Judah taken captive
CLASS 4 ISSUES
Study Scripture: 2 Kings 24: 18 – 25:9
Background Scripture 2 Chronicles 36:11-20
Lesson 10 November 8, 2025
Key Verse
For it was due to the anger of the Lord that this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He cast them out of His presence.
And Zedekiah revolted against the king of Babylon.
2 Kings 24: 20
INTRODUCTION
How can you explain how the people of God who are of course under the covenant, having therefore been in close contact with the prophets and the Scripture deviate so much from the commandments and the warnings that they should change their ways and follow the ways of God?
Note that the Study Lesson has a lot of warnings for your Christian life. It encourages you to trust in the God who loves you and will go to great lengths to keep you safe and secure. But it also tells you God who is holy and righteous wants you to maintain a close personal relationship with Him. He is patient and longsuffering. He will put up with your ungodly behaviour.
But remember there are red lines you should not cross. When you cross these lines you will get trapped in complacency, casual, and I am not worried at what I do for there will never be unpleasant consequences behaviour.
Our Lesson Study therefore examines the consequences of disobedience to a holy and righteous God and a turning away from Him.
Remember there are real and unpleasant consequences for a lifestyle contrary to the ways of God.
Our Study highlights in stark terms the reality of divine judgment, a judgment which is real and just.
In doing so it makes abundantly clear the importance of leadership for the spiritual health of a nation, for it is incumbent of leaders at every level to lead with integrity and righteousness.
Our Lesson reminds you that God has a Plan established before the foundation (the creation) of the earth.
Our Study will highlight the role of nations in the plan of God.
Note that God is sovereign and rules over all nations and their history. He works everything according to His will. God illustrates this for the benefit of His people by allowing Babylon’s rise to power for God made it clear to His people that Babylon will be used as an instrument to discipline Judah.
We cannot ignore the edict of Proverbs 21:1 which states:
“The heart of the king is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord: He turns it wherever He wills”.
It is no surprise then that the proud and hot-tempered and previously Yahweh-hating pagan king Nebuchadnezzar who was used as Yahweh’s instrument had to be brought to his senses. When that was done he made this remarkable statement:
“I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say to him, What doeth thou?”
Clearly we are taught that the sins of leaders and people have repercussions that affect future generations and so to protect ourselves and the future generations we must understand the importance of living a life which honours God.
If that way of living is not so at the present there is a necessity for repentance. Then there will come the understanding to trust in Yahweh alone for He is our refuge and strength. Our trust must never be in alliances with men.
Do not forget that God is patient and He issues warnings is we go off the rails.
The devastating punishment Moses had warned about in Deuteronomy 28: 58-68 had brought the unthinkable after centuries of warning that the mercies of Yahweh would run out one day and Yahweh would remove Judah from the Promised Land, Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed, and the people exiled.
Four prophets, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel had ministered and written during the last days of Judah. Jeremiah and Habakkuk had ministered in and around Jerusalem, while Ezekiel and Daniel ministered while exiled to Babylon during the first and second deportations in 605 B. C. and 597 B.C. respectively.
Judah and Israel well knew their prophesied history. In 1 Samuel 12 the people had been warned of the consequences of their sins. Solomon in 1 Kings 8:22 had feared this and warned. The prophet Isaiah had predicted the exile in Isaiah 39:1-8; the prophet Amos in 2:4-5 6:1-7; the prophet Micah in 3:12, the prophet Zephaniah in 1:4-13.
The prophets of Yahweh had brought important and life-changing messages of condemnation and then hope to the people but the people had closed their ears and shut their eyes to the pleas of Yahweh. The last and final invasion is recorded in 2 Kings 25:1-7.
Chapters 24-25 covered the last 23 years of the nation of Judah and we can see clearly the timeline of continued disobedience, rejection of Yahweh, and the loving of evil doings.
Scripture shows this unmistakable time of crisis when a nation called and established by God is in severe moral decline and is facing death with things falling apart in the home, the community, the nation, and in the world.
This is a time of despair and darkness but we will also see in these Chapters how in such a time God will plant a seed of hope. God brings new life though there is death and destruction all around.
One writer reminds us of the timeline as the last good King is taken out of the picture:
“609 B.C. Josiah slain in battle at Megiddo. Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, becomes king.
