Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
2 Kings 25:1

Clarke's Commentary

CHAPTER XXV

Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem; it is taken, after having

been sorely reduced by famine, c. and Zedekiah, endeavouring

to make his escape, is made prisoner, his sons slain before his

eyes; then, his eyes being put out, he is put in chains and

carried to Babylon, 1-7.

Nebuzar-adan burns the temple, breaks down the walls of

Jerusalem, and carries away the people captives, leaving only a

few to till the ground, 8-12.

He takes away all the brass, and all the vessels of the temple,

13-17.

Several of the chief men and nobles found in the city, he

brings to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, who puts them all to death,

18-21.

Nebuchadnezzar makes Gedaliah governor over the poor people that

were left, against whom Ishmael rises, and slays him, and

others with him; on which the people in general, fearing the

resentment of the Chaldeans, flee to Egypt, 22-26.

Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, releases Jehoiachin out of

prison, treats him kindly, and makes him his friend, 27-30.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXV

Verse 2 Kings 25:1. In the ninth year of his reign — Zedekiah, having revolted against the Chaldeans, Nebuchadnezzar, wearied with his treachery, and the bad faith of the Jews, determined the total subversion of the Jewish state. Having assembled a numerous army, he entered Judea on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah; this, according to the computation of Archbishop Usher, was on Thursday, January 30, A.M. 3414, which was a sabbatical year: whereon the men of Jerusalem hearing that the Chaldean army was approaching, proclaimed liberty to their servants; see Jeremiah 34:8-10, according to the law, Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:1-2; Deuteronomy 15:12: for Nebuchadnezzar, marching with his army against Zedekiah, having wasted all the country, and taken their strong holds, except Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem, came against the latter with all his forces. See Jeremiah 34:1-7. On the very day, as the same author computes, the siege and utter destruction of Jerusalem were revealed to Ezekiel the prophet, then in Chaldea, under the type of a seething pot; and his wife died in the evening, and he was charged not to mourn for her, because of the extraordinary calamity that had fallen upon the land. See Ezekiel 24:1-2, c.

Jeremiah, having predicted the same calamities, Jeremiah 34:1-7, was by the command of Zedekiah shut up in prison, Jeremiah 32:1-16.

Pharaoh Hophra, or Vaphris, hearing how Zedekiah was pressed, and fearing for the safety of his own dominions should the Chaldeans succeed against Jerusalem, determined to succour Zedekiah. Finding this, the Chaldeans raised the siege of Jerusalem, and went to meet the Egyptian army, which they defeated and put to flight. Joseph. Antiq., lib. 10, cap. 10. In the interim the Jews, thinking their danger was passed, reclaimed their servants, and put them again under the yoke Jeremiah 34:8, &c.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The destruction of Jerusalem (24:18-25:21)

All Judah’s most capable administrators had been taken captive to Babylon. The few advisers who were left to Zedekiah had no true understanding of the situation, either political or religious, and persuaded the weak king to seek Egypt’s help in rebelling against Babylon. This was a policy that Jeremiah clearly saw was disastrous, for it would lead only to the horrors of siege and destruction. His advice was that Judah accept its fate as God’s will and submit to Babylon (18-20; 2 Chronicles 36:11-14; Jeremiah 21:1-10; Jeremiah 27:12-15; Jeremiah 37:6-10).

Zedekiah, however, followed the advice of the pro-Egypt party and rebelled against Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar decided to crush the rebellious city once and for all. When Egypt came to Jerusalem’s aid, the siege was temporarily lifted, but Jeremiah warned that this would only make Babylon more determined to crush Judah, and Egypt with it. The pro-Egypt party accused Jeremiah of being a traitor and had him imprisoned (Jeremiah 37:1-28).

The Babylonians returned and soon Jeremiah’s prophecy came true. The horrors of the siege are vividly described in the book of Lamentations (Lamentations 2:10-12,Lamentations 2:19-21; Lamentations 4:4-5,Lamentations 4:7-10). When, after a year and six months, the Babylonians finally made a break in the wall, Zedekiah and some of his men tried to escape, but were captured (25:1-7).

Babylonian soldiers then poured into the city, seizing anything of value that could be taken back to Babylon, and burning or smashing what remained. This was the end of Jerusalem (587 BC). The leaders of the rebellion were killed, and the most useful citizens taken captive (8-17).

