Zedekiah

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Zedekiah (Hebrew: צִדְקִיָּהוּ, Modern Tzidkiyahu Tiberian Şidhqiyyāhû ; "The LORD is my righteousness"; Greek: Ζεδεκίας, Zedekías) (born c. 618 BC, reigned 597 – 587 BC) was the last king of Judah before the destruction of the kingdom by Babylon. He was the third son of Josiah, and his mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, thus he was the brother of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31, 24:17-18, 23:31, 24:17-18).

William F. Albright dates the reign of Zedekiah to 597 – 587 BC, while E. R. Thiele to 597 – 586 BC.^[1]

[edit] Life and Reign

Nebuchadnezzar faces off against Zedekiah, who holds a plan of Jerusalem, in this Baroque-era depiction in Zwiefalten Abbey in Germany

His original name was Mattanyahu (Hebrew: מַתַּנְיָהוּ‎, Mattanyāhû, "Gift of God"; traditional English: Mattaniah), but when Nebuchadnezzar II placed him on the throne as the successor to Jehoiachin, he changed his name to Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:17). The prophet Jeremiah was his counselor, yet "he did evil in the sight of the Lord" (2 Kings 24:19-20; Jeremiah 52:2-3).

He ascended the throne at the age of twenty-one and became a strong leader. The kingdom was at that time tributary to Nebuchadnezzar II. Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah, Baruch ben Neriah and his other family and advisors, as well as the example of Jehoiachin, he revolted against Babylon, and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt. This brought up Nebuchadnezzar, "with all his host" (2 Kings 25:1), against Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Jerusalem in January of 589 BC. During this siege, which lasted about thirty months, "every worst woe befell the devoted city, which drank the cup of God's fury to the dregs" (2 Kings 25:3; Lamentations 4:4, 5, 9).

In the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, Nebuchadnezzar succeeded in conquering Jerusalem. The city was plundered and reduced to ruins. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape, making their way out of the city, but were captured on the plains of Jericho, and were taken to Riblah.

There, after seeing his sons put to death, his own eyes were put out, and, being loaded with chains, he was carried captive (587 BC Albright; 586 BC Thiele) to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1-7; 2 Chronicles 36:12; Jeremiah 32:4,5; 34:2, 3; 39:1-7; 52:4-11; Ezekiel 12:12), where he remained a prisoner, how long is unknown, to the day of his death.

After the fall of Jerusalem, Nebuzaradan was sent to carry out its complete destruction. The city was razed to the ground. Only a small number of vinedressers and husbandmen were permitted to remain in the land (Jer. 52:16). Gedaliah, with a Chaldean guard stationed at Mizpah, was left to rule over Judah (2 Kings 25:22, 24; Jer. 40:1, 2, 5, 6).

[edit] Chronological notes

The Babylonian Chronicles give 2 Adar (16 March), 597 BC, as the date that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, thus putting an end to the reign of Jehoaichin.^[2] Zedekiah's installation as king by Nebuchadnezzar can therefore be firmly dated to the early spring of 597 BC. Historically there has been considerable controversy over the date when Jerusalem was captured the second time and Zedekiah's reign came to an end. There is no dispute about the month: it was the summer month of Tammuz (Jeremiah 52:6). The problem has been to determine the year. It was noted above that Albright preferred 587 BC and Thiele advocated 586 BC, and this division among scholars has persisted until the present time. If Zedekiah's years are by accession counting, whereby the year he came to the throne was considered his "zero" year and his first full year in office, 597/596, was counted as year one, Zedekiah's eleventh year, the year the city fell, would be 587/586. Since Judean regnal years were measured from Tishri in the fall, this would place the end of his reign and the capture of the city in the summer of 586 BC. Accession counting was the rule for most, but not all, of the kings of Judah, whereas "non-accession" counting was the rule for most, but not all, of the kings of Israel.^[3][4]

The publication of the Babylonian Chronicles in 1956, however, gave evidence that the years of Zedekiah were measured in a non-accession sense. This reckoning makes year 598/597, the year Zedekiah was installed by Nebuchadnezzar according to Judah's Tishri-based calendar, to be year "one," so that the fall of Jerusalem in his eleventh year would have been in year 588/587, i.e. in the summer of 587 BC. The Bablyonian Chronicles allow the fairly precise dating of the capture of Jehoiachin and the start of Zedekiah's reign, and they also give the accession year of Nebuchadnezzar's successor Amel-Marduk (Evil Merodach) as 562/561 BC, which was the 37th year of Jehoiachin's captivity according to 2 Kings 25:27. These Babylonian records related to Jehoiachin's reign are consistent with the fall of the city in 587 but not in 586, as explained in the Jehoiachin/Jeconiah article, thus vindicating Albright's date. Nevertheless, scholars who assume that Zedekiah's reign should be calculated by accession reckoning will continue to adhere to the 586 date, and so the infobox below contains this as an alternative.

[edit] Zedekiah in the Book of Mormon

According to the Book of Mormon, Zedekiah's son Mulek escaped death and travelled across one of the oceans (Atlantic or Pacific) to the Americas, where he founded a nation that later merged with the Nephites.^[5][6]

[edit] See also

• Jeconiah/Jehoiachin for more complete discussion of 587 vs. 586
• List of minor Biblical figures: Zidkijah

[edit] References