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81-514: Zedekiah ( / z ɛ d ɪ ˈ k aɪ ə / ) was the twentieth and final King of Judah before the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon . His birth name was Mattaniah/Mattanyahu ( Hebrew : מַתַּנְיָהוּ , Mattanyāhū , "Gift of God "; Greek : Μαθθανίας ; Latin : Matthanias ). After the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II deposed king Jeconiah and installed his uncle Mattanyahu instead, changing his name to Zedekiah ( 2 Kings 24:17 ). The prophet Jeremiah

162-641: A fire started by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Ash and burnt wood beams were also discovered at several structures in the Givati Parking Lot , which were attributed by the archeologists to the destruction of the city in 586 BC. Arrowheads of the socketed bronze trilobate type, associated with the destruction of cities in the Assyrian heartland by the Babylonians and the Medes , likewise first appear in

243-407: A non-accession sense. This reckoning makes 598/597 BC, the year Zedekiah was installed by Nebuchadnezzar according to Judah's Tishri-based calendar, to be year "one", so that the fall of Jerusalem in his eleventh year would have been 588/587 BC, i.e. in the summer of 587 BCE. The Bablyonian Chronicles fairly precisely date the capture of Jehoiachin and the start of Zedekiah's reign, and they also give

324-507: A prisoner until he died. After the fall of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar sent Nebuzaradan to destroy the city. It was plundered and razed to the ground, and Solomon's Temple was destroyed. Only a small number of vinedressers and husbandmen were permitted to remain in the land ( Jeremiah 52:16 ). Zedekiah's first appearance in the Book of Jeremiah is in Jeremiah 21 , where he sends Pashhur,

405-645: A prisoner until his death. According to the Bible, following the fall of Jerusalem, the Babylonian general Nebuzaradan was sent to complete its destruction. The city and Solomon's Temple were plundered and destroyed, and most of the Judeans were taken by Nebuzaradan into captivity in Babylon , with only a few people permitted to remain to tend to the land ( Jeremiah 52:16 ). Archaeological evidence confirms that

486-471: A second revolt, and a Babylonian army was sent to retake Jerusalem. On Tisha B'Av , July 587 or 586 BC, the Babylonians took Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple and burned down the city. The small settlements surrounding the city, and those close to the western border of the kingdom, were destroyed as well. According to the Bible, Zedekiah attempted to escape, but was captured near Jericho . He

567-525: A siege of Jerusalem in January 589 BC. Many Jews fled to surrounding Moab , Ammon , Edom and other kingdoms to seek refuge. The Bible describes the city as enduring horrible deprivation during the siege ( 2 Kings 25:3 ; Lamentations 4:4 , 5 , 9 ). The city fell after a siege, which lasted either eighteen or thirty months. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign ( 2 Kings 25:2 ; Jeremiah 39:2 ), Nebuchadnezzar broke through Jerusalem's walls, conquering

648-417: A son's reign may begin prior to the end of his father's reign. In those situations, years of reign are specified in terms of both the father and of the son. At times, the period of co-regency is clearly indicated, while in others it must be inferred from the source material. As an example of the reasoning that finds inconsistencies in calculations when coregencies are a priori ruled out, 2 Kings 18:10 dates

729-454: A traditional funeral like the kings before him, but he will be captured by Babylon. Later, Zedekiah made a covenant with his people to free all Hebrew slaves, but they were re-enslaved by their captors. God speaks through Jeremiah and notes that Zedekiah did what was right by freeing the Hebrew slaves, but he broke his own covenant by allowing them to be re-enslaved. ( 34 ) Zedekiah sends Jehucal,

810-612: Is consistent with all three relevant biblical sources—Jeremiah, Ezekiel , and 2 Kings. Archaeological evidence supports the biblical account that Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 or 586 BC. Archaeological research has shown that the Babylonians systematically destroyed the city with fire and that the city wall was pulled down. The remains of three residential structures excavated in the City of David (the Burnt Room, House of Ahiel, and House of Bullae) contain burned wooden beams from

