2 Kings 25:7 - Exposition

And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes (comp. Herod; 2 Kings 3:14 , and 2 Macc. 7; for similar aggravations of condemned persons' sufferings). As Zedekiah was no more than thirty-two years of age ( 2 Kings 24:18 ), his sons must have been minors, who could not justly be held responsible for their father's doings. It was usual, however, in the East, and even among the Jews, to punish children for the sins of their fathers (see Joshua 7:24 , Joshua 7:25 ; 2 Kings 9:26 ; 2 Kings 14:6 ; Daniel 6:24 ). And put out the eyes of Zedekiah. This, too, was a common Oriental practice. The Philistines blinded Samson ( 16:21 ). Sargon, in one of his sculptures, seems to be blinding a prisoner with a spear (Botta, 'Monumens de Ninive,' pl. 18). The ancient Persians often blinded criminals. In modern Persia, it was, until very lately, usual for a king, on his accession, to blind all his brothers, in order that they might be disqualified from reigning. The operation was commonly performed in Persia by means of a red-hot iron rod (see Herod; 7.18). Zedekiah's loss of eyesight reconciled the two apparently conflicting prophecies—that he would be carried captive to Babylon ( Jeremiah 22:5 , etc.), and that he would never see it ( Ezekiel 12:13 )—in a remarkable manner. And bound him with fetters of brass ; literally, with a pair of brazen fetters . Assyrian fetters consisted of two thick rings of iron, joined together by a single long link (Botta, l.s.c. ); Babylonian were probably similar. Captives of importance are usually represented as fettered in the sculptures. And carried him to Babylon. Jeremiah adds ( Jeremiah 52:11 ) that Nebuchadnezzar "put him in prison till the day of his death:" and so Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 10.8. § 7). The latter writer further tells us that, at his death, the Babylonian monarch gave him a royal funeral (comp. Jeremiah, Jeremiah 34:5 ).