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Chapter 25 closes the Book of Second Kings. With the capture and deportation of King Jehoiachin to Babylon, his uncle, Zedekiah, became the 20th. and last King of Judah. He accomplished this by taking an oath of allegiance to Babylon. He became King at the age of 21 and reigned for 11 years. In the 9th. year of his reign, King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon, mobilized his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem. It was March 25, 588 BC. In two years there was no food in the city. King Zedekiah and some of his troops escaped through a hole in the wall of the city and fled towards the Valley of Arabah. This is the valley through which the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea run and continues on south to the Gulf of Aqabah. They headed east over the Mount of Olives toward Jericho where they were captured by the Babylonians. They were taken to the city of Riblah, one of the leading trade cities in Assyria. It was also a large military base. There Zedekiah was tried by King Nebuchadnezzer and sentenced to watch his sons being killed and then to have his eyes put out. He was then bound in chains and taken to Babylon where he died about a year later.
The Babylonians entered Jerusalem in 586 BC. They burned the Temple, the Palace, and all other major buildings in the city. They tore down the walls of the city, destroyed all the instruments of worship and took captive all who were capable to work back to Babylon. The weak and old they left behind to farm the land. They took the Chief Priest, all his assistants and 3 Temple Guards back to Babylon. The Chief Recruiting Officer, 5 of the Kings Councilors, and 60 farmers were found hiding and put to the sword.
Then King Nebuchadnezzer appointed a man by the name of Ged-a-liah who was the son of one of the Hebrew Scribes, as Governor of Judah. He was in agreement with Jeremiah's attitude of submission to Babylon as God's instrument of judgment. Ged-a-liah was killed by a man named Ishmael and members of a rebel band, who, after killing him, fled to Egypt to escape the retribution of the Babylonians.
This ends the Book of Second Kings. It ends the Nation of Judah and thus the nation of Israel, chosen by the Lord to be His people some 1,700 years before but by their disobedience and idolatry were destroyed by the One who had chosen them.
THUS ENDS THE BOOK OF SECOND KINGS
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