G20 a 1,2. Jehoahaz. Accession.
b 3. King of Egypt puts him down.
b 4-. King of Egypt sets his brother up.
a -4. Jehoahaz. Captivity.
500 B.C.
2 Chronicles 36)
1 Then the commonalty (cp. 33:35. Not lawfully, for Jehoahaz was not the eldest son) took Jehoahaz (= whhom the Lord sustains) the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem.
2 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. (The Sept. adds here, probably owing to the Homaeotelenton in the word Jerusalem: ", and his mother's name was Amital, daughter of Jeremiah of Lobnah: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done: and Pharaoh-necho bound him in Deblatha, in the land of Aimath, that he might not run in Jerusalem".)
3 And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. (1 talent = 75 lbs.)
4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim.
And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt. (The Sept. adds ", and he died there: and they had given the silver and gold to Pharaoh: at that time the land began to be taxed to give the money at the command of Pharaoh; and every one, as he could, kept demanding the silver and the gold of the People of the land, to give it to Pharaoh-necho".)
500-489 B.C.
5 Jehoiakim (= whom Yahaveh sets up) was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. (The Sept. adds here: "according to all that the fatheres did. In his days came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon into the land, and he served him three years, and then revolted from him. And the Lord sent against them the Chaldeans, and the hands of Syrians, and the hands of Moabites, all the sons of Ammon and Samaria; but after this, they rebelled according to the word of the Lord, by the hands of His servants the prophets. However, the anger of the Lord was upon Judah, to remove him from His presence, because of the sins of Manasseh in all that he did, and for the innocent blood Which Jehoiakim had shed; and he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; yet the Lord refused to utterly destroy them.")
6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar (the son of Nabopolassar) king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters (2 brass chains), to carry him to Babylon. (There were 4 deportations: [1] Manasseh [33:11], no date given, but apparently 580-570 B.C.; [2] Jehoiakim [36:6, Daniel in this; Dan. 1:1], 496 B.C.; [3] Jehoiachin [v10. 2 Kings 24:14, Mordecai in this. Est. 2:5,6] 489 B.C.; [4] Zedekiah [36:20. 2 Kings 25, Nehemiah in this], 477 B.C. From this last are reckoned the 70 years of 36:21. Jer. 25:9,11,12)
7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found upon him (on this is grounded the belief that he was tattooed with idolatrous marks or signs forbidden by Lev. 29:28. Cp. Rev. 13:16,17; 14:9,11; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4), behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
G21 e 9. Accession.
f 10-. King. Captive.
f -10-. Temple. Spoiled.
e -10. Supercession.
489-488 B.C.
9 Jehoiachin (= whom Yahaveh has appointed. Called also Jeconiah [1 Chron. 3:16] and Coniah [Jer. 29:24,28]. Cp. 2 Kings 24:8. The "Je" ="Ye" = Yehovah [no "j" in the Hebrew language] being cut off from his name) was eight years old when he began to reign (2 Kings 24:8 reads "eighteen". The "18" must include his co-regency, the "8" to his reigning alone. This practice was common in Israel and Judah as well as in ancient contemporary kingdoms), and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
10 And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and had him brought to Babylon,
with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah (originally Mattaniah. Cp. 2 Kings 24:17, &c.) his brother (i.e. his next of kin. In this case his uncle [2 Kings 24:17. 1 Chron. 3:15]) king over Judah and Jerusalem.
G22 g 11,12. Evil-doing. Against Yahaveh.
h 13-. Nebuchadnezzar. Rebellion.
i -13. Yehovah. Obduracy of Zedekiah.
k 14. Priests and people. Evil-doing.
i 15,16. Yehovah. Remonstrance.
h 17-19. Nebuchadnezzar. Revenge.
g 20,21. Evil-doing. Requited by Yahaveh.
488-477 B.C.
11 Zedekiah (= justice of Yahaveh) was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord. (cp. Jer. 34:8; 37:2; and 38:17, &c.)
13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: (Ezekiel refers to this [Ezek. 17:11-20])
but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning to the Lord God of Israel.
14 Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, abounded in treachery after all the abominations of the nations; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. (Ex.3:5)
15 And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place:
16 But they kept mocking the messengers of the [true] God (cp. Matt. 23:37. Especially Urijah [Jer. 26:20-23] and Jeremiah [chapters 37 and 38), and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. (These words, occurring as they do on the last page of the Hebrew Bible, led to the conversion of the late Joseph Rabinovitch, of Kisheneff.)
17 Therefore He brought (to leave us in no doubt as to the real cause. Cp. Judg. 1:8) upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary (no longer Yehovah's. Compare and contrast "My Fathers house" [Matt. 23:38]. The former at the beginning of His ministry; the later at the close), and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: He gave them all into his hand. (= the whole that came into her hand.)
18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.
477 B.C.
19 And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
477-426. B.C.
20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons (cp. Jer. 27:6,7. 1 Dan. This was foretold in 2 Kings 20:17,18. Isa. 39:7) until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
21 To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah (cp. Jer. 25:9,12; 29:10), until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for all the days she lay desolate she kept sabbath (this was foretold also [Lev. 23:32; 26:34,35]), to fulfill threescore and ten years. (see special note on 36:21 below.)
426 B.C.
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia (see Ezra 1:1), that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
23 "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'All the kingdoms of the earth has the Lord God of heaven given me; and He has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His People? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.' "
3 periods of 70 years are assigned to these 3 respectively, and it is necessary that they should be differentiated.
i. The "SERVITUDE" began it the 4th year of Jehoiakim, and the 1st of Nebuchadnezzar, when the "KINGDOM" passed under Chaldean rule for 70 years (Jer. 25:1). This period closed with the capture of Babylon by Darius the Median (Astyages), and the "Decree" of Cyrus to rebuild the Temple. It lasted from 496-426 B.C.
ii. The "CAPTIVITY" commenced, and is dated by Ezekiel from the carryinf away to Babylon of Jechoniah, in the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:8-16). This was in 489 B.C. Consequently, when the "Servitude" ended in 426 B.C., the "Captivity" had lasted for 63 (9x7) years.
iii. The "DESOLATIONS" commenced with the beginning of the 3rd and last siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 479 B.C., and and cover a period of "seventy years", ending in the 2nd year of Darius Hystapis: i.e. 409 B.C.
The Darius here (Dan. 9:1) is evidently Cyrus, the son of Astyages; and as the 1st year of his reign was 426 B.C., it follows that 17 years had, then, yet to run before the "Desolation" of the Land were ended in 409 B.C.
7 years later Cyrus died, in 419 B.C. That year (419) is further noted for:
1. The appointment of Nehemiah as Governor of Jerusalem by Cambysses (Neh. 5:14).
2. The completion of "the wall" in 52 days (Neh. 6:15); and
3. The fact that it marks the end of the 5th of the "seven sevens" of Dan. 9:22. The "Captivity" lasting from 489 to 419 B.C.
This "seventy years" which is referred to here (2 Chron. 36:21), is the fulfillment of Lev. 26:32-35, and has reference to "the Land".
It is this period of which Daniel says he "understood by books", as being the number of years that Yehovah would "accomplish in the Desolation of Jerusalem" (Dan. 9:2).
Hence, Daniels prayer, that follows, resulted in the giving to him the famous prophecy of the "seventy sevens" of years contained in Dan.9:20-27.