2 Kings

2 Kings 23:28 - 25:30 (NIV) (NWT)

Key Points

  • (23:29) 'While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo'

    • (23:30) 'the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.'
    • (23:31) 'Jehoahaz ... reigned in Jerusalem three months'
    • (23:33) 'Pharaoh Necho put him (Jehoahaz) in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem'
    • (23:34) 'Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim.'
    • (23:36) 'Jehoiakim ... reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.'

  • (24:1) 'During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years.'

    • (24:1) 'But then he turned against Nebuchadnezzar and rebelled.'
    • (24:2) 'The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him to destroy Judah'
    • (24:6) 'Jehoiakim rested with his ancestors. And Jehoiachin his son succeeded him as king'
    • (24:7) 'The king of Egypt did not march out from his own country again, because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory'

  • (24:8) 'Jehoiachin ... reigned in Jerusalem three months.'

    • (24:10) 'At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it'
    • (24:11-12) 'Nebuchadnezzar himself came up to the city while his officers were besieging it. Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles and his officials all surrendered to him. In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner.'
    • (24:13) 'Nebuchadnezzar removed the treasures from the temple of the Lord and from the royal palace, and cut up the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the Lord.'
    • (24:14) 'He carried all Jerusalem into exile: all the officers and fighting men, and all the skilled workers and artisans—a total of ten thousand. Only the poorest people of the land were left.'
    • (24:16) 'The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon the entire force of seven thousand fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand skilled workers and artisans.'
    • (24:17) 'He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.'
    • (24:18) 'Zedekiah ... reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.'

  • (25:1) 'in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army.'

    • (25:2) 'The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.'
    • (25:3-4) 'the ninth day of the fourth month ... the city wall was broken through'
    • (25:8) 'the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan ... an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.'
    • (25:11) 'Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city'
    • (25:12) 'But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.'
    • (25:13-15) 'The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried the bronze to Babylon. 14 They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls—all that were made of pure gold or silver.'
    • (25:25) 'In the seventh month, ... all the people from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians.'

  • (25:27) 'In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. He did this on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month.'