41.

The people of Judah feared that Gedaliah’s murder would provoke Nebuchadnezzar to punish them further, so some of them decided to flee to Egypt for safety. In Jeremiah Chapters 42-43, we are told that they inquired of Jeremiah whether they should go or not, and Jeremiah received a word from the Lord instructing them not to go. But they went anyway, taking Jeremiah along with them (Jeremiah 43:4-7).

The account of the fall of Jerusalem in 2 Chronicles 36:15-23 ends on a different note. The book of 2 Kings was completed during the Exile; the writer never knew how long the people of Judah would remain in Babylon. The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, however, were completed after the exiles had returned to Judah; thus the writer of 2 Chronicles knew how long the Exile had lasted. According to 2 Chronicles 36:21, the Exile lasted seventy years, just as Jeremiah had predicted before the exile began (Jeremiah 25:1-11); thus the land of Judah enjoyed its sabbath rests94 during those years (see Leviticus 26:34).

In 2 Chronicles 36:20, we are told that the Exile ended when the kingdom of Persia came to power and overcame the Babylonian Empire. Then, in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23, we are introduced to Cyrus king of Persia, who in the first year of his reign proclaimed that the Lord had appointed him to build a temple in Jerusalem, and in his realm to return to Jerusalem to carry out this work95 (see Ezra 1:1-4). Just as the Lord had used Nebuchadnezzar as His instrument to punish Judah and destroy Jerusalem, so He was now going to use Cyrus to restore His people to their land and rebuild His temple.

Thus the writer of 2 Chronicles, unlike the writer of 2 Kings, was able to look forward to a new beginning, a new age. God had not forgotten His covenant; He kept His promise and restored His people to their land (see Leviticus 26:40-45; Jeremiah 29:10-14 and comments).

Jehoiachin Released (25:27-30)

(Jeremiah 52:31-34)

27-30 Why has the writer added this final section to the book of 2 Kings? Perhaps it was to give hope to his readers in exile that just as Jehoiachin was released after thirtyseven years, so too they might one day be released.

But more important, Jehoiachin—whose personal name was Jeconiah (according to the Hebrew name listed in 1 Chronicles 3:16)—was a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:11-12). The line of David had not been cut off (2 Samuel 7:16); the Hope of Israel had not been destroyed. In God’s time, He would appear.

If the history of God’s chosen people had ended with the book of 2 Kings, it would be a depressing history indeed—especially in view of the final years described in the last two chapters. In spite of the attempts of Hezekiah and Josiah to reform Judah, the people stubbornly persisted in their idolatry, in their disregard for God’s covenant commands. During the long reign of Manasseh, Judah’s sin had become entrenched, and the wickedness of Judah’s last four kings only hastened the nation to its doom.

And what a doom it was! The proud city of Jerusalem with its magnificent temple—burned to the ground. Its citizens—nearly starved to death. Parents ate their own children in order to survive (Lamentations 2:20; 4:1-10); a third of Jerusalem’s people perished by famine and another third perished by the sword96 (Ezekiel 5:8-12).

And yet none of this should have been surprising;thesepunishments,thesecurses, had all been written down by Moses centuries before (see Leviticus 26:14-39; Deuteronomy 28:15-68 and comment). Israel’s godly leaders and prophets had been warning the people about their behavior for generations. But the people refused to listen. And so, since God must be faithful to His word, He punished them. It was a punishment the people had brought upon themselves; they had no one else to blame.

Solomon wrote: Where there is no revelation—no vision, no prophetic word—the people cast off restraint (Proverbs 29:18). God’s chosen people had lost their revelation, their vision of Him; they had lost the sense of God’s presence. And when people lose the sense of God’s presence, they fall deeper and deeper into sin. This was true for Israel and Judah; and it is true for us today.

