Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.
Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. This refers to the first expedition of Nebuchadnezzar against Palestine, in the lifetime of his father Nabopolassar, who, being old and infirm, adopted his son as joint-sovereign, and despatched him, with the command of his army, against the Egyptian invaders of his empire (Berosus, in 'Josephus contra Apion,' 1:, 19; also 'Antiquities,' b. 10:, ch. 2:, 1). Nebuchadnezzar defeated them at Carchemish, and drove them out of Asia, and reduced all the provinces west of the Euphrates to obedience-among the rest the kingdom of Jehoiakim, who became a vassal of the Assyrian empire (2 Kings 24:1).
Jehoiakim, at the end of three years, threw off the yoke, being influenced by the strong popular bias of his subjects toward Egypt, and at the same time being probably instigated to revolt by the solicitations of Pharaoh-Necho, who planned new expedition against Carchemish. But he was completely vanquished by the Babylonian king, who stripped him of all his possessions between the Euphrates and the Nile (2 Kings 24:7). Then marching against the Egyptians' ally in Judah, he took Jerusalem, carried away a portion of the sacred vessels of the temple, perhaps in lieu of the unpaid tribute, and deposited them in the temple of his god, Belus, at Babylon (Daniel 1:2; Daniel 5:2). Though Jehoiakim had been taken prisoner, and it was designed at first to transport him in chains to Babylon, he was allowed to remain in his tributary kingdom. But having given, not long after, some new offence, Jerusalem was besieged by a host of Assyrian dependents, in a sally against whom Jehoiakim was killed (see the notes at 2 Kings 24:2-7; also Jeremiah 22:18-19; Jeremiah 36:30).