2 Re 24:12 Commento

Things are here ripening for, and hastening towards, the utter destruction of Jerusalem. We left Jehoiakim on the throne, placed there by the king of Egypt: now here we have, I. The troubles of his reign, how he was brought into subjection by the king of Babylon, and severely chastised for attempting to shake off the yoke (Kg2 24:1-6), and how Egypt also was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar (Kg2 24:7). II. The desolations of his son's reign, which continued but three months; and then he and all his great men, being forced to surrender at discretion, were carried captives to Babylon (Kg2 24:8-16). III. The preparatives of the next reign (which was the last of all) for the utter ruin of Jerusalem, which the next chapter will give us an account of (Kg2 24:17-20).

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 24 This chapter relates the rebellion of Jehoiakim against the king of Babylon, which prepared the way for the ruin of the kingdom of Judah, according to the decree of God, and also the death of Jehoiakim, and the conquest the king of Babylon made of part of the land of the king of Egypt, Kg2 24:1 and the short and wicked reign of Jehoiachin his son, when he and the royal family, with great numbers of the inhabitants of the land, were carried captive to Babylon, Kg2 24:8, and his uncle was made king in his room, Kg2 24:17.

And he carried away all Jerusalem,.... The inhabitants of it; not every individual of them, but the chief of them, the more honourable, rich, and useful; for the poorer sort were left, as afterwards expressed: and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives; which was the number of them in the whole; the particulars are after delivered: and all the craftsmen and smiths; besides the nobles and the soldiers, he took all the artificers that exercised any handicraft trade or business; carpenters and blacksmiths, as some interpret these two words; so that there were none left to make arms for them; the last word may be rendered "enclosers", and are by some interpreted of enclosers of jewels in metals, as gold and silver: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land; who were left to till it, and to dress the vines; see Kg2 25:12.

There is an excellent and significant illustration in the book of Kings, showing how the sin of fornication is prevented by an attack of pride. When the children of Israel had been taken captive by Neco, king of the Egyptians, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyriaans, came up and brought them back from the borders of Egypt to their own country, not indeed meaning to restore them to their former liberty and their native land, but meaning to carry them off to his own land and to transport them to a still more distant country than the land of Egypt in which they had been prisoners. And this illustration exactly applies to the case before us. For though there is less harm in yielding to the sin of pride than to fornication, yet it is more difficult to escape from the dominion of pride. For somehow or other the prisoner who is carried off to a greater distance will have more difficulty in returning to his native land and the freedom of his fathers, and the prophet’s rebuke will be deservedly aimed at him: “Why have you grown old in a strange country? Indeed a man is rightly said to have grown old in a strange country, if he has not broken up the ground of his sins.

Nebuchadnezzar brings Jehoiakim under subjection; who, after three years, rebels, Kg2 24:1. Bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, invade the land, Kg2 24:2-4. Jehoiakim dies, and Jehoiachin his son reigns in his stead, Kg2 24:5, Kg2 24:6. The Babylonians overcome the Egyptians, Kg2 24:7. Nebuchadnezzar takes Jehoiachin and his family, and all his treasures, and those of the temple, and all the chief people and artificers, and carries them to Babylon, Kg2 24:8-16; and makes Mattaniah, brother of Jehoiakim, king, who reigns wickedly, and rebels against the king of Babylon, Kg2 24:17-20.

Jehoiachin - went out - He saw that it was useless to attempt to defend himself any longer; and he therefore surrendered himself, hoping to obtain better terms.

JEHOIAKIM PROCURES HIS OWN RUIN. (Kg2 24:1-7) Nebuchadnezzar--the son of Nabopolassar, the founder of the Chaldee monarchy. This invasion took place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's, and the first of Nebuchadnezzar's reign (Jer 25:1; compare Jer 46:2). The young king of Assyria being probably detained at home on account of his father's demise, despatched, along with the Chaldean troops on his border, an army composed of the tributary nations that were contiguous to Judea, to chastise Jehoiakim's revolt from his yoke. But this hostile band was only an instrument in executing the divine judgment (Kg2 24:2) denounced by the prophets against Judah for the sins of the people; and hence, though marching by the orders of the Assyrian monarch, they are described as sent by the Lord (Kg2 24:3).

Then Jehoiachin went out to the king of Babylon to yield himself up to him, because he perceived the impossibility of holding the city any longer against the besiegers, and probably hoped to secure the favour of Nebuchadnezzar, and perhaps to retain the throne as his vassal by a voluntary submission. Nebuchadnezzar, however, did not show favour any more, as he had done to Jehoiakim at the first taking of Jerusalem, but treated Jehoiachin as a rebel, made him prisoner, and led him away to Babylon, along with his mother, his wives (Kg2 24:15), his princes and his chamberlains, as Jeremiah had prophesied (Jer 22:24.), in the eighth year of his (Nebuchadnezzar's) reign. The reference to the king's mother in Kg2 24:12 and Kg2 24:15 is not to be explained on the ground that she still acted as guardian over the king, who was not yet of age (J. D. Mich.), but from the influential position which she occupied in the kingdom as הגּבירה (Jer 29:2 : see at Kg1 14:21). The eighth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar is reckoned from the time when his father had transferred to him the chief command over the army to make war upon Necho, according to which his first year coincides with the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer 25:1). As Nebuchadnezzar acted as king, so far as the Jews were concerned, from that time forward, although he conducted the war by command of his father, this is always reckoned as the point of time at which his reign commenced, both in our books and also in Jeremiah (cf. Kg2 25:8; Jer 32:1). According to this calculation, his reign lasted forty-four years, viz., the eight years of Jehoiakim and the thirty-six years of Jehoiachin's imprisonment, as is evident from Kg2 25:27.