2nd Chronicles Chapter 36

From The Open Bible Project

36:1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem.

36:2 Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

• (a) Three months after the death of Josiah, Necho came to Jerusalem, and so the plagues began, which Huldah and the prophets forewarned would come on Jerusalem.

36:3 The king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem, and fined the land one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

• (b) To pay this as a yearly tribute.

36:4 The king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Joahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

36:5 Jehoiakim was Twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God.

• (c) Because he and the people did not turn to God by his first plague, he brought a new one on him, and at length rooted them out.

36:6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.

36:7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of Yahweh to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.

36:8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

• (d) He means superstitious marks which were found on his body when he was dead, which declared how deeply idolatry was rooted in his heart, seeing he bore the marks in his flesh.

36:9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

• (e) That is, he began his reign at eight years old, and reigned ten years when his father was alive, and after his father�s death, which was in his eighteenth year, he reigned alone three months and ten days.

36:10 At the return of the year king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of Yahweh, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

36:11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem:

36:12 and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God; he didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet [speaking] from the mouth of Yahweh.

36:13 He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

36:14 Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Yahweh which he had made holy in Jerusalem.

36:15 Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:

• (f) By this phrase the scripture means often and diligently as in (Jeremiah 11:7, Jeremiah 25:3, Jeremiah 26:5, Jeremiah 32:33).

36:16 but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

• (g) Till God could no longer allow their sins, but must punish them.

36:17 Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed: he gave them all into his hand.

• (h) Where they fled, thinking to have been saved for the holiness of it.
• (i) Which is not because God approves him, who yet is the minister of his justice, but because God would by his just judgment punish this people: for this king was led with ambition and vain glory, to which were joined fury and cruelty: therefore his work was condemnable, even though it was just and holy on God's part, who used this wicked instrument to declare his justice.

36:18 All the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.

36:19 They burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels of it.

36:20 He carried those who had escaped from the sword away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

• (k) When Gyrus king of Persia had made the Babylonians subject.

36:21 to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths: [for] as long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

• (l) Who threatened the vengeance of God and 70 years captivity, which he called the sabbaths or rest of the land, (Jeremiah 25:11).

36:22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and [put it] also in writing, saying,

• (m) In the first year that he reigned over the Chaldeans, (Ezra 1:1).

36:23 "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given all the kingdoms of the earth to me; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with him, and let him go up.'"

• (n) God had so forewarned by his prophet over 100 years before Cyrus was born, (Isaiah 44:28) that Jerusalem and the temple would be rebuilt by Cyrus his anointed: so called because God used his service for a time to deliver his Church.