Глава 36

(cf. 2 Kings 23:30,24:1–20,25:1–30) 1–3. 17th King of Judah Jehoahaz, his three-month reign and deposition by Pharaoh. 4–6. The eleven-year wicked reign of the 18th king of Judah, Joachim, and his taking to Babylon. 9–10. Three-month reign of the 19th king – Jehoiachin. 11–20. The eleven-year wicked reign of the last, 20th, king of Judah Zedekiah, the deposition from Nebuchadnezzar; the robbery and burning of the temple and Jerusalem and the resettlement of the Jews to Babylon. 21–23. The seventy-year captivity of the Jews and the decree of Cyrus about their return to their homeland. (Prayer of Manasseh). 2 Chronicles 36:1 . And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, [and anointed him] and made him king in the stead of his father in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 36:2. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months. [His mother’s name is Amytal, daughter of Jeremiah from Lovna. And he did what was evil before the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. And Pharaoh Necho bound him in Devlath in the land of Hamath, so that he would not reign in Jerusalem.] 2 Chronicles 36:3. And the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem [and the king brought him to Egypt], and imposed on the land a penalty of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. Another and probably the original name of Jehoahaz was Shallum, Heb. Shallum (Jer.22:11). His appointment as king, in addition to his elder brother Joachim (cf. v. 5), is probably explained by the fact that the people considered Jehoahaz in some respect more worthy of the firstborn Josiah, which, however, was absolutely not justified (see Jer. 22:11-17). Meanwhile, perhaps it was precisely this violation on the part of the Jewish people of the order of succession to the throne that “gave Pharaoh Necho a plausible pretext to again intervene in the affairs of Judea” (Prof. Gulyaev, “Historical Books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament,” p. 586). On his return journey from the borders of Assyria (see Josephus, "Jewish Antiquities", book X, 5, 2) Necho demanded that Jehoahaz come to him in Syria, in the city of Rivla ((2 Kings 23:31-33); see "Explanatory Bible", vol. II, p. 574) and, as can be concluded from the allegorical image of Jehoahaz in the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 19:3-4) - under the image of a lion cub, satiated with the blood of victims, wounded, caught and taken to Egypt, Joahaz did not voluntarily surrender into the hands of the Egyptian pharaoh, not without a struggle, on the contrary, after a desperate but fruitless attempt at armed resistance to the Egyptian army. Words of Art. 2 “the name of his mother... in Jerusalem”, placed in parentheses in the Russian Synodal translation, cannot be read in Hebrew. Bible and in some editions of the LXX translation (for example, in the Complutensian Bible) and are probably an insertion of Greek translators taken from (2 Kings 23:31–33). Lovna – the same as Libna (2 Kings 19:8,23:31); see The Interpretive Bible, vol. II, p. 549.574. Devlath, the same as Riblah (2 Kings 23:33,25:6,21); Onomasticon, 274; The Expository Bible, vol. II, 574. Having deposed the king of Judah, Jehoahaz, Pharaoh imposed a heavy tribute on Judah (v. 3); according to LXX: καὶ ἀπέθανέν ἐκεῖ (v. 4), Slavic Russian text, Jehoahaz died in Egypt. 2 Chronicles 36:4. And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, and Jehoahaz his brother took Necho and took him to Egypt [and he died there. And he gave silver and gold to Pharaoh: then the land began to give silver according to the word of Pharaoh, and everyone, according to authority, demanded silver and gold from the people of the land for tribute to Pharaoh Necho]. 2 Chronicles 36:5. Joachim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years [the name of his mother is Zehora, daughter of Neri from Rama]. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God [according to all that his fathers had done. In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the earth, and he served him three years and departed from him. And the Lord sent against them the Chaldeans, and the robbers of Syria, and the robbers of Moab, and the children of Ammon and Samaria, and they retreated according to this word, according to the word of the Lord through the mouth of His servants the prophets. However, the wrath of the Lord was on Judah, to reject him from His presence, for all the sins of Manasseh that he committed, and for the innocent blood that Joachim shed and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. But the Lord did not want to eradicate them]. 