2 Kings 25:25-30

25 But in midautumn of that year, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, went to Mizpah with ten men and killed Gedaliah. He also killed all the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.

26 Then all the people of Judah, from the least to the greatest, as well as the army commanders, fled in panic to Egypt, for they were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them.

27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to Jehoiachin and released him from prison on April 2 of that year.

28 He spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in Babylon.

29 He supplied Jehoiachin with new clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.

30 So the king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he lived.

2 Kings 25:25-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 25

In this chapter is an account of the siege, taking, and burning of the city of Jerusalem, and of the carrying captive the king and the inhabitants to Babylon, 2Ki 25:1-12, as also of the pillars and vessels of the temple brought thither, 2Ki 25:13-17 and of the putting to death several of the principal persons of the land, 2Ki 25:18-22, and of the miserable condition of the rest under Gedaliah, whom Ishmael slew, 2Ki 25:23-26, and the chapter, and so the history, is concluded with the kindness Jehoiachin met with from the king of Babylon, after thirty seven years' captivity, 2Ki 25:27-30.

&c.] Of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. From hence to the end of 2Ki 25:7, the account exactly agrees with Jer 52:4-11. 18182-941226-1348-2Ki25.2

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew in the seventh month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This month occurred within the months of October and November 586 ; also see note on 25:1 .
• [b]. Hebrew He raised the head of.
• [c]. As in some Hebrew manuscripts and Greek and Syriac versions (see also Jer 52:31 ); Masoretic Text lacks released him.
• [d]. Hebrew on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. This day was April 2, 561 ; also see note on 25:1 .