Ninth Study.
THE CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH.
I. We must distinguish between the CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL, or the ten tribes, and THAT OF JUDAH.
1. The captivity of Israel took place B. C. 721, that of Judah B. C. 587. The southern kingdom lasted one hundred and thirty-four years longer than the northern.
2. Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians under Sargon; Judah by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar.
3. Israel was taken to the lands south of the Caspian Sea (2 Kings 17. 6); Judah to Chaldea, by the river Euphrates (Psa. 137. 1).
4. Israel never returned from its captivity, which was the end of its history; but Judah was brought back from its captivity and again became a flourishing state, though subject to foreign nations during most of its after history.
II. There were THREE CAPTIVITIES of Judah, all in one generation and all under one Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar:
1. Jehoiakim's captivity. (B. C. 607.) Jehoiakim was the son of Josiah, placed upon the throne after the battle of Megiddo, in which Josiah perished (2 Kings 23. 34). In the war between Pharaoh-nechoh of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar (then joint king of Babylon with his father Nabopolassar) Jehoiakim, as a vassal of Nechoh, aided the Egyptians. After the defeat of Nechoh, Nebuchadnezzar marched to punish Jehoiakim. He was called away from the siege of Jerusalem by the death of his father and the necessity of hastening to Babylon to assume the government. Jehoiakim was spared, but a number of the nobles of Judah were taken to Babylon, perhaps as hostages for the king's good conduct. For three years Jehoiakim obeyed Nebuchadnezzar; then he rebelled, but was speedily reduced to subjection, and many of the leading people among the Jews were carried captive to Babylon (2 Kings 24. 1, 2). Among these captives was Daniel the prophet (Dan. 1. 1-6). From this event the seventy years of the captivity were dated (Jer. 27. 22; 29. 10), though the kingdom of Judah remained for twenty years longer. Jehoiakim, the king, was not taken away, though bound in chains for that purpose (2 Chron. 36. 6); he reigned several years after this event, but under suspicion of the Chaldeans, and his end was ignoble (Jer. 22. 18, 19; 36. 30).