605 B.C. Babylon defeats Egypt at Carchemish. Nebuchadnezzar become king of Babylon: first deportation to Babylon includes Daniel.
604 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar received tribute in Palestine.
601 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar fights and defeats enemy near Egypt.
598 B.C. Jehoiakim dies; Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, rules from December 9, 598 to March 16, 597: is then deported April 22 to Babylon.
597 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar chooses Zedekiah, son of Josiah to become king of Judah; Ezekiel taken to Babylon
598 B.C. Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem on January 15.
587 B.C. Jeremiah imprisoned (Jeremiah 32).
586 B.C. Zedekiah flees: He is captured and blinded by Nebuchadnezzar; a few months later; Nebuchadnezzar orders Jerusalem sacked and destroyed”.
Note three deportations have taken place. In 605 B.C. when Babylon defeats Egypt and takes over their vassal states including Judah, in 597 B.C., when Jehoiakim rebels and Nebuchadnezzar invades and strips the Temple and palace of its treasurers, takes all the military officers, 7,000 mightiest soldiers, and 1,000 craftsmen and the ruling king Jehoiachin and his family to Babylon, since his father Jehoiakim had died.
Now came the siege and the final deportation and destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the entire nation.
So what will God expect the prophet Jeremiah to do. The Book of Lamentations has the prophet writing in 2:15-17:
“All who pass your way clap their hands at you;
They scoff and shake their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem:
Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of the whole earth?
All your enemies open their mouths wide against you;
they scoff and gnash their teeth
and say, “We have swallowed her up.
This is the day we have waited for;
we have lived to see it”.
The LORD has done what he planned;
He has fulfilled his word,
which he decreed longs ago.
He has overthrown you without pity,
he has let the enemy gloat over you
he has exalted the horn of your foes’
So think about what faces the disobedient people who will only emphasize that God loves them and casually and carelessly ignore His wrath despite what they choose to do:
But consider what else does the prophet say in Lamentations 3:20-24?
“I will remember them,
And my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are
not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning:
Great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion:
Therefore I will wait for him”.
Let us therefore see what this Lesson intends to teach us. One writer states:
“In the midst of this disaster, Jeremiah realizes that the only thing he has left is God. That’s all there is. That’s his only hope. So his conclusion is to wait for God.
As we learn about the city of God burning to the ground, that is all that we are left with too.
Our epic story hangs in the air.
What will happen now that Jerusalem has burned?
We know God is doing something. We just don’t know what. So we wait for God.
In the midst of pain, we have the opportunity to encounter God in a deep and intimate way”.
We therefore ask the question, What does God want from me? What is our calling?
Who are you? What is your life?
Is your life well defined already by you? And are you therefore busy with the cares of the world and your preferred activities?
Are you to determine your role in life and to expect you will be taken into the kingdom of God, or is God the One who has the right to determine that?
We study therefore about a man of God and his people in a global crisis. He is in a personal crisis for he has told his nation for over 40 years about imminent disaster, and nobody will believe him. They will ignore him, then attack him, imprison him, try to murder him, and will finally kill him when the disaster he warned about came.
In fact however this Study begins to teach us about God, about what He is doing in the midst of crisis. This is practical stuff, for it is set in the context of real life, the life of a home, a community, nation, and the world.
We look therefore at a devastation of the people of God.
Do not forget that the Scriptures and those who proclaim the words of God continue to warn us.
This Study might hopefully lead us to think about our home, our community, our nation, and the world, and it will help us answer the question as to what to do when there is political, economic, and religious disaster in our country, our nation, and our world.
THE CONTEXT, THE TIMES
These were bad times of great trouble. So et us look at a little bit of history to see what we can learn.
The prophet Jeremiah lived during the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. beginning his ministry in the reign of King Josiah. It is estimated he began his ministry about the year 627 B.C. until about 582 B.C. About 100 years before he began to preach, in 721 B.C. the Northern Kingdom, the 10 tribes, had sunk into such deep iniquity that their death came, for God allowed them to be conquered by the Assyrians. Their capital city of Samaria had been destroyed and the people were taken into exile.
