Zedekiah

Also known as: Zedekiah king of Judah / Zedekiah the king / king Zedekiah / king of Judah · Family: Judah · Role: king · First appears: Jeremiah 1

Zedekiah was the son of Josiah and, in the court record, the son of Hananiah; his mother was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. He reigned as king of Judah for eleven years, succeeding Coniah, whom Nebuchadrezzar had made king. In Jeremiah 21, he sent Pashur and Zephaniah to Jeremiah to seek the LORD’s counsel about Babylon’s war, but God declared that Judah’s weapons would be turned back and that Zedekiah and the survivors would be delivered into Nebuchadrezzar’s hand.

Through Jeremiah, God warned Zedekiah to submit to Babylon’s yoke and serve its king, or face death by war, famine, and pestilence. In the tenth year of his reign, Zedekiah had Jeremiah confined in the prison court for prophesying Jerusalem’s capture, yet he later sent Jehucal and Zephaniah to ask the prophet to pray, questioned him secretly, and ordered that he receive daily bread. When Jeremiah was cast into a muddy dungeon, Zedekiah first surrendered him to the princes, then commanded Ebedmelech to rescue him before he died.

Zedekiah made a covenant proclaiming liberty and releasing Hebrew servants, but God declared that he and his princes would be given into the hands of their enemies. In secret, he swore to Jeremiah, “I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life,” while Jeremiah told him that surrender to Babylon’s princes would preserve his life and the city. In his eleventh year, Jerusalem was breached; Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon, was captured by Nebuchadrezzar at Riblah, and saw his sons and Judah’s princes slain before him. Nebuchadrezzar then blinded him, bound him, carried him to Babylon, and imprisoned him until his death.