2 Chronicles 36

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Aleppo Codex (10th century), and Codex Leningradensis (1008).[5]

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century), and Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century).[6][lower-alpha 1]

• 2 Chronicles 36:1–4: 2 Kings 23:31–35[10]
• 2 Chronicles 36:5–8: 2 Kings 23:36–37[10]
• 2 Chronicles 36:9–10: 2 Kings 24:6–9[10]
• 2 Chronicles 36:11–14: 2 Kings 24:18–20; Jeremiah 52:1–3[10]
• 2 Chronicles 36:15–21: 2 Kings 25:1–7[10]
• 2 Chronicles 36:22–23: Ezra 1:1–4; Isaiah 45:1–25[10]

Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem.[12]

• "Jehoahaz": written as "Joahaz" in Masoretic Texts.[13] It could be a throne name since Jeremiah 22:11 and 1 Chronicles 3:15 wrote his name as "Shallum".[14]

Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.[15]

• Cross reference: 2 Kings 23:31
• "Twenty and three years old when he began to reign": Both William F. Albright and E. R. Thiele dated his reign to 609 BCE,[16] making his birth in 633/632 BCE. The Babylonian Chronicles dates the battle in Harran with Assyrians and Egypt under Pharaoh Necho from Tammuz (July–August) to Elul (August–September) of 609 BCE, which would place the death of Josiah and the start of Jehoahaz reign in month of Tammuz 609 BCE or the month prior, when Egyptian army was still on the way to Harran.[17]

And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.[18]

• "A hundred talents": about 3¾ tons, or 3.4 metric tons.[19]
• "A talent": about 75 pounds, or 34 kilograms.[20]

And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.[21]

• Cross reference: 2 Kings 23:34
• "Turned his name": Probably Pharaoh Neco (also spelled "Necho" or "Nechoh" in different Bible versions) made the new king swear fealty "by Jehovah", then changed his name to be "Jehoiakim", to remind the people of the oath.[22] Apparently the Pharaoh left the choice of the name to the person, so the change could be as small as possible, in this case, to substitute the initial element "El" (God) in "El-iakim" with "Jeho" (Hebrew: "Yahu" for YHWH) in "Jeho-iakim".[23]
• "Jehoahaz": spelled as "Joahaz" in Masoretic Text.[24]

Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God.[25]

• "Jehoiakim": the throne name of Eliakim, the son of Josiah and the older brother of Jehoahaz.[26]

Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.[28]

• Cross reference: 2 Kings 24:8
• "Jehoiachin" the son of Jehoiakim. His existence was attested by tablets found near the Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon (now in Iraq), such as the Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets, dated to c. 592 BCE, mentioning his name in cuneiform (Akkadian: 𒅀𒀪𒌑𒆠𒉡, "Ia-'-ú-kinu") and his five sons as recipients of food rations in Babylon.[29] "Jehoiachin" is the throne name of Jeconiah as written in Jeremiah 24:1; 28:4; 29:2, which has the abbreviated form "Coniah" in Jeremiah 22:24, 28; 37:1.[30]

based on Septuagint and Syriac manuscripts (compare to 2 Kings 24:8), but most Hebrew manuscripts have "eight".[31]

• "Three months and ten days": according Thiele's chronology,[32] Jehoiachin became "co-regent" with his father, Jehoiakim, in September 608 BCE when he was 8 years old, then became the sole ruler at the age of 18 from 21 Marcheshvan to 10 Nisan (9 December 598 BCE to 22 April 597 BCE).[33] The precise date of Jehoiachin's reign can be reconstructed from extra-biblical documents such as Babylonian Chronicles that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took Jerusalem on 15/16 March 597 BCE.[34] Jehoiachin was deported to Babylon on 22 April 597 BCE, so the start of his reign of 3 months and 10 days can be calculated to be on 9 December 598 BCE,[32] right after the death of Jehoiakim, whose corpse would be exposed to the frost of (winter) night (Jeremiah 36:30).[34]

And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.[35]

• "His brother": refers to Jehoiakim.[36]

The Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle attested the replacement of the king of Judah as follows:

In the seventh year, the month of Kislîmu, the king of Akkad... besieged the city of Judah and on the second day of the month of Addaru he seized the city and captured the king. He appointed there a king of his own choice, received its heavy tribute and sent to Babylon.[37]

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.[38]

• "Zedekiah": was the throne name of "Mattaniah", the younger brother of Jehoahaz from the same father and mother (cf. 2 Kings 23:31) and the uncle of Jehoiachin.[39][40]

And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia,[42]

• "Until the rule of the kingdom of Persia": from this, it may be concluded that the books of Chronicles were written after the return of the exiles from captivity.[43]

to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.[44]

• "By the mouth of Jeremiah": See Jeremiah 25:12 and Jeremiah 29:10.[10]

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,[45]

• Cross reference: Ezra 1:1
• "Cyrus king of Persia": (c. 600 – 530 BC),[46] commonly known as "Cyrus the Great";[47] his name and title as the "king of Persia" are written in the Nabonidus Chronicle.[48] He "put in writing" a declaration in Akkadian cuneiform script on a clay cylinder, now known as the "Cyrus Cylinder", which was used as a foundation deposit following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, when the Neo-Babylonian Empire was invaded by Cyrus and incorporated into his Persian Empire.[46] The words recorded in Ezra 1:2–4 are thought to represent the oral form of the edict, whereas the written form is recorded in Ezra 6.[49]

Thus says Cyrus king of Persia:

All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. Who is among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up![50]

• Cross reference: Ezra 1:2–3
• "House": here means "temple".[51]
• "And let him go up": translated from the Hebrew word וְיָֽעַל, wə-yā-‘al,[52] from the verb "alah", meaning "to go up, ascend, climb".[53]

In the Cyrus Cylinder there is a statement related to the Cyrus's edict which gives the historical background to the book of Ezra:[54]

I returned the images of the gods, who had resided there [i.e., in Babylon], to their places and I let them dwell in eternal abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings.[55]

Cyrus's edict is significant to the return of the Jews, because it shows that they did not slip away from Babylon but were given official permission by the Persian king in the first year of his rule, and it is a specific fulfillment of the seventy years prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11–14; Jeremiah 29:10–14).[56]