In Jehoiakim's days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invades, and Jehoiakim becomes his vassal for three years before rebelling. The LORD sends raiding bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites against Judah to destroy it, in accordance with the word spoken through the prophets — specifically because of the sins of Manasseh, including the innocent blood he shed, which the LORD was unwilling to forgive. Jehoiakim dies and his son Jehoiachin succeeds him. The narrator notes that the king of Egypt no longer marches out of his own territory because the king of Babylon has taken everything from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates. Jehoiachin reigns only three months in Jerusalem before Nebuchadnezzar besieges the city. Jehoiachin surrenders — going out to the king of Babylon with his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials. Nebuchadnezzar takes him captive in his eighth year. He carries off all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the royal palace, cuts up all the gold vessels Solomon had made for the Temple, and deports all Jerusalem: the commanders, the warriors, the craftsmen, and the metalworkers — ten thousand exiles. Only the poorest people of the land remain. He exiles Jehoiachin to Babylon along with the queen mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. Nebuchadnezzar installs Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah as king, changing his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah is twenty-one years old, reigns eleven years, and does evil in the eyes of the LORD. The chapter closes with the note that Zedekiah rebels against Babylon.
What Makes This Chapter Remarkable
The chapter narrates the first of two Babylonian deportations (597 BCE), and the narrator's theological interpretation is unambiguous: this is God's doing. The raids against Judah are sent by the LORD (verse 2), and the deportation fulfills the prophetic word. The most theologically significant statement is verse 4: God was unwilling to forgive (lo avah YHWH lisloach) because of Manasseh's bloodshed. This is one of the rare passages in the Hebrew Bible where divine forgiveness is explicitly refused. The surrender of Jehoiachin — going out (va-yetse) to the king of Babylon — echoes the vocabulary of military capitulation throughout the ancient Near East but also carries overtones of exile from sacred space, a going-out that mirrors Israel's departure from the garden, from Egypt, from any place of divine presence. The stripping of the Temple — Solomon's gold vessels cut up and carried away — is described with the same care that 1 Kings 6-7 used for their creation, creating a narrative of uncreation. What Solomon built in glory, Nebuchadnezzar dismantles in judgment.
Translation Friction
The death of Jehoiakim is handled with unusual ambiguity. The phrase va-yishkav Yehoyaqim im avotav ('Jehoiakim slept with his fathers') is the standard death formula, but Jeremiah 22:18-19 prophesies that Jehoiakim would receive the 'burial of a donkey' — dragged and cast outside the gates of Jerusalem. Whether the standard formula conceals a dishonorable death or Jeremiah's prophecy was not literally fulfilled is debated. The number of deportees — 'ten thousand' (verse 14) — does not perfectly align with Jeremiah 52:28, which gives '3,023 Judeans.' The difference may reflect different counting methods (combatants vs. total population, or round numbers vs. precise counts). Zedekiah's relationship to Jehoiachin is described as 'uncle' (his father's brother), meaning Nebuchadnezzar chose not to continue the direct line but placed a different son of Josiah on the throne — a deliberate weakening of royal legitimacy.
Connections
The fulfillment of prophetic word connects to the entire prophetic tradition: the raiders come ki-dvar YHWH ('according to the word of the LORD,' verse 2) spoken be-yad avadav ha-nevi'im ('through his servants the prophets'). The stripping of the Temple treasures begins a process completed in chapter 25 and reverses 1 Kings 7:48-51 (Solomon's golden furnishings). Jehoiachin's exile becomes a reference point for dating throughout Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:2, 'the fifth year of King Jehoiachin's exile'). The refusal to forgive because of innocent blood connects to Deuteronomy 19:10-13 and the principle that unpurged blood pollutes the land. The name change from Mattaniah to Zedekiah ('righteousness of the LORD') parallels Neco's renaming of Eliakim to Jehoiakim (23:34) — both puppet kings receive Yahwistic names from foreign overlords who do not serve YHWH.
In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he rebelled against him.
KJV In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Nebuchadnezzar (Nevukhadnettsar in Hebrew, from Akkadian Nabu-kudurri-usur, 'Nabu, protect the boundary stone') became king of Babylon in 605 BCE and quickly established dominance over the Levant. Jehoiakim's vassalage (eved, 'servant/vassal') lasted three years before va-yashav va-yimrad bo ('he turned back and rebelled against him'). The rebellion was likely encouraged by the Egyptian defeat of Babylon in 601 BCE, which suggested Babylonian power might be declining — a catastrophic miscalculation.
The LORD sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, raiding bands of Arameans, raiding bands of Moabites, and raiding bands of Ammonites. He sent them against Judah to destroy it, in accordance with the word of the LORD that he had spoken through his servants the prophets.
