Zedekiah, the last king of Judah

Sight lost and not given back. Sight not restored. 2 Kings 25:1-7; Jeremiah 39:4-7; Jeremiah 52:8-11.

What led up to it

Zedekiah is the last king to reign in Jerusalem. He has rebelled against Babylon against the repeated warnings of the prophet Jeremiah. Nebuchadnezzar's army has besieged the city for well over a year, and the people are starving.

What happens

The wall is breached and the king flees by night. He is caught near Jericho, his army scatters, and he is taken before the king of Babylon. His sons are killed in front of him. Then his eyes are put out, and he is taken in chains to Babylon, where he remains until he dies.

In their shoes

The order of events is the cruelty. The last thing Zedekiah is allowed to see is the death of his sons, and then he is blinded so that it stays the last thing. Blinding here is a weapon, chosen by a conqueror to break a man and to shame a nation. The account is told three times in Scripture, in nearly the same words each time.

The place and the time

What the old books and the archaeologists can add. Each paragraph names its source.

Smith's traces the king's flight: when the wall was breached at midnight he left by the gate on the opposite side with his household and took the road toward the Jordan. At dawn the pursuers caught him near Jericho and carried him north to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, at the upper end of the valley of Lebanon. There his sons were killed before him and his eyes put out.

Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entry "Zedekiah."

Josephus points out that two prophecies met in this one act. Jeremiah had said Zedekiah would see the king of Babylon face to face and be taken there; Ezekiel had said he would not see Babylon. Both came true: he stood before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, and he arrived in Babylon blind.

Source: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation), Book X, chapter 8; compare Jeremiah 34:3 and Ezekiel 12:13.

Smith's notes that blinding on purpose, for political ends, is alluded to in Scripture, and gives two cases: Nahash's threat at Jabesh-gilead and Zedekiah here. It was a known instrument of conquerors.

Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entry "Blindness."

The passage

2 Kings 25:1-7

1 So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

2 And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

3 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.

4 Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,

5 but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him.

6 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment on him.

7 And they slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

Jeremiah 39:4-7

4 When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, and they went out along the route to the Arabah.

5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They seized him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him.

6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the nobles of Judah.

7 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze chains to take him to Babylon.

Jeremiah 52:8-11

8 but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his whole army deserted him.

9 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on Zedekiah.

10 There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah.

11 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.