2 Kings 25

2 the city was besieged. Jerusalem was strong by nature, and had been so fortified by art that Nebuchadnezzar was only able to reduce it by a blockade which lasted eighteen months, causing famine in the city. The terrible sufferings of the besieged are described in Lam. iv. 3-10; Ezek. iv. 16; v. 10. See also Jer. xxi.; xxiv.; xxvii.-xxxiv.; xxxvii.-xxxix.; lii.

4 the plain. The Arabah (R.V.): see David’s flight in 2 Sam. xv. 28, etc.

6 they gave judgement. This was a just retribution on Zedekiah for the breach of his oath, and his disregard of the merciful counsel of God; see Jer. xxxviii. 17; xxxii. 5; xxxiv. 3; Ezek. xvii. 15.

7 they slew the sons. And, according to Jer. xxxix. 6 and lii. 10, all the “nobles” or “princes” of Judah.

put out the eyes. The loss of sight was intended not only as a punishment, but also to incapacitate him from ever being king again. In the king’s blindness, two apparently inconsistent prophecies (Jer. xxxii. 4; Ezek. xii. 13) were both literally fulfilled.

8 the seventh day. In Jer. lii. 12 it is the tenth day of the month. Josephus says that it was on the same day of the same month that the second Temple was burned by the Romans. From this period to the completion of the second Temple, under Darius Hystaspis, was seventy years.

9 he burnt the house of the Lord. The ark of the covenant was probably burned with the Temple, for it is never mentioned afterwards; showing how little God cares for the outward ceremonial when the inward spirit of religion is gone: see Jer. vii. 4, 13-15. The prophet Jeremiah was present, and beheld the sad accomplishment of his early predictions, in the horrors of the famine and the carnage, and the plunder and destruction of the city and Temple; and has recorded his feelings in his pathetic elegies: see 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17-19, and Lamentations.

11 did Nebuzar-adan . . . carry away. This formed the third stage in the captivity of Judah.

12 left of the poor of the land. Poverty is sometimes a protection. The poor (“the poorest,” R.V.), formerly oppressed, have now liberty and peace, while their oppressors are sent into captivity.

19 that were in the king’s presence (“that saw the king’s face,” R.V.). That is, his confidential advisers.

22. These events are more fully related by the prophet Jeremiah, who witnessed them: see Jer. xl.-xlv., and notes.

27. Evil-merodach. Son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar; mentioned in Old Testament only here and in Jer. lii. 31. He reigned two years.

did lift up the head, etc. An act of grace at the beginning of his reign.

28 the kings that were with him. Other captive monarchs.

ALTHOUGH the Books of Chronicles record many of the events which are narrated in Samuel and Kings, there are differences in the standpoint and in the emphasis. After the division of the kingdom into two, Chronicles relates only the history of Judah. Considerable attention is given in Book 1 to genealogies (i.-ix.), a fact which those acquainted with the ideas of the East will readily understand. The arrangements made by David for the tabernacle worship are given in detail (xv., xvi.), as, later, those for the services of the Temple (xxiii.-xxv.). David’s farewell instructions to Solomon are recorded in chap. xxviii.; his appeal to the people, with their magnificent response, is given in xxix. 1-9; and his impressive prayer before all the congregation in xxix. 10-19.

In the Hebrew Bible, 1 and 2 Chronicles are one book, and are included in the Kethubim (“writings”) or Hagiographa. Most scholars are now agreed that they were written by the author or final editor of the Book of Ezra. This in itself throws light upon the motive and purpose of Chronicles as distinct from the Books of Samuel and Kings. To a people whose national history had been interrupted by the Captivity, it was of importance to link them up again with their own great past. This is done in the genealogies. It was important also to impress upon them the supreme importance of spiritual worship as the centre and bond of their national unity and well-being. This is done in the account of the bringing up of the ark, the worship of the tabernacle, David’s plans for the building of the Temple, and the evil results of departing from God (in Book 1, see especially x. 13, 14; xv.-xvii., xxii., xxiii. 27-32; xxviii., xxix.).