KJV And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The subject of the verb is decisive: va-yeshallach YHWH ('the LORD sent'). The raiders — Chaldeans (Babylonians), Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites — are instruments of divine judgment. The fourfold repetition of gedudei ('raiding bands of') creates a sense of assault from every direction. The purpose clause le-ha'avido ('to destroy it/him') uses the causative form of the verb avad ('to perish'). The phrase ki-dvar YHWH ('according to the word of the LORD') attributes the destruction to prophetic announcement now being fulfilled.
This came upon Judah solely at the LORD's command, to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh — everything he had done,
KJV Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did;
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The phrase akh al pi YHWH ('surely by the mouth/command of the LORD') eliminates any possibility of attributing Judah's suffering to chance or geopolitics. The purpose — le-hasir me'al panav ('to remove from before his face/presence') — echoes the exact language of 23:27. The cause is named again: be-chattot Menasheh ('because of the sins of Manasseh'). The narrative insists that events happening decades after Manasseh's death are still caused by his sins.
and also because of the innocent blood he shed — he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood — and the LORD was unwilling to forgive.
KJV And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The final clause is among the most theologically stark in the Hebrew Bible: ve-lo avah YHWH lisloach ('and the LORD was not willing to forgive'). The verb avah ('to be willing, to consent') paired with the negative lo indicates a deliberate divine refusal — not inability but unwillingness. The reason is dam naqi ('innocent blood'), the same charge from 21:16. Unpurged innocent blood creates a pollution that the covenant demands must be addressed (Deuteronomy 19:13, Numbers 35:33). Manasseh's bloodshed has crossed a threshold beyond which even divine patience does not extend.
The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim — everything he did — are they not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
KJV Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The standard source citation. Jeremiah's account of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:13-19, 26:20-24, 36:1-32) provides a much fuller and more damning portrait: a king who cut up and burned a prophetic scroll, built his palace with forced labor, and persecuted prophets.
Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place.
KJV So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The death formula va-yishkav im avotav ('he slept with his fathers') is used without mention of burial — an unusual omission that may hint at the dishonorable burial prophesied in Jeremiah 22:18-19. Jehoiachin (Yehoyakhin, 'the LORD establishes') succeeds him at the worst possible moment: with Babylon mobilizing for a punitive campaign.
The king of Egypt did not march out of his own land again, because the king of Babylon had seized everything that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.
KJV And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
This parenthetical note explains the geopolitical situation: after the Battle of Carchemish (605 BCE) and subsequent campaigns, Babylon controlled the entire territory mi-nachal Mitsrayim ad nehar Perat ('from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River') — the traditional boundaries of the promised land (Genesis 15:18, 1 Kings 8:65). The irony is crushing: the land promised to Abraham is now the territory of the king of Babylon. Egypt, which had been Judah's hoped-for ally, is confined within its own borders.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem.
KJV Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Another tragically brief reign: three months (December 598 to March 597 BCE). His mother Nechushta ('bronze, copper') was from Jerusalem itself — one of the few queen mothers from the capital rather than a provincial town. Elnathan her father may be the Elnathan who participated in extraditing the prophet Uriah from Egypt for Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:22). Jehoiachin inherits a kingdom already under siege.
He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father had done.
KJV And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The evaluation formula becomes a drumbeat of decline: ke-khol asher asah aviv ('according to everything his father had done'). In three months there is little time for policy, but the narrator renders the verdict based on the trajectory established by Jehoiakim. Every post-Josiah king receives the same negative evaluation.
At that time, the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.
KJV At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The avdei Nevukhadnettsar ('servants/officers of Nebuchadnezzar') are his military commanders. The phrase va-tavo ha-ir ba-matsor ('the city came into the siege') marks the first of two Babylonian sieges of Jerusalem — this one in 597 BCE. The word matsor ('siege, siege-works') from the root tsur ('to press, to besiege') will define Jerusalem's final years.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon himself came to the city while his officers were besieging it.
KJV And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants did besiege it.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Nebuchadnezzar arrives personally — va-yavo Nevukhadnettsar melekh Bavel al ha-ir ('Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city'). His presence elevates the siege from a military operation to a royal confrontation. The Babylonian Chronicle confirms that Nebuchadnezzar personally campaigned against 'the city of Judah' (al-Yahudu) in his seventh year and captured it on 2 Adar (March 16, 597 BCE).
Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon — he, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his own reign.
KJV And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb va-yetse ('he went out') describes formal surrender — Jehoiachin exits the city to submit himself. The entourage — immo ('his mother'), avadav ('his servants'), sarav ('his commanders'), sarisav ('his officials/eunuchs') — represents the entire royal household. The eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign is 597 BCE. The Babylonian Chronicle independently confirms this event, making it one of the best-attested dates in biblical history.
