2 Kings 24:18

Zedekiah’s Reign over Judah

24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Hamutal, ³  the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

2 Kings 24:2

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. ⁴ 

2 Kings 1:11

1:11 The king ⁵  sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him, ⁶  “Prophet, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’” ⁷ 

¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

² tn Heb “the name of his mother.”

³ tc Some textual witnesses support the consonantal text (Kethib) in reading “Hamital.”

⁴ tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”

⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tc The MT reads, “he answered and said to him.” The verb “he answered” (וַיַּעַן, vayya’an) is probably a corruption of “he went up” (וַיַּעַל, vayya’al). See v. 9.

⁷ sn In this second panel of the three-paneled narrative, the king and his captain are more arrogant than before. The captain uses a more official sounding introduction (“this is what the king says”) and the king adds “at once” to the command.