2 Chronicles 36:20

_AND THEM THAT HAD ESCAPED FROM THE SWORD CARRIED HE AWAY TO BABYLON; WHERE THEY WERE SERVANTS TO HIM AND HIS SONS UNTIL THE REIGN OF THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA:_ Them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon. The humiliating and destructive aggression of the Chaldeans on the kingdom of Judah was followed by the removal of Jewish captives to Babylon, in accordance with the prophetic word of the Lord, announced first by Isaiah to Hezekiah privately (2 Kings 20:17; also Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1), and afterward by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 29:10) publicly with respect to the duration of the captivity. S

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....

SERVANTS - Or, “slaves.” They were probably employed by Nebuchadnezzar in the forced labor which his great works necessitated. HIS SONS - The word probably includes all Nebuchadnezzars successors in the independent sovereignty of Babylon....

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...

AND THEM THAT HAD ESCAPED FROM THE SWORD CARRIED HE AWAY CAPTIVE,.... The king of Babylon, or his general by his orders, excepting some poor persons left to till the land, see Jeremiah 52:15, WHERE THEY WERE SERVANTS TO HIM AND HIS SONS; his son Evilmerodach, and his grandson Belshazzar, Jeremiah 27:7: UNTIL THE REIGN OF THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA; until that monarchy began, as it did upon the taking of Babylon by Cyrus king of Persia. This is the first place we meet with this name of Persia in Scripture. The Arabic writers differ about the origin of it; some derive it from Pars the son of Arsham (Arphaxad), the son of Shem; others from Pars the son of Amur, the son of Japheth; and others say Pars was the son of Elam, the son of Shem, the son of Noah a; but Bochart b,

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

SERVANTS. Compare Jeremiah 27:6; Jeremiah 27:7; Daniel 1. This was foretold in 2 Kings 20:17; 2 Kings 20:18; Isaiah 39:7. THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA. See the Chronological Structure of Ezra-Nehemiah (p. 618), and notes there....

UNTIL THE REIGN OF THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA— _Until the reign of the king of Persia._ Houbigant. Respecting the proclamation of Cyrus, see the beginning of the next book: Kennicott thinks that the two last verses of this book belong properly to the book of Ezra....

22. JERUSALEM OVERTHROWN (2 Chronicles 36:18-21) TEXT 2 Chronicles 36:18. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. 20. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21. to fulfill the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths: for as long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years....

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....