CHAPTER XXXVI: ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KING OF JUDAH (B.C. 597-586) [36]437

JEHOIAKIM (B.C. 608-597) [34]416

Eliakim--His change of name--Ignored by Ezekiel--Evil influences--Æsthetic selfishness and oppressive greed--Denunciation by Habakkuk--Denunciation by Jeremiah--Murder of Urijah--Threatened murder of Jeremiah averted by Ahikam--Fall of Nineveh--Utterances of the prophets--Rise of the Chaldæans--Nabopolassar--Defeat of Pharaoh Necho by Nebuchadrezzar--His return to Babylon--His invasion of Judæa--Beginning of the Babylonian captivity--Jehoiakim revolts to Egypt in spite of Jeremiah's warnings--Imprisonment of Jeremiah--Baruch--The menacing roll--Alarm of the princes--Rage of the king--He cuts the scroll to pieces and burns it--Wretchedness of the times--A great drought--Captives of Jerusalem--Miserable death of Jehoiakim--"That which was found in him."

ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KING OF JUDAH (B.C. 597-586) [36]437

His oath to the King of Assyria--Ezekiel's prophecies--The exiles and the remnant--Weakness of Zedekiah--Continuance of idolatry as described by Ezekiel--The king breaks his oath with Assyria--Indignation and warnings of Jeremiah--The false prophet Hananiah--The wooden and iron yokes--Death of Hananiah--False prophets--The broken covenant--Advance of Nebuchadrezzar--Belomancy and Babylonian divinations--Siege of Jerusalem--Gloom of Jeremiah's prophecies.