Zedekiah

The name Zedekiah belongs in the Hebrew Bible to several men: most prominently the last king of Judah before the Babylonian exile, originally named Mattaniah and renamed by Nebuchadnezzar; a grandson of Jehoiakim listed in the Davidic genealogy; a false prophet exiled to Babylon and put to death there; a prince at the court of Jehoiakim; and the false prophet Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, who prophesied victory to Ahab and struck the true prophet Micaiah on the cheek.

The Last King of Judah

Mattaniah was the third son of Josiah (1 Chronicles 3:15). After Nebuchadnezzar deported Jehoiachin and the temple vessels to Babylon, "the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, [Jehoiachin's] father's brother, king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah" (2 Kings 24:17). Chronicles records the same installation: "And at the return of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of Yahweh, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem" (2 Chronicles 36:10). Jeremiah likewise notes that "Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king, instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah" (Jeremiah 37:1).

Zedekiah began to reign at twenty-one and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:18; 2 Chronicles 36:11). His mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah (2 Kings 24:18).

The Evil Reign

The reign is summed up by the standard formula: "he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done" (2 Kings 24:19; Jeremiah 52:2). Chronicles develops the indictment: "he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God; he didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet [speaking] from the mouth of Yahweh. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel" (2 Chronicles 36:12-13).

Jeremiah likewise records that "neither he, nor his slaves, nor the people of the land, listened to the words of Yahweh, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah" (Jeremiah 37:2). The king himself confessed his impotence over his own princes: "Look, he is in your⁺ hand; for the king is not he who can do anything against you⁺" (Jeremiah 38:5).

Rebellion Against Babylon and the Egyptian Alliance

Zedekiah broke the oath he had sworn to Nebuchadnezzar: "Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon" (2 Kings 24:20; Jeremiah 52:3). Ezekiel exposes the mechanics: "the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them to himself to Babylon: and he took of the royal seed, and made a covenant with him; he also brought him under an oath, and took away the mighty of the land; that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand. But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people" (Ezekiel 17:12-15).

Yahweh's verdict on the broken oath is severe: "surely my oath that he has despised, and my covenant that he has broken, I will even bring it on his own head. And I will spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon" (Ezekiel 17:19-20). Pharaoh would not deliver: "Neither will Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war" (Ezekiel 17:17). Earlier, in the fourth year of his reign, Zedekiah had himself gone to Babylon, accompanied by Seraiah the chief chamberlain (Jeremiah 51:59).

Denounced by Jeremiah

Jeremiah's oracles to and about Zedekiah run through the book. In the bad-figs vision, Yahweh declares, "I will give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem, that remain in this land… I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil" (Jeremiah 24:8-9). Jeremiah's standing counsel to the king is submission: "Bring your⁺ necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live" (Jeremiah 27:12). The prophets who said otherwise "prophesy a lie to you⁺" (Jeremiah 27:14).

When the siege began, the king sent Pashhur and Zephaniah to Jeremiah, hoping for a reprieve: "Inquire, I pray you, of Yahweh for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon makes war against us" (Jeremiah 21:2). The answer was that Yahweh himself would fight against Jerusalem (Jeremiah 21:5) and would deliver Zedekiah "into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon" (Jeremiah 21:7). Later, when Pharaoh's army drew off the Chaldeans for a moment, Jeremiah warned, "Pharaoh's army, which has come forth to help you⁺, will return to Egypt into their own land. And the Chaldeans will come again, and fight against this city; and they will take it, and burn it with fire" (Jeremiah 37:7-8).

The explicit, repeated word to Zedekiah was that the city would be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and "Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes will look at his eyes" (Jeremiah 32:4).

Denounced by Ezekiel

Ezekiel, in exile, named Zedekiah indirectly as "the prince in Jerusalem" and acted out his fate as a sign: "the prince who is among them will bear on his shoulder in the dark, and will go forth: they will dig through the wall to carry out through it: he will cover his face, because he will not see the land with his eyes. My net also I will spread on him, and he will be taken in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, though he will die there" (Ezekiel 12:12-13).

