Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 24

In his days. —In his fifth or sixth year. In Jehoiakim’s fourth year, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho at Carchemish (Jeremiah 46:2), and was suddenly called home by the news of the death of Nabopolassar his father, whom he succeeded on the throne of Babylon in the same year (Jeremiah 25:1).

From Jeremiah 36:9, we learn that towards the end of Jehoiakim’s fifth year the king of Babylon was expected to invade the land. When this took place, Nebuchadnezzar humbled Jehoiakim, who had probably made his submission, by putting him in chains, and carrying off some of the Temple treasures (2 Chronicles 36:6–7).

Left in the possession of his throne as a vassal of Babylon, Jehoiakim paid tribute three years, and then tried to throw off the yoke.

And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees. —Jehoiakim’s revolt was no doubt instigated by Egypt. While Nebuchadnezzar himself was engaged elsewhere in his great empire, predatory bands of Chaldeans, along with the neighboring peoples, ravaged the Judean territory (compare Jeremiah 12:8-17, concerning Judah’s “evil neighbors”). These neighboring peoples were the hereditary enemies of Judah; they had submitted to Nebuchadnezzar and were not at all reluctant to make reprisals for the power Josiah had, perhaps, exercised over them.

According to the word of the Lord. —Isaiah, Micah, Urijah (Jeremiah 26:20), Huldah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and doubtless others whose names and writings have not been transmitted, had foretold the fate that was now closing in upon Judah.

Surely at the commandment. —Literally, Only (that is, upon no other ground than) upon the mouth (that is, at the command of; 2 Kings 23:35) of Jehovah did it happen in Judah. The Septuagint and Syriac read wrath instead of mouth, which Ewald prefers (so 2 Kings 24:20).

Out of his sight. — From before his face, that is, as the Targum explains, from the land where he was present in his Temple.

For the sins of Manasseh. —Compare 2 Kings 21:11 and following, 2 Kings 23:26 and following; Jeremiah 15:4.

The innocent blood. —Heb., blood of the innocent; an expression like hand of the right, i.e., the right hand; or, day of the sixth, i.e., the sixth day. Thenius thinks the murder of some prominent personage, such as Isaiah, may be intended, and wishes to distinguish between the statement of the first clause of the verse and the second; but 2 Kings 21:16, where the two statements are connected more closely, does not favour this view.

Which the Lord would not pardon. —Literally, and Jehovah willed not to pardon. We must not soften the statement of 2 Kings 24:3–4, as Bähr does, by asserting the meaning to be that the nation was punished, not for the sins of Manasseh, but for its persistence in the same kind of sins.

The sins of Manasseh are regarded as a climax in Judah’s long course of provocation: the cup was full, and judgment ready to fall. It was only suspended for a time, not revoked, in the reign of the good king Josiah. In short, the idea of the writer is that the innocent blood shed by Manasseh cried to heaven for vengeance, and that the ruin of the kingdom was the answer of the All-righteous Judge.

It is no objection to say that in that case children suffered for their fathers’ misdeeds; that was precisely the Old Testament doctrine, until Ezekiel proclaimed another (Ezekiel 18:19; Deuteronomy 5:9). Looking at the catastrophe from a different standpoint, we may remember that national iniquities must be chastised in the present life, if at all; and that the sufferings of the exile were necessary for the purification of Israel from its inveterate tendency to apostatise from Jehovah.

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim ... — Assuming with Hitzig that the passage Habakkuk 2:9-14 refers to him, we gather that he severely oppressed his people by his exactions of forced labour upon the defences of Jerusalem. Thenius concludes from the words, that he may set his nest on high, etc., that Jehoiakim strengthened and enlarged the fortress on Ophel erected by Manasseh. (Compare also Jeremiah 22:13-17.)

Are they not written ... — The last reference to this authority. Bähr concludes that the work did not extend beyond the reign of Jehoiakim.