2 Chronicles 36:6. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came out against him and bound him with chains to take him to Babylon. 2 Chronicles 36:7. And Nebuchadnezzar carried part of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and placed them in his church in Babylon. 2 Chronicles 36:8. The rest of the deeds of Joachim and his abominations, which he did and which were found in him, are described in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. [And Joachim slept with his fathers, and was buried in Hanozan with his fathers.] And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. 2 Chronicles here talks about the reign of Joachim much shorter than it is told in a parallel passage (2 Kings 23:34–37,24:1–6); see The Interpretive Bible, vol. II, p. 574–576. As a sign of the complete vassal dependence of the Jewish king on the Egyptian pharaoh, the latter changes (cf. Gen. 41:45; Dan. 1:7) the name of Eliakim to Joachim. The tribute imposed by Pharaoh on Judea (verse 3) was exacted with harshness and extortion, indiscriminately between rich and poor (the words of verse 4, placed in parentheses in the Russian synodal translation, are found only in the text of LXX and were probably transferred here from (2 Kings 23:34); likewise in article 5 there is an insertion from (2 Kings 24:1-3 )), in which the agents of the Egyptian king may have been actively helped by Joachim, who declared his disastrous and pitiful reign especially through violence and oppression of the people (Jer. 22:13–19,36:23–24,30–32). In the second half of his reign, probably in the 8th year (cf. I. Flavius, “Jewish Antiquities,” book X, 6, 1; see “Explanatory Bible,” vol. II, p. 575). Joachim had to change Egyptian tributary to Babylonian: he submitted to the founder of the New Chaldean kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar (c. 600). BC). Joachim's attempt, under the influence of the Egyptian party, to free himself from tribute to the Babylonian king was fatal for Joachim: “Nebuchadnezzar came out against him... and bound him with chains to take him to Babylon” (v. 6). This is the news of 2 Chronicles, in view of a different kind of evidence (2 Books of Kings and the book of the prophet Jeremiah) about the death and burial of Joachim, namely evidence (2 Kings 24:6) (Joakim rested with his fathers, i.e. in Jerusalem, and according to (Jer.22:19,36:30) the corpse of Joachim was thrown outside the walls of Jerusalem and for a long time lay here like carrion) - is understood by interpreters either to mean that Nebuchadnezzar, having taken Joachim captive to Babylon, soon returned him back to Jerusalem, where he died; or so, that Nebuchadnezzar only gave the order to deliver Joachim captive to Babylon, but then canceled this order and ordered Joachim to be killed in Jerusalem, and his corpse was thrown out of the city. The latter would be simpler and more convenient, but the first is supported by the fact that according to other biblical data (Jer. 25:1,9; 2 Kings 24:1; Dan. 1:1), the king of Babylon during the reign of Joachim approached Jerusalem twice: the first time soon after the battle of Carchemish (Jer. 46:2), not earlier than the 4th and not later than the 8th year of Joachim reign: this period dates back to the so-called first migration of the Jews to Babylon (Dan.1:1-4), and together with the beginning of the seventy-year captivity of the Jews in Babylon (Jer.25:11-12,29:10). Thus, “the book of Kings speaks of Nebuchadnezzar’s first invasion of Judea, after which Jehoiakim still remained on the throne, although he paid tribute to Babylon, and also of the subsequent predatory raids of the Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites on the weakened Jews. The books of Chronicles, not having this news, contain a note about another invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, the consequence of which was the plunder of the Jerusalem Temple and the taking of Joachim into captivity” (Prof. Olesnitsky, “State Chronicle of the Kings of Judah,” p. 430). During this “second migration,” 3,023 Jews were captured (Jer. 52:28), and during the first, part of the vessels of the Jerusalem temple (v. 7), placed in the