Imprisons Jeremiah, Yet Seeks His Word

The reign produced a strange double pattern: Zedekiah imprisoned Jeremiah for the very oracles he then secretly came to consult. "For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh, Look, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it" (Jeremiah 32:3). The princes "were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe" (Jeremiah 37:15). Yet Zedekiah "sent, and fetched him: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from Yahweh?" (Jeremiah 37:17). Jeremiah was moved to the court of the guard and given a daily loaf "out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was spent" (Jeremiah 37:21).

A second, climactic interview took place at the third entry of the house of Yahweh. Zedekiah swore, "As Yahweh lives, that made us this soul, I will not put you to death" (Jeremiah 38:16), and Jeremiah pressed on him a final terms-of-surrender: "If you will go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul will live, and this city will not be burned with fire" (Jeremiah 38:17). The king's reply uncovers the man: "I am afraid of the Jews who have fallen away to the Chaldeans, in case they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me" (Jeremiah 38:19). Zedekiah refused, and bound Jeremiah to keep the conversation secret from his own princes (Jeremiah 38:24-27).

The Fall of Jerusalem

In the ninth year of Zedekiah, in the tenth month, "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about" (2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 39:1). The siege ran into the eleventh year of King Zedekiah (2 Kings 25:2; Jeremiah 39:2), with the famine intense and the people without bread (2 Kings 25:3). When the wall was breached, "all the men of war [fled] by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden" (2 Kings 25:4). The Chaldeans pursued and "overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him" (2 Kings 25:5).

The prophesied face-to-face followed: "they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment on him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon" (2 Kings 25:6-7; cf. Jeremiah 39:5-7). Nebuzaradan then "burned the house of Yahweh, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were [with] the captain of the guard, broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about" (2 Kings 25:9-10). Jeremiah's parallel account names the Babylonian princes who sat in the middle gate — Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sar-sechim, and the rest (Jeremiah 39:3) — and adds that the king of Babylon "slew all the nobles of Judah" at Riblah (Jeremiah 39:6).

Zedekiah Grandson of Jehoiakim

A second Zedekiah is listed in the Davidic genealogy: "And the sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son" (1 Chronicles 3:16). He is otherwise unmentioned.

Zedekiah Son of Maaseiah, the False Prophet in Babylon

Among the exiles in Babylon, Jeremiah's letter named two false prophets, Ahab son of Kolaiah and "Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you⁺ in my name." Yahweh's word against them was that Nebuchadnezzar would "slay them before your⁺ eyes; and of them will be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire" (Jeremiah 29:21-22). The charge was depravity in Israel, adultery with their neighbors' wives, and lying prophecy in Yahweh's name (Jeremiah 29:23).

Zedekiah Son of Hananiah, Prince of Judah

A Zedekiah son of Hananiah appears once, sitting with the princes in the scribe's chamber when Baruch's scroll of Jeremiah's words was read: "all the princes were sitting there, [to wit,] Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes" (Jeremiah 36:12).

Zedekiah Son of Chenaanah

The earliest Zedekiah in the canonical record is the false prophet Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, leader of the four hundred prophets called by Ahab before the campaign for Ramoth-gilead. Of all of them, Jehoshaphat asked for one more, and the king of Israel answered, "There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, Micaiah the son of Imlah: but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil" (1 Kings 22:8; cf. 2 Chronicles 18:7).

Zedekiah's symbolic act and oracle were emphatic: "Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made himself horns of iron, and said, Thus says Yahweh, With these you will push the Syrians, until they are consumed" (1 Kings 22:11; 2 Chronicles 18:10). The other prophets joined the chorus, "Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper; for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king" (1 Kings 22:12; 2 Chronicles 18:11).

When Micaiah unmasked the lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets, Zedekiah responded with a blow: "Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way did the Spirit of Yahweh go from me to speak to you?" (1 Kings 22:24; 2 Chronicles 18:23).