II KINGS CHAPTER 25

2 KINGS 25

1 It happened in the ninth year that
He reigned, in the tenth month and flat
On the tenth day of the month came
Nebuchadnezzar as in blame,
The king of Babylon and all
His army to attack, enthrall
Jerusalem, and so they pitched
Against it and built forts bewitched.
2 And the town was besieged until
The eleventh year of the still
King Zedekiah. 3 On the day
Number nine of the fourth month’s sway
The famine covered all the city
Without bread for the land’s folk’s pity.
4 The town was broken down and all
The soldiers fled between the wall
By way of the gate and at night
Beside the king’s garden to light.
And the Chaldees attacking there
Were all around, but the king’s share
Went by the road toward the plain
As fast as can and hoped for gain.
5 The army of the Chaldees went
After the king and found him spent
In the plains of Jericho, and
All his army scattered like sand.
6 And so they took the king and brought
Him up to the king who had sought,
The king of Babylon who stood
In Riblah, and judged as they could.
7 They killed Zedekiah’s sons there
Before his eyes, and did not spare
To put out Zedekiah’s eyes,
And bound him in brass chains to bear
Him up to Babylon as prize.

Compared to predecessor Zedekiah
Was long-lived though he became a pariah.
Before the tyranny of empire he stood out
Eleven years with diplomatic rout
To make what he could of his name and fame.
There ought to be few to rise up in blame.
The evil that he did was nothing but
The same evil the populace was shut
On doing on the high place and the hill.
Idolatry is popular now still.
Beloved, king Zedekiah’s hero here
With Papa Doc, Saddam, Stalin and fear
As long as what’s appropriate is kept
Conformable to palaces well swept.

8 And in the fifth month, on the day
Number seven in the month’s sway,
In the nineteenth year of the king
Nebuchadnezzar who was king
Of Babylon, came captain of
The guard, Nebuzaradan, glove
In service to Babylon’s king
Up to Jerusalem on wing.
9 He burnt the house of YHWH as well
As the king’s house, and truth to tell
All the houses left in the town
Jerusalem, and every crown
House he burnt with fire and tore down.
10 And all the army of Chaldees
That were with the guard’s captain’s wheeze
Broke down the walls around the town
Jerusalem and left them brown.
11 The rest of the folk that were left
In the city and those bereft
That fell away before the king
Of Babylon, and everything
Of all that crowd that there remained
Nebuzaradan the retained
Captain of the guard brought away.
12 But the captain of the guard left
The poor of the land there bereft
Vinedressers and farmers to stay.

The captain of the king came to the land
Of Judah and Jerusalem to stand
As a destroyer on the fateful sand.
The blades cut down the temples and the great
Houses and left them flattened that had late
Been wonders of the world. Beloved, I see
The desolation and the poverty
And realize that there is one salvation
From tyranny in this world of elation,
And that is blooming in humility
Beneath the blades of war in charity
As vinedresser and farmer who remain
To worship You upon a desert plain.
Today, though, farmers are striving in vain

13 The brazen pillars in YHWH’s house
And the bases and the sea’s dowse
That was in YHWH’s house, the Chaldees
Broken in blocks, carried like cheese
All their brass back to Babylon.
14 And the pots and the shovels and
The snuffers and the spoons on hand
And all the brazen vessels by
Which they served, they took on the sly.
15 The firepans, bowls, such things of gold,
Of gold and silver, silver told,
The captain of the guard was bold
To take them all without reply.
16 Both pillars, the sea and the bases
That Solomon had made for traces
In YHWH’s house, the brass of these things
Was too much to weigh in farthings.
17 The height of each pillar in all
Was eighteen cubits and so tall
The caption on it was brass too,
And the height of the caption due
Was three arm-lengths, and wreathen work
And pomegranates for the kirk
Around it, all of brass and like
These also on the second spike,
With wreathen work too high to strike.

The fall of Solomon seems here at last
To come as the pillars that once were cast
And wrought for beauty fall into the hands
Of spoilers of Chaldeans in their bands.
The truth is Solomon fell from his place
When he went beyond what the Torah’s trace
For royal mandate gave, not to retain
Too many wives and horses on the plain.
Whatever record’s right in horse’s count,
Solomon went beyond the right amount.
A foreign wife implies a treaty with
The royal heathen father and his myth.
Beloved, the fall of Solomon preceded
The cutting of the pillars that he needed.