As soon as Josiah died it was clear the reforms were clearly transitory. The people and leaders had to do what this brave young king demanded, but as soon as he was out of the picture, they reverted to the path which would lead to destruction.
The four kings after Josiah were weak spiritually and having no deep godly convictions, tried to obtain security for Judah by intrigue and political alliances. Jeremiah had to watch all this unfolding of imminent disaster and then Jerusalem fell and immense tragedy began.
How could children of a godly father misbehave so badly and reject all that father and mother taught them? How is that possible? Make sure you do not follow that disappointing departure from godly parental instruction.
Read Proverbs Chapter 3 over and over again until it cannot be forgotten.
The son of this godly Josiah named Jehoiakim ascended the throne and was a foolish king satisfied with being ruled by the Pharaoh of Egypt even though he had been warned by the prophets that God had instituted the Babylonians as the real power. The Baylonians who had defeated Egypt took over the vassal state of Judah but left Jehoiakim on the throne satisfied with collecting tribute from Judah.
Some of the sacred vessels from the Temple as well as hostages which included Daniel and young men of royal blood was taken to Babylon.
But Jehoiakim was by nature a treacherous king and despite his promises to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, and the clear military reality of his day, and the warnings of the prophet Jeremiah it made no difference to this godless king. 2 king 24; 2-7 records that God sent armies consisting of the Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Amorites to put down his rebellion. But before his being captured and taken to Babylon in chains he died and as decreed by God was given the unceremonious burial of an ass for his cutting to pieces the scroll written by Daniel which told of God’s prophecies.
We learn from one writer:
“Ezekiel 19:5-7 describes his son who took over the throne Jehoiachin as a
“A young lion, who learned to prey and devour men… like Jehoahaz (Jehoiakim).. he knew that their (the deceased men’s) widows, that is, ravished them, and destroyed their cities, that is to say, he did not confine his deeds of violence to individuals, but extended them to all that was left behind by those whom he had murdered, namely to their families and possessions”.
In his short reign he proved himself to be so wicked that God cursed him as recorded in Jeremiah 22:24-30
“As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah were the signet ring upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence…………
Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah”.
We are told that Jehoiachin (Coniah) when he heard that the king of Babylon had personally come up against Jerusalem, he exercised some discretion and went out to see if he could beg Nebuchadnezzar for mercy and so retain his throne. As a servant of sin he would not ask God for help.
But Nebuchadnezzar would have none of that, and as prophesized treated him as a rebel (2 Kings 24:9-16). He made captives him, his mother, his wives, princes, and officers prisoners and took them to Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar then also took away the cream of the people in Jerusalem and /Judah, the military men, the heads of the tribes and families, the priests and the prophets, the masons, smiths, carpenters, makers of weapons, and all the skilled workers.
He disarmed Jerusalem and Judah. The only people left behind were the poor, and those who did not have any property, money, possessions, strength, and were incapable of organizing any further revolts. Only the lower class of people were left behind. He left Judah poor and weakened and incapable of revolting. Of course he took away any treasurers he could find.
But little did he understand how deeply sin, stupidity, and rebellion had taken over the people of God.
Nebuchadnezzar therefore then appointed the king’s uncle Mattaniah, Josiah’s son (1 Chronicles 3:15) ss king in place of Jehoiachin, changing his name to Zedekiah, a name which means “he who has Jehovah’s righteousness”.
In view of the past history, one would have thought that the new king Zedekiah, would be able to read the writing on the wall. But incredible, he could not.
Though the word of God was pointing in a direction totally contrary to the king’s and leaders’ direction of choice, because they were disobedient to God, they ignored the plain facts of life in front of them. They seduced the people, who they had treated so badly, and yet they willingly went along with the king and the leaders who lacked wisdom and had faithlessness, who broke their oath of loyalty to God and as well to the king of Babylon.
The Book of Chronicles records that Zedekiah joined a revolt with the equally foolish Pharoah-Hophra, despite knowing that the nation of Egypt was so weakened that it could never in his wildest dreams resist Babylon.
Jeremiah 29:3 records that shortly after he became king he sent an ambassador to Babylon with a letter apparently trying to persuade Nebuchadnezzar to return those people that he had previously carried away as captives.
