The Kings Of Israel And Judah. Day 139, The Fall Of Jerusalem, Part Three

King Zedekiah has been captured and Jerusalem has fallen to the Babylonian army. The Babylonians have broken down the walls. They have burned the palace, every home, and every public building of any governmental significance. They rounded up and took captive to Babylon a large number of the citizens of Jerusalem and Judah, all except the poorest of workers to maintain the fields and vineyards. They killed anyone who fought back or who tried to protect the city or the temple. They burned the temple too, but first they looted it.

"The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried the bronze to Babylon. They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls---all that were made of pure gold or silver." (2 Kings 25:13-15) There is an ancient legend that the Babylonian soldiers partied inside the temple for three days before they destroyed it and that they used the containers listed here for their food and drink. If it's true that they held a celebration, they probably made drunken toasts to their pagan gods and they probably ate and drank things that were non-kosher, thus defiling not only the temple but all the vessels inside the temple.

"The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed. Each pillar was eighteen cubits high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was three cubits high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar." (2 Kings 25:16-17) Conquering kings liked to make a detailed inventory of everything they took from another nation, including noting the weight of all the precious metals, but in the case of the pillars they were too large to weigh on any scales that existed in the ancient world. 

It's important to note that neither in the Bible nor in the chronicles of the Babylonians is the Ark of the Covenant mentioned as being taken from the temple. We know it was in the temple during the reign of King Josiah but nothing has been said about it since then and it will never again be mentioned as being present and accounted for. This has led to the theory---which I think is very likely---that it was hidden before the city fell to the Babylonians. Hiding it is not without precedent because it was apparently hidden during the reign of King Rehoboam when the nation was being attacked by Pharaoh Shishak; later Rehoboam ordered the Levites to return it to its proper place. So I can well imagine that it would have been hidden at some point during the era when Nebuchadnezzar came against the nation of Judah.  After all, this was the most important religious object of the nation and there were still some people there who were faithful to the Lord, though they might have been in the minority at the time. I cannot imagine Nebuchadnezzar not bragging about having captured this highly revered object, especially since the object symbolized the Lord's presence among His people. Nebuchadnezzar would have taken the capturing of the ark as a sign that his gods were more powerful than Israel's God and I do not believe he would have missed the opportunity to let everyone know he had the ark in his possession. We know, of course, that Nebuchadnezzar was able to conquer Judah only because the Lord allowed it due to Judah's idolatry, but the king of Babylon would have believed his victory was due to his gods being more powerful and he would have set the ark up in the temple of his gods where he placed the other items his men took from the temple of the Lord.

Since the location of the ark is a mystery we cannot solve at this time, we will move on. "The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers. Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and five royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and sixty of the conscripts who were found in the city. Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. There at Riblah, in the hand of Hamath, the king had them executed." (2 Kings 25:18-21a) Ancient tradition has it that Nebuchadnezzar set up his headquarters at Riblah, instead of at Jerusalem or just outside of Jerusalem, and sent his army commander to Jerusalem instead of going himself because he was afraid his army might be struck with a plague like the Assyrian army was when it came out intending to attack Jerusalem earlier in the Bible. In 2 Kings 19 the angel of the Lord struck 185,000 Assyrian soldiers dead during the night, without the people of Jerusalem having to fire a single arrow, and the Lord saved the city from the enemy by His own power. It is said that Nebuchadnezzar feared being struck down by plague if it was not the Lord's will to give His people over to the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar was not a follower of the Lord but he did believe He existed and that He might again defend His people. 

Many Bible scholars have made comparisons between the Assyrians and the Babylonians by saying that the Babylonians were far more merciful upon the nations they conquered. The Assyrians were well known for their extreme acts of cruelty upon anyone who refused to pay them tribute, whereas the Babylonians did not kill King Jehoiachin (taking him and his royal household into captivity instead) and did not even kill King Zedekiah after he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who was the man who placed him on the throne of Judah, but instead took him captive as well (although he blinded him first). The Babylonians also did not kill all the officials and all the priests but only the top-ranking ones, perhaps because they blamed them for advising Zedekiah to revolt. When we arrive at the books of the prophets we will see that Zedekiah preferred to follow the advice of his handpicked officials, the advice of wayward priests, and the advice of false prophets rather than listening to and obeying the word of God spoken through His prophets. 

In our next study session we will look at the remaining verses of 2 Kings 25 and then we will begin our study of the books of the prophets which will provide us with far more details of the spiritual downfall and the political downfall of the nation. But those books also contain some beautiful promises the Lord made to His people regarding their return to the land, the reestablishing of Israel as a nation, and the coming Redeemer.