891-422: Is encountered in the dates given for Jehoram of Israel , whose first year is synchronized to the 18th year of the sole reign of Jehoshaphat of Judah in 2 Kings 3:1 (853/852 BC), but his reign is also reckoned according to another method as starting in the second year of the coregency of Jehoshaphat and his son Jehoram of Judah ( 2 Kings 1:17 ); both methods refer to the same calendar year. Scholars who accept

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972-417: Is named in the Bible, Malchiah. Shallum succeeded Josiah as king of Judah, under the name Jehoahaz . Shallum was succeeded by Eliakim, under the name Jehoiakim . Jehoiakim was succeeded by his own son Jeconiah . Nebuchadnezzar II deposed Jeconiah and installed his uncle Mattanyahu on the throne, under the name Zedekiah. Zedekiah was the last king of Judah before the kingdom was conquered by Babylon and

1053-489: Is taken as the start of the Ahaz/Hezekiah co-regency, and 716/715 BCE as the date of the death of Ahaz, then all the extensive chronological data for Hezekiah and his contemporaries in the late eighth century BCE are in harmony. Further, McFall found that no textual emendations are required among the numerous dates, reign lengths, and synchronisms given in the Bible for this period. In contrast, those who do not accept

1134-572: Is throwing him into a cistern belonging to Zedekiah's son Malchiah. Ebed-melech, a servant, heard this and went to Zedekiah (who was at the Benjamin Gate) to tell him that Jeremiah would die if he wasn't saved from the pit. Zedekiah commanded Ebed-melech to take thirty-men to lift Jeremiah from the cistern. Jeremiah then warns Zedekiah again that he shall be spared if he obeys God and surrenders to Babylon, but if he doesn't Jerusalem will be destroyed and he will not escape from Nebuchadnezzar. Upon

1215-756: The Neo-Assyrian Empire in 612 BC at the Battle of Nineveh by the Neo-Babylonian Empire caused upheavals that led to the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah . Egypt, concerned about the new threat posed by the Babylonians, moved northward to support Assyria. It set on the march in 608 BC, moving through Judah. King Josiah attempted to block the Egyptian forces and fell mortally wounded in battle at Megiddo . Josiah's younger son Jehoahaz

1296-529: The Southern Levant in the burnt layers associated with Nebuchadnezzar II's destruction of the city. Samples of soil and fragments of a plaster floor recovered from one of the structures indicate that it was exposed to a temperature of at least 600°C. A number of wine jars were found to contain remains of vanilla , indicating that the spice was used by the Jerusalemite elite before destruction of

1377-484: The Ancient Near Eastern principle of co-regencies require multiple emendations of the biblical text, and there is no general agreement on which texts should be emended, nor is there any consensus among these scholars on the resultant chronology for the eighth century BCE. This is in contrast with the general consensus among those who accept the biblical and near Eastern practice of co-regencies that Hezekiah

1458-633: The Book of Kings, about 10,000 were deported from the land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire . Nebuchadnezzar II installed Jeconiah's uncle, Zedekiah as vassal king of Judah, at the age of 21. However, despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar II by ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra . Nebuchadnezzar II returned to Judah, aiming to capture Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 25:1 ). Nebuchadnezzar began

1539-754: The Great , founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire , in 539 BC, he allowed the exiled Judeans to return to Zion and rebuild Jerusalem. The Second Temple was completed in 516 BC. Whereas the Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle provides information about the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC , the only known records of the siege that culminated in Jerusalem's destruction in 587 BC are found in the Hebrew Bible . In 601 BC, during

1620-542: The Hebrew Bible, the city fell in the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year. It is agreed that Jerusalem fell the second time in the summer month of Tammuz (as recorded in Jeremiah 52:6 ). However, scholars disagree as to whether this dates to 586 BC or 587 BC. William F. Albright dated the end of Zedekiah's reign and the fall of Jerusalem to 587 BC whereas Edwin R. Thiele offered 586 BC. In 2004, Rodger Young published an analysis in which he identified 587 BC for

