ZEDEKIAH’S COVENANT-BREAKING

In the year 617 B.C.E. Zedekiah’s nephew, King Jehoiachin, along with other foremost men and members of the royal family, was taken as a captive to Babylon. At that time the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, placed Zedekiah on the throne of Jerusalem and made him promise, on oath in the name of Jehovah, that he would be a loyal vassal king. Princes and other prominent men also bound themselves to be loyal vassals. (Ezek. 17:13, 14; 21:23) Did Jehovah God view these oath-bound promises as being of little importance?

There were Jews who thought that it did not matter to Jehovah if they broke their oath-bound promises. They favored rebelling against the king of Babylon and relying upon Pharaoh of Egypt for support. They encouraged Zedekiah to do this. Speaking prophetically of the rebellion against King Nebuchadnezzar, Jehovah declared:

“He [Zedekiah] finally rebelled against him in sending his messengers to Egypt, for it to give him horses and a multitudinous people. Will he [Zedekiah] have success? Will he escape, he who is doing these things, and who has broken a covenant? And will he actually escape? ‘As I am alive,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, ‘in the place of the king [Nebuchadnezzar] who put in as king the one [Zedekiah] that despised his oath and that broke his covenant, with him in the midst of Babylon he will die. And by a great military force and by a multitudinous congregation Pharaoh will not make him effective in the war, by throwing up a siege rampart and by building a siege wall, in order to cut off many souls. And he [Zedekiah] has despised an oath in breaking a covenant, and, look! he had given his hand [in pledge of covenant keeping] and has done even all these things. He will not make his escape.’”​—Ezek. 17:15-18.

NO ESCAPE FROM PUNISHMENT

Thus Jehovah emphasized that he would not approve of Zedekiah’s breaking the oath and would not protect him from the bitter consequences to follow. He foretold that King Nebuchadnezzar would not overlook the rebellion of Zedekiah but would march against Jerusalem. This would be in harmony with Jehovah’s purpose to use King Nebuchadnezzar and his armies as the punitive “sword” against the oath-breaking rebels who used Jehovah’s name in vain.

What King Nebuchadnezzar drew forth with his right hand was the favored choice, to indicate the most auspicious course. Jehovah God saw to it that this choice would, in agreement with his will, direct the king of Babylon against Jerusalem first. This meant bringing up against Jerusalem all the Babylonian heavy siege equipment and using all the devices for besieging a strongly fortified city.

This prophecy foretelling the outcome of Nebuchadnezzar’s divination sounded “untrue” to the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem. They felt that the king of Babylon would not desire to come against such a heavily fortified place as Jerusalem. They felt that he simply could not take such a strongly walled city. They also felt that Egypt’s military might would repel any possible military effort undertaken against them. What the overconfident Jews failed to remember was that their oath breaking was a sin against Jehovah God. He would see to it that their rebellious course would be exposed and not forgotten by King Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem would be conquered and its inhabitants ‘seized by the hand’ and led captive to Babylon. (Ezek. 21:23, 24) That also signified that King Zedekiah would be forced to do what Jehovah had declared through Ezekiel:

“You, O deadly wounded, wicked chieftain of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the error of the end, this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘Remove the turban, and lift off the crown. This will not be the same. Put on high even what is low, and bring low even the high one. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. As for this also, it will certainly become no one’s until he comes who has the legal right, and I must give it to him.’”​—Ezek. 21:25-27.

By his rebellious course King Zedekiah mortally or fatally wounded himself. That deadly wound meant, not a peaceful death as a loyal vassal king in Jerusalem, but a disgraceful death as a dethroned, childless, sightless, imprisoned exile in Babylon. By reason of his rebellion, Zedekiah showed himself to be a “wicked chieftain of Israel.” His day for eating the bitter fruitage of his badness had come. It was now the “time of the error of the end,” not alone the “error” of King Zedekiah, but also the “error” of all the kingdom of Judah and of Jerusalem. The time of this “end” began in the thirteenth year of Judean King Josiah, at which time Jeremiah began to prophesy. (Jer. 1:1, 2; 25:3-11) At the culmination of this “end” King Zedekiah did not voluntarily give up his turban and crown. This consequence was forced upon him when his royal throne and city were destroyed.

With that destruction in the year 607 B.C.E. the typical kingdom of God on earth, with a descendant of David sitting on “Jehovah’s throne” in Jerusalem, came to an end. This meant a complete reversal of matters on the world stage. As the miniature kingdom of Jehovah God, the Kingdom of Judah had been the “high one.” But it was made “low” by being destroyed. The Gentile or non-Jewish nations, however, were “put on high,” for the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah left Gentile rule in control of all the earth.