his brother] In 2 Kings (more accurately) “his father’s brother”; compare 1 Chronicles iii. 15, 16, notes.
11–19 (= 1 Esdras i. 46–56; compare 2 Kings xxiv. 18–xxv. 21; Jeremiah xxxvii. 1–xxxix. 8, lii. 1–27).
Reign of Zedekiah. Destruction of Jerusalem.
¹¹Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem:
11. in Jerusalem] The Chronicler omits, as usual, his mother’s name. She was “Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah” (2 Kings xxiv. 18), and was mother of Jehoahaz also (2 Kings xxiii. 31). Jehoiakim was by a different mother (2 Kings xxiii. verse 36).
¹²and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God; he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the Lord.
12. humbled not himself] Jeremiah consistently advised Zedekiah to submit to the Chaldeans; but the king partly through fear of his princes, partly through illusive hopes, could never bring himself to do so; compare Jeremiah xxi. 1–7, xxxiv. 8–22, xxxvii. 1–10, 17, xxxviii. 17–23.
¹³And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened[¹] his heart from turning unto the Lord, the God of Israel.
[¹] Hebrew strengthened.
13. who had made him swear by God] Compare Ezekiel xvii. 11–19.
¹⁴Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the heathen; and they polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.