In the course of arresting the chief officials of Jerusalem, the Babylonians released Jeremiah from jail and gave him full freedom to decide where he would like to live, Babylon or Judah. Jeremiah chose to stay in Judah with a small number of farmers and other poorer people who were of no use to Babylon (18-21; Jeremiah 39:11-6).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

ZEDEKIAH'S FOOLISH REBELLION AND THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM

"And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land."

"Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon" This rebellion was against the prophecies and warnings of God's great prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah, who had specifically warned Zedekiah that God had delivered apostate Israel into the hands of Babylon and that the people would serve the king of Babylon for seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Furthermore, Zedekiah had sworn with a solemn oath invoking the name of Jehovah that he would be faithful to his overlord the king of Babylon.

Why then, did he rebel? (1) He did NOT believe what the prophets of God had prophesied. (2) He was influenced by a conceited group of personal advisers who followed the false prophet Hananiah who prophesied that, "Within two years God would break the yoke of the king of Babylon, that Jeconiah would be restored to the throne of David, and that all the stolen vessels of the temple would be returned, signifying the complete independence of Judah from Babylon" (Jeremiah 28:1-4). "We can only imagine the wild enthusiasm with which the foolish people greeted such bold predictions."F. W. Farrar in Expositor's Bible, 2 Kings, p. 443.

(1)    Zedekiah was also, in all probability, seduced by the rampant paganism supported and advocated by the priesthood itself, a paganism which had thoroughly replaced the worship of Jehovah in the Temple of Solomon. Farrar, commenting on Ezekiel 8 and its description of all those abominations, pointed out that the priesthood themselves: (1) were burning incense to beasts; (2) worshipping the sun with their backs turned to the altar of Jehovah; and (3) offering incense and sacrifices to the pagan gods of Assyria, Egypt, Syria and Babylon; and also that the daughters of Zion were weeping for Tammuz or Adonis as devotees of Ishtar the evil goddess of Assyria, and that all of this was going on in Solomon's temple itself. "The king and the priests alike permitted, ignored and even connived at all this, participating in it themselves."Ibid., p. 441.

Most of the commentaries we have consulted have ameliorated to some extent the guilt of Zedekiah, but we do not agree with this. They speak of his weakness and the power of the Egyptian party who seduced him, and describe him as timid, undecided and confused. Very well, but he was also an unbeliever, wicked, untruthful, a false swearer and a thankless rebel against the ruler who had made him a king. It was the will of God that Jerusalem and Judah should have been destroyed, a fact well known to Zedekiah, but his ambition led him to thoughts of independence and rebellion. However, at that point in the apostasy of Israel, "It was no longer a question of their independence, but only of the choice of servitudes. Judah was like a silly and trembling sheep between two huge beasts of prey."Ibid., p. 439.

It seems to this writer that Josephus properly understood the evil nature of Zedekiah. He wrote that, "His friends perverted him,"Flavius Josephus, Antiquities, p. 307. not that they deceived him.

Perhaps the crucial mistake of Zedekiah was his foolish conclusion that God's two great prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah had contradicted each other. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 34:8) declared that Zedekiah would see the king of Babylon and be carried there as a captive, but Ezekiel prophesied in God's name saying that, "God would take Zedekiah to Babylon in the land of the Chaldeans, but that he should never see the place, even though he would die there" (Ezekiel 12:13). Despite the unbelief of Zedekiah, "These predictions were exactly fulfilled. Zedekiah saw the king of Babylon, not in Babylon, but at Riblah. There, at the king's command, his sons were slain before his eyes. Then Zedekiah was blinded, bound in fetters and carried to Babylon where he died."J. W. Haley, Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible (Nashville: B. C. Goodpasture, 1951), p. 363.

The nearly incredible factor in this disaster was the trust that Zedekiah and his court were willing to place in Egypt! "It seems that Isaiah's doom of blindness upon Israel (Isaiah 6:9-10) had a political as well as a religious fulfillment."The New Layman's Bible Commentary, p. 473.

"In the ninth year… tenth month… tenth day" "This was the Jewish month Tebet (December/January) of 588 B.C."Broadman Bible Commentary, Vol. 3, p. 293. "The exact day was January 15th."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 364.