18 The captain of the guard then took
Seraiah the chief priest and cook
And Zephaniah, second priest,
And the three door keepers at least.
19 Out of the town he took a man
Set over the army and clan,
And five men from before the king,
Found in the city, and writing
The first scribe of the army who
Mustered the folk of the land’s few,
And sixty men of the land’s folk
Still found in the town at a stroke.
20 And Nebuzaradan the chief
Of the guard took these for relief
And brought them to Babylon’s king
To Riblah so he’d see the thing.
21 The king of Babylon struck down
And killed the men brought from the town
At Riblah there in Hamath’s land.
So Judah failed out of their land.
22 The folk that remain in the land
Of Judah, whom Babylon’s king
Nebuchadnezzer left to sing,
Over them he made ruler one
Gedaliah who was the son
Of Ahikam, and Shaphan’s son.
23 When all the army chiefs, they and
Their men heard that the king’s command
Made Gadaliah governor,
There came to Gedaliah’s door
In Mizpah, even Ishmael son
Of Nethaniah, Johanan
The son of Careah as well
As Seraiah the son of fell
Tanhumeth the Netophathite,
Jaazaniah a Maachathite,
They and their men after the fight.
24 And Gedaliah swore to them
And to their men by diadem,
And told them, “Do not be afraid
To be servants though still unpaid
Of the Chaldees, live in the land,
Serve king of Babylon’s command,
And you will prosper by my hand.

See, my Beloved, how Gedaliah swore
In true allegiance to the kingly score
And promised wealth and health before the door
Of Judah, if and only if the man
Would submit to the royal crown and ban.
It’s possible, I see, to live a life
True to You, my Beloved, amidst the strife
Of competition to be king and leader.
But to do so one must be bottom feeder
And find joy in the wild plant and the grass
Instead of temple built of gold and brass.
The gold of my temple, Beloved, is here
As buttercup and dandelion’s tear,
A song for just a day, and then to pass.

25 It happened the seventh month that
Ishmael Nethaniah’s son fat,
The son of Elishama who
Were of the royal family too,
Came with ten men and stuck the man
Gedaliah, who died by plan,
And the Jews and Chaldees with him
At Mizpah, it was action grim.
26 All the folk then both small and great,
The army chiefs too, got up late
And came to Egypt, for they feared
The Chaldees after what appeared.

Who represents the king in loyalty
And fearing You, Beloved, may come to see
Assassination as fast as the free
King on the throne who does things wickedly.
So Gedaliah, though he tried to be
Faithful to all, was killed and cast aside.
Fear comes, Beloved, before the morning ride
As refugees in Egypt to abide.
You promised that no one need take that road,
And yet fear laid upon the hearts such load
That trusting not in what You might provide
The people fled to find the Nile a home.
Beloved, I do believe Your providence
Enough for Roman or Chaldean tents.

27 It happened then upon the year
Thirty-seven in prison gear
Of Jehoiachin Judah’s king,
In the twelfth month and on the ring
Of the twenty-seventh day of
The month as mentioned there above,
That Evilmerodach the king
Of Babylon then did a thing
In the year he began to rule,
He lifted up the head of fool
Jehoiachin the king of Judah
Out of the prison though a feuder.
28 And he spoke kindly to the man,
And set his throne upon a span
Above the throne of the kings that
There with him in Babylon sat.
29 He changed his prison clothing too,
And he ate bread always in view
Of him all the days he lived too.
30 His pension came from the king daily
As long as he was living gaily.

The empire is benign when one is set
In prison long enough and to forget.
Events pass quickly, opportunity
Is but a single breath, it then sets free
The one called for a moment’s destiny.
The ragged remnants of a burning flame
Are black and cold and dressed as though in shame
And morning for the lost chance to be great.
And so the ghosts of other times in state
Dine at the tables of the enemy
Who can afford to set his prisoner free.
Beloved, though my flame may be small and spent,
Though I may have failed in what this world lent,
I dine at Your full table and content.


AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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