1701-707: The Israelite kings in reference to the Gregorian calendar . Years in the Gregorian calendar commence on 1 January, whereas year numbers for dating biblical events start on 1 Tishri of the Hebrew calendar , with an unfixed starting point during September–October on the Gregorian calendar. Accordingly, an event which takes place after 1 Tishri, for example, in November and December on the Gregorian calendar, would fall in

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1782-729: The Mulekite nation. The Mulekites later merged with another Israelite splinter group—the Nephites —to form one nation, which retained the Nephite name. Zedekiah (whose name at birth was Mattanyahu) was the third of Josiah 's four sons. His three brothers were Eliakim (born c. 634 BCE), Shallum (born c. 633 BCE), and Johanan. Hamutal—the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah —was mother to Mattanyahu and his older brother Shallum, while Zebidah—the niece of Pedaiah —was mother to Eliakim. Zedekiah had multiple wives, sons, and daughters, but only one son

1863-442: The accession method used for previous kings of Assyria. Tiglath-Pileser left no record for modern historians to indicate which dating method he used, nor whether he was switching from the method used by his predecessors; this is instead determined by comparison of the relevant texts by Assyriologists, the same as Thiele did for the regnal data of Judah and Israel. Additional potential confusion arises from periods of co-regency when

1944-401: The accession year of Nebuchadnezzar's successor Amel-Marduk (Evil Merodach) as 562/561 BC, which was the 37th year of Jehoiachin's captivity according to 2 Kings 25:27. These Babylonian records related to Jehoiachin's reign are consistent with the fall of the city in 587 but not in 586, vindicating Albright's reckoning. Further potential confusion arises from the convention of dating reigns of

2025-410: The account of Hezekiah's illness in chapter 20, which immediately follows Sennacherib's departure ( 2 Kings 20 ). This would date his illness to Hezekiah's 14th year, which is confirmed by Isaiah's statement ( 2 Kings 18:5 ) that he would live fifteen more years (29−15=14). These problems are all addressed by scholars who make reference to the ancient Near Eastern practice of coregency . Following

2106-462: The approach of Wellhausen , another set of calculations shows it is probable that Hezekiah did not ascend the throne before 722 BCE. By Albright's calculations, Jehu 's initial year was 842 BC; and between it and Samaria's destruction the Books of Kings give the total number of the years the kings of Israel ruled as 143 7/12, while for the kings of Judah the number is 165. This discrepancy, amounting in

2187-517: The bad figs and states that they will be destroyed by sword, famine, and pestilence. Jeremiah had previously advised Zedekiah at the beginning of his reign to submit to Babylon and to not listen to false prophets like Hananiah who prophesied that he would not have to serve Babylon. ( 24 ) In Zedekiah's tenth year, he imprisons Jeremiah in his palace because Jeremiah had prophesied that Jerusalem would be captured by Nebuchadnezzar. Subsequently, Jeremiah prophesies that Zedekiah will die in peace and have

2268-414: The case of Judah to 45 years (165−120), has been accounted for in various ways; each of those positions must allow for Hezekiah's first six years to have fallen before 722 BCE. (However, Hezekiah beginning to reign before 722 BCE is consistent with a co-regency of Ahaz and Hezekiah from 729 BC.) Nor is it clearly known how old Hezekiah was when called to the throne; although 2 Kings 18:2 states that he

2349-442: The chronology of events referred to in the Bible with those derived from other external sources. These scholarly disagreements are reflected in the table above, which contains scholarly attempts to date the reigns of Judahite monarchs in terms of the Gregorian calendar . Biblical scholars have noted the apparent inconsistencies in the chronology of the kings of Judah and Israel based on the biblical sources. Some have also pointed out

2430-488: The city for about thirty months, Nebuchadnezzar finally succeeded in capturing Jerusalem in 586 BC. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape, making their way out of the city, but were captured on the plains of Jericho and taken to Riblah . There, Zedekiah saw his sons put to death. Then his eyes were put out and he was loaded with chains and carried captive to Babylon ( 2 Kings 25:1–7 ; Jeremiah 32:4–5 ; 34:2–3 ; 39:1–7 ; 52:4–11 ; Ezekiel 12:13 ), where he remained

