20140903 Wednesday, September 3 2014
2 Chronicles 36: Why Did Judah Fall To Babylon?

by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan

"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"

The LORD (Who was and is Jesus Christ - see Genesis 1: In The Beginning Was The Word and The Kingdom Of The LORD God) divided the united Kingdom of Israel as a punishment for the idolatry of King Solomon (see What Caused Solomon's Idolatry?). The result was two independent kingdoms that were thereafter historically (see Israel In History and Prophecy: Israel and Judah) and prophetically (see When Will The United Kingdom Be Restored?) known as "Israel" and "Judah."

The Kingdom of Israel existed for about 212 years, from approximately 933 BC when the division occurred in the time of Solomon's son Rehoboam (see Rehoboam's Scorpions and Rehoboam's House of Judah and Benjamin). By 721 BC, the LORD had the ten tribes of Israel conquered and taken into exile by the Assyrian Empire because they had become grossly corrupt just as Solomon had done (see Israel In History and Prophecy: The Lost Ten Tribes).

The Kingdom of Judah existed for about 347 years, from 933 BC - a total which included about 135 years after the Kingdom of Israel had ceased to exist. The LORD also had them conquered and taken away into exile because they became just as unfaithful as Israel and the united kingdom before them. The difference between the fate of Israel and Judah is that by the time that Judah fell in 586 BC, the Assyrian Empire that had conquered Israel had itself fallen to the Babylonian Empire - so it was Babylon, not Assyria, that destroyed Judah. The other major difference is that, for the sake of the coming Messiah, Judah's exile lasted only 70 years - long enough to wipe out the corrupt generations that caused the destruction of Judah with their liberalism.

The Kingdom of Judah did know some righteous kings, such as Hezekiah (see Why The Other Sacrifices?, When The Church Will Become The Kingdom and The Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts Of The LORD) and Josiah (see What Did Jesus Christ Write In The Ark Of Moses? and Josiah's Great Passover Celebration), which is the reason that they lasted over a century longer than Israel. The overall "progressive" slide to national default continued however with the restorations done by righteous kings soon wasted by subsequent mis-leaders. The last kings of Judah were weak, immoral liberals who were little more than misfit figureheads of a once-great nation. Foreign nations even made them into political puppets - beginning with Egypt's installation of Jehoahaz, and then Eliakim who the Egyptians renamed as Jehoiakim.

"36:1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem.

36:2 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 36:3 And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 36:4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt." (2 Chronicles 36:1-4 KJV)

The Babylonians then began coming from the other direction. They took "Egypt's man" Jehoiakim away to Babylon in chains and appointed his son Jehoiachin as their stooge "king" of Judah.

"36:5 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. 36:6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. 36:7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.

36:8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead." (2 Chronicles 36:5-8 KJV)

Jehoiachin too was soon taken away to Babylon. The Babylonians then "made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem."

"36:9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. 36:10 And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem." (2 Chronicles 36:9-10 KJV)

Notice carefully that all of the kings of Judah "did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God." If they had repented, the LORD would have delivered them and Judah from their national destruction - which was happening because of their refusal to repent. The priesthood by then also became corrupt - thereby sealing the fate of the Temple when the final attack came because "all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem."

"36:11 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 36:12 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD. 36:13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel. 36:14 Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem." (2 Chronicles 36:11-14 KJV)

The LORD, through His prophets (see Israel In History and Prophecy: The Prophets and the Fact Finder question below), gave Judah every opportunity to be saved from their national tribulation. But they refused, so off to their destruction they went, until seventy years later, a Persian king (by then Babylon had fallen to Persia; see The Prophet Daniel: The Hand Writing On The Wall) had those people of Judah return home to a place that they had never been before.

"36:15 And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: 36:16 But 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. 36:17 Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. 36:18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. 36:19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.

36:20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 36:21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

36:22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,

36:23 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up." (2 Chronicles 36:15-23 KJV)

Fact Finder: What did the prophet Jeremiah do during the last days of the Kingdom of Judah? After Judah refused the LORD's warnings to repent, did Jeremiah know that their descendants would restore the Messianic kingdom 70 years later?
See Jeremiah: The Prophet's Conception, What Did Jeremiah's Letter To Babylon Say? and Lamentations: The Desolation Of The Rebel Kingdom