The people failed. But God did not fail. Through their terrible punishment, God enabled the Israelites to regain their vision, their sense of His presence. During their exile they gave up their idolatry and turned back to God; His law became precious to them once more. And God has preserved them as a people down through the ages. The Assyrians are gone; the Babylonians are gone; but God’s chosen people, the Hebrews, remain to this day. And they have a glorious future awaiting them through the Son of David, Jesus Christ, whose throne will be established forever (2 Samuel 7:16).


1 Moab was located east of Israel; it was inhabited by descendants of Moab, one of Lot’s sons (Genesis 19:36-37). Moab had been brought under subjection by David (2 Samuel 8:2); when the ten northern tribes of Israel split off after Solomon’s death, Moab then became subject to the northern kingdom (Israel).

2 Ekron was the northernmost of the five main Philistine cities. Ekron’s chief god was Baal-Zebub, which means “lord of the flies.” This name was deliberately changed by the biblical writers from the original name “Baal-Zebul,” which means “Baal the prince.” Baal-Zebub later became another name for Satan, the prince of demons (Mark 3:22-23). Baal (meaning lord) was the main god of the Canaanites and Phoenicians; Baal-Zebub, then, was a local god under him.

3 The Lord usually spoke to His prophets directly, but He also spoke to them through His angels, or messengers. Regardless of how the Lord spoke, the prophets recognized that the words spoken came from Him.

4 Jesus’ disciples James and John were surely thinking of this incident when they suggested calling down fire from heaven upon some Samaritans who had refused to welcome them (Luke 9:51-56). But their motive for calling down fire was very different from Elijah’s: they were motivated by anger and revenge, but Elijah was motivated by a desire for God’s glory. Furthermore, it wasn’t Elijah who sent the fire; it was God.

5 During Samuel’s time, groups of prophets arose who remained faithful to the Lord; Samuel was their first leader (see 1 Samuel 10:5; 19:18-20).

6 Gilgal was the first stopping place of the Israelites after they had crossed the Jordan into the promised land (Joshua 4:19-24); it too had a company of prophets (2 Kings 4:38). Bethel was the place where Jacob first encountered God (Genesis 28:10-19), but recently it had become a center of false worship in the northern kingdom (1 Kings 12:28-29). Jericho was the first city in the promised land that fell to Joshua (Joshua 6:1-21).

7 Elisha was not asking that he might have twice the power and influence Elijah had; he was asking that he might inherit Elijah’s ministry. Elisha was, in a sense, Elijah’s “firstborn son,” so he was merely asking for the inheritance right of a firstborn son, which was to receive a double portion of his father’s possessions (see Deuteronomy 21:17).

8 In the fifth century B.C., the prophet Malachi predicted that Elijah would return before that great and dreadful day of the LORD—that is, before the final return of Christ in judgment—and call people back to God (Malachi 4:5-6). In Jesus’ day, many Jews were expecting Elijah’s return at any time; but Jesus said that Elijah had already “returned” in the person of John the Baptist (see Matthew 11:13-14; 17:10-13). According to Luke 1:11-17, the angel of the Lord, in announcing John the Baptist’s birth, said that John would go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17). It appears then that Elijah was not John the Baptist in a literal sense; however, Elijah did appear literally with Jesus on the “mount of transfiguration” (Mark 9:2-4).

9These same words would later be used to describe Elisha at his death (2 Kings 13:14).

10 Joshua’s curse applied to anyone who tried to rebuild Jericho (Joshua 6:26); it did not apply to those who simply settled on the site.

11The bowl needed to be new (verse 20)—that is, one that had never been used. Any item used specifically in God’s service had to be undefiled (see Numbers 19:1; 1 Samuel 6:7).

12 The salt had purifying properties, but in this case the salt primarily symbolized God’s faithfulness to His covenant people (Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:19).

13 The Desert of Edom lay southeast of Judah (verse 8). Edom itself had been conquered by David (2 Samuel 8:13-14), but then one of its leaders had begun to give Solomon trouble (1 Kings 11:14-22). Edom was again subjugated by Jehoshaphat, who appointed a deputy to rule over it (1 Kings 22:47). In verse 9, a king of Edom is mentioned; perhaps this was the same “deputy.” In any event, this “king of Edom” willingly joined with Joram and Jehoshaphat, and allowed them to proceed through his country on their way to Moab.