2511-604: The city was systematically destroyed by fire. Archeological evidence also indicates that towns close to the kingdom's western border and small villages in Jerusalem's near vicinity were destroyed. Gedaliah , a Judean, was made governor of the remnant of Judah, the Yehud Province , with a Chaldean guard stationed at Mizpah ( 2 Kings 25:22–24 ; Jeremiah 40:6–8 ). The Bible reports that, on hearing this news, Jews who had fled to Moab , Ammon , Edom , and in other countries returned to Judah ( Jeremiah 40:11–12 ). Gedaliah

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2592-433: The city. Archaeological investigations and surveys have also revealed that, about the time the Babylonians came to besiege Jerusalem, the majority of towns surrounding Jerusalem and along the kingdom's western frontier were also completely destroyed. However, it is unclear if the array of outlying communities to the east and south of the kingdom were destroyed at that time or if it was a continuous process that occurred after

2673-415: The city. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape but were captured on the plains of Jericho and taken to Riblah . There, Zedekiah's followers, including his own sons, were executed. After being forced to watch their executions, Zedekiah had his eyes gouged out and was taken captive to Babylon ( 2 Kings 25:1–7 ; 2 Chronicles 36:12 ; Jeremiah 32:4–5 ; 34:2–3 ; 39:1–7 ; 52:4–11 ), where he remained

2754-460: The date that Nebuchadnezzar first captured Jerusalem , thus putting an end to the reign of Jehoaichin . Zedekiah's installation as king by Nebuchadnezzar can thus be dated to the early spring of 597 BC. Historically, there has been considerable controversy over the date when Jerusalem was captured the second time and Zedekiah's reign came to an end. There is no dispute about the month, the summer month of Tammuz ( Jeremiah 52:6 ). However, regarding

2835-514: The difficulties of cross-synchronising that dating with those of the other cultures of the area. Some have attempted to give as much historical weight as possible to the biblical sources, while others discount their reliability as historic sources, some even denying any historical value to the biblical sources at all. Using the information in Kings and Chronicles, Edwin Thiele calculated the dates of

2916-441: The early spring of 597 BC. Historically there has been considerable controversy over the date when Jerusalem was captured the second time and Zedekiah's reign came to an end. There is no dispute about the month: it was the summer month of Tammuz (Jeremiah 52:6). The problem has been to determine the year. It was noted above that Albright preferred 587 BC and Thiele advocated 586 BC, and this division among scholars has persisted until

2997-643: The elite and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple , the Kingdom of Judah was dissolved. Most modern historians follow either the older chronologies established by William F. Albright or Edwin R. Thiele , or the newer chronologies of Gershon Galil and Kenneth Kitchen , all of which are shown below. All dates are BCE . A footnote in the Amplified Bible regarding Jeremiah 36:3 disputes that King Jehoiakim died of natural causes, asserting that

3078-405: The end of the siege, based on details from the Bible and neo-Babylonian sources for related events. Thiele's reckoning is based on the presentation of Zedekiah's reign on an accession basis, which he asserts was occasionally used for the kings of Judah. In that case, the year that Zedekiah came to the throne would be his zero th year; his first full year would be 597/596 BC, and his eleventh year,

3159-489: The example of his older brother Jehoiakim —Zedekiah entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt and revolted against Babylon . Nebuchadnezzar responded by invading Judah ( 2 Kings 25:1 ). Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Jerusalem in December 589 BC. During this siege "every worst woe befell the city, which drank the cup of God's fury to the dregs" ( 2 Kings 25:3 ; Lamentations 4:4 , 5 ). After laying siege to

3240-627: The fall of Samaria (the Northern Kingdom) to the 6th year of Hezekiah's reign. William F. Albright dated the fall of the Kingdom of Israel to 721 BC, whereas E. R. Thiele calculated the date as 723 BC. If Albright's or Thiele's dating are correct, then Hezekiah's reign would begin in either 729 or 727 BCE. On the other hand, 18:13 states that Sennacherib invaded Judah in the 14th year of Hezekiah's reign. Assyrian records date this invasion to 701 BC, and Hezekiah's reign would therefore begin in 716/715 BC. This dating would be confirmed by

