2 Chronicles 36:18-21

22. JERUSALEM OVERTHROWN (2 Chronicles 36:18-21)

TEXT

2 Chronicles 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. 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. 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: 21. to fulfill 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 fulfill threescore and ten years.

PARAPHRASE

2 Chronicles 36:18. He also took home with him all the items, great and small, used in the Temple, and treasures from both the Temple and the palace, and took with him all the royal princes. 19. Then his army burned the Temple and broke down the walls of Jerusalem and burned all the palaces and destroyed all the valuable Temple utensils. 20. Those who survived were taken away to Babylon as slaves to the king and his sons until the kingdom of Persia conquered Babylon.

21. Thus the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah came true, that the land must rest for seventy years to make up for the years when the people refused to observe the Sabbath.

COMMENTARY

Does God mean what he says? Would He really allow the city of David to be destroyed? Certainly He would protect that building of all buildings, Solomon's Temple![80] It could never be removed! So, many had reasoned. In 587 B.C. the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar came for the third time against Jerusalem. They besieged the city for eighteen dreary months. During those terrible days the Hebrews were reduced to cannibalism to try to keep a remnant alive. Finally, in desperation, Zedekiah tried to escape. The Babylonians captured him and took him to Riblah far to the north on the Orontes River. There they killed his sons in his presence, gouged out the king's eyes and led him to Babylon. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard for Babylon, was specifically assigned the detail of the destruction of the Temple. When they had carried out everything of value in that marvelous building, they burnt the Temple. Jerusalem was left in complete desolation. It was now ready for the jakals, owls, and scorpions of the desert. Many Hebrews died in the siege of Jerusalem. Others of them died at the hands of the Babylonians. A remnant was taken captive and deported to Babylon a thousand miles to the east by way of Damascus and Haran and the Euphrates River. Seventy years were to be spent in this captivity to compensate for the Sabbatical years which God's people had neglected to keep. For a period of five hundred years the Hebrews disregarded the seventh year. Through many of those years they also treated the Sabbath day as if it were a common day. Jeremiah had predicted that the captivity would extend through seventy years (Jeremiah 29:10). The writer of Chronicles knew that the Persian empire would incorporate and follow the Babylonian empire. So the Hebrews were taken captive by Babylon and those who were born in captivity were given their freedom by Persia.

[80] Clarke, Adam, A Commentary and Critical Notes, Vol. II, p. 708