The siege described here brought unspeakable sorrow and sufferings to God's people. "These are best understood from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, written probably immediately after the capture and looting of the city."F. C. Cook, Commentary on Second Kings (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953), p. 307. Unger spoke of the "pitiless rage" of the Babylonian army and of the pestilence, famine, and even cannibalism that followed."Merrill F. Unger

"The ninth day… the fourth month" "This was the Jewish month of June/July (Tammuz)."H. Porter, in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, p. 542. "This was July 19, 586 B.C." This first breach of the city walls led to the flight of Zedekiah and his army, but the Chaldeans overtook them and captured them on the plains of Jericho.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

In the ninth year ... - As the final catastrophe approaches, the historian becomes more close and exact in his dates, marking not only the year, but the month and the day, on which the siege began, no less than those on which it closed 2 Kings 25:3. From Ezekiel 24:1 we find that on the very day when the host of Nebuchadnezzar made its appearance before Jerusalem the fact was revealed to Ezekiel in Babylonia, and the fate of the city announced to him Ezekiel 24:6-14. The army seems to have at first spread itself over all Judaea. It fought, not only against Jerusalem, but especially against Lachish and Azekah Jeremiah 34:7, two cities of the south 2 Chronicles 11:9, which had probably been strongly garrisoned in order to maintain the communication with Egypt. This division of the Babylonian forces encouraged Hophra to put his troops in motion and advance to the relief of his Jewish allies Jeremiah 37:5. On hearing this, Nebuchadnezzar broke up from before Jerusalem and marched probably to Azekah and Lachish. The Egyptians shrank back, returned into their own country Jeremiah 37:7; Ezekiel 17:17, and took no further part in the war. Nebuchadnezzar then led back his army, and once more invested the city. (It is uncertain whether the date at the beginning of this verse refers to the first or to the second investment.)

Forts - Probably moveable towers, sometimes provided with battering-rams, which the besiegers advanced against the walls, thus bringing their fighting men on a level with their antagonists. Such towers are seen in the Assyrian sculptures.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Ver. 1-7. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign,.... Of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. From hence to the end of

2 Kings 25:7, the account exactly agrees with Jeremiah 52:4.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.   2 And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.   3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.   4 And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain.   5 And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him.   6 So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.   7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

      We left king Zedekiah in rebellion against the king of Babylon (2 Kings 24:20; 2 Kings 24:20), contriving and endeavouring to shake off his yoke, when he was no way able to do it, nor took the right method by making God his friend first. Now here we have an account of the fatal consequences of that attempt.

      I. The king of Babylon's army laid siege to Jerusalem, 2 Kings 25:1; 2 Kings 25:1. What should hinder them when the country was already in their possession? 2 Kings 24:2; 2 Kings 24:2. They built forts against the city round about, whence, by such arts of war as they then had, they battered it, sent into it instruments of death, and kept out of it the necessary supports of life. Formerly Jerusalem had been compassed with the favour of God as with a shield, but now their defence had departed from them and their enemies surrounded them on every side. Those that by sin have provoked God to leave them will find that innumerable evils will compass them about. Two years this siege lasted; at first the army retired, for fear of the king of Egypt (Jeremiah 37:11), but, finding him not so powerful as they thought, they soon returned, with a resolution not to quit the city till they had made themselves masters of it.

      II. During this siege the famine prevailed (2 Kings 25:3; 2 Kings 25:3), so that for a long time they ate their bread by weight and with care,Ezekiel 4:16. Thus they were punished for their gluttony and excess, their fulness of bread and feeding themselves without fear. At length there was no bread for the people of the land, that is, the common people, the soldiers, whereby they were weakened and rendered unfit for service. Now they ate their own children for want of food. See this foretold by one prophet (Ezekiel 5:10) and bewailed by another, Lamentations 4:3-12, c. Jeremiah earnestly persuaded the king to surrender (Jeremiah 38:17), but his heart was hardened to his destruction.

      III. At length the city was taken by storm: it was broken up,2 Kings 25:4; 2 Kings 25:4. The besiegers made a breach in the wall, at which they forced their way into it. The besieged, unable any longer to defend it, endeavoured to quit it, and make the best of their way; and many, no doubt, were put to the sword, the victorious army being much exasperated by their obstinacy.

