II
K I N G S
CHAP. XXV.
Ever
since David's time
Jerusalem
had been a celebrated place, beautiful for
situation and the joy of the whole earth: while the book of psalms lasts that
name will sound great. In the New Testament we read much of it, when it was,
as here, ripening again for its ruin. In the close of the Bible we read of a
new Jerusalem. Every thing therefore that concerns
Jerusalem
is worthy our regard. In this chapter we have,
I. The utter destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, the city besieged and
taken (ver. 1-4), the houses burnt (ver. 8, 9), and wall broken down (ver.
10), and the inhabitants carried away into captivity, ver. 11, 12. The glory
of
Jerusalem
was, 1. That it was the royal city, where were
set "the thrones of the house of David;" but that glory has now
departed, for the prince is made a most miserable prisoner, the seed royal is
destroyed (ver. 5-7), and the principal officers are put to death, ver. 18-21.
2. That it was the holy city, where was the testimony of Israel; but that
glory has departed, for Solomon's temple is burnt to the ground (ver. 9) and
the sacred vessels that remained are carried away to Babylon, ver. 13-17. Thus
has Jerusalem become as a widow, Lam. i. 1. Ichabod--Where is the glory? II.
The distraction and dispersion of the remnant that was left in Judah under
Gedaliah, ver. 22-26. III. The countenance which, after thirty-seven years'
imprisonment, was given to Jehoiachin the captive king of Judah, ver. 27-30.
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Jerusalem
Besieged.
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B.
C. 590.
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1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his
reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem,
and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.
2 And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed
in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 4
And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the
way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now
the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king
went the way toward the plain. 5 And the army of the Chaldees
pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his
army were scattered from him. 6 So they took the king, and brought
him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon
him. 7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put
out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him
to Babylon.
We left king Zedekiah in rebellion against the king of Babylon (ch.
xxiv. 20), contriving and endeavouring to shake off his yoke, when he was no
way able to do it, nor took the right method by making God his friend first.
Now here we have an account of the fatal consequences of that attempt.
I. The king of Babylon's army laid siege to Jerusalem, v. 1. What
should hinder them when the country was already in their possession? ch.
xxiv. 2. They built forts against the city round about, whence, by such
arts of war as they then had, they battered it, sent into it instruments of
death, and kept out of it the necessary supports of life. Formerly Jerusalem
had been compassed with the favour of God as with a shield, but now their
defence had departed from them and their enemies surrounded them on every
side. Those that by sin have provoked God to leave them will find that innumerable
evils will compass them about. Two years this siege lasted; at first the
army retired, for fear of the king of Egypt (Jer. xxxvii. 11), but, finding
him not so powerful as they thought, they soon returned, with a resolution not
to quit the city till they had made themselves masters of it.
II. During this siege the famine prevailed (v. 3), so that for a long
time they ate their bread by weight and with care, Ezek. iv. 16. Thus
they were punished for their gluttony and excess, their fulness of bread
and feeding themselves without fear. At length there was no bread
for the people of the land, that is, the common people, the soldiers,
whereby they were weakened and rendered unfit for service. Now they ate their
own children for want of food. See this foretold by one prophet (Ezek. v. 10)
and bewailed by another, Lam. iv. 3, &c. Jeremiah earnestly persuaded the
king to surrender (Jer. xxxviii. 17), but his heart was hardened to his
destruction.
III. At length the city was taken by storm: it was broken up, v.
4. The besiegers made a breach in the wall, at which they forced their way
into it. The besieged, unable any longer to defend it, endeavoured to quit it,
and make the best of their way; and many, no doubt, were put to the sword, the
victorious army being much exasperated by their obstinacy.
