King Zedekiah the 20th and last King of Judah

2 Chronicles 36:11-21 and 2 Kings 24:17-25:30. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Zedekiah as King of Judah and later deported King Zedekiah to Babylon because he did not do what King Nebuchadnezzar had asked him to do.

King Zedekiah, 20th and last king of Judah, was evil in God’s eyes.

Reigned for 11 years = 597BC -586BC.

King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylonia made King Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah King of Judah and at the same time changes the name of Mattaniah to Zedekiah. King Jehoiachin had been the 19th king of Judah.

Mattaniah in Hebrew means: gift of Jehovah.

Zedekiah in Hebrew means: The LORD is my righteousness.

Background Reading:

Zedekiah King of Judah – 20th and last king of Judah

11 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He practiced what the LORD his God considered to be evil and never humbled himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for the LORD. 13 Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear allegiance in the name of God. Instead, he stiffened his resolve, and hardened his heart, and would not return to the LORD God of Israel.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Third Capture of Jerusalem

14 Meanwhile, all the officials who supervised the priests and the people remained unfaithful, following the detestable example of the surrounding nations. They polluted the LORD’s Temple that he had consecrated in Jerusalem. 15 The LORD God of their ancestors pleaded with them time and again through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on the place of his residence, 16 but they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until there was no remedy for the wrath of the LORD that arose to punish his people. 17 Therefore he brought up the king of the Chaldeans against them, who executed their young men in the holy Temple, showing no compassion on young man or young virgin, adult men or the aged. God gave them all into the king’s control, 18 who took back to Babylon every article in God’s Temple, whether large or small, including the treasuries of the LORD’s Temple, the king’s assets, and those of his officers. 19 After this, they set fire to God’s Temple, demolished the wall around Jerusalem, burned all of its fortified buildings, and destroyed everything of value. 20Nebuchadnezzar carried off to Babylon those who survived the executions, and they served him and his descendants until the kingdom of Persia came to power. 21 All of this fulfilled what the LORD had predicted through Jeremiah. And so the land enjoyed its Sabbaths, and the length of the land’s desolation lasted until a 70-year long Sabbath had been completed.
2 Chronicles 36:11-21
See 2 Kings 24:17-25:30 and Jeremiah 52:1-34.


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