Zedekiah

Zedekiah (meaning the LORD is my righteousness) was the last king of Judah (597–586 BC), placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar after the deportation of Jehoiachin. His original name was Mattaniah; Nebuchadnezzar changed it to Zedekiah. He was the third son of Josiah and thus uncle to Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:17–18). His eleven-year reign was marked by vacillation between submission to Babylon and appeals to Egypt, by hostility to Jeremiah whose counsel he privately sought but publicly ignored, and ultimately by a catastrophic rebellion against Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem for eighteen months (589–586 BC). Zedekiah attempted to escape through the breach in the wall by night, was caught on the plains of Jericho, brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, and forced to watch his sons killed before his eyes — the last thing he saw, for his eyes were then put out and he was carried in bronze chains to Babylon (2 Kings 25:4–7; Jeremiah 52:7–11). Jerusalem was burned, and the temple destroyed. Ezekiel had prophesied that Zedekiah would die in Babylon but would not see it — fulfilled precisely (Ezekiel 12:13).