2 Chronicles 36:11-21

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He was king in Jerusalem for eleven years.

12 As far as God was concerned, he was just one more evil king; there wasn't a trace of contrition in him when the prophet Jeremiah preached God's word to him.

13 Then he compounded his troubles by rebelling against King Nebuchadnezzar, who earlier had made him swear in God's name that he would be loyal. He became set in his own stubborn ways - he never gave God a thought; repentance never entered his mind.

14 The evil mindset spread to the leaders and priests and filtered down to the people - it kicked off an epidemic of evil, repeating the abominations of the pagans and polluting The Temple of God so recently consecrated in Jerusalem.

15 God, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent warning messages to them. Out of compassion for both his people and his Temple he wanted to give them every chance possible.

16 But they wouldn't listen; they poked fun at God's messengers, despised the message itself, and in general treated the prophets like idiots. God became more and more angry until there was no turning back -

17 God called in Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who came and killed indiscriminately - and right in The Temple itself; it was a ruthless massacre: young men and virgins, the elderly and weak - they were all the same to him.

18 And then he plundered The Temple of everything valuable, cleaned it out completely; he emptied the treasuries of The Temple of God, the treasuries of the king and his officials, and hauled it all, people and possessions, off to Babylon.

19 He burned The Temple of God to the ground, knocked down the wall of Jerusalem, and set fire to all the buildings - everything valuable was burned up.

20 Any survivor was taken prisoner into exile in Babylon and made a slave to Nebuchadnezzar and his family. The exile and slavery lasted until the kingdom of Persia took over.

21 This is exactly the message of God that Jeremiah had preached: the desolate land put to an extended sabbath rest, a seventy-year Sabbath rest making up for all the unkept Sabbaths.

2 Chronicles 36:11-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 CHRONICLES 36

This chapter records the reigns of the four kings of Judah, and the captivity of the Jews, the short reign of Jehoahaz, deposed by the king of Egypt, and his brother Eliakim or Jehoiakim set up in his room, 2Ch 36:1-4, the reign of Jehoiakim, who was bound and carried away by Nebuchadnezzar, 2Ch 36:5-8, the reign of Jehoiachin his son, who also in a short time was taken and carried to Babylon by the same king, 2Ch 36:9,10, the reign of Zedekiah, who also rebelled against the king of Babylon, and he and his people were taken and carried captive by him for his sins, which are here mentioned, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, and where the Jews continued until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, 2Ch 36:11-21 and the chapter is concluded with the proclamation of Cyrus king of Persia, and with which also the next book begins, 2Ch 36:22,23.

\\Josiah\\ Of whose reign, and of the three following, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, and the account of them, from hence to the end of 2Ch 36:13, what needs explanation or reconciliation, \\See Gill on "2Ki 23:31"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 23:32"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 23:33"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 23:34"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 23:35"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 23:36"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 23:37"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 24:5"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 24:6"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 24:8"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 24:10"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 24:17"\\ \\See Gill on "2Ki 24:18"\\ 19953-950201-1301-2Ch36.2