the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Zedekiah
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or 1. The twentieth and last king of Judah, son of Josiah and Hamutal, and uncle to Jeconiah his predecessor, 2 Kings 24:17,19 Jeremiah 52:1 . When Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, he carried Jeconiah to Babylon, with his wives, children, officers, and the best artificers in Judea, and put in his place his uncle Mattaniah, whose name he changed to Zedekiah, and made him promise with an oath that he would maintain fidelity to him. He was twenty-one years old when he began to reign at Jerusalem, and he reigned there eleven years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, committing the same crimes as Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 24:18-20 2 Chronicles 36:11-13 . Compare Jeremiah 29:16-19 34:1-22 38:5 Ezekiel 17:12,14,18 . In the ninth year of his reign, he revolted against Nebuchadnezzar, trusting to the support of Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt, which proved ineffectual, and despising the faithful remonstrance's of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 37:2,5,7-10 .
In consequence of this the Assyrian marched his army into Judea, and took all the fortified places. In the eleventh year of his reign, on the ninth day of the fourth month, (July,) Jerusalem was taken, 588 BC. The king and his people endeavored to escape by favor of the night; but the Chaldean troops pursuing them, they were over-taken in the plain of Jericho. Zedekiah was taken and carried to Nebuchadnezzar, then at Riblah, in Syria, who reproached him with his perfidy, caused his children to be slain before his face and his own eyes to be put out; and then loading him with chains of brass, he ordered him to be sent to Babylon, 2 Kings 25:1-30 Jeremiah 39:1-18 52:1-34 Ezekiel 19:1-14 . All these events remarkably fulfilled the predictions of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, in the chapters preciously referred to. Compare also, with respect to Zedekiah's blindness, Jeremiah 34:3 Ezekiel 12:13 .
2. A false prophet, exposed by Micaiah when urging Ahab to fight with the Syrians, 1 Kings 22:11-37 . His fate is foreshadowed in 1 Kings 22:25 .
3. Another false prophet, denounced by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29:21,22 .
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Zedekiah'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/z/zedekiah.html. 1859.