      IV. The king, his family, and all his great men, made their escape in the night, by some secret passages which the besiegers either had not discovered or did not keep their eye upon, 2 Kings 25:4; 2 Kings 25:4. But those as much deceive themselves who think to escape God's judgments as those who think to brave them; the feet of him that flees from them will as surely fail as the hands of him that fights against them. When God judges he will overcome. Intelligence was given to the Chaldeans of the king's flight, and which way he had gone, so that they soon overtook him, 2 Kings 25:5; 2 Kings 25:5. His guards were scattered from him, every man shifting for his own safety. Had he put himself under God's protection, that would not have failed him now. He presently fell into the enemies' hands, and here we are told what they did with him. 1. He was brought to the king of Babylon, and tried by a council of war for rebelling against him who set him up, and to whom he had sworn fidelity. God and man had a quarrel with him for this; see Ezekiel 17:16-21, c. The king of Babylon now lay at Riblah (which lay between Judea and Babylon), that he might be ready to give orders both to his court at home and his army abroad. 2. His sons were slain before his eyes, though children, that this doleful spectacle, the last his eyes were to behold, might leave an impression of grief and horror upon his spirit as long as he lived. In slaying his sons, they showed their indignation at his falsehood, and in effect declared that neither he nor any of his were fit to be trusted, and therefore that they were not fit to live. 3. His eyes were put out, by which he was deprived of that common comfort of human life which is given even to those that are in misery, and to the bitter in soul, the light of the sun, by which he was also disabled for any service. He dreaded being mocked, and therefore would not be persuaded to yield (2 Kings 37:19), but that which he feared came upon him with a witness, and no doubt added much to his misery for, as those that are deaf suspect that every body talks of them, so those that are blind suspect that every body laughs at them. By this two prophecies that seemed to contradict one another were both fulfilled. Jeremiah prophesied that Zedekiah should be brought to Babylon, Jeremiah 32:5; Jeremiah 34:3. Ezekiel prophesied that he should not see Babylon, Ezekiel 12:13. He was brought thither, but, his eyes being put out, he did not see it. Thus he ended his days, before he ended his life. 4. He was bound in fetters of brass and so carried to Babylon. He that was blind needed not be bound (his blindness fettered him), but, for his greater disgrace, they led him bound; only, whereas common malefactors are laid in irons (Psalms 105:18; Psalms 107:10), he, being a prince, was bound with fetters of brass; but that the metal was somewhat nobler and lighter was little comfort, while still he was in fetters. Let it not seem strange if those that have been held in the cords of iniquity come to be thus held in the cords of affliction,Job 36:8.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

Well, then, in the next portion of our book (2 Kings 21:1-26) we see how truly a pious father may be followed by an impious son. Manasseh, young as he was, did not only begin to reign, but "did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah after the abominations of the heathen, whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, which Jehovah said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah. And he made his son pass through the fire." Burnt them to Moloch. Cruel king! "And observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of Jehovah to provoke him to anger. And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which Jehovah said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they hearkened not."

The consequence was that Manasseh not only did evil, but "seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom Jehovah destroyed." How was it possible then for Judah to abide in the land of Jehovah? It became a moral impossibility. Hence therefore the message which Jehovah sends by His servants the prophets. After Manasseh, reigned Amon; and Amon follows in the steps of his wicked father, not of his pious grandfather. "He walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them, and he forsook the Jehovah God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of Jehovah."

But after him comes a truly godly prince Josiah younger, too, than either (2 Kings 22:1-20). He was not too young to serve the Lord. "He was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Jehovah, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of Jehovah, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people: and let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of Jehovah: and let them give it to the doers of the work;" and so on. But when we are in the path of duty we are in the place of blessing. And Hilkiah gives the glad message to Shaphan, "I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah." How strange! found the book of the law of Jehovah. So it was, and people wonder how that in Christendom men have so long departed, and so long forgotten the word of God.

