When Josiah became king in 640, the international scene was about to change drastically. After the great Assyrian king Ashurbanipal died in 633 mediocre rulers followed him on the throne, and there was considerable unrest in the empire. Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, seized the kingship in Babylon and established the Neo-Babylonian Empire late in 626. Soon Babylonians and Medes combined forces to topple the Assyrian Empire, and in 612 completely destroyed the city of Nineveh. As Babylonian power rose in the east, Assyrian control over the province that had once been the kingdom of Israel relaxed and Assyrian pressure on Judah virtually ceased. After the fall of Nineveh the Assyrians established their capital at Haran. There they were defeated by Babylonians and Scythians in 610. At that point Pharaoh Neco II of Egypt decided to support Assyria. In the late spring of 609 he advanced through Judah, defeated and killed Josiah, and spent the summer campaigning in Syria.

Judah had capitulated to gross idolatry during the reign of Manasseh (696–642 BC). Baalism, Moloch worship, and other pagan religions had invaded the land, as had occultism and astrology. A false altar even stood in the temple in Jerusalem, and human sacrifice to pagan deities was practiced near Jerusalem. The land was thoroughly corrupted. Although some reform occurred in Manasseh’s latter days, conditions reverted to their former baseness during the reign of his son Amon (642–640 BC). In 640 officials of Amon’s household assassinated him, and the “people of the land” put Josiah on the throne (2 Kgs 21:26; 22:1; 2 Chr 34:1).

Josiah’s Reform Activities. Josiah was only 8 years old when he became king. Evidently he had spiritually motivated advisers or regents; by the time he was 16 he began of his own accord “to seek the God of David” (2 Chr 34:3). When he was 20, he became greatly exercised over the idolatry of the land and launched a major effort to eradicate the pagan high places, groves, and images from Judah and Jerusalem. So intense was Josiah’s hatred of idolatry that he even opened the tombs of pagan priests and burned their bones on pagan altars before these were destroyed.

Josiah carried his reform movement beyond the borders of Judah, venting his fury especially on the cult center at Bethel, where Jeroboam had set up his false worship. In fulfillment of prophecy (1 Kgs 13:1–3), he destroyed the altar and high place and burned the bones of officiating priests to desecrate the site (2 Kgs 23:15–18). What he did at Bethel, he did everywhere else in the kingdom of Samaria (2 Kgs 23:19, 20).

When Josiah was 26, he launched a project to cleanse and repair the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 22:3). Shaphan, the king’s administrative assistant, commissioned the work; Hilkiah the priest exercised direct supervision of renovation and construction. In the process of restoring the temple, Hilkiah found the book of the law, the nature and contents of which are otherwise unknown. Possibly in the dark days of Manasseh a deliberate attempt had been made to destroy the Word of God. At any rate, evidently there was little knowledge of Scripture in Judah.

When Shaphan read the book of the law to Josiah, the king was devastated by the pronouncements of judgment against apostasy contained in it; he sent a delegation to Huldah the prophetess to find out what judgments awaited the land. The prophetess replied that the condemnation of God would indeed fall on Judah for its sin, but sent word to Josiah that because his heart was right toward God, the punishment would not come during his lifetime.

The king called together a large representative group for a public reading of the law—evidently sections especially concerned with obligations to God. The king and the people covenanted before God to keep his commandments.

Faced with the importance of maintaining a pure monotheistic faith, the king was spurred on to even more rigorous efforts to cleanse the temple and Jerusalem. He destroyed the vessels used in Baal worship, the monument of horses and chariot of the sun given by the kings of Judah for sun worship, the homosexual community near the temple, and shrines built by Solomon and in use since his day. Moreover, he made stringent efforts to eliminate the pagan shrines and high places in all the towns of Judah (2 Kgs 23:4–14).

Death of Josiah. Precisely why Josiah opposed Pharaoh Neco’s advance through Judean territory is unknown. He may have wanted to prevent aid from reaching the hated Assyrians or to maintain his own independence. Josiah was mortally wounded in the conflict and was greatly lamented by Jeremiah and all the people (2 Chr 35:25). Well they might weep, for their godly king was gone, and within a few years the judgment withheld during his lifetime would descend on the nation.

Seventeenth king of Judah, ruling 3 months in 609 BC. He succeeded his father, Josiah, who was killed in the battle of Megiddo. His mother’s name was Hamutal. Jehoahaz was 23 years old at his coronation. He is also called Shallum (1 Chr 3:15; Jer 22:11, 12), and Jehoahaz may well be a throne name. He is characterized as an evil king before God. His rule ended when Pharoah Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in Hamath. Later he was taken to Egypt, where he died (2 Kgs 23:30–34). Jeremiah prophesied that Jehoahaz would never return to Israel but would die in the land of his captivity (Jer 22:11, 12).

First Chronicles states that Jehoahaz was the fourth son of Josiah. That the people chose him king rather than Josiah’s firstborn son may indicate an attempt to placate the Egyptians following Josiah’s unsuccessful battle against them, for it was customary for the firstborn son to succeed his father on the throne.

Second son of Josiah by Zebidah (2 Kgs 23:36; 1 Chr 3:15; 2 Chr 36:5) who became King of Judah in 609 BC. His given name, Eliakim, means “God will establish” (2 Kgs 23:34; 2 Chr 36:4). He replaced his older brother as king when Jehoahaz was deposed and exiled by Pharaoh Neco after a 3-month reign (2 Kgs 23:31–35). Eliakim was installed as king at age 25, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. Upon enthroning him, Neco changed his name to Jehoiakim (“Yahweh will establish,” 2 Kgs 23:34; cf. Jer 26:20–23).

Neco laid a heavy tribute on Judah, which Jehoiakim raised by levying a tax on the whole land (2 Kgs 23:35; cf. Jer 22:13–17, where the woe oracle against Jehoiakim implies he appropriated some of these funds for personal use). Jehoiakim remained subservient to the Egyptians until the battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar and the Neo-Babylonians routed Neco. Judah then became a vassal state of Babylon for three years (2 Kgs 24:1–7). After Nebuchadnezzar’s failure to completely subdue Neco in a second fierce battle in 601 BC, Jehoiakim seized the opportunity to throw off the Babylonian yoke when the Babylonian king returned home to reorganize his army. This ill-advised decision proved costly, as Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah in 598 to punish the rebellious vassal king (2 Kgs 24:8–17; cf. Jer 52:28). The Babylonians destroyed the important Judahite cities of Debir and Lachish, seized control of the Negeb, and deported several thousand of Judah’s ablest citizens. This no doubt crippled the economy and left Judah virtually leaderless. The expected help from Egypt never came, and Jehoiakim died during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem (probably late in 598). His son Jehoiachin was placed on the throne.

Although the details of Jehoiakim’s death are not reported, the biblical historian does pass judgment on his reign as one which perpetuated the evils of his fathers (2 Kgs 23:37; 2 Chr 36:5, 8; cf. Jer 22:18, 19 and 36:27–32, which predicted Jehoiakim’s dead body would be cast on the ground outside of Jerusalem without proper burial and he would have no descendants upon the throne). Presumably the reference here is to his predecessors Manasseh, Amon and Jehoahaz. Jeremiah specifies the evils that characterized Jehoiakim’s rule, including idolatry, social injustice, robbing the wage-earner, greed, murder, oppression, extortion, and forsaking the covenant of the Lord (22:1–17). Despite Jeremiah’s extensive activity during his reign (chs 25; 26; 36) Jehoiakim remained disobedient, unrepentant, smug, and self-sufficient in his ill-gotten prosperity (22:18–23).