14 According to the law of Moses, a creditor could demand the services of a debtor and his or her children for a period of up to six years; however, if the debtor was an Israelite, he or she was not to be treated as a slave but rather as a hired worker (see Exodus 21:2; Leviticus 25:39-41). It appears that in Elisha’s time this law was being abused by creditors; the widow’s two boys could be made servants, but not slaves.

15 Note that God expects us to pay our debts; not to pay a legitimate debt is to rob the lender.

16 For further discussion of miracles, see General Article: Miracles and the Laws of Nature.

17 For other examples of similar promises, see Genesis 18:10-12; Luke 1:13,26-35.

18 People were expected to visit prophets only on special holy days, such as the New Moon or the Sabbath (see Exodus 20:8-11; Numbers 10:10).

19 For other examples of raising the dead, see Luke 7:11-17; John 11:38-44; Acts 9:36-43.

20 Jesus’ ministry is being carried out today by His Spiritenabled followers. Today we are Jesus’ voice and Jesus’ hands. And we have been commissioned to proclaim God’s love for the world and to demonstrate that love through our words and actions.

21 Notice in verse 1 that the Lord controlled the victories and defeats of all nations, not just of Israel.

22 To understand how large an amount of silver and gold Naaman brought with him, we should recall that Omri king of Israel had bought the entire hill on which Samaria was built for only two talents of silver (1 Kings 16:24).

23 Although children are not punished for specific sins of their parents (Deuteronomy 24:16), they are certainly affected by their parents’ behavior. In Gehazi’s case, his leprosy, a contagious disease, spread to his children and then on to succeeding generations. For further discussion of the continuing effects of a parent’s sin on his or her children, see Exodus 20:4-6 and comment.

24 Covetousness, or greed, is the equivalent of idolatry (Colossians 3:5), because it makes a “god” of money and possessions.

25 This king of Aram is the Ben-Hadad who earlier had attacked Israel during the reign of Ahab (1 Kings 20:1); he was now about to besiege Samaria (verse 24).

26 Elisha didn’t actually lie to the soldiers when he told them he was not to be found in that city; but he clearly deceived them. Other examples of deception in Scripture are found in Exodus 1:18-20; Joshua 2:4-6; John 7:1-10. Deception usually, but not always, involves an untruth; therefore in most instances deception is wrong. But clearly there are exceptions, when God intends that certain information be withheld from certain people. One way to tell if a particular deception is wrong is to ask: Who is benefiting from this deception? If the deceiver is benefiting, then it is always wrong; if God or someone else is benefiting, then in certain instances it may not be wrong.

For further discussion on the subject of ethical dilemmas, see comment on Exodus 20:16 and second footnote to comment.

27 The tearing of one’s clothes was a sign of mourning, of distress, of anger; probably Joram was experiencing all these emotions. However, sackcloth was worn as a sign of deep sorrow and repentance. There is no evidence that Joram was truly repentant, so he was probably wearing sackcloth only to make a show of repentance in hopes of gaining favor with God.

28 It is not clear what the messenger’s purpose was; perhaps he was the “executioner.” That would explain why Elisha ordered the door to be shut until the king arrived.

29 The price of a seah (7 liters) of flour, for example, would fall to one shekel (12 grams) of silver (verse 1). If the price of an inedible donkey’s head was eighty shekels (2 Kings 6:25), think how many shekels a seah of flour would have cost! But within one day, said Elisha, that much flour would cost only one shekel.

30The officer was a skeptic, a man without faith. Sometimes our lack of faith keeps God from performing miracles (see Mark 6:5-6). But at other times, our lack of faith doesn’t prevent the miracle; it only prevents our benefiting from the miracle personally-as was the case with this officer (verse 17).

