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2 Chronicles 36
New English Translation

Jehoahaz’s Reign

36 The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem. 2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3 The king of Egypt prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem and imposed on the land a special tax[a] of 100 talents[b] of silver and a talent of gold. 4 The king of Egypt made Jehoahaz’s[c] brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Necho seized his brother Jehoahaz and took him to Egypt.

Jehoiakim’s Reign

5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of[d] the Lord his God. 6 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked him,[e] bound him with bronze chains, and carried him away[f] to Babylon. 7 Nebuchadnezzar took some of the items in the Lord’s temple to Babylon and put them in his palace[g] there.[h]

8 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign, including the horrible sins he committed and his shortcomings, are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Israel and Judah.[i] His son Jehoiachin replaced him as king.

Jehoiachin’s Reign

9 Jehoiachin was eighteen[j] years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of[k] the Lord. 10 At the beginning of the year King Nebuchadnezzar ordered him to be brought[l] to Babylon, along with the valuable items in the Lord’s temple. In his place Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin’s relative[m] Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah’s Reign

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He did evil in the sight of[n] the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, the Lord’s spokesman. 13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him vow allegiance[o] in the name of God. He was stubborn and obstinate, and refused to return[p] to the Lord God of Israel. 14 All the leaders of the priests and people became more unfaithful and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations.[q] They defiled the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Babylonians Destroy Jerusalem

15 The Lord God of their ancestors[r] continually warned them through his messengers,[s] for he felt compassion for his people and his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his warnings,[t] and ridiculed his prophets.[u] Finally the Lord got very angry at his people and there was no one who could prevent his judgment.[v] 17 He brought against them the king of the Babylonians, who slaughtered[w] their young men in their temple.[x] He did not spare[y] young men or women, or even the old and aging. God[z] handed everyone over to him. 18 He carried away to Babylon all the items in God’s temple, whether large or small, as well as what was in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king and his officials. 19 They burned down God’s temple and tore down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned all its fortified buildings and destroyed all its valuable items. 20 He deported to Babylon all who escaped the sword. They served him and his sons until the Persian kingdom rose to power. 21 This took place to fulfill the Lord’s message spoken through Jeremiah[aa] and lasted until the land experienced[ab] its sabbatical years.[ac] All the time[ad] of its desolation the land rested in order to fulfill the seventy years.[ae]

Cyrus Allows the Exiles to Go Home

22 In the first year[af] of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of the Lord’s message spoken through Jeremiah,[ag] the Lord motivated[ah] King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation[ai] throughout his kingdom and also to put it in writing. It read:

23 “This is what King Cyrus of Persia says:

‘The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Anyone of his people among you may go up there, and may the Lord his God be with him.”

Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 36:3 tn Or “a fine.”
  2. 2 Chronicles 36:3 tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the weight of the silver was 6,730 lbs. (3,060 kg).
  3. 2 Chronicles 36:4 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Jehoahaz) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  4. 2 Chronicles 36:5 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  5. 2 Chronicles 36:6 tn Heb “came up against him.”
  6. 2 Chronicles 36:6 tn Heb “to carry him away.”
  7. 2 Chronicles 36:7 tn Or “temple.”
  8. 2 Chronicles 36:7 tn Heb “in Babylon.” Repeating the proper name “Babylon” here would be redundant in contemporary English, so “there” has been used in the translation.
  9. 2 Chronicles 36:8 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoiakim, and his horrible deeds which he did and that which was found against him, look, they are written on the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.”
  10. 2 Chronicles 36:9 tc The Hebrew text reads “eight,” but some ancient textual witnesses, as well as the parallel text in 2 Kgs 24:8, have “eighteen.”
  11. 2 Chronicles 36:9 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  12. 2 Chronicles 36:10 tn Heb “sent and brought him.”
  13. 2 Chronicles 36:10 tn Heb “and he made Zedekiah his brother king.” According to the parallel text in 2 Kgs 24:17, Zedekiah was Jehoiachin’s uncle, not his brother. Therefore many interpreters understand אח (ʾakh) here in its less specific sense of “relative” (NEB “made his father’s brother Zedekiah king”; NASB “made his kinsman Zedekiah king”; NIV “made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, king”; NRSV “made his brother Zedekiah king”).
  14. 2 Chronicles 36:12 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
  15. 2 Chronicles 36:13 tn Or “made him swear an oath.”
  16. 2 Chronicles 36:13 tn Heb “and he stiffened his neck and strengthened his heart from returning.”
  17. 2 Chronicles 36:14 tn Heb “like all the abominable practices of the nations.”
  18. 2 Chronicles 36:15 tn Heb “fathers.”
  19. 2 Chronicles 36:15 tn Heb “and the Lord God of their fathers sent against them by the hand of his messengers, getting up early and sending.”
  20. 2 Chronicles 36:16 tn Heb “his words.”
  21. 2 Chronicles 36:16 tn All three verbal forms (“mocked,” “despised,” and “ridiculed”) are active participles in the Hebrew text, indicating continual or repeated action. They made a habit of rejecting God’s prophetic messengers.
  22. 2 Chronicles 36:16 tn Heb “until the anger of the Lord went up against his people until there was no healer.”
  23. 2 Chronicles 36:17 tn Heb “killed with the sword.”
  24. 2 Chronicles 36:17 tn Heb “in the house of their sanctuary.”
  25. 2 Chronicles 36:17 tn Or “show compassion to.”
  26. 2 Chronicles 36:17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  27. 2 Chronicles 36:21 tn Heb “by the mouth of Jeremiah.”
  28. 2 Chronicles 36:21 tn The verb may be seen as either of two homophonous roots רָצָה (ratsah) meaning “to restore” or “to accept, take pleasure in.”
  29. 2 Chronicles 36:21 sn According to Lev 25:4, the land was to remain uncultivated every seventh year. Lev 26:33-35 warns that the land would experience a succession of such sabbatical rests if the people disobeyed God, for he would send them away into exile.
  30. 2 Chronicles 36:21 tn Heb “days of.”
  31. 2 Chronicles 36:21 sn Concerning the seventy years see Jer 25:11. Cyrus’ edict (see vv. 22-23) occurred about fifty years after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c., which is most naturally understood as the beginning point of the “days of desolation” mentioned in v. 21. The number “seventy” is probably used in a metaphorical sense, indicating a typical lifetime and suggesting a thorough or complete judgment that would not be lifted until an entirely new generation emerged.
  32. 2 Chronicles 36:22 sn The first year of Cyrus would be ca. 539 b.c. Cyrus reigned in Persia from ca. 539-530 b.c.
  33. 2 Chronicles 36:22 tn Heb “by the mouth of Jeremiah.”sn See Jer 25:11; 29:10.
  34. 2 Chronicles 36:22 tn Heb “stirred the spirit of.” The Hebrew noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) has a broad range of meanings (see BDB 924-26 s.v.). Here, it probably refers to (1) “mind” as the seat of mental acts (e.g., Exod 28:3; Deut 34:9; Isa 29:24; 40:13; Ezek 11:5; 20:32; 1 Chr 28:12; cf. BDB 925 s.v. 6) or (2) “will” as the seat of volitional decisions (e.g., Exod 35:5, 22; Pss 51:12, 14; 57:8; 2 Chr 29:31; cf. BDB 925 s.v. 7). So also in Ezra 1:5. The entire phrase “stirred the spirit” has been rendered as “motivated” to better reflect normal English.
  35. 2 Chronicles 36:22 tn Heb “a voice.” The Hebrew noun קוֹל (qol, “voice, sound”) has a broad range of meanings, including the metonymical (cause—effect) nuance “proclamation” (e.g., Exod 36:6; 2 Chr 24:9; 30:5; 36:22; Ezra 1:1; 10:7; Neh 8:15). See BDB 877 s.v. 3.a.2.
Close NRSVUE

2 Chronicles 36
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Reign of Jehoahaz

36 The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king to succeed his father in Jerusalem.(A) 2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3 Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold. 4 The king of Egypt made his brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim, but Neco took his brother Jehoahaz and carried him to Egypt.

Reign and Captivity of Jehoiakim

5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God.(B) 6 Against him King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up and bound him with fetters to take him to Babylon.(C) 7 Nebuchadnezzar also carried some of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon.(D) 8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the abominations that he did and what was found against him are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him.(E)

Reign and Captivity of Jehoiachin

9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.(F) 10 In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, along with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made his brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.(G)

Reign of Zedekiah

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.(H) 12 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah who spoke from the mouth of the Lord.(I) 13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel.(J) 14 All the leading priests and the people also were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations, and they polluted the house of the Lord that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem

15 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place,(K) 16 but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.(L)

17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their youths with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or young woman, the aged or the feeble; he gave them all into his hand.(M) 18 All the vessels of the house of God, large and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his officials, all these he brought to Babylon.(N) 19 They burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels.(O) 20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,(P) 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.(Q)

Cyrus Proclaims Liberty for the Exiles

22 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also in writing, saying:(R) 23 “Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Let any of those among you who are of his people—may the Lord their God be with them!—go up.”(S)

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New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

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