2 Chronicles 36:19, commentary and pictures

The verse describes the Chaldean devastation of Jerusalem, in which the beautiful house of God that for more than four centuries had crowned the summit of Mount Zion was not spared but was burned with fire, the wall of Jerusalem was broken down, all its palaces were burned, and all its precious vessels and treasures were ruined and destroyed. It was God's wrath carried out upon impenitent Judah through Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon as His instrument. It came after repeated investments and entries of Jerusalem by his besieging armies, after companies of captives at first few and later thousands and tens of thousands were taken to enforced exile in the land of Shinar, and after Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah each in turn became vassals of Babylon and then rebelled, bringing severer and yet more severe chastisements upon the rebellious nation until the entire land became a desolation, Jerusalem was laid waste and burned with fire, the temple Solomon had built was destroyed, and the kingdom of Judah fell never again to occupy its former position among the nations of earth.

It was the fearful penalty for Zedekiah's sinful weakness in refusing to submit to God's just requirements given through Jeremiah. The resistless enemy devastated the city, drove back the Hebrew armies in confusion, and conquered the nation. Zedekiah was taken prisoner, his sons were killed before his eyes, his own eyes were put out, and he was led captive from Jerusalem to Babylon where he died miserably. The destruction fulfilled, some hundreds of years after the temple was built, the calamity God said would come upon the temple if His people departed from Him, whereas He had promised Solomon that if he remained faithful and the people obeyed all His commandments that glorious temple would stand forever in all its splendor as evidence of the prosperity and exalted blessings resting upon Israel for obedience.

The underlying cause was Israel's transgression of the commandments and wicked acts, for which God suffered them to go into captivity to humble and punish them and suffered the temple to be destroyed, though the temple was the pride of Israel and they regarded it with idolatry while sinning against God. The people had also failed to serve as God's missionaries and to carry His message, separating themselves from surrounding peoples and building walls of division between themselves and other nations. Before the destruction God made known to a few faithful servants the fate of the temple and the captivity of Israel, and just before the destruction those righteous men removed the sacred ark containing the tables of stone and with mourning and sadness hid it in a cave from the people of Israel because of their sins, never to be restored to them, and that sacred ark is yet hid there and has never been disturbed since.

Their defeat, exile, and scattering among heathen lands served to spread the knowledge of God's truth to the world. If they remained loyal, true, submissive, and faithful, God would bring them back to their land, so their return depended on that loyalty and submission. The destruction came eighteen years after Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar when the seventy years' captivity commenced, and thirty-five years before Daniel's vision in the third year of Belshazzar in B.C. 553. The city was still prostrate and the temple still ruined and desolate when Daniel, having learned from Jeremiah that the seventy years were drawing near their close and supposing the 2300 days ended with the seventy years of servitude, turned his face toward the ruined city and temple to pray God to cause His face to shine upon His sanctuary which is desolate. The verse stands as an admonition of what happens when God's people fail in their mission.