2 Kings 24:2

2Ki 24:2 And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets.

Ver. 2. And the Lord sent against him bands.] Latrunculos the Vulgate renders it. Soldiers that fight in an evil cause are no better than robbers and spoilers. Josephus saith that Nebuchadnezzar, bringing from that siege of Tyre {Eze 26:7} some part of his army, entered therewith Jerusalem, slew Jehoiakim, and cast him out unburied, according to Jer 22:18-19, carrying away three thousand and three and twenty Jews. {Jer 52:28} And here began the seventy years’ captivity: now was Daniel and his companions brought to Babylon, {Dan 1:3-7} according to Isa 39:7.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 24:2. The Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees — Including, probably, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, who were all now subject to the king of Babylon, and many of them engaged as soldiers in his service. Doubtless they were ordered by Nebuchadnezzar to attack and chastise Jehoiakim and the revolted Jews; yet no mention is here made of their commission from the king of Babylon, but only of that from the King of kings: the Lord sent them. And again, (2Ki 24:3,) Surely upon the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah; otherwise the order of Nebuchadnezzar could not have brought it. Many are serving God’s purposes, who are not aware of it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24:2 Nebuchadnezzar bided his time between 601 and 598 BC while consolidating his hold on the west, sending various raiders to harass Judah.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. According to the word of the Lord] See what Huldah predicted, 2Kg 22:16, and see chap. 14, 15, and 16 of Jeremiah.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees.—Jehoiakim’s revolt was no doubt instigated by Egypt. Whilst Nebuchadnezzar himself was engaged elsewhere in his great empire, predatory bands of Chaldeans, and of the neighbouring peoples the hereditary enemies of Judah, who had submitted to Nebuchadnezzar, and were nothing loth to make reprisals for the power which Josiah had, perhaps, exercised over them, ravaged the Judæan territory (comp. Jer_12:8-17, concerning Judah’s “evil neighbours”).

According to the word of the Lord.—Isaiah, Micah, Urijah (Jer_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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees] R.V. Chaldæans. The bands were irregular marauding parties which were allowed, perhaps encouraged, to overrun the country of the rebellious vassal before the great king could put his trained force in motion. These marauders did not consist only of Babylonians (Chaldæans) but comprised also bodies from the surrounding people, Syria, Moab and Ammon, whom Nebuchadnezzar had compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of Babylon in the same way as Judah had done. On this mixed army of assailants cf. Jer_25:9.

according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by [R.V. by the hand of] his servants the prophets] Much more stress is laid in Kings on the judgement being Jehovah’s work than in Chronicles. ‘The Lord sent the bands’, they came ‘according to the Lord’s word’ and ‘at His commandment’. The prophets had been predicting judgements to come ever since the days of Ahaz, when Isaiah prophesied. Jeremiah says, in the chapter just quoted (2Ki_25:3), that his own appeals had been long and unavailing. A special prophecy of Isaiah concerning these events is found above (2Ki_20:17).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord sent against him,.... By Nebuchadnezzar, against whom he rebelled:

bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon; who were all subject to the king of Babylon, or were voluntary troops in his service, and bore an hatred to the Jews: according to Eupolemus (o), this army consisted of Medes and Babylonians, and, besides 10,000 chariots, there were in it 180,000 foot, and 120,000 horse:

and sent them against Judah to destroy it; this was not until the eleventh of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar being diverted by the siege of Tyre, or other important business, from chastising the king of Judah until this time:

according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets; Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Huldah the prophetess.

(o) Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 39. p. 454.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

See the marginal references. Instead of coming up in person Nebuchadnezzar sent against Jehoiakim his own troops and those of the neighboring nations.

The ravages of the Moabites and the Ammonites are especially alluded to in the following passages: Jer 48:26-27; Jer 49:1; Eze 25:3-6; Zep 2:8.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The rovers. Latrunculos. Bands or parties of men, who pillaged and plundered wherever they came. (Challoner) See chap. v. 2., and Judges xi. 3. --- Nabuchodonosor could not come in person. --- Prophets. Holda, supra chap. xxii. 16., and Isaias xx. 17., and Jeremias xiv., xv., xvi., &c.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Nebuchadnezzar’s army was made up of several nations, who were willing to fight under the banner of such a puissant and victorious emperor.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. The Lord sent — In this verse and the next, the writer emphasizes the thought that the afflictions of Judah were a direct judgment of Jehovah for the sins of the nation, especially those of Manasseh.

Bands — Predatory troops; not an organized army.

Chaldees — Natives of Babylonia, or Chaldea, whom, perhaps, Nebuchadnezzar had left to garrison certain frontier towns. They may have warred against Judah by command of Nebuchadnezzar, who, at the time, was unable to attend to the rebellious nation.

Syrians… Moabites… children of Ammon — Neighbouring tribes on the north and west of Judah, who were all, doubtless, subject to Nebuchadnezzar, and, as Thenius suggests, were pleased with an opportunity of gratifying their ancient hatred against the Jewish people.

To destroy it — They aimed to ruin Judah but it seems they were not able to take the city.

