1Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem. 2Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3The king of Egypt removed him from office at Jerusalem, and fined the land one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 4The king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Joahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.
5Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in Yahweh his God’s sight. 6Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon. 7Nebuchadnezzar also carried some of the vessels of Yahweh’s house to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon. 8Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.
9Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. 10At the return of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the valuable vessels of Yahweh’s house, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12He did that which was evil in Yahweh his God’s sight. He didn’t humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from Yahweh’s mouth. 13He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel. 14Moreover all the chiefs of the priests and the people trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted Yahweh’s house which he had made holy in Jerusalem.
15Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place; 16but they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
17Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm. He gave them all into his hand. 18All the vessels of God’s house, great and small, and the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19They burned God’s house, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all of its valuable vessels. 20He carried those who had escaped from the sword away to Babylon, and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, 21to fulfill Yahweh’s word by Jeremiah’s mouth, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. As long as it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
22Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that Yahweh’s word by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 23“Cyrus king of Persia says, ‘Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given all the kingdoms of the earth to me; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with him, and let him go up.’”
The prescriptions for holiness in Hebrew life even applied to their calendar. The religious calendar was prefaced by the command to observe a seventh-day Sabbath of rest (Lev 23:1-3) as a reminder that Yahweh was the creator. Building on this idea, the land was to experience its own Sabbath every seventh year, during which it would lie fallow (Lev 25:1-7). This sabbatical cycle culminated in a Jubilee Year, which was announced by the blowing of a ram's horn (Lev 25:9), from which the term "Jubilee" derives. The Jubilee was a year of emancipation, during which "you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants" (Lev 25:10). The Jubilee legislation deals primarily with social welfare, based on the theological idea that God is the real owner of both the land and the people, whom he had liberated from slavery in Egypt. The Jubilee legislation calls for the restoration of land to its original inherited line of ownership, the liberation of Israelite debt-slaves, and "rest" for the land itself (see Lev 25). There is no specific mention of the Jubilee outside of Lev 25 and, while some passages have been thought to refer to the Jubilee (e.g., Isa 37:30), there is no evidence that it was ever practiced in ancient Israel. Jeremiah blames the fall of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon on Israel's neglect of the sabbatical laws (cf. Jer 25:8-14), which would seem to refer to the entire Sabbath system with all the material and spiritual aspects that it entailed, including the Jubilee. According to Chronicles, the exile would empty out the land of Israel, producing a 70-year Sabbath rest for the land, thereby atoning for 490 (7 x 70) years of neglect (2 Chr 36:17-21). In Jesus' inaugural sermon, when he announced that he had come "to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, [and] to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18-19), he was declaring that in his own ministry the Jubilee had finally arrived. - RKH