IV. The king, his family, and all his great men, made their escape in the
night, by some secret passages which the besiegers either had not discovered
or did not keep their eye upon, v. 4. But those as much deceive
themselves who think to escape God's judgments as those who think to brave
them; the feet of him that flees from them will as surely fail as the hands of
him that fights against them. When God judges he will overcome. Intelligence
was given to the Chaldeans of the king's flight, and which way he had gone, so
that they soon overtook him, v. 5. His guards were scattered from him,
every man shifting for his own safety. Had he put himself under God's
protection, that would not have failed him now. He presently fell into the
enemies' hands, and here we are told what they did with him. 1. He was brought
to the king of Babylon, and tried by a council of war for rebelling against
him who set him up, and to whom he had sworn fidelity. God and man had a
quarrel with him for this; see Ezek. xvii. 16, &c. The king of Babylon now
lay at Riblah (which lay between Judea and Babylon), that he might be ready to
give orders both to his court at home and his army abroad. 2. His sons were
slain before his eyes, though children, that this doleful spectacle, the
last his eyes were to behold, might leave an impression of grief and horror
upon his spirit as long as he lived. In slaying his sons, they showed their
indignation at his falsehood, and in effect declared that neither he nor any
of his were fit to be trusted, and therefore that they were not fit to live.
3. His eyes were put out, by which he was deprived of that common comfort of
human life which is given even to those that are in misery, and to the
bitter in soul, the light of the sun, by which he was also disabled for
any service. He dreaded being mocked, and therefore would not be persuaded to
yield (Jer. xxxviii. 19), but that which he feared came upon him with a
witness, and no doubt added much to his misery; for, as those that are deaf
suspect that every body talks of them, so those that are blind suspect that
every body laughs at them. By this two prophecies that seemed to contradict
one another were both fulfilled. Jeremiah prophesied that Zedekiah should be
brought to Babylon, Jer. xxxii. 5; xxxiv. 3. Ezekiel prophesied that he should
not see Babylon, Ezek. xii. 13. He was brought thither, but, his eyes being
put out, he did not see it. Thus he ended his days, before he ended his life.
4. He was bound in fetters of brass and so carried to Babylon.
He that was blind needed not be bound (his blindness fettered him), but, for
his greater disgrace, they led him bound; only, whereas common malefactors are
laid in irons (Ps. cv. 18; cvii. 10), he, being a prince, was bound with
fetters of brass; but that the metal was somewhat nobler and lighter was
little comfort, while still he was in fetters. Let it not seem strange if
those that have been held in the cords of iniquity come to be thus held in
the cords of affliction, Job xxxvi. 8.
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The
Temple Destroyed.
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B.
C. 588.
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8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day
of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of
Babylon, unto Jerusalem: 9 And he burnt the house of the LORD,
and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's
house burnt he with fire. 10 And all the army of the Chaldees,
that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of
Jerusalem round about. 11 Now the rest of the people that were
left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon,
with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard
carry away. 12 But the captain of the guard left of the poor of
the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen. 13 And the
pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD,
and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the LORD,
did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to
Babylon. 14 And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and
the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they
away. 15 And the firepans, and the bowls, and such things
as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the
captain of the guard took away. 16 The two pillars, one sea, and
the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD;
the brass of all these vessels was without weight. 17 The height
of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was
brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the wreathen work, and
pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these
had the second pillar with wreathen work. 18 And the captain of
the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and
the three keepers of the door: 19 And out of the city he took an
officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in
the king's presence, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of
the host, which mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the
people of the land that were found in the city: 20 And
Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of
Babylon to Riblah: 21 And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew
them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their
land.
Though we have reason to think that the army of the Chaldeans were much
enraged against the city for holding out with so much stubbornness, yet they
did not therefore put all to fire and sword as soon as they had taken the city
(which is too commonly done in such cases), but about a month after (compare v.
