Captivity of Judah

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 1, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 48.

Captivity of Judah

Lesson XII.—Sunday, December 18, 1898.

Captivity of Judah.

Lesson Scripture, Jer. 52:1-11, R.V.

1 “Zedekiah was one and twenty 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. 2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the 3 Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the Lord did it come to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until He had cast them out from His presence; and 4 Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of 6 king Zedekiah. In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city round about); and they went by the way of the Arabah. 8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 9 Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment upon him. 10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.”

Golden Text.—“Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” Jer. 52:1-11.

Suggestive Questions.

(1) How old was Zedekiah when he began to reign? How long did he reign? What was his mother's name? V. 1. Note 1. (2) What is said of his reign? V. 2. Note 2. (3) What was brought about by his extreme wickedness and folly? V. 3. Same note. (4) What came to pass in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign? V. 4. Note 3. (5) To what extent was the city besieged? Vs. 5, 6. Note 4. (6) In this desperate strait what did the city's defenders do? V. 7. (7) What was the result of the flight? V. 8. (8) To whom, and to what place, did they first take the king? What was the result of his trial? V. 9. (9) Upon whom was the sentence of death executed? V. 10. (10) What was done with Zedekiah? Notes 5 and 6.

Notes.

1. Zedekiah was a half-brother of Jehoiakim, who burned the roll which contained the warning of the Lord by Jeremiah. When Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, a prisoner to Babylon, he placed Mattaniah on the throne in Jerusalem, and changed his name to Zedekiah. Jeremiah of Libnah (a town some thirty miles southwest of Jerusalem) was not Jeremiah the prophet, who was “the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin” (Jer. 1:1), which was north of Jerusalem.

2. “Did that which was evil.”—The extent of the evil is told in 2 Chron. 36:16: “They mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.” Jeremiah himself was put into a loathsome dungeon. All the punishment brought upon Zedekiah and upon Judah at this time was by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, a heathen king, who was actuated by a spirit of revenge because of Zedekiah's rebellion. But Nebuchadnezzar was but the instrument in the hand of God to execute judgment for the rejection of His Word and the persecution of His messengers. Verse 3 says it was “through the anger of the Lord did it come to pass in Jerusalem and Judah.” When the Spirit of the Lord was withdrawn from him, he blindly rebelled against the king of Babylon, of whom he was but a vassal.

3. “Nebuchadrezzar” is said by some authorities to be the correct spelling of Nebuchadnezzar, which is commonly used.

4. “The famine was sore.”—By comparing verses 4, 5, and 6 it is seen that the siege had continued a year and a half. See the book of Lamentations (of Jeremiah) for description of the horrors of the siege.

5. “Put out the eyes of Zedekiah.”—This putting out the eyes of captives was a common practise in Assyria. An article in The Sunday School Times some time ago stated that “in one of the sculptures at Khorsabad, Sargon represents himself in person holding a prisoner by a thong attached to a ring passed through his under lip. The victim kneels before him, while with a spear he pierces his eyes. Others are held chained, and, with hooks through the lips, are held awaiting their turn. . . . It was especially in Persia that the cruel practise of blinding prisoners prevailed. In Turkey it was formerly the custom for a sultan, on his ascension, either to slaughter or blind his half-brothers, that he might have no rivals or dangerous persons near his throne. In modern Persia the shahs have invariably, even up to the present century, put out the eyes of all their brothers who did not escape to distant provinces in time to elude the cruel torture and its consequences. The shah before the present one was the first Persian monarch who was prevailed on to abandon the practise.”

6. Zedekiah imprisoned.—The record in this lesson is paralleled almost word for word in 2 Kings 24:18 to 25:7, but in a lesson scripture is added, what is not stated in Kings, that Zedekiah was “put in prison till the day of his death.” He was the last king of Judah. Of him the prophet Ezekiel said (chap. 21:26, 27): “Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” This can not be the first advent of the Messiah, for He did not assume the kingship then (see John 6:15; 18:36, 37; Acts 1:7); but “when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory” (Matt. 25:31).