Prophecy Of Captivity of Judah by Babylon

Year of Prophecy: © 701 BC (Isaiah 39)

Year of Fulfillment: 586 BC (2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 36:15-19)

Time until fulfillment: ~115 years

The prophecy of the captivity of Judah by Babylon is an example of fulfilled Biblical Prophecy. To show how the amount of time passing between prophecy and fulfillment doesn’t matter, we will cover ten of such prophecies. This is the fifth of ten.

As was noted in a previous post, even before this prophecy, Joel prophesied against Judah regarding the invasion by Assyria. Not long after the Assyrian conquest of Israel, the Assyrian general Sennacherib (the son of Sargon II) came to power in 705 BC and attempted the invasion of the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 701 BC (130 years after Joel’s warnings). King Hezekiah of Judah attempted to buy him off with approximately 11 tons of sliver and 1 ton of gold, even stripping off the gold from the doors of the temple to obtain it (2Ki 18:13-16). Instead, this just made the king of Assyria want more and within two years returned to Jerusalem knowing that Hezekiah was building an alliance with Egypt. The key to this Assyrian attempt being unsuccessful was Hezekiah turning the problem over to God. Hezekiah’s prayer for victory was so that “all the kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God” (2Ki 19:19). In response, God smote 185,000 of the Assyrian army causing Sennacherib and the remainder of his army to return to Nineveh (2Ki 19:35-37). In Sennacherib’s personal account, there is no mention of the capture of Jerusalem, just the ancillary conquests and tribute.  But, of course, no mention of the defeat. Therefore, by this act of Hezekiah, Judah and Jerusalem never succumbed to Assyria.

Not long thereafter, Hezekiah had a fatal illness (2Ki 20) and Hezekiah prayed that God would heal him. God sent word through the prophet Isaiah that Hezekiah’s request had been granted (Is 38:4-8). Then, Merodach-Baladan of Babylon sent an envoy to Hezekiah to wish him well after his recovery (2Ki 20:12). Hezekiah received them and showed them all he had. When Isaiah heard of this, he told Hezekiah that one day everything Hezekiah and his descendants had would be carried to Babylon (2Ki 20:16-18; Is 39).

The Chaldean (or Neo-Babylonian) empire grew in power and eventually overthrew the Assyrian empire in 612 BC as prophesied by the prophet Nahum. The main power came when Nabopolasser became king in 626 BC and brought Babylon to world renowned status regaining control over Mesopotamia. During this time of the conflict between Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, the kingdom of Judah became the pawn. Josiah tried to take the opportunity to gain back territory taken from Judah, but was defeated in a battle with Necho, king of Egypt (2Ki 23:29-30; 2Ch 35:20-26). King Necho deposed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, caring him off to Egypt where he died, and made his brother Eliakim a puppet king, changing his name to Johoiakim (2Ki 23:31-35). Judah thus became a tribute state to Egypt. In 605 BC, Nabopolassar’s son, Nebuchadnezzar, defeated Egypt and completed the Chaldean dominance of the known world, and Judah then became a tribute state to Babylon (2Ki 24:1). However, when the Babylonians suffered a defeat in 601 BC, Jehoiakim defected his alliance back to Egypt. Jehoiachin became king of Judah after his father died and at the same time Nebuchadnezzar mounted an offensive against Jerusalem. Jehoiachin surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. Nebuchadnezzar plundered the city and temple, took Jehoiachin captive, and made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king, changing his name to Zedekiah (2Ki 24:17). Nine years later, Zedekiah rebelled, and Nebuchadnezzar returned in 588 BC, besieged the city for 2 years, and caused its utter defeat in 586 BC, burning and plundering the city (2Ki 25).

During this time, God made several attempts through various prophets to get the people to repent and turn back to him and not suffer the fate of this judgment; however, they would not listen (2Ch 36:15-17). King Zedekiah treated many of these prophets harshly and accused them of treason (Jr 37:9-21) and not being patriotic (Jr 38:4-6). It is never a question of if God will fulfill his promise, but when.

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