8 with v. 3) Nebuzar-adan was sent with orders to complete the
destruction of Jerusalem. This space God gave them to repent, after all the
foregoing days of his patience, but in vain; their hearts (for aught that
appears) were still hardened, and therefore execution is awarded to the
utmost. 1. The city and temple are burnt, v. 9. It does not appear that
the king of Babylon designed to send any colonies to people Jerusalem and
therefore he ordered it to be laid in ashes, as a nest of rebels. At the
burning of the king's house and the houses of the great men one cannot
so much wonder (the inhabitants had, by their sins, made them combustible),
but that the house of the Lord should perish in these flames, that that
holy and beautiful house should be burnt with fire (Isa. lxiv. 11), is very
strange. That house which David prepared for, and which Solomon built at such
a vast expense--that house which had the eye and heart of God perpetually upon
it (1 Kings ix. 3)-- might not that have been snatched as a brand out of this
burning? No, it must not be fire-proof against God's judgments. This stately
structure must be turned into ashes, and it is probable the ark in it, for the
enemies, having heard how dearly the Philistines paid for the abusing of it,
durst not seize that, nor did any of its friends take care to preserve it, for
then we should have heard of it again in the second temple. One of the
apocryphal writers does indeed tell us that the prophet Jeremiah got it out of
the temple, and conveyed it to a cave in Mount Nebo on the other side Jordan,
and hid it there (2 Macc. ii. 4, 5), but that could not be, for Jeremiah was a
close prisoner at that time. By the burning of the temple God would show how
little cares for the external pomp of his worship when the life and power of
religion are neglected. The people trusted to the temple, as if that would
protect them in their sins (Jer. vii. 4), but God, by this, let them know that
when they had profaned it they would find it but a refuge of lies. This temple
had stood about 420, some say 430 years. The people having forfeited the
promises made concerning it, those promises must be understood of the
gospel-temple, which is God's rest for ever. It is observable that the second
temple was burnt by the Romans the same month, and the same day of the month,
that the first temple was burnt by the Chaldeans, which, Josephus says, was
the tenth of August. 2. The walls of Jerusalem are demolished (v. 10),
as if the victorious army would be revenged on them for having kept them out
so long, or at least prevent the like opposition another time. Sin unwalls a
people and takes away their defence. These walls were never repaired till
Nehemiah's time. 3. The residue of the people are carried away captive to
Babylon, v. 11. Most of the inhabitants had perished by sword or
famine, or had made their escape when the king did (for it is said, v.
5, His army was scattered from him), so that there were very few left,
who with the deserters, making in all but 832 persons (as appears, Jer. lii.
29), were carried away into captivity; only the poor of the land were left
behind (v. 12), to till the ground and dress the vineyards for the
Chaldeans. Sometimes poverty is a protection; for those that have nothing have
nothing to lose. When the rich Jews, who had been oppressive to the poor, were
made strangers, nay, prisoners, in an enemy's country, the poor whom they had
despised and oppressed had liberty and peace in their own country. Thus
Providence sometimes remarkably humbles the proud and favours those of low
degree. 4. The brazen vessels, and other appurtenances of the temple, are
carried away, those of silver and gold being most of them gone before. Those
two famous columns of brass, Jachin and Boaz, which signified
the strength and stability of the house of God, were broken to pieces and the
brass of them was carried to Babylon, v. 13. When the things signified
were sinned away what should the signs stand there for? Ahaz had profanely cut
off the borders of the bases, and put the brazen sea upon a pavement of
stones (2 Kings xvi. 17); justly therefore are the brass themselves, and
the brazen sea, delivered into the enemy's hand. It is just with God to take
away his ordinances from those that profane and abuse them, that curtail and
depress them. Some things remained of gold and silver (v. 15) which
were now carried off; but most of this plunder was brass, such a vast quantity
of it that it is said to be without weight, v. 16. The carrying
away of the vessels wherewith they ministered (v. 14) put an end
to the ministration. It was a righteous thing with God to deprive those of the
benefit of his worship who had slighted it so long and preferred false
worships before it. Those that would have many altars shall now have none. 5.