3321-494: The fall of Jerusalem in his eleventh year would have been in year 588/587 BC, i.e. in the summer of 587 BC. The Babylonian Chronicles allow the fairly precise dating of the capture of Jeconiah and the start of Zedekiah's reign, and they also give the accession year of Nebuchadnezzar's successor Amel-Marduk (Evil Merodach) as 562/561 BC, which was the 37th year of Jeconiah's captivity according to 2 Kings 25:27. These Babylonian records related to Jeconiah's reign are consistent with

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3402-688: The fall of Jerusalem, the former Kingdom of Judah was absorbed into the Neo-Babylonian Empire and reorganized to become Yehud province . Nebuchadnezzar transferred the administrative center from Jerusalem to Mizpah and appointed Gedaliah ben Aḥikam as governor of the province, under the watchful eye of a Babylonian guard ( 2 Kings 25:22–24 , Jeremiah 40:6–8 ). On hearing this news, all the Jews that were in Moab , Ammon , Edom , and Aram-Damascus returned to Judah ( Jeremiah 40:11–12 ). However,

3483-541: The fall of the city in 587 but not in 586, thus supporting Albright's date. Nevertheless, scholars who assume that Zedekiah's reign should be calculated by accession reckoning continue to adhere to the 586 date. According to the Book of Mormon , a religious text in the Latter Day Saint movement , Zedekiah had a son named Mulek , who escaped death and traveled across the ocean to the Americas , where he founded

3564-471: The fall, this would place the end of his reign and the capture of the city in the summer of 586 BCE. Accession counting was the rule for most, but not all, of the kings of Judah, whereas "non-accession" counting was the rule for most, but not all, of the kings of Israel. The publication of the Babylonian Chronicles in 1956, however, gave evidence that the years of Zedekiah were measured in

3645-461: The following year in the Hebrew calendar used for biblical dating. A detailed account of a coronation in ancient Judah is found in 2 Kings 11:12 and 2 Chronicles 23:11, in which the seven-year-old Jehoash is crowned in a coup against the usurper Athaliah . This ceremony took place in the doorway of the Temple in Jerusalem . The king was led to "his pillar", where a crown was placed upon his head, and "the testimony" given to him, after which he

3726-559: The fourth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar II unsuccessfully attempted to invade Egypt and was repulsed with heavy losses. The failure led to numerous rebellions among the Kingdoms of the Levant which owed allegiance to Babylon, including the Kingdom of Judah , where King Jehoiakim stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II and took a pro-Egyptian position. In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II laid siege to Jerusalem . Jehoiakim died during

3807-487: The king rebelled against Babylon several years after these events (II Kings 24:1) and was attacked by numerous bands from various nations subject to Babylon (II Kings 24:2), concluding that he came to a violent death and a disgraceful burial as foretold by Jeremiah (Jer. 22:13–19). There has been considerable academic debate about the actual dates of reigns of the Judahite kings. Scholars have endeavored to synchronize

3888-481: The month Kislev the king of Akkad mustered his army and marched to Hattu. He encamped against the city of Judah and on the second day of the month Adar he captured the city [and] seized [its] king. A king of his own choice he appointed in the city [and] taking the vast tribute he brought it into Babylon. The kingdom was at that time a tributary to Nebuchadnezzar II. Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah , Baruch ben Neriah and other family and advisors—and ignoring

3969-441: The narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king within a six-month period, identifying the difference as due to the calendar starting date. Once these were understood, the various reign lengths and cross-synchronisms for these kings was determined, and the sum of reigns for both kingdoms produced 931/930 BCE for the division of the kingdom when working backwards from the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. Thiele showed that for

4050-528: The people exiled . King of Judah The Kings of Judah were the monarchs who ruled over the ancient Kingdom of Judah , which was formed in about 930 BC , according to the Hebrew Bible , when the United Kingdom of Israel split, with the people of the northern Kingdom of Israel rejecting Rehoboam as their monarch, leaving him as solely the King of Judah. The capital of the Kingdom of Judah

