The kings of Israel and Judah

King Zedekiah

The kingdom of Judah (the south) · Reigned eleven years (2 Kings 24:18) · Also called Mattaniah · Evil before God · 2 Kings 24:17 to 25:21; 2 Chronicles 36:11 to 21; Jeremiah 52

Zedekiah, the uncle of Jehoiachin and the last king of Judah, was placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar and reigned eleven years. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, would not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah, and rebelled against Babylon. The result was catastrophe: Jerusalem was besieged, starved, and burned, the temple destroyed, and Zedekiah captured while fleeing. His sons were killed before his eyes, then his eyes were put out, and he was carried in chains to Babylon.

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.2 Chronicles 36:12 (KJV)

The last king of Judah

Nebuchadnezzar made Mattaniah, Josiah's son and Jehoiachin's uncle, king in Jehoiachin's place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. He was twenty-one when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years, 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.

Chronicles adds that he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning to the LORD, and that the priests and people transgressed greatly after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the house of the LORD. God sent messengers, rising up early, because he had compassion on his people, but they mocked the prophets, till the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.

Rebellion and the fall of Jerusalem

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon, to whom he had sworn an oath by God. Nebuchadnezzar came with all his army and besieged Jerusalem for about two years. The famine grew so severe that there was no bread for the people of the land. At last the city wall was broken through.

It was the end that the prophets had long foretold. The temple of the LORD, Solomon's glory, was burned; the palace and all the great houses were burned; the walls of Jerusalem were broken down; and the rest of the people were carried into exile in Babylon. The land kept her sabbaths, lying desolate, until seventy years were fulfilled, as God had spoken through Jeremiah.

A terrible personal end

When the city fell, Zedekiah fled by night, but the Babylonian army pursued and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. They brought him to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, and there judgment was pronounced. They slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon. The last thing he ever saw was the death of his sons.

So ended the kingdom of Judah and the line of reigning kings on the throne of David in Jerusalem, in blindness, chains, and exile, four centuries after David had captured the city.

The biblical verdict and where it points

Zedekiah is judged evil, a weak and stubborn king who would not listen to God's prophet and led his people to destruction. Under him the long-warned judgment fell in full: the city, the temple, and the throne were all lost. It is the lowest point of the Old Testament story, the ruin of everything the kings were meant to protect.

And yet the exile was not the end. The prophets who watched Jerusalem burn also spoke of a coming son of David, a righteous Branch, a King who would reign in wisdom and justice, whose name would be called The LORD Our Righteousness. When every earthly king had failed and the throne itself lay in ashes, the hope of God's people rested wholly on the King still to come. The whole tragic history of the kings ends with a longing that only Christ, the Son of David, would fulfil.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Jehoiachin · David · Hoshea · All the kings of Israel and Judah