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Concept
Zedekiah
Summary
Zedekiah (ˌzɛdᵻˈkaɪə) was the twentieth and final King of Judah before the conquest of the kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. His birth name was Mattaniah/Mattanyahu (מַתַּנְיָהוּ, Mattanyāhū, "Gift of God"; Μαθθανίας; Matthanias).
After the siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II deposed king Jeconiah and installed his uncle Mattanyahu instead, changing his name to Zedekiah (). The prophet Jeremiah was his counselor, yet he did not heed the prophet and his epitaph is "he did evil in the sight of the Lord" (; ).
William F. Albright dates the start of Zedekiah's reign to 598 BC, while Edwin R. Thiele gives the start in 597 BC. On that reckoning, Zedekiah was born in c. 617 BC or 618 BC, being twenty-one on becoming king. Zedekiah's reign ended with the siege and fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar II, which has been dated to 587 or 586 BC.
The defeat of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 612 BC at the Battle of Nineveh by the Neo-Babylonian Empire caused upheavals that led to the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah. Egypt, concerned about the new threat posed by the Babylonians, moved northward to support Assyria. It set on the march in 608 BC, moving through Judah. King Josiah attempted to block the Egyptian forces and fell mortally wounded in battle at Megiddo. Josiah's younger son Jehoahaz was chosen to succeed his father on the throne. Three months later the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II, returning from the north, deposed Jehoahaz in favor of his older brother, Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz was taken back to Egypt as a captive.
After the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim changed allegiances to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem. He paid tribute from the treasury, some artifacts from the temple, and some of the royal family and nobility were taken as hostages. The subsequent failure of the Babylonian invasion into Egypt undermined Babylonian control of the area, and after three years, Jehoiakim switched allegiance back to the Egyptians and ceased paying the tribute to Babylon.
Official source
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