4131-408: The present time. If Zedekiah's years are by accession counting, whereby the year he came to the throne was considered his "zero" year and his first full year in office, 597/596, was counted as year one, Zedekiah's eleventh year, the year the city fell, would be 587/586. Since Judean regnal years were measured from Tishrei in the fall, this would place the end of his reign and the capture of the city in

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4212-564: The principle of co-regencies note that abundant evidence for their use is found in the biblical material itself. The agreement of scholarship built on these principles with both biblical and secular texts was such that the Thiele/McFall chronology was accepted as the best chronology for the kingdom period in Jack Finegan's encyclopedic Handbook of Biblical Chronology . The Babylonian Chronicles give 2 Adar (16 March), 597 BC, as

4293-507: The rapprochement between Judah and Israel, whereby Jehoshaphat , Jehoram's father, united with Ahab at the battle of Ramoth-Gilead, and chose a daughter for his son from the house of Ahab ( 1 Kings 22:1–38 , 2 Kings 8:18 ). This convention was followed in Judah for the next three monarchs: Ahaziah , Athaliah , and Jehoash , returning to Judah's original accession reckoning in the time of Amaziah . These changes can be inferred by comparison of

4374-401: The reign of Jehoram , Judah adopted Israel's non-accession method of counting the years of reign, meaning that the first partial year of the king's reign was counted as his first full year, in contrast to the "accession" method previously in use, whereby the first partial year was counted as year "zero", and "year one" was assigned to the first full year of reign. Thiele attributed this change to

4455-432: The reigns of the kings of Judah from the division of the kingdom, which he calculates to have been in 931–930 BCE. Thiele noticed that for the first seven kings of Israel (ignoring Zimri's seven-day reign), the synchronisms to Judean kings fell progressively behind by one year for each king. Thiele saw this as evidence that the northern kingdom was measuring the years by a non-accession system (first partial year of reign

4536-464: The relative periods for the end of the two sieges as Nebuchadnezzar's seventh and eighteenth years, respectively. (The same events are described at 2 Kings 24:12 and 2 Kings 25:8 as occurring in Nebuchadnezzar's eighth and nineteenth years, including his accession year.) Identification of Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year for the end of the siege places the event in the summer of 587 BC, which

4617-430: The siege and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah (also known as Jehoiachin). Jerusalem fell within three months. Jeconiah was deposed by Nebuchadnezzar, who installed Zedekiah, Jeconiah's uncle, in his place. According to the Hebrew Bible , Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II in 597 BC. This is in agreement with a Babylonian chronicle , which states, The seventh year: In

4698-458: The siege and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah at an age of either eight or eighteen. The city fell about three months later, on 2 Adar (March 16) 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar II pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple and carted all of his spoils to Babylon. Jeconiah and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah; According to

4779-407: The son of Malchiah, and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, to the prophet Jeremiah to ask God why Nebuchadnezzar had declared war against Judah ; they suspected that God was going to make Nebuchadnezzar withdraw from besieging them. Jeremiah responds to Pashhur and Zephaniah and tells them that God declares what will happen if Zedekiah does not surrender to Nebuchadnezzar — his people will die by

4860-455: The son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest to ask Jeremiah to pray for them when Apries 's army had threatened the Babylonians enough to retreat from sieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah once again responds that the Babylonians will come back and capture the city. Previously, when Jeremiah had been imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary in suspicion that he was defecting to the Babylonians, Zedekiah secretly questioned him and asked if there

4941-473: The strong remonstrances of the prophet Jeremiah . Jehoiakim died for reasons unclear, and was succeeded by his son, Jeconiah . In 597 BC, the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem , and the city surrendered. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged Jerusalem and deported Jeconiah and other prominent citizens to Babylon; Jeconiah's uncle, Zedekiah , was installed as king. Later, encouraged by the Egyptians, Zedekiah launched