31 The timing of the episode described in verses 1-6 is uncertain; these episodes in Elisha’s life have not necessarily been placed in chronological order.

32 For further discussion of God’s use of sinful people to fulfill His purposes, see Exodus 4:21; 2 Samuel 24:1 and comments.

33 The lamp for David which the Lord had promised to maintain was David’s progeny, his line of descendants (see 1 Kings 11:36; 15:4); David would always have a descendant on the throne. And the Lord has kept that promise: today Jesus Christ is on the throne of David and He will reign forever (see Luke 1:26-33).

The old kingdom of Judah, however, was not to last forever. Because of the wickedness of many of its kings and the idolatry of its people, Judah was soon to be destroyed by the Babylonians and its people driven into exile.

34 Edom had previously been subject to Judah (1 Kings 22:47). Now the Edomites had rebelled and established their own king. Edom was still in rebellion at the time 2 Kings was written.

35 According to 2 Chronicles 21:12-15, Jehoram received a letter from the prophet Elijah, in which Elijah announced future judgments that were to fall upon Jehoram because of his wickedness and idolatry. These judgments included the loss of his sons and his disease of the bowels.

Elijah wrote this letter near the end of his life. Some Bible scholars say that Elijah could not have been alive during Jehoram’s reign because, according to 2 Kings 3:11, Elisha was the only prophet in the land during the reign of Jehoram’s father Jehoshaphat. However, it is not actually stated in 2 Kings 3:11 that Elijah was no longer alive on earth at that time; therefore he could well have written this letter to Jehoram some years later.

36 This Jehu is not to be confused with the prophet Jehu mentioned in 1 Kings 16:1,7.

37 “Anointing” symbolized the selecting and setting apart of an individual for a particular task, together with the divine enabling of that person to accomplish the task (1 Samuel 9:16). Anointing also symbolized the transferal of God’s authority to that selected person. Sometimes an evil person was anointed by God for the purpose of carrying out God’s judgment, as in the case of Hazael king of Aram (1 Kings 19:15).

38 As long as sin remains unconfessed, there can be no peace, no reconciliation, either between the sinner and God or between the sinner and the one sinned against. Confession opens the way to forgiveness and to the restoration of broken relationships. True, we can unilaterally forgive a person’s sin—indeed, we must do so; but that alone will not restore the broken relationship.

39 The account of Ahaziah’s death given in verses 27-29 is somewhat different from that given in 2 Chronicles 22:8-9; each account gives part of the story. The wounded Ahaziah escaped to the city of Megiddo in Samaria (Israel), where he hid. Jehu’s men eventually found him and brought him to Jehu. Then they took him back to Megiddo and executed him. The two accounts, then, are complementary.

40 Zimri was another army commander who had killed his king, only to die a terrible death seven days later (1 Kings 16:8-20). His name had become synonymous with “traitor.”

41 It was customary for eunuchs to attend female members of the royal family and to be in charge of the king’s harem. Presumably they would not be tempted to seduce those under their care.

42 The movement started by Jehonadab continued for at least two hundred years until the time of Jeremiah (see Jeremiah 35:1-19); Jehonadab’s followers were called Recabites, after the name of his father Recab (verse 15).

43 Other than Ahaziah’s sons, there weren’t many males left in Judah’s royal family. Ahaziah’s father Jehoram (Athaliah’s husband) had murdered all of his brothers (2 Chronicles 21:4); the Philistines and Arabs had carried off all but one of Jehoram’s sons, leaving only Ahaziah to inherit his throne (2 Chronicles 21:16-17); and Jehu had recently killed fortytwo of Ahaziah’s relatives (2 Kings 10:1214).

44 A similar attempt by Herod to snuff out the life of Jesus, David’s greatest Son, was likewise unsuccessful (Matthew 2:13-18). Despite his efforts, Satan was unable to thwart God’s ultimate plan for the redemption of mankind.

