2 Chronicles 36:17

_BUT THEY MOCKED THE MESSENGERS OF GOD, AND DESPISED HIS WORDS, AND MISUSED HIS PROPHETS, UNTIL THE WRATH OF THE LORD AROSE AGAINST HIS PEOPLE, TILL THERE WAS NO REMEDY._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-21 The ruin of Judah and Jerusalem came on by degrees. The methods God takes to call back sinners by his word, by ministers, by conscience, by providences, are all instances of his compassion toward them, and his unwillingness that any should perish. See here what woful havoc sin makes, and, as we value the comfort and continuance of our earthly blessings, let us keep that worm from the root of them. They had many times ploughed and sowed their land in the seventh year, when it should have rested, and now it lay unploughed and unsown for ten times seven years. God will be no loser in his glory at last, by the disobedience of men. If they refused to let the land rest, God would make it rest. What place, O God, shall thy justice spare, if Jerusalem has perished? If that delight of thine were cut off for wickedness, let us not be high-minded, but fear....

The fearful slaughter took place at the capture of the city, in the courts of the temple itself (Ezekiel 9:6; compare Lamentations 2:7, Lamentations 2:20)....

EXPOSITION One short chapter now brings to a conclusion the work, in so many aspects remarkable, called 'The Chronicles.' And thirteen verses sum the contents of the four last pre-Captivity kings of the line of Judah. The words of Keil, in opening this last chapter in his commentary, are not unworthy of note. He says, "As the kingdom of Judah after Josiah's death advanced with swift steps to its destruction by the Chaldeans, so the author of the Chronicle goes quickly over the reigns of the last kings of Judah, who by their godless con-duet hastened the ruin of the kingdom. As to the four kings remaining, who reigned between Josiah's death and the destruction of Jerusalem, he gives, besides their ages at their respective accessions, only a short characterization of their conduct towards God, and a statement of the main events which, step by step, brought about the ruin of the king and th...

THEREFORE HE BROUGHT UPON THEM THE KING OF THE CHALDEES,.... Nebuchadnezzar; and though it was the rebellion of Zedekiah which was the cause and occasion of his coming against them, yet it was the Lord that moved him to it, and gave him success: WHO SLEW THEIR YOUNG MEN WITH THE SWORD, IN THE HOUSE OF THE SANCTUARY; in the temple, where they took sanctuary, imagining that sacred place would protect them from the rage of the enemy, but it did not: AND HAD NO COMPASSION ON YOUNG MAN OR MAIDEN, OLD MAN, OR HIM THAT STOOPED FOR AGE; spared none on account of age or sex, but put them all to the sword, or carried them captive: HE GAVE THEM INTO HIS HAND; that is, the Lord delivered them into the hand of the king of Babylon, for their sins....

IV. THE CAPTIVITY AND THE EPILOGUE CHAPTER 36:15-23 _ 1. The captivity (2 Chronicles 36:15)_ 2. The epilogue (2 Chronicles 36:22) In infinite patience the Lord still waited for the return of His people. Judgment is His strange work, but He delighteth in mercy. He sent them messengers who exhorted them and brought the messages of God, because He had compassion. But they mocked the messengers, despised God's gracious offers and misused His prophets, till there was no remedy. An awful statement. Apostasy and defiance of God increased to such an extent, till there was no remedy. The threatening clouds of judgment broke at last and the people were carried away into the captivity. “To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land

HE BROUGHT. To leave us in no doubt as to the real cause. Compare Judges 1:8, and see App-53. THEIR SANCTUARY. No longer Jehovah's. Compare and contrast "My Father's house" (John 2:16) and "your house" (Matthew 23:38). The former at the beginning of His ministry; the latter at the close. ALL. the whole that came into her hand....

_Chaldees_ R.V. CHALDEANS. Their name in Hebrew is _Casdim_and in Assyrio-Babylonian _Caldu_(the change of "s" for "l" before a dental is not uncommon in the latter language). They were a people originally living south of Babylon on the sea, but Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Babylon and established A Chaldæo-Babylonian empire. _in the house of their sanctuary_ Cp. Ezekiel's vision of the slaughter; Ezekiel 9:1-11. _him that stooped for age_ R.V. ANCIENT; cp. Isaiah 9:15....

21. THE REIGN OF ZEDEKIAH (2 Chronicles 36:11-17) TEXT 2 Chronicles 36:11. Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: 12. and he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God; he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of Jehovah. 13. 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 unto Jehovah, the God of Israel. 14. Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15. And Jehovah, the God of their fathers, sent to th

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM This is a brief record of the reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, and of the destruction of Jerusalem. The first twenty vv. of this chapter are abbreviated from 2 Kings 23:30 to 2 Kings 25:21, with some variations of statement....