He carried off from there all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace, and he cut up all the gold vessels that Solomon king of Israel had made for the Temple of the LORD — just as the LORD had declared.
KJV And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verb va-yeqattses ('he cut up, he hacked apart') describes the destruction of Solomon's gold vessels — not careful removal but violent dismemberment for ease of transport and melting. The phrase ka-asher dibber YHWH ('just as the LORD had spoken') reminds the reader that this plundering fulfills prophetic announcement (Isaiah 39:6, where Isaiah told Hezekiah that everything in his palace would be carried to Babylon). The stripping of the Temple reverses 1 Kings 7:48-51.
He deported all Jerusalem — all the commanders, all the elite warriors, ten thousand exiles in all — along with every craftsman and metalworker. No one remained except the poorest people of the land.
KJV And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.
Notes & Key Terms
1 term
Key Terms
גָּלָהgalah
"deported"—to exile, to deport, to uncover, to go into exile, to be stripped bare
galah carries a double meaning: 'to exile' and 'to uncover, strip bare.' The deportation strips the land of its skilled and powerful population, leaving it naked and vulnerable. The ten thousand exiles include the military, administrative, and artisan classes — the people who could organize resistance or rebuild. Babylon removes the capacity for recovery.
Translator Notes
The deportation targets specific social classes: sarim ('commanders, officials'), gibborei ha-chayil ('warriors of the army, mighty men of valor'), charash ('craftsmen, skilled artisans'), and masger ('metalworkers, smiths'). The removal of artisans and smiths is strategic: without metalworkers, the remnant population cannot forge weapons. The phrase lo nish'ar zulat dallat am ha-arets ('none remained except the poorest of the people of the land') creates a deliberately destitute remnant.
He exiled Jehoiachin to Babylon, along with the king's mother, the king's wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land — he took them as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon.
KJV And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The deportation list is personal: Jehoiachin himself, em ha-melekh ('the queen mother,' Nehushta), neshei ha-melekh ('the king's wives'), sarisav ('his officials'), and eilei ha-arets ('the mighty ones/rams of the land' — the leading aristocracy). The metaphor eilei ('rams') suggests the strongest and most prominent members of society. The repeated phrase Bavelah ('to Babylon') hammers the destination. Ezekiel was among these deportees (Ezekiel 1:1-3).
All the fighting men — seven thousand — and the craftsmen and metalworkers — one thousand — all of them battle-ready warriors, the king of Babylon brought them as captives to Babylon.
KJV And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The numbers break down the ten thousand total: shiv'at alafim ('seven thousand') soldiers and elef ('one thousand') skilled artisans, plus the royal household and officials. The phrase gibborim osei milchamah ('mighty men, makers of war') emphasizes that Babylon removed all military capacity. The land of Judah is now defenseless — by design.
The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
KJV And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
Nebuchadnezzar installs dodo ('his uncle,' literally 'his father's brother') — another son of Josiah — as a puppet ruler. The name change from Mattaniah (Mattanyah, 'gift of the LORD') to Zedekiah (Tsidqiyyahu, 'righteousness of the LORD') is the third time a foreign power has renamed a Judean king (after Neco's renaming in 23:34). The Babylonian king gives his vassal a Yahwistic name, asserting ownership over both king and deity. The irony of 'righteousness of the LORD' for the last king of Judah becomes apparent as the narrative unfolds.
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.
KJV Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The regnal formula reveals that Zedekiah has the same mother as Jehoahaz (23:31) — both are sons of Josiah by Hamutal of Libnah. This makes Zedekiah Jehoahaz's full brother and Jehoiakim's half-brother. The eleven-year reign (597-586 BCE) spans the final decade of the kingdom of Judah. Zedekiah is the last king to sit on David's throne.
He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
KJV And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The comparison to Jehoiakim rather than to 'his ancestors' (the usual formula) is specific: Zedekiah follows the pattern of Jehoiakim's rebellion against Babylon and disregard for prophetic warning. Jeremiah's extensive interactions with Zedekiah (Jeremiah 21, 34, 37-38) reveal a weak king who sometimes seeks prophetic counsel but never acts on it.
It was because of the LORD's anger that all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally cast them out of his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
KJV For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Notes & Key Terms
Translator Notes
The verse serves as a theological bridge between chapters 24 and 25: ki al af YHWH haytah ('because of the anger of the LORD it happened'). The phrase ad hishlikho otam me'al panav ('until he threw them from before his face') echoes the same language from 23:27 and 24:3 — the removal from God's presence is now approaching completion. Zedekiah's rebellion (va-yimrod be-melekh Bavel) — probably encouraged by promises of Egyptian support (Ezekiel 17:15-17) — triggers the final siege that will destroy Jerusalem.