Chronicles of the Past Dynasties_Chapter 36

The people appointed Jehoahaz son of Josiah as king in Jerusalem, succeeding his father.

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months.

The king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and punished Judah with one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold.

King Nico of Egypt made Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, king of Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoaakim. He also brought Jehoahaz to Egypt.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord his God.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up against him and bound him with bronze chains to take him to Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar also brought the vessels from the temple of the Lord to Babylon and placed them in the temple of his God.

The other acts of Jehoiakim, his detestable deeds, and all his ways are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

When Jehoiachin ascended to the throne, he was eight years old (2 Kings 24:8) and reigned in Jerusalem for three months and ten days, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord.

After one year, Nebuchadnezzar sent messengers to bring Jehoiachin and all the precious vessels in the temple of the Lord to Babylon, and he made Zedekiah, Jehoiachin’s brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem,

Do what is evil in the eyes of the Lord his God. The prophet Jeremiah advised him with the word of the Lord, but he did not humble himself before Jeremiah.

Nebuchadnezzar once made him swear by God, but he rebelled, strengthened his neck and hardened his heart, and did not submit to the Lord, the God of Israel.

The chief priests and the people also sinned greatly, following all the detestable practices of the Gentiles, and defiling the temple that the Lord had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent messengers early to warn them because he loved his people and his dwelling place.

But they laughed at the messengers of God, despised his words, and mocked his prophets, so that the wrath of the Lord was raging against his people, beyond redemption.

Therefore, the Lord sent the king of the Chaldeans to attack them, and he killed their young men with the sword in their holy temple, without mercy on their young men and virgins, the elderly and the elderly. The Lord handed them all over to the king of Chaldea.

The king of Chaldea brought all the vessels and treasures of the temple of God, the treasures of the temple of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and his leaders to Babylon.

The Chaldeans burned the temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, burned down the palaces of the city with fire, and destroyed the precious vessels of the city.

All those who escaped from the sword were taken captive by the king of Chaldea to Babylon, to be his and his descendants’ servants until the kingdom of Persia rose up.

This fulfilled the word that the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah’s mouth, and the earth enjoyed rest. Because the land was desolate, he kept his rest and lasted for seventy years.

In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the heart of King Cyrus of Persia and issued a decree to the whole country, saying,

This is what King Cyrus of Persia said: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the world, and he has instructed me to build a house for him in Jerusalem, Judah. Anyone among you who is his people may go up, and may the Lord his God be with him.