Understanding Ezekiel.....

Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, for their part, played one great power against the other, but found, to their cost, that Egypt was weak and unreliable. Jeremiah vigorously opposed such attempts to fend off Babylon, which be regarded as God's instrument to punish and purge Judah. Jeremiah was right. Judean political juggling roused the Babylonians, and in 598 its army sacked the city and deported many of its leaders to Babylonia (2 Kgs. 25, 19: Jer 52, 31-33). Jehoiachin's uncle Zedekiah was named regent (2 Kgs 24, 18-20), and he continued his predecessors' rebellious policies. Nebuchadnezzar responded with force. After a campaign lasting three years (588-586 BC), he destroyed the cities of Judah and looted and burned Jerusalem an

d its Temple (2 Kgs 25: Jer 52) Babylon had done what Assyria had not done - destroy Jerusalem and the Temple.

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