Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Chronicles · About this commentary
The Last Kings, and the Decree of Cyrus
2 Chronicles 36:1-23
1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem. · WEB
Four kings fall in twenty-two years, the house is burned, and the book's last word is the commission with which it opened.
The end comes quickly and the writer does not slow it down. Four kings in twenty-two years, two of them reigning three months. Each is deposed by a foreign power, and the powers change: Egypt removes the first and installs his brother; Babylon takes the next three 2 Chronicles 36:3–4 2 Chronicles 36:6–10.
The vessels go out in installments. Some first, then the valuable vessels, and finally all the vessels of God's house, great and small 2 Chronicles 36:7 2 Chronicles 36:10 2 Chronicles 36:18. The book has followed those objects since they were cast in the Jordan clay, and it counts them out of the country in three loads.
The verdict on the last king uses the book's own vocabulary twice. He didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from Yahweh's mouth, and he hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh 2 Chronicles 36:12–13. Humbling and turning are two of the four verbs of the dedication promise 2 Chronicles 7:14, and the last king of Judah is described by their absence.
Then the summary of the whole history, and it is not an account of idolatry. God sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; but they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh's wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy 2 Chronicles 36:15–16.
The reason given for the sending is compassion, and the sending is described as persistent and early. What ended it was not the offense but the mockery of the remedy. Until there was no remedy is a statement about exhausted means, not about exhausted patience.
The destruction is then reported in four flat clauses: the house burned, the wall broken down, the palaces burned, the vessels destroyed 2 Chronicles 36:19. What Solomon dedicated in seven days of feasting is disposed of in one verse, exactly as the night answer said it would be 2 Chronicles 7:20–22.
The explanation offered for the length of the exile is a rule about land rather than a sentence on people. The captivity lasted until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths, seventy years of it 2 Chronicles 36:21. The years were arrears, owed under a law about resting the ground Leviticus 26:34–35, and a figure given in advance by a prophet Jeremiah 25:11.
And then the book does not end there. Two more verses, and they turn everything.
God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, who proclaims that Yahweh has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, and releases whoever will go 2 Chronicles 36:22–23. That is the commission the book opened with, given now to a foreigner, six centuries and a burnt temple later.
The quotation stops mid-decree, on let him go up. Nothing is said about whether anyone went, or what was built, or how it turned out. The last thing a reader is given is not a restoration but permission and an open road, which is exactly where the first readers of this book were standing.
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