45 In the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, emphasis is given to the role of priests and ?evites in Israel’s history. Thus the account in 2 Chronicles supplements the account given here in 2 Kings.

46 For further discussion of the portions of offerings assigned to the priests for their sustenance, see Leviticus 7:28-36 and comment.

47 Years earlier, Asa king of Judah had sent a similar bribe to an Aramean king, Ben-Hadad, in order to entice him into an alliance (1 Kings 15:18-19). ?ater Asa was rebuked for this, because he had relied more on human schemes than on the Lord (2 Chronicles 16:7-10).

48 Jeroboam was the first king of Israel (the northern kingdom); it was his sin of setting up golden calves for the people to worship that influenced all subsequent generations of Israelites (see 1 Kings 12:28-30).

49 Hazael named his son after the king he had murdered (2 Kings 8:15). This is the third Ben-Hadad we have encountered in Scripture, the first having been mentioned in 1 Kings 15:18.

50 Another suggestion is that the deliverer (verse 5) was the king of Assyria, who attacked the Arameans on a number of occasions and weakened them enough so that the Israelites were able to reclaim much of their territory from Aram (see verse 25).

51 Ahab had originally set up this Asherah pole (see 1 Kings 16:33); perhaps Jehu had failed to remove it when he eliminated Baal worship from Israel (2 Kings 10:27-28). Or perhaps it had been set up again during Jehoahaz’s reign.

52 Elisha himself had used these very words in referring to the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 2:12).

53 In verse 23, the writer says: To this day God has been unwilling . . . That is, up until the day these words were written, God had been unwilling. God had not yet allowed Israel (the northern kingdom) to be destroyed. However, the final compiler of the books of 1 and 2 Kings lived after Israel had been destroyed and its people sent into exile. Yet some of the sources he used to compile his book (including this passage) were actually written before Israel was destroyed.

54 It is important to note that sometimes two kings reigned simultaneously; this occurred particularly when an older king was turning power over to his son. Such a dual kingship was called a coregency. Because of the frequency of coregency, as well as differences in dating, it is sometimes difficult to determine how long each king reigned.

55 In 2 Chronicles Chapter 26, Azariah is called Uzziah.

56 In verse 28, the writer says that Jeroboam recovered for Israel both Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Yaudi. Some scholars believe that Yaudi means Judah; if this is so, the writer is saying that Damascus and Hamath were once included in the territory ruled by David and Solomon, who were of the tribe of Judah.

57 It is probable that Pekah began ruling in eastern Israel (Gilead) before his official reign commenced; it seems that during Israel’s final years a civil war was being waged between proAssyrian and antiAssyrian factions in Israel. This would also explain the discrepancies in the lengths of the reigns of Israel’s last kings.

58 In 2 Chronicles 28:22, the writer says: In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD. Times of trouble test a person; they reveal a person’s character. In time of trouble, the true believer turns to the Lord; the unbeliever turns against Him. On the outside, the believer and unbeliever may for a time appear the same; but when testing comes, the difference between them will become apparent (see Matthew 7:24-27).

59 In ancient times, it was customary to seek guidance from the gods by examining the intestines of animals; this is probably what Ahaz had in mind.

60 Many Israelites from northern and eastern Israel had already been deported by Shalmaneser’s father (2 Kings 15:29).

61 Assyria was located north of the Euphrates River in what is now northern Iraq; thus these deportees were sent “beyond the River.”

62 The sins for which Israel was punished were all acts of disobedience to God’s clearly stated commands. The Israelites managed to break some of the most important of these commands. Verse 7: they worshiped other gods (see Exodus 20:3 and comment). Verse 8: they followed the practices of the ungodly Canaanites (see Exodus 23:23-24; 34:10-14 and comments). Verses 9-11: they set up pagan worship sites in all their towns . . . and under every spreading tree (see 2 Kings 16:4). Verse 12: they worshiped idols, though they had been commanded not to (see Exodus 20:36; 34:15-16 and comments).