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5022-588: The subsequent assassination of Gedaliah led most of the population of Judah to flee to Egypt for safety ( 2 Kings 25:26 , Jeremiah 43:5–7 ) In Egypt, they settled in Migdol , Tahpanhes , Noph , and Pathros . ( Jeremiah 44:1 ). The Babylonian Chronicles give 2 Adar (16 March), 597 BC, as the date that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem. At that time, Nebuchadnezzar deposed King Jeconiah and installed Zedekiah—Jeconiah's uncle—in his place. Zedekiah's installation as king by Nebuchadnezzar can therefore be firmly dated to

5103-531: The summer of 586 BC. Accession counting was the rule for most, but not all, of the kings of Judah , whereas "non-accession" counting was the rule for most, but not all, of the kings of Israel . The publication of the Babylonian Chronicles in 1956 yielded evidence that the years of Zedekiah were measured in a non-accession sense. According to this method, 598/597 BC—the year Zedekiah was installed by Nebuchadnezzar according to Judah's Tishrei-based calendar—is considered to be "year one" of Zedekiah's reign. Therefore,

5184-454: The sword, pestilence, and famine, but if he surrenders they will survive. In Jeremiah 22 , Jeremiah advises Zedekiah to act with justice and righteousness and warns him what will happen if he does not obey God's word. ( Jeremiah 21:1–9 , 22:1–7 ) In Jeremiah 24 , God shows Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs placed before a temple, one filled with good, ripe figs, and the other filled with bad figs. God compares Zedekiah and his officials to

5265-476: The textual data in the Bible; however, the biblical texts do not explicitly state whether the reckoning was by accession or non-accession counting, nor do they indicate explicitly when a change was made in the method. Thiele's reckoning has been criticized as arbitrary in its assignment of accession and non-accession dating systems. The official records of Tiglath-Pileser III show that he switched (arbitrarily) to non-accession reckoning for his reign, in contrast with

5346-543: The time of Joash, one may dare to conclude that dating the co-regencies accurately is indeed the key for solving the problems of biblical chronology in the eighth century B.C." Among the numerous scholars who have recognized the co-regency between Ahaz and Hezekiah are Kenneth Kitchen, Leslie McFall and Jack Finegan. McFall, in his 1991 article, argues that if 729 BCE (that is, the Judean regnal year beginning in Tishri of 729)

5427-470: The treasury, some artifacts from the temple , and some of the royal family and nobility were taken as hostages. The subsequent failure of the Babylonian invasion into Egypt undermined Babylonian control of the area, and after three years, Jehoiakim switched allegiance back to the Egyptians and ceased paying the tribute to Babylon. Because of this, Nebuchadnezzar II invaded Judah again in 599 BC, and again laid siege to Jerusalem. In 598 BC, Jehoiakim died during

5508-494: The year that Jerusalem fell, would be 587/586 BC. Since Judah's regnal years were counted from Tishri in autumn, that would place the end of his reign and the capture of Jerusalem in the summer of 586 BC. The Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle (BM 21946), published in 1956, indicates that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem the first time putting an end to the reign of Jehoaichin , on 2  Adar (16 March) 597 BC, in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year. Jeremiah 52:28–29 gives

5589-442: The year, Albright preferred 587 BCE and Thiele advocated 586 BC, and this division among scholars has persisted until the present time. If Zedekiah's years are by accession counting, whereby the year he came to the throne was considered his "zero" year and his first full regnal year, 597/596, was counted as year one, Zedekiah's eleventh year, the year the city fell, would be 587/586. Since Judean regnal years were measured from Tishri in

5670-574: Was Jerusalem . All of the kings of Judah lived and died in Judah except for Ahaziah (who died at Megiddo in Israel), Jehoahaz (who died a prisoner in Egypt ) and Jeconiah and Zedekiah who were deported as part of the Babylonian captivity . Judah was conquered in 587 or 586 BC , by the Neo-Babylonian Empire under Nebuzaradan, captain of Nebuchadnezzar 's body-guard. With the deportation of

5751-399: Was anointed at the hands of the high priest and his sons. Afterwards, the people "clapped their hands" and shouted "God save the King" as trumpets blew, music played, and singers offered hymns of praise. Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC) During the late 7th century BC, Judah became a vassal kingdom of Babylon. In 601 BC, Jehoiakim , king of Judah, revolted against Babylonian rule despite