By… the prophets — Chief among whom were Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Huldah, and Jeremiah. Compare the marginal references.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees. That Nebuchadnezzar did not promptly march against Jehoiakim to suppress his rebellion, but contented himself with sending against him a few "bands" (ydeWdg) of Chaldeans, and exciting the neighboring Syrians, Ammonites, and Moabites to invade and ravage his territory, can scarcely be otherwise accounted for than by supposing that he was detained in Middle Asia by wars or rebellious nearer home. It may have been a knowledge of these embarrassments that induced Jehoiakim to lend an ear to the persuasions of Nechoh. And bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, (comp. Eze_19:8, "Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit and sent them against Judah to destroy iti.e. to begin that waste and ruin which should terminate ultimately in the complete destruction and obliteration of the Judaean kingdomaccording to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servants the prophets. As Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Huldah. (see 2Ki_22:16-20)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bands - For Nebuchadnezzar's army was made up of several nations, who were willing to fight under the banner of such a puissant and victorious emperor.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

To punish Jehoiakim's rebellion, Jehovah sent hosts of Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites against him and against Judah to destroy it (להאבידו). Nebuchadnezzar was probably too much occupied with other matters relating to his kingdom, during the earliest years of his reign after his father's death, to be able to proceed at once against Jehoiakim and punish him for his revolt.

(Note: Compare the remarks of M. v. Niebuhr on this point (Gesch. pp. 208,209) and his summary at p. 209: "Nebuchadnezzar had enough to do in Babylon and the eastern half of his kingdom, to complete the organization of the new kingdom, to make the military roads to the western half of the kingdom along the narrow valley of the Euphrates and through the desert, and also to fortify them and provide them with watering stations and every other requisite, to repair the damages of the Scythian hordes and the long contest with Nineveh, to restore the shattered authority, and to bring Arabs and mountain-tribes to order. All this was more important than a somewhat more rapid termination of the Egyptian war and the pacification of Syria.")

He may also have thought it a matter of too little importance for him to go himself, as there was not much reason to be afraid of Egypt since its first defeat (cf. M. v. Niebuhr, p. 375). He therefore merely sent such troops against him as were in the neighbourhood of Judah at the time. The tribes mentioned along with the Chaldaeans were probably all subject to Nebuchadnezzar, so that they attacked Judah at his command in combination with the Chaldaean tribes left upon the frontier. How much they effected is not distinctly stated; but it is evident that they were not able to take Jerusalem, from the fact that after the death of Jehoiakim his son was able to ascend the throne (Kg2 24:6). - The sending of these troops is ascribed to Jehovah, who, as the supreme controller of the fate of the covenant-nation, punished Jehoiakim for his rebellion. For, after the Lord had given Judah into the hands of the Chaldaeans as a punishment for its apostasy from Him, all revolt from them was rebellion against the Lord. "According to the word of Jehovah, which He spake by His servants the prophets," viz., Isaiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, and others.

Kg2 24:3-5

יי על־פּי אך: "only according to the mouth (command) of Jehovah did this take place against Judah," i.e., for no other reason than because the Lord had determined to put away Judah from before His face because of Manasseh's sins (cf. Kg2 21:12-16, and Kg2 23:27). "And Jehovah would not forgive," even if the greatest intercessors, Moses and Samuel, had come before Him (Jer 15:1.), because the measure of the sins was full, so that God was obliged to punish according to His holy righteousness. We must repeat בּ from the preceding words before הנּקי דּם.

Kg2 24:6-7

"Jehoiakim lay down to (fell asleep with) his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his stead." That this statement is not in contradiction to the prophecies of Jer 22:19 : "Jehoiakim shall be buried like an ass, carried away and cast out far away from the gates of Jerusalem," and Jer 36:30 : "no son of his shall sit upon the throne of David, and his body shall lie exposed to the heat by day and to the cold by night," is now generally admitted, as it has already been by J. D. Michaelis and Winer. But the solution proposed by Michaelis, Winer, and M. v. Niebuhr (Gesch. p. 376) is not sufficient, namely, that at the conquest of Jerusalem, which took place three months after the death of Jehoiakim, his bones were taken out of the grave, either by the victors out of revenge for his rebellion, or by the fury of the people, and cast out before the city gate; for Jeremiah expressly predicts that he shall have no funeral and no burial whatever. We must therefore assume that he was slain in a battle fought with the troops sent against him, and was not buried at all; an assumption which is not at variance with the words, "he laid himself down to his fathers,"' since this formula does not necessarily indicate a peaceful death by sickness, but is also applied to king Ahab, who was slain in battle (Kg1 22:40, cf. Kg2 22:20).

(Note: The supposition of Ewald (Gesch. iii. p. 733), that Jehoiakim was enticed out of the capital by a stratagem of the enemy, and taken prisoner, and because he made a furious resistance was hurried off in a scuffle and mercilessly slaughtered, is at variance with the fact that, according to v. 10, it was not till after his death that the army of the enemy advanced to the front of Jerusalem and commenced the siege.)

- And even though his son Jehoiachin ascended the throne after his father's death and maintained his position for three months against the Chaldaeans, until at length he fell into their hands and was carried away alive to Babylon, the prophet might very truly describe this short reign as not sitting upon the throne of David (cf. Graf on Jer 22:19). - To the death of Jehoiakim there is appended the notice in Kg2 24:7, that the king of Egypt did not go out of his own land any more, because the king of Babylon had taken away everything that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates. The purpose of this notice is to indicate, on the one hand, what attitude Necho, whose march to the Euphrates was previously mentioned, had assumed on the conquest of Judah by the Chaldaeans, and on the other hand, that under these circumstances a successful resistance to the Chaldaeans on the part of Judah was not for a moment to be thought of.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)