church of one of the Babylonian gods (cf. Dan. 1: 2) and kept there until the return of the Jews from captivity under Cyrus (1 Ezra 1: 7). Joachim was the last of the kings of Judah to die in his native country, and was also the last whose reign was described in the chronicle of the kings of Judah, which contained a description of the deeds of the kings from Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:29) to Joachim. By “the abominations of Joachim, which he did and which were found in him” (v. 8), Jewish interpreters understood special signs or cuts in honor of idols on the body of Joachim, as if discovered on his corpse lying without burial. But it is much more accurate to see here the general idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe idolatry and moral licentiousness of Joachim (see Calmet ad locum Migne, “Patrologia Cursus Completus. Series Graeca,” t. XI, Col. 1452–1453). The “chronicle of the kings” could also contain news - preserved only in the LXX translation and in Slavic, Russian texts - about the burial of Joachim in a certain Hanozan (textus receptus: ἐν γανοζαῆ; codices: 55, 60, 64, 119, 243, Alexandrian: ἐν γανοζάν ; Aldinsky: ἐν γανοζανὶ ). It is possible that these Greek expressions are a transcription of the Hebrew be-gan-Uzza - “in the garden of Uzza” (2 Kings 21:18), i.e., according to assumption, in the garden of King Uzziah-Azariah, where they were buried: 1) this king Uzziah himself (2 Chronicles 26:23); 2) Manasseh (2 Kings 21:18; 2 Chronicles 33:20) and Joachim are all wicked kings deprived of the honor of burial in royal tombs. 2 Chronicles 36:9. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months and ten days, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 36:10. After a year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and ordered him to be taken to Babylon along with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and he made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. “The reign of Jeconiah in the books of Chronicles, instead of a chronicle, has only a general formula with which chronicles usually begin, and is not widespread in the LXX translation. It is obvious that the state chronicle has ceased and the note was made by a private person” (Prof. Olesnitsky, “State Chronicle of the Kings of the Jews,” p. 431). In comparison with (2 Kings 24:8–16), the news of 2 Chronicles about the three-month reign of Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin is extremely shortened. In the accepted Masoretic text and the accepted LXX text in vv. Figure 9 shows Jehoiachin's 8-year-old age at his accession to the throne. But in Heb. Codex 525 in Kennicott and Greek codes: 19, 44, 64, 71, 74, 106, 108, 120, 121, 134, 158, 55, 60, 119, 243 in Golmes, in the Aldine and Complutensian Bibles there is a date: 18 years, according to the testimony ( 2 Kings 24:8), which is much more likely. Despite Jeconiah’s declared loyalty to the Babylonian king (I. Flavius, “Jewish Antiquities”, book X, 7, 1), the latter, with the opening of the time of military campaigns ((v. 10); cf. (2 Kings 11:1)), hastened to make a new invasion of Jerusalem, deposed Jehoiachin, taking captive with him a very significant number of Jews from the rich and educated classes and many treasures ((Jer.29:1-2); see “Explanatory Bible”, vol. II, p. 577). Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin's successor, the last (20th) king of Judah, to be Zedekiah (previously called Matthaniah (2 Kings 24:17)), the son of Josiah, therefore, Jehoiachin was not a brother (as in the Hebrew text 11 and in the Russian translation), but an uncle (LXX, Vulgata, Slavic). The complete dependence of this last king of Judah on the Babylonian king is already visible from the fact that the latter changed his name (2 Kings 24:17); Wed ( 2 Chron. 36:4 ) and comments on the last place; in addition, Nebuchadnezzar took from Zedekiah a deliberate oath of allegiance in the name of Jehovah (Ezek. 17:13). 2 Chronicles 36:11. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 36:12. and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who prophesied from the mouth of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 36:13. and he turned away from King Nebuchadnezzar, who took an oath from him in the name of God, and made his neck elastic and hardened his heart to the point that he did not turn to the Lord God of Israel. Of the events of the eleven-year wicked reign of Zedekiah, here, in addition to the king’s disobedience to the prophet Jeremiah (v. 12), it is also noted, obviously, as one of Zedekiah’s crimes - his perjury against Nebuchadnezzar (v. 13), from whom he openly rejected, contrary to the will of God through the prophet Jeremiah. “The remark of the books of Chronicles about Zedekiah does not at all have the character of chronicle messages and consists of a relation characteristic of prophetic speech. Two mentions of the name of the prophet Jeremiah in this report (vv. 12 and 21) can serve as indicators that it was either written by Jeremiah, or compiled on the basis of his prophetic speeches, with which it has similarities” (Prof. Olesnitsky, “State Chronicle of the Kings of Judah,” p. 431). 2 Chronicles 36:14. And all those in authority over the priests and over the people sinned greatly, imitating all the abominations of the pagans, and desecrated the house of the Lord, which He consecrated in Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 36:15. And the Lord God of their fathers sent His messengers to them from early morning, because He had compassion on His people and His habitation. 2 Chronicles 36:16. But they mocked those sent from God, and despised His words, and mocked His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord came upon His people, so that there was no salvation for them. Here a general indication of the internal reasons for the destruction of the kingdom of Judah is given (cf. (2 Kings 17:7-23), where the internal reasons for the decomposition and death of the northern, ten-tribe kingdom are similarly indicated). On the activities of the prophets in the kingdom of Judah and the attitude of the people towards them, cf. prophetic images, e.g. (Jer.25:4,36:23; Ezek.33:32; Dan.9:10). 2 Chronicles 36:17. And He brought the king of the Chaldeans against them, and he killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and did not spare [neither Zedekiah,] nor the youth, nor the maiden, nor the old man, nor the white-haired one: God gave everything into his hand. 2 Chronicles 36:18. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and his princes, he brought all to Babylon. 2 Chronicles 36:19. And they burned the house of God, and destroyed the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its treasures. 2 Chronicles 36:20. And he removed those who remained from the sword to Babylon, and they were his servants and his sons until the reign of the king of Persia, About the plunder and destruction of the temple and Jerusalem, about the resettlement of the Jews to Babylon - more details in (2 Kings 25:9-17), “Explanatory Bible”, vol. II, p. 580–581. In Babylon, the Jews were slaves of Nebuchadnezzar “and his sons” (v. 20), i.e. successors on the throne of the New Chaldean kingdom: Evilmerodach (561–559), Laorosoardach (552), Nabonidus (552–539) and Darius the Mede (539–537) until the transfer of the kingdom to Cyrus the Persian (537) - in total, according to the biblical reckoning, 70 years (v. 21; ( Jer.25:11–12,29:10; Zech.1:12); See Josephus, “Jewish Antiquities,” book X, 11, 2). 2 Chronicles 36:21. until, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord, spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, the land kept its Sabbaths. All the days of desolation she kept the Sabbath until she was seventy years old. From a biblical-theocratic point of view, the seventy-year Babylonian captivity is a strictly adequate punishment of the people of God for their violation of the foundations of theocracy, in particular, for neglecting the theocratic law on the Sabbath year ((Lev. 25: 1–7); “The Explanatory Bible,” vol. I, pp. 489–491): the land of Palestine, now abandoned by the Jews, received the peace of which it was deprived as a result wickedness and greed of its inhabitants (cf. Lev. 26:34–35). “From the reign of Saul,” says blessed Theodoret (question 37 on the book of Leviticus), “four hundred and ninety years are counted until the captivity; the seventh part of this is seventy. Therefore, what was said (Lev.26:34-35) means that the land will remain unsown and uncultivated, because you will live in a foreign land because, along with other laws, you violated the commandment of the Sabbath.” See The Expository Bible, vol. I, p. 500. 