Bible Reading April 13 
2 Kings 23:1--25:30
Context23:1 The king summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. 1 23:2 The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, all the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the prophets. All the people were there, from the youngest to the oldest. He read aloud 2 all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple. 23:3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed 3 the covenant before the Lord, agreeing to follow 4 the Lord and to obey his commandments, laws, and rules with all his heart and being, 5 by carrying out the terms 6 of this covenant recorded on this scroll. All the people agreed to keep the covenant. 7
23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the high-ranking priests, 8 and the guards 9 to bring out of the Lord’s temple all the items that were used in the worship of 10 Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. 11 The king 12 burned them outside of Jerusalem in the terraces 13 of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 14 23:5 He eliminated 15 the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices 16 on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices 17 to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.) 23:6 He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. 18 He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. 19 23:7 He tore down the quarters 20 of the male cultic prostitutes in the Lord’s temple, where women were weaving shrines 21 for Asherah.
23:8 He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and ruined 22 the high places where the priests had offered sacrifices, from Geba to Beer Sheba. 23 He tore down the high place of the goat idols 24 situated at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city official, on the left side of the city gate. 23:9 (Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.) 25 23:10 The king 26 ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech. 27 23:11 He removed from the entrance to the Lord’s temple the statues of horses 28 that the kings of Judah had placed there in honor of the sun god. (They were kept near the room of Nathan Melech the eunuch, which was situated among the courtyards.) 29 He burned up the chariots devoted to the sun god. 30 23:12 The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them up 31 and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley. 23:13 The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, 32 that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom. 23:14 He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah pole, and filled those shrines 33 with human bones.
23:15 He also tore down the altar in Bethel 34 at the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who encouraged Israel to sin. 35 He burned all the combustible items at that high place and crushed them to dust; including the Asherah pole. 36 23:16 When Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the hill. So he ordered the bones from the tombs to be brought; 37 he burned them on the altar and defiled it. This fulfilled the Lord’s announcement made by the prophet while Jeroboam stood by the altar during a festival. King Josiah 38 turned and saw the grave of the prophet who had foretold this. 39 23:17 He asked, “What is this grave marker I see?” The men from the city replied, “It’s the grave of the prophet 40 who came from Judah and foretold these very things you have done to the altar of Bethel.” 23:18 The king 41 said, “Leave it alone! No one must touch his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, as well as the bones of the Israelite prophet buried beside him. 42
23:19 Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made them and angered the Lord. 43 He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel. 44 23:20 He sacrificed all the priests of the high places on the altars located there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
23:21 The king ordered all the people, “Observe the Passover of the Lord your God, as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.” 23:22 He issued this edict because 45 a Passover like this had not been observed since the days of the judges; it was neglected for the entire period of the kings of Israel and Judah. 46 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the Lord was observed in Jerusalem.
23:24 Josiah also got rid of 47 the ritual pits used to conjure up spirits, 48 the magicians, personal idols, disgusting images, 49 and all the detestable idols that had appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way he carried out the terms of the law 50 recorded on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s temple. 23:25 No king before or after repented before the Lord as he did, with his whole heart, soul, and being in accordance with the whole law of Moses. 51
23:26 Yet the Lord’s great anger against Judah did not subside; he was still infuriated by all the things Manasseh had done. 52 23:27 The Lord announced, “I will also spurn Judah, 53 just as I spurned Israel. I will reject this city that I chose – both Jerusalem and the temple, about which I said, “I will live there.” 54
23:28 The rest of the events of Josiah’s reign and all his accomplishments are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 55 23:29 During Josiah’s reign Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt marched toward 56 the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to fight him, but Necho 57 killed him at Megiddo 58 when he saw him. 23:30 His servants transported his dead body 59 from Megiddo in a chariot and brought it to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, poured olive oil on his head, 60 and made him king in his father’s place.
23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 61 His mother 62 was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 23:32 He did evil in the sight of 63 the Lord as his ancestors had done. 64 23:33 Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. 65 He imposed on the land a special tax 66 of one hundred talents 67 of silver and a talent of gold. 23:34 Pharaoh Necho made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in Josiah’s place, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died. 68 23:35 Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh the required amount of silver and gold, but to meet Pharaoh’s demands Jehoiakim had to tax the land. He collected an assessed amount from each man among the people of the land in order to pay Pharaoh Necho. 69
23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. 70 His mother was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah. 23:37 He did evil in the sight of 71 the Lord as his ancestors had done.