According to the analogy of Israel, we ought rather to expect it. Here was a people still more bound by letter than we, still more dependent therefore upon a law, if possible, than we could be upon any outward observances. For the law was essentially outward, and the law was a thing that was not so dependent upon inner life and the Spirit of God as outward statutes and observances and ordinances of every kind. Yet even here the law had been lost all this time, and it was a great discovery to find it. God was faithful, and he that had a heart to observe the word of Jehovah found the law through His servant Hilkiah, the high priest. "And it came to pass when the king had heard the words, of the book of the law, he rent his clothes." He had a tender conscience. There is nothing more important in its place; for what is the good of knowledge if there is not a conscience? It appears to me that to grow in knowledge of the truth, if there be not simplicity in following it out, turns the knowledge into a curse, not a blessing. The one value of the truth of God of the word of God being better known is that we may be more faithful towards the Lord, and also in our relationships one with another in doing His will in this poor world. But the moment that you divorce the truth from conscience, it appears to me that the state of the soul is even worse. Far better to be simple in using aright the little that we know than to grow in knowledge where there is no corresponding fidelity. The king, however, was very different. When he heard the words, he rent his clothes, and the consequence was that there was a mighty work of real revival, in the true sense of the word; because I need not tell you that it is a great misapplication of the term "revival" to use it for the conversion of souls. Revival is rather a process of raising up the people of God to a better state or condition, so as most truly to follow what the Lord looks for among them where they have slipped into a lower, slumbering, condition. This is the true sense of it, and this is exactly the meaning of it here, So the king gave an impulse to the people and they gathered to him, as we are told in the next chapter.

"The king went up into the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Jehovah. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant" (2 Kings 23:1-37). And we find, accordingly, the practical fruits at once, public and private, national and personal, for at this time you must remember it was not the church: it was a nation, and it is the greatest confusion of things that differ to confound an elect nation with the church of God. The church is a gathering out of all nations. The congregation of Israel was merely an assemblage of that nation. To talk, therefore, about the Jewish church is really nonsense. It is a common phrase, but there is no truth in it. It is only allowing ourselves phraseology that is altogether foreign to the word of God.

The account then of the great reformation that was wrought is fully gone into in the rest of the chapter, but I shall only add that although the king had been thus faithful, he slips out of the path of the Lord in opposing Pharaoh-nechoh. God had not called him to it, and if the Lord always blesses fidelity, and loves to bless wherever He can, on the other hand the Lord is righteous in His government; and if therefore the righteous man slips out of the path of fidelity he bears the consequences. What we sow to the flesh, we must reap in corruption. It matters not who. Converted or unconverted, it is always true. So with Josiah. There might be grace on the Lord's part to take him away from the evil to come, but I do not doubt it was a chastening upon his eagerness of spirit in opposing the king of Egypt without a word from the Lord.

However, the king of Egypt put Jehoahaz in bands. The people had made him king in Jerusalem in the stead of Josiah, and he made Eliakim his brother king, changing his name to Jehoiakim. And Jehoiakim, we are told, was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. But all this was only one sorrowful event after another.

In the next chapter (2 Kings 24:1-20) we have the mighty king of Babylon, who first comes before us Nebuchadnezzar, the destined beginner of the great imperial system with which we have not done yet; for the world is yet to see the last phase of the imperial power that began at this very time, or shortly after. This gives deep interest to what we are now looking at. I am aware that men are not expecting it. This does not at all hinder its truth as the word of God, and His word alone can decide such questions. The first then who acquires the empire of the world Nebuchadnezzar comes up, and Jehoiakim, became his servant three years. Afterwards he rebels. The Lord puts him down, and Jehoiachin his son reigns in his stead, and the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land, because he was put down by Nebuchadnezzar. These are the steps by which he arrives at the throne of the world, according to the sovereign gift of Jehovah. And Jehoiachin does evil; and at that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar came up when he rebelled, and Nebuchadnezzar himself too besieges the city and carries away the treasures of the house as well as the princes and mighty men. Not only the king, but as we know also a man afterwards most distinguished, and of such deep interest to us Daniel, the prophet. Then follows another sorrowful state. Zedekiah having been made king provisionally in the land over a small remnant, he too is guilty of breaking the oath of Jehovah, and Nebuchadnezzar comes against him. Here we find the last phase of Jerusalem's sorrowful history of the last batch of the Jews that was carried down into captivity. And this is pursued to the end of the twenty-fifth chapter, and this closes the book.

Thus we have completed these two Books of the Kings cursorily, I admit, but still I trust so as to give at any rate a general picture of this wonderful history of the Old Testament; the end being the great imperial power under which will take place the return of a little remnant of the Jews to find themselves in Jerusalem once more to set up a king who will be Satan's great instrument for deceiving men under the shelter of the last holder of the power that began with Babylon. But I enter no farther. This would take me out of history into prophecy.