63 The writer does not mean that God’s presence was limited to Israel’s territory (verse 18). But the land of Israel was the primary area in which God’s Old Testament purposes for His people were meant to be fulfilled. Thus, when the Israelites were removed from the land, they were also removed from God’s covenant blessings—the greatest of which was His presence.

64Judah was the only entire tribe that was left. Included in Judah, however, were remnants of the tribes of Simeon and Benjamin.

65 Two religious revivals occurred during the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah; however, they were not lasting, and Judah quickly returned to its idolatry.

66 The Lord controls every event in the universe. If He allows lions to increase in number, it can be said that He sent them (verse 25).

67 Notice that verses 35-39 consist of a quotation, a statement made by God to His own people, the Israelites. These words were not spoken to the foreign settlers who had been sent to Israel by the Assyrians.

68 Many scholars believe that not all the Israelites were deported by the Assyrians; some may have remained in Samaria and gradually mixed in with the new foreign settlers. Some scholars believe that these mixed peoples became the “Samaritans” of Jesus’ day.

69 The other two kings who received this praise were Asa (1 Kings 15:11) and Josiah (2 Kings 22:2).

70 The prophet Isaiah was one of the sources the writer used in compiling 2 Kings Chapters 18-20.

71 Aramaic was the international language of the Middle East at that time; it was the language of commerce and diplomacy. It was not used by the common people.

72 By remnant (verse 4), Hezekiah meant both the inhabitants of Jerusalem and also those Judahites who were still living after Sennacherib’s capture of Judah’s fortified cities (2 Kings 18:13); many of them had fled to Jerusalem for protection.

73 The writer does not say what the report contained; perhaps it was a report of the 18,500 deaths that would soon occur in the Assyrian camp (verses 35-36). The killing of Sennacherib would be carried out by his own sons (verse 37).

74Cush (presentday Sudan) lay just south of Egypt; in Hezekiah’s time, Cush and Egypt were united under one king.

75 For a similar prophetic denunciation of Assyria, see Isaiah 10:5-19.

76 For a discussion of the term angel of the LORD, see Genesis 16:7-10; 18:1-8 and comments.

77 Attempts to explain these deaths on the basis of natural causes are doomed to failure. No naturally occurring plague could kill so many so rapidly. This was the angel of the LORD striking down those who were working against God’s purposes (Exodus 12:23). This miracle is comparable to God’s victory over the Egyptians at the Red Sea during Israel’s exodus from Egypt (Exodus 14:19-28).

78 We have said here that for prayer to be effective we must pray according to God’s will (1 John 5:1415). But there are other requirements also. We must pray in faith (Mark 11:22-24). We must pray in Jesus’ name-that is, for His sake, as His representatives (John 14:13-14; 16:23). Finally, if our prayers are to be truly effective, we ourselves must remain in Christ and His words must remain in us (John 15:7). If we do not earnestly seek to meet these requirements and choose instead to pray only according to our own will, then we will become like the person the Apostle James addressed when he wrote: When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives (James 4:3). For further discussion on the subject of prayer, see Exodus 32:14 and comment.

79 It is not known how the Lord accomplished this miracle. It is not necessary to suppose that He reversed the earth’s rotation on its axis. More likely, He produced a local change in the atmosphere which caused the sun’s rays to shift. For further discussion, see General Article: Miracles and the Laws of Nature.

80 How could such a godly father as Hezekiah have had such a wicked son? (On the opposite side, how could the wicked Ahaz have produced the godly Hezekiah?) The answer is that each individual is free to make his or her own choices in life. Our parents influence us greatly, but they do not finally determine the course we take. We should sympathize with godly parents whose child does not follow God. Yes, they may bear some responsibility; no parent is perfect. But the main responsibility must be borne by the wayward child. Happily for most parents, the proverb holds true: Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6).

