Jehoiakim's Rebellion Against Nebuchadnezzar (602-598)
In 602 Jehoiakim came out into the open; he refused to pay the tribute that he was obliged to send annually to Babylon. To bring the rebel to heel Nebuchadnezzar did no more than send a small contingent of regular troops together with armed bands of Chaldaeans, Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites to lay waste the country (2 Melechim 24:2).
A little later the king of Babylon decided to go in person to make the petty king see reason; he marched on Yerusalem.
There was feverish activity in the city. On the one hand there was the military party who despite successive disappointments still counted on an Egyptian alliance and made ready to break with Babylon. On the other side was a party for peace, under YermeYah, and probably supported by other prophets. The prophet Habakkuk may have been one of them. In the streets of Yerusalem and at the gates of the city YermeYah strenuously preached non-resistance, submission to Babylon and strict neutrality. Yahudah must accept the overlordship of Babylon as the lesser evil. Yerusalem must be beware of the Egyptian promises. A declaration of war against Babylon was absolute madness, YermeYah explained to his audience; so rash a policy could have no other result than the impending and complete destruction of Yerusalem.
Jehoiakim reacted vigorously. He had to rid himself of the opposition party and strong measures were needed. The king flooded Yerusalem with innocent blood (2 Melechim 24:4). In other words a period of persecution of the prophets began.
To escape this organized repression YermeYah must have had powerful protectors at the palace, and indeed less and less did he scruple to propagate his views with vehemence: 'I will reduce you (Yerusalem) to an uninhabited town.' (Jer.22:6)
Even the king was reviled: YermeYah foretold a dreadful death for him and a mockery of a funeral: 'Doom for that man!
He will receive the funeral honours of a donkey, 27 dragged away and thrown out of the gates of Yerusalem.' YermeYah-(Jeremiah) 22:18-1 9
In December 598, Jehoiakim died at the early age of thirty-six (2 Melechim 24:6). Jehoiakim's son was hurriedly placed on the throne with the name of Jehoiachin. Shortly afterwards (January 597) Nebuchadnezzar arrived outside the walls of Yerusalem and began the siege.
27 That is, his corpse would be left out in the open air in a field outside the city as was done with the decaying carcass of a domestic animal.
Yerusalem and its three months of siege
Jehoiachin, the new king, was eighteen (2 Melechim 24:8).28. He was without experience of government and was surrounded by bad advisors who made him follow his father's policy. He did what is displeasing to YAHWEH, just as his father had done. He was another protector of the Baals and the idols.
The siege lasted for three months. Supporters of the war expected the Egyptians to appear on the scene from one moment to the next, and to see the Babylonian army and Nebuchadnezzar thrown back ignominiously to the Euphrates. Their hope was vain. As usual, Egypt always ready to urge Yahudah to rebellion, did not move.
Yerusalem could not hold out for long. The second day of the month of Adar (15-16 March 597) Jehoiachin determined to surrender to his powerful enemy. Probably the young king in his naïveté imagined that his prompt submission would earn him fairly easy peace terms. But Nebuchadnezzar decided to make an example of him.
28 And not eight as given in 2 Chronicles 36:9, probably owing to a scribe's error.
The First29 Deportation Of Judaeans To Babylon (597)
Nebuchadnezzar therefore refused to leave Jehoiachin on the throne as his vassal. He was to be deported to Babylon. The Old Covenant and the cuneiform Chronicle supplement each other on this subject. In the convoy which set off to Babylon were the king, his harem, his mother, and his domestic and military establishment. There were about 10,000 deported (2 Melechim 24:14), in the following categories: 7,000 men able to bear arms, 1,222 blacksmiths and metalworkers. 30 The rest were made up of 'nobles and notables'. In the country districts only the poorest people were left behind. I n Yerusalem, also, a certain number of important persons continued to reside there, among others YermeYah.
And so Jehoiachin was deported in chains with his family to Babylon. He remained there thirty-seven years until his death -as YermeYah had foretold, when, in the name of YAHWEH, he spoke as follows: 'I will deliver you into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the hands of the Chaldaeans. You and the mother who bore you, I will thrust you both out into another country; you were not born there but you will die there' (YermeYah 22:25-26).
In the next chapter we shall again encounter this pitiable caravan on its way to Babylon and witness the establishment of the prisoners in the region assigned to them. For the moment we must follow the course of events in Canaan.
In Yerusalem Nebuchadnezzar seized all the treasure of the royal palace and the Tabernacle, He broke up all the gold furnishings which Solomon had collected in the House of YAHWEH. Thus was fulfilled the extraordinary prophecy made by YeshaYahu to Hezekiah: 'The days are coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have amassed until now, will be carried off to Babylon' (2 Melechim 2:14).31
During this same campaign in Canaan, Nebuchadnezzar seized lachish, an important stronghold which afforded protection on the side of the Egyptian frontier
29 There were three successive deportations to Babylon, They are dealt with here as they occur chronologically, The following is a summary list of them:
1 In 597, in the reign of Jehoiachin
2 In 587, at the end of the reign of Zedekiah
3 In 582, after the murder of Gedaliah
30 These metalworkers were rather scarce in the ancient east; in this instance they were taken to Babylon either to paralyze the arsenals of Yerusalem or to strengthen the teams of metalworkers for whom the Babylonians had a pressing need for their armament. The two hypotheses are not contradictory
31 In this case there can be no question of a prophetia post eventurn; YeshaYahu's inimitable style dates the passage with certainty
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