Week 23 2 Chronicles 36
Here are the key facts about the very last king of Judah:
Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king
He reigned for eleven years
The chronicler adds a couple of other details. First is that Zedekiah had taken an oath of loyalty in God’s name to not rebel against Babylon. So then he rebelled. The second thing is that Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man, refusing to turn to the Lord.
Finally – like the other three kings – Zedekiah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God.
2 Kings adds a couple of details about the siege of Jerusalem. But it’s really Jeremiah who spends more time in his book talking about what was going on in Jerusalem during Zedekiah’s reign (in fact Jeremiah 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 37 38 39 all talk about those years) (35 & 36 are about Jehoiakim).
Even though a lot of the content of those 10 chapters in Jeremiah are about Jeremiah and his prophecies one interesting thing I found out about Zedekiah is that even though he publicly rejected Jeremiah’s advice (in fact Jeremiah was locked in prison for spreading anti-state propaganda) the king secretly visited him a couple of times sniffing-around for some advice & input (the Babylonian army was at the city gates and maybe Zedekiah hoped the Lord would bail him out). But in the end Zedekiah didn’t listen to Jeremiah. The last king of Judah was a hard and stubborn man after all. All the way into exile.
Note: quotes from 2 Chronicles 36:13 12 (NLT)