81 For a discussion of how God’s covenant promises are contingent on our obedience, see Exodus 19:5-6 and comment.

82 The remnant of the Lord’s inheritance was Judah—or what remained of it after the invasion of Sennacherib. When the Lord said He would forsake Judah (verse 14), He meant He would bring judgment upon it; He was not canceling His covenant with Judah and the house of David (2 Samuel 7:12-16). Indeed, a tiny “remnant” would remain throughout Judah’s seventy years of exile, and then that remnant of believers would return to their land.

Even among the Israelites of the northern kingdom, there were some who believed in the Lord. Many of these believers had migrated to Judah in the years before Israel’s destruction. These too would be included in the “remnant.”

83 For further discussion of God’s discipline, see Exodus 15:25-27 and comment; Word List: Discipline.

84 According to 2 Chronicles 34:9, the money raised for repairing the temple came not only from the people of Judah and Benjamin (the southern kingdom) but also from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel (the northern kingdom). This indicates that there had been many faithful Israelites—the “remnant”—who had migrated to Judah before the northern kingdom fell to Assyria.

85 Josiah was killed in battle (2 Kings 23:29-30); however, he died well before the fall of Jerusalem, and he died at peace with the Lord.

86 According to 2 Kings 18:5, there was no king like Hezekiah—before or after him! However, in Hezekiah’s case, his special distinguishing quality was his trust in the Lord. Josiah’s special distinguishing quality was his careful obedience to the Lord’s commands.

87 If one wonders why God would reject His own temple, it should be recalled that God does not live in temples made by men (1 Kings 8:27-30; Acts 7:48).

88 The Babylonians lived east of Israel in what is today southern Iraq. As their power grew, their enemies to the north, the Assyrians, began to weaken. Soon the Assyrian Empire would collapse completely.

89 During Nebuchadnezzar’s first invasion of Judah, many Judahite hostages were taken; among them was the prophet Daniel (Daniel 1:1).

90 The writer says that the sins of Manasseh were the primary cause of God’s wrath (verse 3), including his shedding of innocent blood (2 Kings 21:16). The sins of Manasseh had truly reached to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 20:5).

91 The exact numbers of the various people deported are difficult to determine; the numbers in verse 16 do not add up to the 10,000 in verse 14. Furthermore, according to Jeremiah 52:28, only 3,023 people were deported at this time; perhaps Jeremiah’s figure includes only males, or only civilians.

There are a number of so-called “discrepancies” that one can find in the Old Testament; virtually all of them involve numbers, dates, ages, and the spelling of names. Virtually all can be explained. Some discrepancies result from different ways of categorizing people; others arise from different dating systems (the Babylonian calendar, for example, was different from that used in Israel and Judah); others arise from different methods of reckoning the length of each king’s reign. For further discussion on this subject, see comment on Exodus 12:40-42 and footnotes to comment.

92 See footnote to comment on 2 Kings 21:1-6.

93 This siege of Jerusalem began in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month (verse 1)—that is, January 15, 588 B.C. Why is this so interesting? Because on that exact date, hundreds of miles away in Babylon, the already exiled prophet Ezekiel was told by the Lord that the siege of Jerusalem had begun that very day! (Ezekiel 24:1-2).

94 According to the law, the land was to have a year of rest” every seven years (see Leviticus 25:1-7). There is no record that the Israelites ever observed this law during all their years in the promised land—a period of about eight hundred years. Thus the seventy sabbath rests (representing 490 years) would make up for a large portion of that neglect on the part of the Israelites.

95 According to 2 Chronicles 36:22, Cyrus made this proclamation in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah—namely, that after seventy years the exiles would be brought back to their land (Jeremiah 29:10). But another prophet, Isaiah, even predicted by name the very instrument God would use to bring them back—Cyrus king of Persia; and Isaiah made that prediction more than a century before Cyrus was born! (see Isaiah 44:24-28; 45:1,13).

96 For a graphic and poetic portrayal of the fall of Jerusalem, see the book of Lamentations.