{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/barnes/ch2036.htm","path":"bib/cmt/barnes/ch2036.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/barnes/ch2036.htm","text":"Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]\nThe narrative runs parallel with 2 Kings (marginal reference) as far as Ch2 36:13. The writer then emits the events following, and substitutes a sketch in which the moral and didactic element preponderates over the historical.\nIn his temple - Compare \"the house of his god\" Dan 1:2. Nebuchadnezzars inscriptions show him to have been the special votary of Merodach, the Babylonian Mars. His temple, which the Greeks called the temple of Behus, was one of the most magnificent buildings in Babylon. Its ruins still remain in the vast mound, called Babil, which is the loftiest and most imposing of the \"heaps\" that mark the site of the ancient city.\nHis abominations which he did - See Jer 7:9, Jer 7:30-31; Jer 19:3-13; Jer 25:1 etc.; Jehoiakim appears to have restored all the idolatries which Josiah his father had swept away.\nEight years old - Rather, eighteen (see the marginal reference). Jehoiachin had several wives and (apparently) at least one child Jer 22:28, when, three months later, he was carried captive to Babylon.\nWhen the year was expired - literally, as in the margin, i. e. at the return of the season for military expeditions. The expedition against Jehoiakim took place probably late in the autumn of one year, that against Jehoiachin early in the spring of the next.\nStrictly speaking, Zedekiah was uncle to Jehoiachin, being the youngest of the sons of Josiah (marginal note and reference). He was nearly of the same age with Jehoiachin, and is called here his \"brother\" (compare Gen 14:14).\nOn Zedekiah's character, see Kg2 24:19 note.\nThe oath of allegiance was taken when he was first installed in his kingdom. On Zedekiah's sin in breaking his oath, see Eze 17:18-20; Eze 21:25.\nPolluted the house of the Lord - Toward the close of Zedekiah's reign idolatrous rites of several different kinds were intruded into the sacred precincts of the temple (compare Eze 8:10-16).\nMisused his prophets - Rather, \"scoffed at his prophets.\" The allusion is to verbal mockery, not to persecution.\nThe fearful slaughter took place at the capture of the city, in the courts of the temple itself (Eze 9:6-7; compare Lam 2:7, Lam 2:20).\nServants - Or, \"slaves.\" They were probably employed by Nebuchadnezzar in the forced labor which his great works necessitated.\nHis sons - The word probably includes all Nebuchadnezzars successors in the independent sovereignty of Babylon.\nSee the marginal references. The 70 years of desolation prophesied by Jeremiah, commenced in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer 25:1, Jer 25:12; compare Dan 1:1), or 605 B.C.; and should therefore have terminated, if they were fully complete, in 536 B.C. As, however, the historical date of the taking of Babylon by Cyrus is 538 B.C., or two years earlier, it has been usual to suppose that the Jews reckoned \"the reign of the kingdom of Persia\" as commencing two years after the capture of Babylon, on the death or supersession of \"Darius the Mede.\" But the term \"seventy\" may be taken as a round number, and the prophecy as sufficiently fulfilled by a desolation which lasted 68 years.\nUntil the land had enjoyed her sabbaths - Between the time of Moses and the commencement of the captivity, there had been (about) 70 occasions on which the Law of the sabbatical year Lev 25:4-7 had been violated.\nThis and the next verse are repeated at the commencement of the book of Ezra Ezr 1:1-3, which was, it is probable, originally a continuation of Chronicles, Chronicles and Ezra together forming one work. See the introduction to Chronicles.","title":"Notes on the Bible by Albert Barnes: 2 Chronicles: 2 Chronicles Chapter 36","type":"page"}