2 Chronicles36chapter 36

Four kings in twenty-three years, and none of them chose himself. Neco of Egypt deposed Jehoahaz after three months, fined the land a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold, and carried him to Egypt. He then installed the dead king's brother and changed his name to Jehoiakim — renaming a vassal was how an overlord announced ownership.

Then Babylon took over. Nebuchadnezzar bound Jehoiakim to carry him off and took some of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon. Jehoiachin lasted three months and ten days before being deported with more of the good vessels; the Babylonian court record dates the capture of Jerusalem precisely, to a day in the spring of 597 BC, and ration tablets from Babylon list the exiled king of Judah drawing supplies with his sons.

Zedekiah was installed by Nebuchadnezzar and swore loyalty by God, then rebelled. The end is recorded in flat sentences: the house of God burned, the wall of Jerusalem broken down, the palaces burned, all the valuable vessels destroyed or carried away, and the survivors taken to Babylon as servants.

The explanation given is a Sabbath. The law required the land to rest every seventh year; the writer says the land lay desolate to enjoy her sabbaths until seventy years were fulfilled, which is the number Jeremiah had given. The exile is presented as the land finally taking rest that had been owed for centuries.

The last two verses are the turn. In the first year of Cyrus of Persia — 538 BC, after Babylon fell — a proclamation went out through the empire and was put in writing. Cyrus's own inscription on a clay cylinder records his general policy of returning displaced peoples to their homes and restoring their sanctuaries; it does not name Judah, but Judah was one of many, and the decree preserved here is that policy applied to Jerusalem.