24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, 72 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. 73 Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. 74 24:2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. 75 24:3 Just as the Lord had announced, he rejected Judah because of all the sins which Manasseh had committed. 76 24:4 Because he killed innocent people and stained Jerusalem with their blood, the Lord was unwilling to forgive them. 77
24:5 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 78 24:6 He passed away 79 and his son Jehoiachin replaced him as king. 24:7 The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.
24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 80 His mother 81 was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem. 24:9 He did evil in the sight of 82 the Lord as his ancestors had done.
24:10 At that time the generals 83 of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched to Jerusalem and besieged the city. 84 24:11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his generals were besieging it. 24:12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered 85 to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, 86 took Jehoiachin 87 prisoner. 24:13 Nebuchadnezzar 88 took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned. 24:14 He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land. 24:15 He deported Jehoiachin from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the king’s mother and wives, his eunuchs, and the high-ranking officials of the land. 89 24:16 The king of Babylon deported to Babylon all the soldiers (there were 7,000), as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers. This included all the best warriors. 90 24:17 The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s 91 uncle, king in Jehoiachin’s place. He renamed him Zedekiah.
24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. 92 His mother 93 was Hamutal, 94 the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 24:19 He did evil in the sight of 95 the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done. 96
24:20 What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger; he finally threw them out of his presence. 97 Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 25:1 So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside 98 it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. 99 25:2 The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year. 25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month 100 the famine in the city was so severe the residents 101 had no food. 25:4 The enemy broke through the city walls, 102 and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. 103 They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. 104 (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. 105 25:5 But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, 106 and his entire army deserted him. 25:6 They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, 107 where he 108 passed sentence on him. 25:7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. 109 The king of Babylon 110 then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.
25:8 On the seventh 111 day of the fifth month, 112 in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard 113 who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem. 114 25:9 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house. 115 25:10 The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem. 25:11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, deported the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 116 25:12 But he 117 left behind some of the poor of the land and gave them fields and vineyards.
25:13 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the Lord’s temple, as well as the movable stands and the big bronze basin called the “The Sea.” 118 They took the bronze to Babylon. 25:14 They also took the pots, shovels, 119 trimming shears, 120 pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests. 121 25:15 The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers 122 and basins. 25:16 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” 123 and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed. 25:17 Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet 124 high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet 125 high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.
25:18 The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah, the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25:19 From the city he took a eunuch who was in charge of the soldiers, five 126 of the king’s advisers 127 who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens 128 for military service, and sixty citizens from the people of the land who were discovered in the city. 25:20 Nebuzaradan, captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 25:21 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed 129 at Riblah in the territory 130 of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.
25:22 Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, as governor over the people whom he allowed to remain in the land of Judah. 131 25:23 All of the officers of the Judahite army 132 and their troops heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to govern. So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite. 25:24 Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. 133 He said, “You don’t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.” 25:25 But in the seventh month 134 Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, 135 came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah, 136 as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. 25:26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for 137 Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.
25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh 138 day of the twelfth month, 139 King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned 140 King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him 141 from prison. 25:28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than 142 the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 25:29 Jehoiachin 143 took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. 25:30 He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died. 144
[23:1] 1 tn Heb “and the king sent and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him.”
[23:2] 2 tn Heb “read in their ears.”
[23:3] 3 tn Heb “cut,” that is, “made, agreed to.”
[23:3] 7 tn Heb “stood in the covenant.”
[23:4] 8 tn Heb “the priests of the second [rank],” that is, those ranked just beneath Hilkiah.
[23:4] 11 tn Heb “all the host of heaven” (also in v. 5).
[23:4] 12 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:4] 13 tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.
[23:4] 14 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[23:5] 15 tn Perhaps, “destroyed.”
[23:5] 16 tn Or “burn incense.”
[23:5] 17 tn Or “burned incense.”
[23:6] 18 tn Heb “and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.”
[23:6] 19 tc Heb “on the grave of the sons of the people.” Some Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses read the plural “graves.”
[23:7] 20 tn Or “cubicles.” Heb “houses.”
[23:7] 21 tn Heb “houses.” Perhaps tent-shrines made from cloth are in view (see BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת). M. Cogan and H. Tadmor (II Kings [AB], 286) understand this as referring to clothes made for images of the goddess.
[23:8] 22 tn Heb “defiled; desecrated,” that is, “made ritually unclean and unusable.”
[23:8] 23 sn These towns marked Judah’s northern and southern borders, respectively, at the time of Josiah.
[23:8] 24 tc The Hebrew text reads “the high places of the gates,” which is problematic in that the rest of the verse speaks of a specific gate. The translation assumes an emendation to בָּמוֹת הַשְּׁעָרִים (bamot hashÿ’arim), “the high place of the goats” (that is, goat idols). Worship of such images is referred to in Lev 17:7 and 2 Chr 11:15. For a discussion of the textual issue, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 286-87.
[23:9] 25 tn Heb “their brothers.”
[23:10] 26 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:10] 27 sn Attempts to identify this deity with a god known from the ancient Near East have not yet yielded a consensus. For brief discussions see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor II Kings (AB), 288 and HALOT 592 s.v. מֹלֶךְ. For more extensive studies see George C. Heider, The Cult of Molek, and John Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament.
[23:11] 28 tn The MT simply reads “the horses.” The words “statues of” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[23:11] 29 tn Heb “who/which was in the […?].” The meaning of the Hebrew term פַּרְוָרִים (parvarim), translated here “courtyards,” is uncertain. The relative clause may indicate where the room was located or explain who Nathan Melech was, “the eunuch who was in the courtyards.” See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 288-89, who translate “the officer of the precincts.”
[23:11] 30 tn Heb “and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.”
[23:12] 31 tc The MT reads, “he ran from there,” which makes little if any sense in this context. Some prefer to emend the verbal form (Qal of רוּץ [ruts], “run”) to a Hiphil of רוּץ with third plural suffix and translate, “he quickly removed them” (see BDB 930 s.v. רוּץ, and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings [AB], 289). The suffix could have been lost in MT by haplography (note the mem [מ] that immediately follows the verb on the form מִשֳׁם, misham, “from there”). Another option, the one reflected in the translation, is to emend the verb to a Piel of רָצַץ (ratsats), “crush,” with third plural suffix.
[23:13] 32 sn This is a derogatory name for the Mount of Olives, involving a wordplay between מָשְׁחָה (mashÿkhah), “anointing,” and מַשְׁחִית (mashÿkhit), “destruction.” See HALOT 644 s.v. מַשְׁחִית and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.
[23:14] 33 tn Heb “their places.”
[23:15] 34 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[23:15] 35 tn Heb “And also the altar that is in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin, also that altar and the high place he tore down.” The more repetitive Hebrew text is emphatic.
[23:15] 36 tn Heb “he burned the high place, crushing to dust, and he burned the Asherah pole.” High places per se are never referred to as being burned elsewhere. בָּמָה (bamah) here stands by metonymy for the combustible items located on the high place. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 289.
[23:16] 37 tn Heb “and he sent and took the bones from the tombs.”
[23:16] 38 tn Heb “the king”; this has been specified as “King Josiah” in the translation for clarity (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).
[23:16] 39 tc The MT is much shorter than this. It reads, “according to the word of the
[23:17] 40 tn Heb “man of God.”
[23:18] 41 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:18] 42 tn Heb “and they left undisturbed his bones, the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.” If the phrase “the bones of the prophet” were appositional to “his bones,” one would expect the sentence to end “from Judah” (see v. 17). Apparently the “prophet” referred to in the second half of the verse is the old prophet from Bethel who buried the man of God from Judah in his own tomb and instructed his sons to bury his bones there as well (1 Kgs 13:30-31). One expects the text to read “from Bethel,” but “Samaria” (which was not even built at the time of the incident recorded in 1 Kgs 13) is probably an anachronistic reference to the northern kingdom in general. See the note at 1 Kgs 13:32 and the discussion in M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 290.
[23:19] 43 tc Heb “which the kings of Israel had made, angering.” The object has been accidentally omitted in the MT. It appears in the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate versions.
[23:19] 44 tn Heb “and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel.”
[23:22] 45 tn The Hebrew text has simply “because.” The translation attempts to reflect more clearly the logical connection between the king’s order and the narrator’s observation. Another option is to interpret כִּי (ki) as asseverative and translate, “indeed.”
[23:22] 46 tn Heb “because there had not been observed [one] like this Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel and all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.”
[23:24] 47 tn Here בִּעֵר (bi’er) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. בער.
[23:24] 48 sn See the note at 2 Kgs 21:6.
[23:24] 49 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.
[23:24] 50 tn Heb “carrying out the words of the law.”
[23:25] 51 tn Heb “and like him there was not a king before him who returned to the
[23:26] 52 tn Heb “Yet the
[23:27] 53 tn Heb “Also Judah I will turn away from my face.”
[23:27] 54 tn Heb “My name will be there.”
[23:28] 55 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Josiah, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[23:29] 56 tn Heb “went up to.” The idiom עַל…עָלָה (’alah …’al) can sometimes mean “go up against,” but here it refers to Necho’s attempt to aid the Assyrians in their struggle with the Babylonians.
[23:29] 57 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Necho) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:29] 58 map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.
[23:30] 59 tn Heb “him, dead.”
[23:30] 60 tn Or “anointed him.”
[23:31] 61 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[23:31] 62 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[23:32] 63 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[23:32] 64 tn Heb “according to all which his fathers had done.”
[23:33] 65 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “when [he was] ruling in Jerusalem,” but the marginal reading (Qere), which has support from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses, has “[preventing him] from ruling in Jerusalem.”
[23:33] 67 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold.”
[23:34] 68 tn Heb “and he took Jehoahaz, and he came to Egypt and he died there.”
[23:35] 69 tn Heb “And the silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the silver at the command of Pharaoh, [from] each according to his tax he collected the silver and the gold, from the people of the land, to give to Pharaoh Necho.”
[23:36] 70 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[23:37] 71 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[24:1] 72 tn Heb “In his days.”
[24:1] 73 tn Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 306.
[24:1] 74 tn The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”
[24:2] 75 tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the
[24:3] 76 tn Heb “Certainly according to the word of the
[24:4] 77 tn Heb “and also the blood of the innocent which he shed, and he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the
[24:5] 78 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoiakim, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[24:6] 79 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[24:8] 80 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[24:8] 81 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[24:9] 82 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[24:10] 84 tn Heb “went up [to] Jerusalem and the city entered into siege.”
[24:12] 86 sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597
[24:12] 87 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[24:13] 88 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[24:15] 89 tn Heb “and he deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king and the wives of the king and his eunuchs and the mighty of the land he led into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”
[24:16] 90 tn Heb “the entire [group], mighty men, doers of war.”
[24:18] 92 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[24:18] 93 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[24:18] 94 tc Some textual witnesses support the consonantal text (Kethib) in reading “Hamital.”
[24:19] 95 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[24:19] 96 tn Heb “according to all which Jehoiakim had done.”
[24:20] 97 tn Heb “Surely [or, ‘for’] because of the anger of the
[25:1] 99 sn This would have been Jan 15, 588
[25:3] 100 tn The MT has simply “of the month,” but the parallel passage in Jer 52:6 has “fourth month,” and this is followed by almost all English translations. The word “fourth,” however, is not actually present in the MT of 2 Kgs 25:3.
[25:3] 101 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
[25:4] 102 tn Heb “the city was breached.”
[25:4] 103 tn The Hebrew text is abrupt here: “And all the men of war by the night.” The translation attempts to capture the sense.
[25:4] 104 sn The king’s garden is mentioned again in Neh 3:15 in conjunction with the pool of Siloam and the stairs that go down from the city of David. This would have been in the southern part of the city near the Tyropean Valley which agrees with the reference to the “two walls” which were probably the walls on the eastern and western hills.
[25:4] 105 sn Heb “toward the Arabah.” The Arabah was the rift valley north and south of the Dead Sea. Here the intention was undoubtedly to escape across the Jordan to Moab or Ammon. It appears from Jer 40:14; 41:15 that the Ammonites were known to harbor fugitives from the Babylonians.
[25:5] 106 map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
[25:6] 107 sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.
[25:6] 108 tn The Hebrew text has the plural form of the verb, but the parallel passage in Jer 52:9 has the singular.
[25:7] 109 tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”
[25:7] 110 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:8] 111 tn The parallel account in Jer 52:12 has “tenth.”
[25:8] 112 sn The seventh day of the month would have been August 14, 586
[25:8] 113 tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2, and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.
[25:8] 114 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[25:9] 115 tn Heb “and every large house he burned down with fire.”
[25:11] 116 tc The MT has “the multitude.” But הֶהָמוֹן (hehamon) should probably be emended to הֶאָמוֹן (he’amon).
[25:12] 117 tn Heb “the captain of the royal guard.” However, the subject is clear from the preceding and contemporary English style would normally avoid repeating the proper name and title.
[25:13] 118 sn See the note at 1 Kgs 7:23.
[25:14] 119 sn These shovels were used to clean the altar.
[25:14] 120 sn These were used to trim the wicks.
[25:14] 121 tn Heb “with which they served [or, ‘fulfilled their duty’].”
[25:15] 122 sn These held the embers used for the incense offerings.
[25:16] 123 tc The MT lacks “the twelve bronze bulls under ‘the Sea,’” but these words have probably been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton. The scribe’s eye may have jumped from the וְהָ (vÿha-) on וְהַבָּקָר (vÿhabbaqar), “and the bulls,” to the וְהָ on וְהַמְּכֹנוֹת (vÿhammÿkhonot), “and the movable stands,” causing him to leave out the intervening words. See the parallel passage in Jer 52:20.
[25:17] 124 tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) long.
[25:17] 125 tn Heb “three cubits.” The parallel passage in Jer 52:22 has “five.”
[25:19] 126 tn The parallel passage in Jer 52:25 has “seven.”
[25:19] 127 tn Heb “five seers of the king’s face.”
[25:19] 128 tn Heb “the people of the land.”
[25:21] 129 tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”
[25:22] 131 tn Heb “And the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon left, he appointed over them Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan.”
[25:23] 132 tn Heb “of the army.” The word “Judahite” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[25:24] 133 tn The words “so as to give them…some assurance of safety” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[25:25] 134 sn It is not altogether clear whether this is in the same year that Jerusalem fell or not. The wall was breached in the fourth month (= early July; Jer 39:2) and Nebuzaradan came and burned the palace, the temple, and many of the houses and tore down the wall in the fifth month (= early August; Jer 52:12). That would have left time between the fifth month and the seventh month (October) to gather in the harvest of grapes, dates and figs, and olives (Jer 40:12). However, many commentators feel that too much activity takes place in too short a time for this to have been in the same year and posit that it happened the following year or even five years later when a further deportation took place, possibly in retaliation for the murder of Gedaliah and the Babylonian garrison at Mizpah (Jer 52:30). The assassination of Gedaliah had momentous consequences and was commemorated in one of the post exilic fast days lamenting the fall of Jerusalem (Zech 8:19).
[25:25] 135 tn Heb “[was] from the seed of the kingdom.”
[25:25] 136 tn Heb “and they struck down Gedaliah and he died.”
[25:26] 137 tn Heb “arose and went to.”
[25:27] 138 sn The parallel account in Jer 52:31 has “twenty-fifth.”
[25:27] 139 sn The twenty-seventh day would be March 22, 561
[25:27] 140 tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”
[25:27] 141 tn The words “released him” are supplied in the translation on the basis of Jer 52:31.
[25:28] 142 tn Heb “made his throne above the throne of.”
[25:29] 143 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:30] 144 tc The words “until the day he died” do not appear in the MT, but they are included in the parallel passage in Jer 52:34. Probably they have been accidentally omitted by homoioteleuton. A scribe’s eye jumped from the final vav (ו) on בְּיוֹמוֹ (bÿyomo), “in his day,” to the final vav (ו) on מוֹתוֹ (moto), “his death,” leaving out the intervening words.
