View 2nd Kings 24 in the note window.
Judah severely punished, ver. 1 - 4.
Jehoiakim dies, ver. 5 - 6.
Nebuchadnezzar's conquests, ver. 7.
The wicked reign of Jehoiachin, ver. 8, 9.
Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem and carries the people captive,
ver. 10 - 16.
The wicked reign of Zedekiah, ver. 17 - 20.
2: Bands - For Nebuchadnezzar's army was made up of several
nations, who were willing to fight under the banner of such a puissant
and victorious emperor.
3: The sins - Properly and directly for their own sins, and
occasionally for the sins of Manasseh, which had never been charged
upon them, if they had not made them their own by their repetition of them.
6: With his fathers - But it is not said, he was buried with them.
No doubt the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled, that he should not
be lamented as his father was, but buried with the burial of an ass.
7: Came not - In this king's days. He could not now come to protect
the king of Judah, being scarce able to defend his own kingdom.
8: To reign - In his eighth year he began to reign with his father,
who made him king with him as divers other kings of Israel and Judah
had done in times of trouble; and in his eighteenth year he reigned alone.
12: Went out - Yielded up himself and the city into his hands; and
this by the counsel of Jeremiah, and to his own good.
His reign - Of Nebuchadnezzar's reign; as appears by comparing this
with (2Ki 25:8),
and because Jehoiachin reigned not half a year. Had he made his peace
with God, and taken the method that Hezekiah did in the like case, he
needed not to have feared the king of Babylon, but might have held out
with courage, honour and success. But wanting the faith and piety of
an Israelite, he had not the resolution of a man.
13: Vessels - The most and choicest of them, by comparing this with(2Ki 25:14,15).
Solomon made - Though the city and temple had been rifled more than once
both by the kings of Egypt and Israel, and by the wicked kings of
Judah; yet these golden vessels were preserved from them, either by the
case of the priests, who hid them; or by the clemency of the conquerors,
or by the special providence of God, disposing their hearts to leave them.
Or, if they had been taken away by any of these kings, they might afterwards
be recovered good, at the cost of the kings of Judah.
14: All - Not simply all, but the best and most considerable
part, as the following words explain it. Captives - Which are more
particularly reckoned up, ver.(16), where there are seven thousand
mighty men, and a thousand smiths; and those mentioned ver.(15),
make up the other two thousand. Craftsmen and smiths - Who might furnish
them with new arms, and thereby give him fresh trouble.
17: Zedekiah - That he might admonish him of (what this name
signifies) the justice of God, which had so severely punished
Jehoiakim for his rebellion; and would no less certainly overtake
him, if he should be guilty of the same perfidiousness.
20: Came to pass - Thus the peoples sins were the true cause why
God gave them wicked kings, whom he suffered to do wickedly, that
they might bring the long - deserved, and threatened punishments upon
themselves and their people.