Several of the great men are slain in cold blood--Seraiah the chief priest
(who was the father of Ezra as appears, Ezra vii. 1), the second priest (who,
when there was occasion, officiated for him), and three door-keepers of the
temple (v. 18), the general of the army, five privy-counsellors
(afterwards they made them up seven, Jer. lii. 25), the secretary of war, or
pay-master of the army, and sixty country gentlemen who had concealed
themselves in the city. These, being persons of some rank, were brought to the
king of Babylon (v. 19, 20), who ordered them to be all put to death (v.
21), when, in reason, they might have hoped that surely the bitterness of
death was past. These the king of Babylon's revenge looked upon as most active
in opposing him; but divine justice, we may suppose, looked upon them as
ringleaders in that idolatry and impiety which were punished by these
desolations. This completed the calamity: So Judah was carried away out of
their land, about 860 years after they were put in possession of it by
Joshua. Now the scripture was fulfilled, The Lord shall bring thee, and the
king which thou shalt set over thee, into a nation which thou hast not known,
Deut. xxviii. 36. Sin kept their fathers forty years out of Canaan, and now
turned them out. The Lord is known by those judgments which he
executes, and makes good that word which he has spoken, Amos iii. 2. You
only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore I will punish
you for all your iniquities.
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Dispersion
of the Remnant of Judah.
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B.
C. 552.
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22 And as for the people that remained
in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over
them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.
23 And when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the
king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah,
even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah
the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite,
they and their men. 24 And Gedaliah sware to them, and to their
men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in
the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you.
25 But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah,
the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote
Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at
Mizpah. 26 And all the people, both small and great, and the
captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the
Chaldees. 27 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year
of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the
seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of
Babylon in the year that he began to reign did lift up the head of Jehoiachin
king of Judah out of prison; 28 And he spake kindly to him, and
set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in
Babylon; 29 And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread
continually before him all the days of his life. 30 And his
allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate
for every day, all the days of his life.
In these verses we have,
I. The dispersion of the remaining people. The city of
Jerusalem
was quite laid waste. Some people there were in the land of Judah (v.
22) that had weathered the storm, and (which was no small favour at this time,
Jer. xlv. 5) had their lives given them for a prey. Now see, 1. What a
good posture they were put into. The king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah, one
of themselves, to be their governor and protector under him, a very good man,
and one that would make the best of the bad, v. 22. His father Ahikam
was one that countenanced and protected Jeremiah when the princes had vowed
his death, Jer. xxvi. 24. It is probable that this Gedaliah, by the advice of
Jeremiah, had gone over the Chaldeans, and had conducted himself so well that
the king of Babylon entrusted him with the government. He resided not at
Jerusalem, but at Mizpah, in the land of Benjamin, a place famous in Samuel's
time. Thither those came who had fled from Zedekiah (v. 4) and put
themselves under his protection (v. 23), which he assured them of if
they would be patient and peaceable under the government of the king of
Babylon, v. 24. Gedaliah, though he had not the pomp and power of a
sovereign prince, yet might have been a greater blessing to them than many of
their kings had been, especially having such a privy-council as Jeremiah, who
was now with them, and interested himself in their affairs, Jer. xl. 5, 6. 2.
What a fatal breach was made upon them, soon afterwards, by the death of
Gedaliah, within two months after he entered upon his government. The utter
extirpation of the Jews, for the present, was determined, and therefore it was
in vain for them to think of taking root again: the whole land must be plucked
up, Jer. xlv. 4. Yet this hopeful settlement is dashed to pieces, not by the
Chaldeans, but by some of themselves. The things of their peace were so hidden
from their eyes that they knew not when they were well off, nor would believe
when they were told. (1.) They had a good governor of their own, and him they
slew, out of spite to the Chaldeans, because he was appointed by
Nebuchadnezzar, v. 25. Ishmael, who was of the royal family, envying
Gedaliah's advancement and the happy settlement of the people under him,
though he could not propose to set up himself, resolved to ruin him, and
basely slew him and all his friends, both Jews and Chaldeans. Nebuchadnezzar
would not, could not, have been a more mischievous enemy to their peace than
this degenerate branch of the house of David was. (2.) They were as yet in
their own good land, but they forsook it, and went to Egypt, for fear of the
Chaldeans, v. 26. The Chaldeans had reason enough to be offended at the
murder of Gedaliah; but if those that remained had humbly remonstrated,
alleging that it was only the act of Ishmael and his party, we may suppose
that those who were innocent of it, nay, who suffered greatly by it, would not
have been punished for it: but, under pretence of this apprehension, contrary
to the counsel of Jeremiah, they all went to Egypt, where, it is probable,
they mixed with the Egyptians by degrees, and were never heard of more as
Israelites. Thus was there a full end made of them by their own folly and
disobedience, and Egypt had the last of them, that the last verse of that
chapter of threatenings might be fulfilled, after all the rest, Deut. xxviii.
