As we read in the foregoing chapter that Jerusalem was taken, and here that it was besieged, we should remember in order to have a clear apprehension of the history, that though Jerusalem had been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, yet it was not totally subdued as a kingdom, because the conqueror appointed a king to govern it. But here we find a total ruin. And what made the approach and siege of Jerusalem now yet more terrible was, God's judgments were upon it. A famine joined with the sword to avenge God's quarrel with his people for their sin. Alas! to what a state will sin reduce any and every man! I wish the Reader, while attending to the history of the total overthrow of Jerusalem, would read the prophecy of Jeremiah, and especially the book of Lamentations, all of which relate to this occasion. It should seem, from what Jeremiah told Zedekiah, that he had it in commission from the Lord to point out yet a method of deliverance, but Zedekiah rejected the counsel of God, as sinners still do against their own souls. See Jeremiah 37:1; Jeremiah 38:1; Jeremiah 39:1.
Related Commentaries of 2 Kings 25:1
2 Kings 25:1-3
1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.
2 And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.