King of Judah for a very brief time (598–597). He was the son of Jehoiakim and Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem (possibly the Elnathan mentioned by Jeremiah, cf. 26:22; 36:12, 25). The name Jehoiachin means “Yahweh will uphold,” and variations include Coniah (Jer 22:24, 28; 37:1), Jeconiah (1 Chr 3; 16; 17; Est 2:6; Jer 24:1; 27:20; 28:4; 29:2), and Jechoniah (Mt 1:11, 12, KJV Jechonias). Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he was installed as king upon his father’s death, and he ruled for only 3 months and 10 days in Jerusalem (2 Kgs 24:8; cf. 2 Chr 36:9, where his accession age of 8 must be a scribal error given the evidence of Babylonian documents and the mention of his wives in 2 Kgs 24:15). He inherited a vassal kingdom in revolt. Besieged by the armies of the Babylonian overlord Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiachin had little choice but to capitulate in the face of insurmountable odds. According to the Babylonian Chronicle, records based on the official annals of the Babylonian kings, Nebuchadnezzar entered Syro-Palestine in December of 598 BC. and captured Jerusalem on March 16, 597. The Babylonians plundered the palace and temple treasuries, and Jehoiachin, his family, and prominent military leaders, royal officials, and artisans were taken prisoner and led away into exile in Babylon (2 Kgs 24:12–16; 2 Chr 36:10). Before returning to Babylon the victorious king placed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Mattaniah, now named Zedekiah, on the throne in Jerusalem.

According to Jeremiah the trauma caused by the Babylonian invasion of Judah, and the consequent political upheaval prompted by a succession of three kings in four months, had little impact on the people spiritually (chs 37; 38). This same prophet of God forecast Jehoiachin’s exile and predicted he would have no descendants succeeding him on the throne (Jer 22:24–30). In contrast, the false prophet Hananiah prophesied Jehoiachin would be restored to the throne of Judah within two years (Jer 28:3, 4, 11; cf. vv 12–17).

Jehoiachin’s continuing royal status as the legitimate claimant to the Judahite kingship was reflected in the fact that Ezekiel’s oracles are dated to the year of Jehoiachin’s exile, not Zedekiah’s reign (Ez 1:2; 8:1; 20:1; etc.). Babylonian records confirm this recognition of Jehoiachin’s former position; he retained his title of king and received favorable treatment from the Babylonians. He is certainly the “Yaukin, king of the land of Yahuda” listed in one of the cuneiform tablets; this tablet contains inventories of rations of oil and barley for the king and his five sons and implies they were not imprisoned but living a fairly normal life in Babylonia. Later, during the reign of Evil-merodach, Jehoiachin was released from prison and granted dining privileges with the Babylonian king (c. 562 BC; cf. 2 Kgs 25:27–30; Jer 52:31–34). Whether he was imprisoned for attempting to escape or because of Judah’s rebellion against Babylon under Zedekiah is unclear.

Judah’s last king and a key political figure in the fateful final decade of the southern kingdom. His reign (597–586 BC) spanned Nebuchadnezzar’s two attacks on Jerusalem, in 597 and 586. The first attack was in reprisal for the rebellion of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim (609–598 BC) against Nebuchadnezzar; however, by the time his forces captured Jerusalem, Jehoiakim was dead and had been succeeded by his 18-year-old son Jehoiachin. Nebuchadnezzar deposed the young king and deported him to Babylon, along with the elite of the nation: government officials, army officers, and craftsmen. As Jehoiachin’s replacement Nebuchadnezzar appointed his uncle Mattaniah, a younger brother of Jehoiakim and of the earlier, short-lived King Jehoahaz (609 BC). Mattaniah was thus the third son of Josiah to occupy the throne of Judah. The Babylonian king named Mattaniah, Zedekiah, which means, “the Lord is my righteousness,” paralleling the way in which the Egyptian pharaoh nominated Eliakim (“God raises”) as king of Judah and changed his name to Jehoiakim (“The Lord raises”) 12 years earlier (2 Kgs 23:34). In each case a nationalistic-sounding name was bestowed upon the nominee by a foreign overlord. The magnificent trappings of kingship were thus granted, but in actuality the kings had little independent authority; their status was reduced to that of vassal king.

