These 2 chapters – the ends of their respective books – cover mostly the same material.
We find that the total number of captives taken to Babylon over the various waves of deportations was 4,600.
That’s not actually very many considering the entire population of Judah which is estimated to have been around 100,000 during the reign of Josiah. The implied numbers of death and dispersion are staggering.
“So the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them. The Babylonians killed Judah’s young men, even chasing after them into the Temple. They had no pity on the people, killing both young men and young women, the old and the infirm. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.”
2 Chronicles 36:17 NLT
Recall how badly the temple had been defiled with animal blood offered on altars before idols and even open, bi-sexual prostitution within the very boundaries of sacred space. Now, in this same space, the young men of Judah who participated in this wickedness are paying for it with their lives.
Perhaps they thought that Yahweh would protect them if they went into His temple.
But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t shove God out of His house and fill it with prostitution, then expect Him to be there when you’re in trouble.
In case you haven’t noticed the pattern, let me help you.
People who think they can have God on their own terms always end up dead. It’s not hard.
But… the major thing I’d like to tackle in these chapter is this:
“Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Jerusalem and captured it, and he bound Jehoiakim in bronze chains and led him away to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the treasures from the Temple of the Lord, and he placed them in his palace in Babylon.”
2 Chronicles 36:6-7 NLT
🤔 Wait… I thought Jehoiakim was killed and thrown out of the city like a dead animal or something…
You mean this?
“Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’ They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah, Lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’ With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.””
Jeremiah 22:18-19 ESV
(see also Jer. 36:30)
🤔 Yeah. So was Jehoiakim killed and dumped outside Jerusalem or carried off to Babylon?
Well, they’re both true. It’s like the thing where Zedekiah was taken to Babylon and yet never saw it. There are two possible solutions to this question.
SOLUTION 1
First, it’s possible that Jehoiakim was bound in bronze fetters and taken to Babylon in the 3rd year of his reign…
“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.”
Daniel 1:1-2 ESV
“In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.”
2 Kings 24:1 ESV
These texts may be understood as Jehoiakim himself being taken to Babylon as 2 Chronicles 36:6-7 explicitly states. But then he “turned and rebelled” which could indicate that Jehoiakim escapes Babylon (probably while Nebuchadnezzar was distracted fighting Pharaoh-Neco at the Battle of Carchemish), and returns to Jerusalem. In the 4th year of Jehoiakim’s reign was when Jeremiah wrote down all God’s words in a scroll, (Jer. 36:1-2). In the 5th year is when Jehoiakim is (back) in Jerusalem, calls for a fast, Baruch reads the scroll in the temple, the scroll is taken to the king, he cuts it up and burns it (Jer. 36:8-32).
Then Jehoiakim continues as king until Nebuchadnezzar returns and Jehoiakim is killed and his body dumped outside the city.
Josephus’ historical record supports this reading of the text though he does not include any record of Jehoiakim being taken to Babylon or returning. He only mentions that when Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem, Jehoiakim “neither shut the gates nor fought against him” because he had made agreements to be a vassal king. So Nebuchadnezzar didn’t have to fight his way into the city. They just walked in unopposed and started killing people.
SOLUTION 2
If Jehoiakim was NOT, in fact, taken to Babylon in the 3rd year of his reign, there is still another way to reconcile these texts.
Note that the Jer. 22:18-19 prophecy concerning his death outside Jerusalem does not specify that his body has to be thrown within a few meters of the city gate of Jerusalem. That’s something that a reader might assume. Babylon is definitely “beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” There is nothing in that prophecy that demands a certain distance beyond the gates.
It’s also possible that Nebuchadnezzar had Jehoiakim bound in bronze fetters and began to deport him to Babylon, but decided at some point outside the gates of Jerusalem to kill him and just threw his body aside.
Now, solution 2 cannot be reconciled with the record of Josephus, but Josephus isn’t scripture and he wrote his history about 500 years after the fact. So it’s possible that his information on Jehoiakim being killed in Jerusalem and his body “thrown before the walls, without any burial” may be incorrect.
Personally, I lean toward solution 1. But, either way, I assure you, there is no contradiction of scripture here.
And with that, we have come to the final end of the history of the kings of Israel and Judah. We have fully launched into the waters of the 70 years of exile.
Remember that little blurb we read about governor Gedaliah being killed and the remnant of people left in Judah going to Egypt?
That was a whole thing.
And that’s what we’ll cover next, after a little visit to the Psalms.
To The Reader 