2 Kings 24:20 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For through the anger of the Lord, &c. God was so highly displeased with this wicked people, that he permitted Zedekiah to break his faith with Nebuchadnezzar, and to rebel against him, forgetting for what cause he changed his name. Unto this revolt, it is probable, he was persuaded by the ambassadors which the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon, sent unto him, to solicit him to throw off the yoke of the king of Babylon, Jeremiah 27:2-4, &c.; which was the greater crime, because he had taken a solemn oath that he would be true to him, 2 Chronicles 36:13. The king of Egypt also, it is likely, promised him help, Ezekiel 17:15; and Hananiah, a false prophet, assured him God would, in two years time, break the yoke of the king of Babylon, and bring back all the vessels of the house of God, with Jehoiachin and all the captives: see Jeremiah 28:1-4. Jeremiah indeed proved that he made them trust in a lie, by predicting his death that very year, which accordingly came to pass, 2 Kings 24:15-17. But they still persisted in their vain hopes, there being other deceivers that prophesied falsely in God's name, Jeremiah 29:8-9: and they most of all deceived themselves with proud conceits that they were the true seed of Abraham, who had a right to that land, Ezekiel 33:24. The people's sins, therefore, as Poole has justly observed, were the true cause why God gave them wicked kings, whom he suffered to act wickedly, that they might bring the long-deserved and threatened punishments upon themselves and their people.