2 Kings 24 - NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

24:1 Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz’s brother Eliakim replaced him on the throne, ruling as an Egyptian vassal under the name of Jehoiakim. It was during his reign that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (605–562 BC) invaded Palestine in pursuit of complete victory over Egypt. Early in 605 BC, he defeated the Egyptian army at Carchemish on the Euphrates River, following up this victory with a march the following year that reached as far as Ashkelon in Philistia. An Aramaic letter, written to Pharaoh Necho of Egypt by Adon king of Ekron just prior to the Babylonian assault on that city, pleads for Egyptian help, but to no avail. Nebuchadnezzar was never able to defeat Egypt finally. An attack on Egypt itself was repulsed by Necho in 601 BC with heavy losses on the Babylonian side. Egyptian influence over Syria-Palestine was nevertheless removed, as v. 7 indicates: “The king of Egypt did not march out from his own country again, because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.” became his vassal for three years. But then he . . . rebelled. It was probably during Nebuchadnezzar’s successful campaign of 604 BC in Syria and Palestine that Jehoiakim switched his allegiance to Babylon. This campaign of Nebuchadnezzar—the first of eight campaigns during the next ten years directed at establishing Babylonian control over the region—produced, among other feats, the capture of the Philistine city of Ashkelon. But Nebuchadnezzar failed in his attempt to invade Egypt in 601 BC (“three years” later), and his withdrawal to Babylon to refit his army led Jehoiakim to rebel against Babylon and to look once again to Egypt for help (Jer 46:14–28).

24:10 advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Babylonian withdrawal from Palestine in 601 BC turned out to be only temporary, and Judahite hope in Egypt was illusory. In the short term, Jehoiakim’s rebellion brought down on Judah only assaults by limited Babylonian and allied forces (v. 2, cf. Jer 35:11). However, the end of the year 598 BC saw the main Babylonian army before the gates of Jerusalem and no Egyptian forces on hand to help. The city surrendered to the Babylonians on Mar. 15 or Mar. 16, 597 BC, and the independent state of Judah all but came to its end.

24:14 carried all Jerusalem into exile. On deportation as an imperial tactic, see notes on 15:29; 17:6. In the aftermath of Judah’s surrender to Nebuchadnezzar II, Jehoiachin, the queen mother, royal officials, military officers, artisans, and 7,000 soldiers were taken captive to Babylon.

24:20 Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. Jehoiachin’s replacement as king was his uncle, Mattaniah, who ruled as a Babylonian vassal under the name of Zedekiah. Babylonian conquerors usually instated vassal rulers from the same house as their predecessor to ensure continuity and stability with the local population. The Babylonian Chronicle refers to him as “a king of his [Nebuchadnezzar’s] liking/choosing.” However, Jeremiah suggests that from early on in his reign (Jer 27:1; 28:1) Zedekiah was involved in discussions with neighboring peoples about the possibility of revolt. Eventually, Judah did in fact rebel, in circumstances that are not entirely clear but that were no doubt connected with the machinations of Egypt under Necho’s successor, Psammetichus II (595–589 BC).