Zedekiah found himself in a difficult position as Judah’s king. Many evidently still regarded Jehoiachin as the real king (cf. Jer 28:1–4). Certainly the Judeans deported to Babylonia dated events by reference to Jehoiachin (2 Kgs 25:27; Ez 1:2). Though the Babylonians exacted from Zedekiah an oath of loyalty (2 Chr 36:13; Ez 17:13–18), evidence suggests that they too viewed Zedekiah’s predecessor as the legitimate king and Zedekiah as regent. They may have been holding him in reserve for possible restoration to power, should events require it.

Judah was filled with a false optimism which could hardly have helped the new king. It was confidently expected that the deportation of the leading citizens would be only temporary; prophets were guaranteeing that Babylon’s power would be broken within two years (Jer 28:2–4). They were opposed by a few prophets led by Jeremiah, whose message found little support.

Pressure both from within the nation and from without was put on Zedekiah to change his political allegiance. In the fourth year of his reign (593 BC), the neighboring states of Ammon, Moab, Tyre, and Sidon formed a coalition to counter Babylonian hegemony and fight for independence. Envoys were sent to Zedekiah (Jer 27:1–4). However, Jeremiah advised the king not to get involved. In the same year according to Jeremiah 51:59, Zedekiah visited Babylon. He may have been summoned to affirm his loyalty and to explain his role in the political situation. The planned rebellion did not in fact occur, perhaps because aid from Egypt failed to materialize while Neco—earlier defeated by Nebuchadnezzar—was alive. However, his successor, Psammetichus II (594–589 BC), was more ambitious and hoped to gain a footing in Palestine.

Within the Judean court a strong pro-Egyptian party existed. This party saw Egypt as an ally for breaking away from their eastern master, just like the advisers of King Hezekiah a century before (cf. Is 31:1–3; 36:6). Zedekiah, finding it difficult to resist this political pressure, eventually transferred his allegiance to Egypt.

Hophra (589–570 BC), Psammetichus’ heir to the Egyptian throne, organized a joint rebellion in the west against Babylon. According to Ezekiel 21:18–32 and 25:12–17, Judah and Ammon supported him, while Edom and Philistia shrewdly abstained. Zedekiah, prevailed upon to break with Babylon, was rebuked by the prophet Ezekiel (17:13–18) for breaking his oath to Nebuchadnezzar (cf. 2 Chr 36:13) and rebelling against him by sending envoys to Egypt to negotiate for military support.

In the face of this western uprising engineered by his Egyptian rival, Nebuchadnezzar was forced to march westward. Setting up headquarters at Riblah in northern Syria, he decided to make Jerusalem his prime target (Ez 21:18–23). The ensuing siege of Jerusalem was temporarily lifted due to an Egyptian attack, but afterward was resumed inexorably until the city fell. Zedekiah, fleeing eastward with his troops, was caught near Jericho and taken north to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. There he was put on trial for breaking his promises of vassalage. By way of punishment his sons were killed before his eyes. This tragic sight was the last he ever saw, since his eyes were then put out. He was taken in chains to Babylon, where he eventually died in prison (2 Kgs 25:5–7; Jer 39:7; 52:8–11; cf. Ez 12:13).

Zedekiah and Jeremiah were natural allies in their common political support of Babylon. However, with the Babylonians’ laying siege to Jerusalem, King Zedekiah sent a two-man delegation to the prophet, asking for a divine message and hoping that God would intervene in a decisive way, as he had done in the past with his people (Jer 21:1–7; cf. Is 36; 37). Unfortunately Jeremiah had to disappoint the king. In God’s name he proclaimed the coming total victory of Nebuchadnezzar as the manifestation of God’s wrath against his sinful people.

In Jeremiah 34:1–7, Jeremiah offers Zedekiah seemingly cold comfort: his life would be spared, and he would enjoy an eventual peaceful death and an honorable royal burial. Woven into this assurance was the warning that his deportation to Babylon was inevitable. Because of the mixed nature of the message and the more natural conclusion that the royal funeral would take place in Jerusalem rather than in Babylon, a number of scholars have formed different interpretations. They conclude that verses 4, 5 offer a happy alternative to the grim pronouncement of verses 2, 3, on the condition that Zedekiah is obedient to God’s word (see v 4), that is, by surrendering instead of continuing the struggle (cf. 38:17, 18).