He did this in opposition to the word of God. God had then to instruct Jeremiah to tell the nobles and the deported ones that it was God Himself that had caused the people to be deported to Babylon. They were therefore well advised to build houses, live in them, plant gardens and eat the fruits, take wives, have children, and increase the size of the population, for they would not soon come back home in any short time.
In the fourth year of his reign, Zedekiah seemed to have even himself visited Babylon to assure the king he was loyal.
But in the very same year when he returned home, he received ambassadors from the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Tyrians, and the Sidonians who wanted to throw off the rule of Babylon.
THE TEXT
The king of Babylon had humbled Judah. He thought that by installing Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle as king and renaming him Zedekiah, the kingdom of Judah would no longer be rebellious. But the scholar Wiseman pointed out to us:
“The king (597-587 b.c.) inherited a much reduced Judah, for the Negeb was lost (Jeremiah 13:18-19) and the land was weakened by the loss of its experienced personnel.
There were both a pro-Egyptian element and false prophets among the survivors (Jeremiah 28-29: 38:5)”.
Verse 18. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king. But he had not learned anything from the history of his nation and from geo-political events happening around him.
Verse 19. Records that he did the same evils that Jehoiakim had done. So we know he robbed everything he could from the people, allowed pagan worship in Jerusalem and in the Temple just as Jehoiakim had done.
2 Chronicles 36:12-14 records all his evils.
He did not listen to the word of God spoken to him by Jeremiah. He did not repent of the evils he was doing.
He did not restrain or control the out- of- God priests, prophets, and leaders who were openly defiling the Temple with their pagan gods and idolatrous practices , and he had no qualms about breaking the oath to the king of Babylon made in the name of his God Yahweh.
Verse 20. God’s patience thus came to an end and Zedekiah and Judah was cast out of the presence of God.. This means God had allowed and set in motion the events which would lead to the conquering and dissolution of the kingdom of Judah.
God’s presence could not coexist with the presence of the false prophets and the idolatrous practises which had defiled the Temple. These false prophets had been preaching that Judah and the exiled king cursed by God would very soon be restored and a time of prosperity would follow.
But Judah had been stripped of much of its people for as 2 Chronicles 36:21 affirmed the exile had occurred “to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years”.
But the evil and confident Zedekiah cared not for the word of God and he rebelled against Babylon.
CHAPTER 25
Verses 1-2. Zedekiah reigned for 11 years. This covenant breaker had no hesitation to break his oaths to Yshweh or to Babylon. So Babylon attacked and dealt a heavy blow to all the lands in Judah under the control of the crown of Judah. The Babylonian army captured and destroyed the outlying villages and towns. Even the Rechabites who lived the life of nomads outside the city was forced to flee to the city of Jerusalem for refuge.
And in the 9th year, on the 10th day of the 10th month Zedekiah’s rebellion led Nebuchadrezzar to send his army to attack and lay siege to Jerusalem.
The city was well fortified and stocks of food were so large that the siege lasted until the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign.
Wiseman comments: “The Babylonians relied initially on tight control using ‘watch towers’ rather than siege works allowing those who wished to leave to do so (cf. 2 Kings 25:11; Jeremiah 38:19; 39:9), but starving out the city(Jeremiah 38:2,9).
Some people had taken the opportunity to escape the city for Jeremiah in 38:2 had warned:
“Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live”.
Zedekiah knew this and he feared that if he surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar these escaped Judeans would kill him for what he had been doing. Though Jeremiah told him that they would not be able to kill him if he surrendered to the Babylonians, this advice from God’s prophet made no difference to him and he chose his own foolish and disastrous method of escaping the declared judgment of God. His chosen way failed.
But the well-laid plan of the king collapsed. The siege was effective and the food ran out. Nebuchadnezzar had no intention of allowing Zedekiah and the rest of the rebellious oath breaking leaders of Judah to escape. In this one and one-half year siege the food ran out. The famine became severe as the siege had intended.
The prophet Ezekiel in Chapter 5:9-10 tells us how bad the famine became for God had stated:
“I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.
Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgment in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds
Wherefore, as I live, saith the LORD GOD; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I diminish thee; neither will I have any pity”.
It is interesting to note that some modern scholars try to spiritualize the cannibalism and say this referred only to moral attacks. They often do not warn to admit the deep and awful effects of sin.
