_A.M. 3398. B.C. 606._ The wicked reigns of Jehoahaz, 2 Chronicles 36:1; Jehoiakim, 2 Chronicles 36:5; Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, 2 Chronicles 36:9. The wickedness of the people, 2 Chronicles 36:14. Jerusalem destroyed, Judah laid waste, the people slain or led away captive, according to God's word,... [ Continue Reading ]
_The people of the land took Jehoahaz_, &c. The principal contents of this chapter are explained in the notes on 2 Kings 23:31, and 24., and 25., to which the reader is referred. What is peculiar to this chapter shall be noticed here.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon_ But he did not carry him thither, for Nebuchadnezzar altered his mind, and permitted him to reign at Jerusalem as his tributary, though he carried away, as it follows, some of the vessels of the temple, and also certain principal persons, as we read... [ Continue Reading ]
_That which was found in him_ That crime of rebellion against the king of Babylon, which for a time he kept in his own breast, but when he saw fit, discovered it and was convicted of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jehoiachin was eight years old_ See the note on 2 Kings 24:8, in which it is said that he was _eighteen_ years old when he began to reign, which is probably the right reading.... [ Continue Reading ]
_When the year was expired_ Hebrew, _At the return of the year._ At the beginning of the next year, according to the sacred account of the Hebrews, at the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, as is elsewhere said, when Nebuchadnezzar, among others, went forth to settle and enl... [ Continue Reading ]
_And humbled not himself_ By repentance for his past errors and obedience to God's express commands, which he would not yield to, through the pride of his heart, as is intimated by this phrase, and expressed Jeremiah 38:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who had made him swear by God_ Who had required him to swear fealty and constant obedience to him, by the true God, whom he called upon to be a witness against him if he broke his oath. So his rebellion was aggravated with perjury and horrid contempt of God. _But he stiffened his neck, and hardened... [ Continue Reading ]
_The people transgressed very much_ They were universally corrupt, and therefore God justly brought upon them a general destruction. _Rising up betimes, and sending them_ Sending them early and diligently, as a careful householder, who rises betimes about his business. God sent them many prophets an... [ Continue Reading ]
_But they mocked the messengers of God_ Of which see instances Ezekiel 11:3; Ezekiel 20:49. _Misused his prophets_ Imprisoning and persecuting them as they did Jeremiah; or, _seduced themselves by his prophets;_ that is, by the prophecies of his prophets, which they perverted, or misconstrued. An em... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees _ The king of the Chaldeans marched against them out of some political view; but we are taught in the Holy Scriptures to ascribe all these events to the agency of the Divine Providence, and therefore it is said here, not that the king of the C... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the treasures of the king, and of his princes_ The treasures of the temple, by a special providence of God, were preserved, and restored, in the reign of Cyrus, to the house of the Lord: but the other, it is likely, were looked upon as spoil, and spent by the king and his great men.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Where they were servants to him and his sons_ They do not seem to have been made captives to private persons, but to have been taken in one body, and made the servants of the king; that is, to have been employed by him, in one way or other, to his private advantage, which we are not now acquainted... [ Continue Reading ]
_Until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths_ “God had commanded them to let their land rest every seventh year; and because the Jews had violated this, as well as other precepts, God gave their land a long _sabbath_, or rest, for no less than ten times seven years, which Jeremiah threatened, as in the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now in the first year of Cyrus_ Kennicott thinks that the last two verses of this book belong properly to the book of Ezra, and were subjoined to the Chronicles through the inadvertency of some transcriber. And thus ends the history of the kingdom of Judah, as governed by the successors of the illu... [ Continue Reading ]