2 Chronicles 36 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
609 to 538 BC, from Josiah's death through four short-lived kings, the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, and the decree of Cyrus of Persia
Location
Jerusalem, sacked and burned, and then Babylon, where the survivors serve as forced labour until Persia takes the city
Audience
Jewish families who had returned from exile under Persian rule, standing at the exact point where this book's last sentence leaves off
Situation
Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah each reign briefly as puppets of Egypt then Babylon, and each is deposed. Nebuchadnezzar finally burns the temple and the city, deports the survivors, and seventy years later Cyrus of Persia issues a decree telling the exiles to go home and rebuild.
Key Background
The seventy years is drawn from Jeremiah's prophecy, and Chronicles ties it to the land finally taking the sabbath rest years that farmers had skipped, meaning the exile is presented as the ground collecting a debt. Cyrus really did reverse Babylonian deportation policy after taking the city in 539 BC, and his own inscription on a clay cylinder describes returning displaced peoples and their gods to their home shrines, which fits the decree quoted here. The book ends mid-sentence with permission to go up, an unusual literary choice that hands the story to the reader, and the same decree opens the book of Ezra, which picks the account up from there.
The of the took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months.
The king of Egypt removed him from power in Jerusalem and imposed a fine on the land: three thousand four hundred kilograms of silver and thirty-four kilograms of gold.
The king of Egypt made Jehoahaz's brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem and to Jehoiakim. As for Jehoahaz, Neco took him away to Egypt.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. He did what was in the of his God.
king of Babylon attacked him and bound him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar also carried off some of the objects from Yahweh's house to Babylon and put them in his temple in Babylon.
The rest of Jehoiakim's acts — the he did and what was found against him — are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin became king in his place.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months and ten days. He did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.
At the turn of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon, along with the valuable objects from Yahweh's house. He made Jehoiachin's relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years.
He did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh his God. He refused to before the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke on behalf of Yahweh.
He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear loyalty by God. He and against to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
All the leaders of the priests and the people also multiplied their following all the disgusting practices of the nations. They the of Yahweh impure, the he had own in Jerusalem.
Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them and through his messengers, getting up early to send them, because he had on his people and on his dwelling place.
But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words, and ridiculed his prophets until Yahweh's anger rose against his people and there was no
So he brought the king of the against them, who killed their young men with the sword in the for He had no compassion on young men or young women, the elderly or the frail. them all to him.
He carried off to Babylon all the objects from God's house — large and small — along with the treasuries of Yahweh's house, the treasuries of the king, and the treasuries of his officials.
They burned God's house, tore down Jerusalem's wall, set fire to all its fortified buildings, and destroyed every valuable object in it.
He deported to Babylon everyone who had survived the sword, and they became to him and his sons until the Persian kingdom took power.
This fulfilled what Yahweh had spoken through Jeremiah: the land would finally enjoy its For as long as it lay desolate it kept its sabbaths — until were complete.
In the first year of king of Persia — so that Yahweh's word spoken through Jeremiah would be fulfilled — Yahweh up the of king of Persia. sent a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and also put it in writing:
"This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: Yahweh, the of has given me every kingdom on earth, and he has me to build a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever among you belongs to his people — may Yahweh his be with go up."