These were desperate times. There was no bread in the city.
Verse 4. The walls of the city were broken and the king and the men of war decided to leave the people in the city to their fate and thus abandoned the city, leaving by a break in the two walls by the king’s garden. The king fled by the way of the plains of Jericho.
Verse 5. But the Chaldean army was watching for this attempt. They chased after the king and his army men and overtook them in the plain of Jericho. As expected the army men scattered from the king. He was on his own.
Verse 6. The king and his family were captured. They were brought up to the king of Babylon at Riblah where he was encamped. Nebuchadnezzar pronounced judgment.
Verse 7. Jeremiah had warned king Zedekiah against his mad way of thinking that going against the warning of God would succeed. Jeremiah had told Zedekiah that he and his sons would not escape the Babylonian army. His sons would be killed before his eyes. And then his eyes would be gouged out. Then he would be put in chains od brass and dragged to Babylon.
This happened exactly as Jeremiah had predicted.
Can you imagine how Zedekiah felt when his sons were killed before his eyes, and when his eyes were then dug out of the sockets?
The consequences of sin are alarmingly bad.
How can you avoid the traps of the Devil? It is important that you do not behave foolishly.
Verse 8-9. The the Babylonians carried out the mopping-up operation.
In the 19th year of his reign Nebuchadezzar sent the captain of the guard to Jerusalem and he carried out the command to burn the Temple to the ground. As well he burnt the king’s house, and all the great houses in the city. The city was levelled. The walls of the city were destroyed.
The city would have its Sabbaths until the seventy years of punishment period predicted were completed. It would be up to Nehemiah to work with the remaining people of Judah that had returned from captivity to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple of the LORD.
CONCLUSION
Jerusalem had fallen.
The nation of Israel had entered the Promised Land at Jericho and they enjoyed entering the gateway to their home by the power of Yahweh which made the walls of Jericho fall.
Now the nation of Judah, the remaining part of the nation of Israel, would be brought to an end exactly at where home began on the plains of Jericho.
The remaining king of Judah fell there.
The burning of the Temple was the proud declaration by the conquering Babylonians that they had overcome Yahweh. In the ancient world the condition of the House of the god would determine that god’s reputation.
The walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed so the poor, helpless, demoralized people of Judah would know that they had no defence and that Yahweh was no longer going to defend them.
So the people lamented. We read in Psalm 137 this great lament of the people:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion
We hanged our harps upon the willow in the midst thereof.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song:
And they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs if Zion.
How shall we sing the lord’s song in a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth:
if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy”.
Such are the fruits of disobedience. Let us not fool ourselves, or listen to those who do not know better, and who disobey the word of god.
Remember there is no hope for continued peace when one turns away from god.
Sin brings desolation. Breaking of the covenant brings desolation. Refusal to follow the commandments of God brings desolation.
The people of God had abused the land, and as a result the people could not help themselves. Now the land would have rest. The poor would have rest.
The situation was bleak. Jerusalem, the crown of the world, was lost and the Temple, the dwelling place of God was destroyed.
The people of the covenant were dispersed to Babylon, their nation destroyed.
Very few symbols of the covenant remained, and along with the last Davidic kind, these were all in Babylon.
But we know the Scriptures about the destruction of the nation ends on a positive note.
There would be a restoration. There is hope. The word of God guaranteed that.
Believers had better take notice.
The God of the covenant is a very demanding God.
It is perilous to disobey Him.
If we disobey Him and He chastises and disciplines us, we are commanded to carry on regardless and remain faithful to the same God, for even in the midst of catastrophe, God’s promises to be always with His people remain in force.
There will always be a remnant.
The word of the prophets and the Apostles keep reminding us to trust and obey Yahweh.
So listen to His warnings to avoid spiritual downfall and disaster.
We advise us all to cherish the presence of God. Make your relationship with Him your priority.
Even in judgment God offers us hope and He will help us by the Holy Spirit to remove the barriers that hinder our communion with Him.
History teaches us to think carefully about the consequences of disobedience. Do not therefore repeat the same mistakes over and over again in your life.
Listen and heed the words of the repentant Nebuchadnezzar recorded in Daniel 4:34-37 when he experienced the judgment of God and turned to Yahweh.