Zedekiah (zĕd'e-kî'ah), justice of Jehovah. 1. The last king of Judah, the son of Josiah, and the uncle of Jehoiachin. His proper name was Mattaniah, but Nebuchadnezzar changed it to Zedekiah when raising him to the throne. He commenced his reign at twenty-one, and reigned eleven years, 598-588 b.c. 2 Chronicles 36:11. He was a weak man, and the people were completely demoralized. In the ninth year of his reign he revolted against Nebuchadnezzar, in consequence of which the Assyrian monarch marched his army into Judæa 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. The king and his people endeavored to escape by night, but, the Chaldæan troops pursuing them, they were overtaken in the plain of Jericho. Zedekiah was seized and carried to Nebuchadnezzar, then at Riblah, in Syria, who reproached him with his perfidy, caused all his children to be slain before his face and his own eyes to be put out, and then, loading him with chains of brass, ordered him to be sent to Babylon. 2 Kings 25:1-11; 2 Chronicles 36:12; 2 Chronicles 36:20. Thus the double prophecy concerning him—that he should be carried to Babylon, but never see it—was literally fulfilled. Jeremiah 32:4-5; Jeremiah 34:3; comp. Ezekiel 12:13. 2. A false prophet in the reign of Ahab. 1 Kings 22:11; 1 Kings 22:24-25; 2 Chronicles 18:10; 2 Chronicles 18:23-24. There are four persons of this name mentioned in the Bible.