UNROLL
Dawn over the Judean hills in the years of the desolation: terraced hillsides gone wild, grass, red anemones and yellow wildflowers thick between unpruned olive trees and overgrown vines; far off on a ridge the broken, blackened line of an old city wall; a calm, clear dawn sky above.

The Book of

2 Chronicles 36

Again and again God sent word. Then the city fell, the land rested, and a pagan king said, ‘Go up.’

23 verses≈ 5 min4 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

Tap any post to go deeper

In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1SolomonWisdom asked at Gibeon
  2. 2–5The templeBuilt on Mount Moriah
  3. 6–7DedicationIf My people humble themselves
  4. 8–9Solomon's gloryThe queen of Sheba
  5. 10–16DivisionRehoboam to Asa
  6. 17–20JehoshaphatThe battle is God's
  7. 21–24Dark yearsJehoram to Joash
  8. 25–28Proud kingsAmaziah to Ahaz
  9. 29–32HezekiahDoors opened, Passover kept
  10. 33–35Manasseh to JosiahMercy and the Book found
  11. 36Exile and returnMay he go upChapter 36

Jehoahaz Succeeds Josiah

Judah

Jehoahaz of Judah · 3 months

  1. Made king by the people of the land

    Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

  2. Twenty-three, three months in Jerusalem

    Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.

  3. Dethroned by the king of Egypt

    And the king of Egypt dethroned him in Jerusalem and imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Then Neco king of Egypt made Eliakim brother of Jehoahaz king over Judah and Jerusalem, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Eliakim’s brother Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt.

Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah

Judah

Jehoiakim of Judah · 11 years

  1. Twenty-five, eleven years in Jerusalem

    Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.

  2. did evil

    Evil in the sight of the LORD

    And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jehoiakim and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.

A dim storeroom of sun-dried brick in a temple of Babylon lit by one clay oil lamp: a Babylonian temple servant sets a gold bowl and a bronze basin on a mud-brick shelf among other bowls and jars; a dark doorway behind with nothing visible in it.

Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon some of the articles from the house of the LORD, and he put them in his temple in Babylon.

As for the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, the abominations he committed, and all that was found against him, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place.

Jehoiachin Reigns in Judah

Judah

Jehoiachin of Judah · 3 months and 10 days

  1. Eighteen, three months and ten days

    Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days.

  2. did evil

    Evil in the sight of the LORD

    And he did evil in the sight of the LORD.

Seen from very far off at evening, a long thin line of small walking people with bundles and laden donkeys winds east across a wide brown plain, their dust lit gold by the low sun behind them.

In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

EgyptEuphratesPersiaJerusalemBabylon

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Egypt, Babylon and Persia

Neco carried Jehoahaz off to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar took the temple’s articles, then Jehoiachin, then the people to Babylon. They served there “until the kingdom of Persia came to power,” and Cyrus king of Persia, master of Babylon from 539 BC, sent them home.

Reflect

Four kings in twenty-two years

After Josiah, his sons and grandson came and went as Egypt and Babylon pleased, and each “did evil in the sight of the LORD.” A good father could not make his sons faithful. Who are you praying for by name, that they would come to seek God for themselves? Write their names down.

Zedekiah Reigns in Judah

A room of the king's house in Jerusalem lit by a window: Jeremiah, lean and gray-streaked, stands and speaks earnestly with one hand open; before him King Zedekiah sits on a cedar chair and turns his face away to the window, one hand raised to stop him; two officials stand uneasy by the door.

Judah

Zedekiah of Judah · 11 years

  1. Twenty-one, eleven years in Jerusalem

    Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.

  2. did evil

    Did not humble himself before Jeremiah

    And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for the LORD.

He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.

Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem

Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.

2 Chronicles 36:15

But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

Night, from far across the Kidron valley among olive trees: on Jerusalem's ridge the long, plain temple burns, fire standing up through its cedar roof and the palace beside it, the two bronze pillars dark against the glow, while an old man and a woman stand watching from behind.

So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials. Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.

0:32

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Midday on the flat Babylonian plain: Judean exile families at work beside a broad canal under tall date palms, men digging and carrying baskets of earth along the bank, women drawing water, a Babylonian overseer watching from the shade; far off the long mud-brick walls of a city.

Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah.

The seventy years

warnedabout 70 yearsabout 70 yearsLeviticus 26the land’s SabbathrestsJeremiah’s wordseventy yearsAbout 605 BCthe first exiles538 BCCyrus: may he go up586 BCthe temple burned516 BCthe temple rebuilt

Whiteboard

The land rested the Sabbaths its people had not kept, “until seventy years were completed,” as Jeremiah had said. The years can be counted from the first exiles to Cyrus’s decree, or from the temple’s burning to its rebuilding: both come to about seventy.

Question

Quick question

The LORD sent word to His people again and again before the end came.

Why did the LORD send His messengers again and again?

The Proclamation of Cyrus

Early morning at the gate of a mud-brick city on the Babylonian plain: three Persian royal couriers ride out at a canter on small sturdy horses, each with a sealed scroll in a leather case at his side, the straight road running away across the flat green land among date palms.

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

Midday in a crowded square of a Babylonian town by a canal: a Persian herald on a low mud-brick platform holds a rolled scroll with its clay seal just broken, proclaiming; around him Judean exiles old and young, an old man covering his face with his hands, a young woman holding up her child, two men gripping each other's arms.

“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.

Whoever among you belongs to His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and may he go up.’”

2 Chronicles 36:23

Pray

May he go up

Thank the LORD that He sends word again and again “because He had compassion.” Thank Him that judgment was not His last word, and that He stirred a king’s heart to send His people home. Pray for anyone far from home, far from God, that they would hear His call to come home. Ask for grace to answer His call.

You’ve experienced

2 Chronicles 36

0 of 36 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.

2 Chronicles 36:15

or swipe left