2 Chronicles 36
This chapter is only a summary, intentionally very brief, of the account contained in the last chapters of the book of Kings (2 Kings 23:31-25). The collapse of the kingdom is complete and final under the kings who succeeded Josiah. It hardly seems necessary to the inspired author to record these last convulsions. They have no more real importance in the book of Chronicles except to count, as far as history follows them, the links of the chain which will end with the Lord's Anointed. This is also why the Spirit of God in a remarkable way links the end of Chronicles to the book of Ezra, literally repeating in 2 Chron. 36:22-23 the words with which the following book (Ezra) begins. Indeed, Zerubbabel, in the book of Ezra, is still a weak offshoot of Judah's royalty. Then come the revivals of Ezra and Nehemiah, revivals produced in the midst of a remnant returned from Babylon to await the promised Messiah; but these revivals also are without lasting result, and when at last the true King of Israel appears, His people crucify Him. Nevertheless God's counsels are fulfilled: the sufferings of Christ open the door to the establishment of His glorious throne on earth.
All the last kings "did evil in the sight of Jehovah." Jehoahaz (2 Chron. 36:1-4) is bound with chains by Pharaoh Necho whom Josiah had the temerity to fight. Thus this pious king's only fault resulted in hastening the kingdom's decline. Carried away to Egypt, Jehoahaz dies there after having reigned for three months at Jerusalem.
Jehoiakim (2 Chron. 36:5-7) commits abominations; bound with chains of brass, he is led away by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon where he dies the death of an evil-doer (Jer. 36:30). His mother's name is lacking in Chronicles, as is the case for all the evil kings after Hezekiah.
Jehoichin, his son, is carried away to Babylon. His restoration at the court of Evil-merodach, after 37 years of captivity, is not mentioned here (see 2 Kings 25:27-30), for here it is only a matter of accentuating the complete and final ruin of the kingdom in Judah.
The enumeration ends with Zedekiah. We have spoken elsewhere (2 Kings) of his reign in relation to that which is told us in the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. 2 Chron. 36:12-13 summarize all of his sad history: he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God. When the word of Jehovah is addressed to him by the prophet Jeremiah, he does not humble himself. He rebels against the power established over him as a chastisement from God; much more, he breaks an oath made in the name of Jehovah. What could be more odious than this act towards idolatrous nations and in the eyes of God whose holy name had been desecrated by perjury and cast into the mud? Finally, he stiffens his neck and hardens his heart, refusing to return to the Lord. An irrevocable decision is taken against Him, for Zedekiah refused God.
Thus the history of the kingdom ends. The priests' end and that of the people was no better (2 Chron. 36:14-21). "They defiled the house of Jehovah." And still, right to the end God shows them His grace, the characteristic that is so remarkable in Chronicles: "Jehovah the God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending; because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place" (2 Chron. 36:15). They answered Him by mocking, despising, and scoffing at the prophets. Finally wrath came upon them for the final time: The king of the Chaldeans came up against. Jerusalem. From the account in Kings and the prophet Jeremiah we know what Zedekiah's fate was. Here without any other detail he is, as it were, engulfed in the general judgment. God had "had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place" up to that final moment, but the hour came when He "spared not young man nor maiden, old man nor him of hoary head: He gave them all" into the hand of the king of the Chaldeans (2 Chron. 36:17). The Chaldeans "burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire, and all the precious vessels thereof were given up to destruction. And them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they became servants to him and his sons, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia; to fulfill the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years" (2 Chron. 36:19-21).
By his fall the first Adam had brought God's counsels with regard to him to naught; God has answered by the Second Adam. The kingdom of Israel had done the same; God will answer by anointing His King in Zion, the mountain of his holiness! (Psa. 2:6).