2 Kings 24:18

A SUMMARY OF ZEDEKIAH'S EVIL REIGN

"And Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of Jehovah did it come to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence."

Jeconiah was the last king of Israel and was so recognized by the Jews, because Zedekiah was merely a faithless puppet of Nebuchadnezzar; and with his foolish rebellion, Jerusalem fell a third time.

"Until he had cast them out from his presence" (2 Kings 24:20). There is no tragedy in history quite as pathetic as that of the Jewish kingdom with its reprobate Davidic dynasty. Here again, as repeatedly in the sacred text, it is stated that God could no longer bear the sight of them and that he cast them out of his sight. Yet, racial Israel never desired anything either in heaven or upon earth quite as fervently and passionately as they desired the restoration of that godless "sinful kingdom." They even maneuvered the crucifixion of the Son of God himself when they discovered that Jesus Christ did not have the slightest intention of restoring any such kingdom!

Zedekiah violated his oath of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar, and when Nebuchadnezzar came up once more to destroy Jerusalem, Zedekiah asked Jeremiah to pray for the city, evidently expecting another such deliverance as that which had come in the days of Hezekiah, but God, on the other hand, declared that he would fight against Zedekiah and the city and destroy them. That tragedy, recorded in the next chapter, concludes the Book of 2Kings.