The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 424

CHAPTER XXIV. Kings throws e. veil over these transactions, closing his narrative with the customary Vers. 1-20.-REIGNS OF JEHOUXDII, JE- phrase-Jehoiakim "slept with his fe.thers" IlOIAClllN, .um ZEDEKIAH. (ver. 6). Ycrs. 1-7.-REST OF THE REIO:\' OF Jr:- BOI.AX.UI. Troubles now fell thick and fe.st Ver. 1.-In his days Nebuchadnezzar upon Judma.. Within three years of the lung of Babylon came up. The Hebrew invasion of the country by Pha.ranh-Nechoh, "11,N.l'J;;,_:i) (Nebuchadnezzar) or i:i;_N'j'J~:;i, nnoiher hostile army burst in from the (Nib~hadrezzar, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) repr;;:, sent~ the Eabylonie.n Nabu-lmdur-uzur north. In n.c. 605, the last year of Nabopo- (" N ebo is the protector of landmarks"), lnssar, he sent his eldest son, Nebuchad- o. name very common in the Babylonian n,zzar, into Syria, to assert the dominion and Assyrian inscriptions. It we.s borne of Babylon over the countries lying be- by three distinct kings of Babylon, the tween tl:e Euphrates and the frontier of most important of whom we.s Nebuchad- nezzar III., the son of Nabopolassar, tbe Egypl Nechoh sought to defend hie con- monarch of the present passage. According q uest.s, bnt we.s completely defeated e.t to Berosus, he was not e.t the time of this Carchemish in a great La.ttle (Jer. xlvi expedition the e.ctual sovereign of Baby- 2-12). Syrii1 e.nd Palestine then le.y open lonia, but only the crown prince, placed by the e.ctuo.l king, N abopolassar, e.t the to the new inmder, and, resistance being head of his e.rmy. It is possible that hia regarded as hopeless, Jehoiakim made hie father ma.y have associated him in the submiss,on to Nebuchadnezzar (ver. 1). kingdom, for association was not unknown But, three yea.re later (B.C. 602), sustained at Babylon; or the Jews me.y he.ve mis- by whe.t hope we know not, he ventured ts.ken his position; or the historio.u may on an act of rebellion, and declared himself ce.11 him king by prolepsis, as a modem might say, "The Emperor Napoleon in- indeFendent. Nebuchadnezzar did not o.t vaded Italy and defeated the Austrians at once me.rch against him, but ce.UBed him Marengo" (see Pusey's 'Daniel,' p. 400). to be e.tte.cked, as it would seem, by hie His father had grown too old and infirm to neigbl,ours (ver. 2). A war without im- conduct a military expedition, and conse- portant result continued for four years. quently sent his sou in his place, with the object of chastising N echoh, and recovering Then Nebuchadnezzar came up against him the territory whereof Nechoh ha,! made him- in person for a. eecoud tiLDe (2 Chron. xxxvi. self mo.ster three yea.rH b,•fore (sec eh. 6), took J eruse.lem, and made J ehoiakim xxiii. 29-33, and compare below, ver. 7). prisoner. lie designed at first to carry him And J'ehoiakim became his servant-i.e. io Babylon ; Lut seems to he.ve afterwards submitted to him, and became e. tributary king-three years (from B.o. 605 to no. G02): determined to he.ve him executed, and to then he turned and rebelled against him. h.svc treated his corpl!e with indignities How Jehoiakim came to venture on thi1 {Jer. uii. 31); xx.xvi. 30). The writer of step we are not told, and can only 0011- Clt. xnv. 1-20.] '!'till: Sl~COND BOOK OF 'I'llE KINGS. 475