Later, the king sent another delegation to the prophet, this time asking him to intercede with God on the nation’s behalf (Jer 37:3). At this time the military situation had improved temporarily as the Babylonian forces had withdrawn from the walls (v 5). The king’s request was an indirect way of securing a favorable outcome with God’s help, but unfortunately Jeremiah could lend no support to the optimism of the moment. He could only repeat the worst, that eventually the enemy would capture the city, after defeating the Egyptian expeditionary force.

Shortly afterward Jeremiah was arrested and beaten for supposedly deserting to the Babylonians. Zedekiah, sending for him in secret, again asked for a message from God (Jer 37:17). Jeremiah had to repeat his message of doom, but he took the opportunity to appeal his imprisonment to the king, requesting a transfer to royal custody to escape harsh and potentially fatal treatment at the hands of his political opponents. Zedekiah evidently felt himself powerless to order his release, but he did have him moved within royal jurisdiction. He also ensured for him a minimum daily bread allowance as long as the bread supply lasted in the beleaguered city (v 21).

Jeremiah 32:3–5 discloses that the underlying reason for Zedekiah’s imprisonment of Jeremiah was the prophet’s politically defeatist stand. The passage also summarizes the tenor of Jeremiah’s prophetic messages at this time, including the divine forecast that Zedekiah would fall into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands and be taken to Babylon “until I visit him, says the Lord” (v 5). The verse could be interpreted in a favorable sense in terms of God’s intervention on Zedekiah’s behalf (cf. the comments on 34:1–7 above). On the other hand it was likely intended to have an ominous ring—visiting him with the ultimate punishment, death (cf. Nm 16:29).

Further information is given in Jeremiah 38 about Jeremiah’s imprisonment and Zedekiah’s secret interviews with the prophet. Scholars are uncertain whether the chapter is intended to follow the previous one in time or whether it is meant to supplement the same events. Jeremiah 38:5, 24–26 reveals the king’s weakness and nervous timidity before the officers of his administration. At the same time it is evident that Zedekiah held Jeremiah in deep respect and perhaps would have adopted the course to which the prophet directed him in God’s name—had not political pressure barred the way. It was against his better judgment that the king regretfully refused to comply with Jeremiah’s advice. From within the confines of a weak, indecisive personality and overbearing circumstances Zedekiah at least did his best to save God’s servant from persecution and ill treatment. It is perhaps inevitable that posterity condemns him generally as a religious renegade and a coward. At least according to the standard of Matthew 25:35–40, he deserves a more sympathetic assessment.

Jeremiah 23:5, 6 (cf. 33:15, 16) contains a prophecy concerning the ideal king or Messiah of the Davidic line in whose reign all the old royal promises would come true. The kingly title “The Lord Our Righteousness” appears to be linked with the name “Zedekiah” (“The Lord is my righteousness/vindication”). Perhaps some invested Zedekiah with messianic expectations and the prophet was concerned to deny them. Certainly a contrast seems to be intended between Zedekiah’s disastrous reign and that of the promised king who would truly live up to Zedekiah’s own name.

The variety of literary types in Jeremiah. The book of Jeremiah contains various types of literature. It includes autobiography (1:4–19), long poetic discourses (2:1–6:30), reports of oral sermons (7:1–8:3; 26:1–9), reports of sermons delivered in written form (36:1–8), historical narratives (37:1–43:13), messages to individuals (45:1–5), and messages denouncing foreign nations (46:1–51:64). Since this diverse material is not presented in chronological order, the book requires readers to know the outline of Judah’s history and theology and to be able to move backward and forward in time. The book reports that Baruch wrote down some of Jeremiah’s messages (36:1–4, 32).