5832-435: Was any word from God, to which Jeremiah responded that there was, that Zedekiah will be captured by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah pleads that he will die if he is sent back to Jonathan's house so Zedekiah transferred him to the court of the guard and ordered that a loaf of bread be given to him daily. Zedekiah refuses his officials' pleas to execute Jeremiah for his prophecies and instead lets them do what they want with Jeremiah, that

5913-598: Was assassinated by Ishmael son of Nethaniah two months later, and the population that had remained and those who had returned then fled to Egypt for safety ( 2 Kings 25:25–26 , Jeremiah 43:5–7 ). In Egypt, they settled in Migdol (it is uncertain where the Bible is referring to here, probably somewhere in the Nile Delta ), Tahpanhes , Memphis (called Noph), and Pathros in the vicinity of Thebes ( Jeremiah 44:1 ). There has been some debate as to when Nebuchadnezzar's second siege of Jerusalem took place. According to

5994-449: Was chosen to succeed his father on the throne. Three months later the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II , returning from the north, deposed Jehoahaz in favor of his older brother, Jehoiakim . Jehoahaz was taken back to Egypt as a captive. After the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim changed allegiances to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem. He paid tribute from

6075-472: Was counted as year one), whereas the southern kingdom was using the accession method (it was counted as year zero). He also concluded that the calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri (in the fall) and that of Israel in Nisan (in the spring). This is the conclusion from cross-synchronizations between the two kingdoms which often allows

6156-636: Was forced to watch the execution of his sons in Riblah , and his eyes were then put out. The destruction of Jerusalem and its temple led to a religious, spiritual and political crisis, which left its mark in prophetic literature and biblical tradition. The Kingdom of Judah was abolished and annexed as a Babylonian province with its center in Mizpah . The Judean elite, including the Davidic dynasty , were exiled to Babylon. After Babylon had fallen to Cyrus

6237-557: Was his counselor, yet he did not heed the prophet and his epitaph is "he did evil in the sight of the Lord" ( 2 Kings 24:19–20 ; Jeremiah 52:2–3 ). William F. Albright dates the start of Zedekiah's reign to 598 BC, while Edwin R. Thiele gives the start in 597 BC. On that reckoning, Zedekiah was born in c. 617 BC or 618 BC, being twenty-one on becoming king. Zedekiah's reign ended with the siege and fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar II, which has been dated to 587 or 586 BC. The defeat of

6318-516: Was installed as co-regent with his father Ahaz in 729 BC, and the synchronisms of 2 Kings 18 must be measured from that date, whereas the synchronisms with Sennacherib are measured from the sole reign starting in 716/715 BCE. The two synchronisms to Hoshea of Israel in 2 Kings 18 are then in agreement with the dates of Hoshea's reign that can be determined from Assyrian sources, as is the date of Samaria's fall as stated in 2 Kings 18:10. An analogous situation of two ways of measurement, both equally valid,

6399-422: Was practiced in both Assyria and Egypt. After noting that co-regencies were used sporadically in the northern kingdom (Israel), Nadav Na'aman writes, In the kingdom of Judah, on the other hand, the nomination of a co-regent was the common procedure, beginning from David who, before his death, elevated his son Solomon to the throne.... When taking into account the permanent nature of the co-regency in Judah from

6480-422: Was twenty-five years of age, his father died at the age of thirty-six ( 2 Kings 16:2 ) and it is not likely that Ahaz had a son at the age of eleven. Hezekiah's son Manasseh ascended the throne twenty-nine years later, at the age of twelve. This places his birth in the seventeenth year of his father's reign, suggesting Hezekiah's age as forty-two, if he was twenty-five at his ascension. It is more probable that Ahaz

6561-413: Was twenty-one or twenty-five when Hezekiah was born (suggesting an error in the text), and that the latter was thirty-two at the birth of his son and successor, Manasseh. Since Albright and Friedman , several scholars have explained these dating problems on the basis of a co-regency between Hezekiah and his father Ahaz between 729 and 716/715 BCE. Assyriologists and Egyptologists recognize that co-regency

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