For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Through the anger of the Lord ... he ... cast them out from his presence - i e., in the course of God's righteous providence his policy as king would prove ruinous to his country.
Zedekiah rebelled. Instigated by ambassadors from the neighbouring states, who came to congratulate him on his accession to the throne (cf. Jeremiah 17:3 with 28:1), and at the same time get him to join them in a common league to throw off the Assyrian yoke. Though warned by Jeremiah against this step, the infatuated and perjured (Ezekiel 17:13) Zedekiah persisted in his revolt, by forming an alliance with Pharaoh-hophra - i:e., Apries, grandson of Nechoh, king of Egypt, and the most energetic and successful monarch of that kingdom since Psammeticus.