The Fall of Jerusalem

Josiah is dead. The people anoint Jehoahaz, and he reigns three months. Pharaoh Necho puts him in bonds at Riblah and sets up Jehoiakim, who taxes the land to pay Egypt. Jehoiakim does evil. In his days Nebuchadnezzar comes up, and Jehoiakim becomes his servant three years and then rebels. 2 Kings 23:31 2 Kings 24:1 The book of Daniel opens in Jehoiakim's third year, with vessels taken from the temple and youths taken for the court, Daniel among them. Daniel 1:1 Jeremiah is already preaching, and the king cuts up his scroll and throws it in the fire. Jeremiah 36:23

Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah and Coniah, is eighteen and reigns three months. Nebuchadnezzar comes to the city. Jehoiachin gives himself up, with his mother and his servants. The king of Babylon takes him to Babylon, takes the treasures, and takes the craftsmen and the men of valor, ten thousand, and leaves none but the poorest. He sets up Mattaniah, Josiah's son, and changes his name to Zedekiah. 2 Kings 24:12 2 Kings 24:17 Ezekiel dates his visions by the years of this exile of Jehoiachin. The fifth year of that exile is when the heavens open by the Chebar. Ezekiel 1:2

The burning

Zedekiah rebels. In his ninth year, the tenth month, the tenth day, Nebuchadnezzar comes against Jerusalem with his whole army and builds a siege wall. In the eleventh year, on the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine is severe and there is no bread. The wall is breached. Zedekiah flees by night toward the Arabah. They overtake him in the plains of Jericho. His sons are slaughtered before his eyes. His eyes are put out. He is taken to Babylon in chains. 2 Kings 25:1 2 Kings 25:7

In the fifth month, on the seventh day, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, comes. He burns the house of the LORD, the king's house, and every great house. He breaks down the walls. He carries the people away, except some of the poorest to keep the vines. 2 Kings 25:8 Jeremiah 52 says the tenth day of the fifth month. A captain's work over several days, or a difference in what is being dated, can hold both. The month is the same. The temple is gone.

Gedaliah is made governor at Mizpah. Ishmael of the royal seed murders him. The remnant fears Babylon and goes to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them against the word he gave them. Jeremiah 43:6 The land the promise was about is not empty of the promise. It is empty of the house.

A king at the table

The book of Kings does not end on the ashes. In the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's exile, Evil-merodach king of Babylon frees him, speaks kindly to him, sets his throne above the other captive kings, and gives him a place at the king's table all the days of his life. 2 Kings 25:27 About 561 BC. The line of David is in a foreign dining room, and it is alive. Chronicles ends further on, with Cyrus saying the temple may be rebuilt and the exiles may go up. 2 Chronicles 36:23 That decree is the next lesson.

The year 597 is on a chronicle. The year of the burning is one year less certain, which is why this timeline prints 586 and still names 587.

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