2 Chronicles 36:22. And in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord aroused the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, and he ordered to announce throughout his entire kingdom, verbally and in writing, and say: 2 Chronicles 36:23. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord God of heaven, and He commanded me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea. Whoever is of you, of all His people, [may] the Lord his God be with him, and let him go there. These final verses of 2 Chronicles are read verbatim at the beginning of 1 Ezra (1 Ezra 1:1–3); there is the real place of these verses (Prof. Olesnitsky, “State Chronicle of the Kings of Judah,” p. 431). But the news contained here about the time of the return from Babylonian captivity (1st year of the reign of Cyrus the Persian, cf. Josephus, “Antiquities of the Jews,” vol. XI, 1, 1) is also important for the correct understanding of the books of Chronicles in two respects. Firstly, an exact indication of the end of the captivity is given here: the 1st year of the reign of Cyrus, 537 or 536 BC, therefore, it is possible to accurately determine the beginning of the captivity of 607–606, i.e., according to the accepted chronology - the 4th year of the reign of Joachim, when the first resettlement of the party of Jews to Babylon took place (( Jeremiah 25:1 ff) or the first year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Thus, the boundaries of the seventy-year (v. 21) captivity of the Jews are precisely outlined and the assumption of some interpreters is excluded, according to which the beginning of the 70-year captivity should be considered with the final destruction of Jerusalem in 589, and its end recognized in the decree of Darius Hystaspes in 520. about the restoration of the Jerusalem temple (1 Ezra 4:24). Secondly, according to the remark of Blessed Theodoret, “the end of the book itself (2 Chronicles) shows that this (the contents of the book Chronicles) was collected by the sacred historian (σνγή γαγε) from many prophetic books after a long time, since it mentions the Persian king Cyrus and the return of captives (Jews)” (“Quaestiones in II Paralipomenon. Partologia Graece", T. LXXX, Col. 855,858) 12. As for Cyrus’s confession in his manifesto (v. 23) of “Jehovah, the God of heaven,” the message of Josephus (Jewish Antiquities, book XI, 1, 1) is not without significance that “Cyrus learned this while reading the book in which two hundred and ten years earlier the prophet Isaiah left his predictions,” i.e. those places of the prophetic book. Isaiah (Is.44:28,45:1), in which the future liberator of the Jews from captivity is named by name (Heb. Koresch, LXX: Κύρος, Persian Kurus (Kuru), Babylonian Kuras); The Jews themselves (Cleric) could have contributed to this acquaintance of Cyrus with the Bible. Of course, there can be no talk about the Jewish proselytism of Cyrus (cf. the remark about the imaginary proselytism of Hiram of Tire, to (1 Kings 5:7), "Explanatory Bible", vol. II, p. 385). For the non-canonical prayer of Manasseh, king of the Jews, placed in the Slavic-Russian Bible immediately after the chapter (2 Chronicles 36), see comments to (2 Chronicles 33:19). However, in codex 168 in Kennicott and codes 31, 940 in Rossi it reads: “his brother’s son, ben-ahiv” A very thorough and extremely interesting in its originality study of the origin and sources of the books of Chronicles is given in the talented work of Prof., which we have cited more than once. A.A. Olesnitsky, “State Chronicle of the Kings of Judah” or forgotten books (παραλεπομενα). Proceedings of the Kyiv Theological Academy, 1879, Nos. 8 and 12. However, the author’s main position about the greater antiquity of the books of Chronicles compared to 3 and 4 books of Kings stands completely alone in science and is only a hypothesis, very suitable, however, for the comparative study and explanation of the books of Chronicles on the one hand and the books of Kings on the other. In any case, such, for example, the conclusion of Prof. has all the power of persuasiveness. Olesnitsky: “the news of the books of Chronicles about the kings of Judah (except the latter) is distinguished by its chronicle selection of material and in all respects, greater than the news of the books of Kings, by its documentary quality, turning in many cases into a bare collection of documents and lists and breathing with the freshness of news taken directly from the treasury of the kings of the people of God.” Op. cit., p. 481 You might be interested in: