2 Chronicles 36

Judah’s Last Kings & the Fall of Jerusalem

1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his pops.

2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months.

3 Pharaoh Necho deposed him in Jerusalem and made the land pay a fine of about seven thousand five hundred pounds of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold.

4 Pharaoh Necho made his brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Necho took Jehoahaz his brother and brought him to Egypt.

Jehoiakim Rules Judah

5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. He did what was whack in the eyes of the Lord his God.

6 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon rolled up against him and put him in chains to take him to Babylon.

7 Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the items from the Lord’s temple and brought them to Babylon and put them in his temple in Babylon.

8 As for the rest of Jehoiakim’s story, and the disgusting things he did, and what was found against him, look, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And his son Jehoiachin took over as king in his place.

Jehoiachin Rules Judah & Exile

9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months and ten days. He did what was whack in the eyes of the Lord.

10 At the turn of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and had him brought to Babylon, along with the valuable items from the Lord’s temple. And he made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah Rules Judah

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years.

12 He did what was whack in the eyes of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord.

13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God. He got hard-headed and stubborn, and refused to turn to the Lord, the God of Israel.

14 All the chief priests and the people also became more and more unfaithful, following all the disgusting practices of the nations, and they defiled the Lord’s temple which He had made holy in Jerusalem.

Final Destruction

15 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, kept sending warnings to them through His messengers, sending them repeatedly, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.

16 But they clowned God’s messengers, disrespected His words, and mocked His prophets, until the Lord’s anger flared up against His people so bad that there was no way back.

17 So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or frail. God handed them all over to him.

18 He took all the items from God’s temple, big and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials, and brought them all to Babylon.

19 They burned down God’s temple and tore down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its valuable items.

20 He deported those who escaped the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia.

21 This was to make good on the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. For all the time it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath, until seventy years were completed.

Cyrus’s Decree (A Glimmer of Hope)

22 Now, in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia (to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah), the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so he made a proclamation throughout his whole kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying:

23 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, gave me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He commanded me to build Him a temple In Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever among you is from all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!’”