36: 2 Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
36: 3 And the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem, and fined the land a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
36: 4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And 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 Jehovah his God.
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 Jehovah to Babylon, and put them in his 247temple at Babylon.
247Or, palace
36: 8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found 248in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and 249Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
248Or, against him,
249In 1Chr 3:16, Jeconiah In Jer 22:24, Coniah
36: 9 Jehoiachin was 250eight 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 Jehovah.
250So Massoretic, SeptB, Vg. In 2Ki 24:8, eighteen as also in most Sept. mss., Aram. [In alphabetic numerics, ח = 8; יח = 10 + 8 = 18.]
36: 10 And at the return of the year king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of Jehovah, 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 Jehovah his God; he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of Jehovah.
36: 13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him 251swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and 252hardened his heart against turning unto Jehovah, the God of Israel.
251A guilt not shared by any earlier king in Israel.
252Hb. strengthened his heart
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 Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.
36: 15 And Jehovah 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:
36: 16 but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Jehovah arose against his people, till there was no 253remedy.
253Hb. healing.
36: 17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed: he gave them all into his hand.
36: 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
36: 19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
36: 20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
36: 21 to fulfil the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths: for as long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfil seventy years.
36: 22 Now in the first year of 254Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, 255so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
254Hb. Koresh And everywhere else.
255Cyrus wrote a similar type of proclamation for Babylon on a clay barrel, [Marduk god of Babylon] pronounced the name of Cyrus (Ku-ra-aš)... to become the ruler of all the world. He made the Guti [Gutium, or Goyim] country and all the Manda-hordes [hordes of the Medes] bow in submission to his feet. And he did always endeavour to treat according to justice the black-headed whom he [Marduk] has made him conquer... I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king, legitimate king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four rims of the earth, son of Cambyses, great king, king of Anshan, grandson of Cyrus, great king, king of Anshan, descendant of Teispes, great king, king of Anshan, of a family which always exercised kingship; whose rule Bel and Nebo love, whom they want as king to please their hearts... I returned to these sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been ruins for a long time, the images which used to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries. I also gathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them their habitations. James B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East, Vol. I; Princeton: 1958. p. 206f.
36: 23 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath Jehovah, the God of heaven, given me; and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whosoever there is among you of all his people, Jehovah his God be with him, and let him go up.