68, The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again. These events are more
largely related by the prophet Jeremiah, ch. xl. to ch. xlv. Quaeque
ipse miserrima vidit, et quorum pars magna fuit--Which scenes he was doomed to
behold, and in which he bore a melancholy part.
II. The reviving of the captive prince. Of Zedekiah we hear no more after he
was carried blind to Babylon; it is probable that he did not live long, but
that when he died he was buried with some marks of honour, Jer. xxxiv. 5. Of
Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, who surrendered himself (ch. xxiv. 12), we are
here told that as soon as Evil-merodach came to the crown, upon the death of
his father Nebuchadnezzar, he released him out of prison (where he had lain
thirty-seven years, and was now fifty-five years old), spoke kindly to him,
paid more respect to him than to any other of the kings his father had left in
captivity (v. 28), gave him princely clothing instead of his
prison-garments, maintained him in his own palace (v. 29), and allowed
him a pension for himself and his family in some measure corresponding to his
rank, a daily rate for every day as long as he lived. Consider this, 1.
As a very happy change of Jehoiachin's condition. To have honour and liberty
after he had been so long in confinement and disgrace, the plenty and pleasure
of a court after he had been so long accustomed to the straits and miseries of
a prison, was like the return of the morning after a very dark and tedious
night. Let none say that they shall never see good again because they have
long seen little but evil; the most miserable know not what blessed turn
Providence may yet give to their affairs, nor what comforts they are reserved
for, according to the days wherein they have been afflicted, Ps. cx.
15. However the death of afflicted saints is to them such a change as this was
to Jehoiachin: it will release them out of their prison, shake off the body,
that prison-garment, and open the way to their advancement; it will send them
to the throne, to the table, of the King of kings, the glorious liberty of
God's children. 2. As a very generous act of Evil-merodach's. He thought his
father made the yoke of his captives too heavy, and therefore, with the
tenderness of a man and the honour of a prince, made it lighter. It should
seem all the kings he had in his power were favoured, but Jehoiachin above
them all, some think for the sake of the antiquity of his family and the
honour of his renowned ancestors, David and Solomon. None of the kings of the
nations, it is likely, had descended from so long a race of kings in a direct
lineal succession, and by a male line, as the king of Judah. The Jews say that
this Evil-merodach had been himself imprisoned by his own father, when he
returned from his madness, for some mismanagement at that time, and that in
prison he contracted a friendship with Jehoiachin, in consequence of which, as
soon as he had it in his power, he showed him this kindness as a sufferer, as
a fellow-sufferer. Some suggest that Evil-merodach had learned from Daniel and
his fellows the principles of the true religion, and was well affected to
them, and upon that account favoured Jehoiachin. 3. As a kind dispensation of
Providence, for the encouragement of the Jews in captivity, and the support of
their faith and hope concerning their enlargement in due time. This happened
just about the midnight of their captivity. Thirty-six of the seventy years
were now past, and almost as many were yet behind, and now to see their king
thus advanced would be a comfortable earnest to them of their own release in
due time, in the set time. Unto the upright there thus ariseth light
in the darkness, to encourage them to hope, even in the cloudy and dark
day, that at evening time it shall be light; when therefore we are
perplexed, let us not be in despair.
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