SEDECIAS (Hebr. *Sidhajjāḥā* «justice of Jahweh»). — Last king of Judah (597–86), son of King
JOSIAH (q.v.) and brother of JEHOAHAZ (q.v.); he was placed on the throne at the age of 21 by NEBUCHADNEZZAR (q.v.) in place of his nephew JEHOIACHIN (q.v.), who had been taken into exile in Babylon. His original name was Mattaniah, which was changed to Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar himself (2 Kings 24:17), who also imposed an oath of allegiance upon him (2 Chron. 36:13).
The events of his reign, which are only briefly sketched in the historical books (2 Kings 24–25; 2 Chron. 36), are described in greater detail in the Book of Jeremiah (chs. 27–39). He governed during an extremely difficult period, both because of the harsh vassalage imposed by Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar’s first intervention in 597 and because of Egypt’s interference in the faltering politics of the kingdom of Judah.
Hesitant and indecisive, he was never equal to the challenges of his time, and his yielding to the anti-Babylonian faction—despite Jeremiah’s repeated warnings—hastened the final catastrophe. As for his religious and moral conduct, an unfavorable judgment is recorded: “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God; he did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke to him in the name of the Lord” (2 Chron. 36:12). As long as Pharaoh Necho was alive—who, after the defeat at Carchemish (605 BC), prudently avoided involvement in Palestinian affairs—the situation remained relatively calm. But in the year of Necho’s death (593 BC), Zedekiah, at the instigation of the anti-Babylonian party, convened a meeting in Jerusalem of the various Palestinian states—Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon (Jer. 27:3)—with the evident aim of shaking off the Babylonian yoke. The abstention of Pharaoh Psammetichus II led to the failure of the league, but the king of Judah, Zedekiah, had to travel to Babylon and justify himself before Nebuchadnezzar, to whom the meeting had appeared highly suspicious. Upon his return to Jerusalem, he fell once more under the influence of the same faction, which was further inflamed by the agitations of various pseudo-prophets who proclaimed the imminent autonomy of the kingdom (Jer. 28), while the Temple was open to the encroachment of idolatrous cults (Ezek. 8). When Psammetichus II was succeeded in 588 by Pharaoh Hophra, who was openly hostile to Babylon, the agitating faction flared up into open revolt. Alongside the king of Judah, all the Palestinian states took up arms against the king of Babylon, bound together in a league that looked to Egypt for support.
But in that same year, Nebuchadnezzar marched against them with a large army, encamped at Riblah on the Orontes, then invaded Judah and laid siege to Jerusalem (in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, around December 588 BC; 2 Kings 25:1). The city defended itself heroically for eighteen months, awaiting the arrival of Egyptian aid. Jeremiah, who counselled surrender to the Chaldeans for the salvation of Jerusalem and the nation, was thrown into prison; even here Zedekiah secretly consulted him, though he never followed his advice (Jer. 27:17 ff.; 38:14 ff.). After a year, when the Chaldeans had to break off the siege to avoid being caught between the Egyptians and their rear, it seemed that victory might dawn for Jerusalem. But once the Chaldeans had quickly disposed of the Egyptians, they resumed the siege. The city, already exhausted by famine and plague, could hold out no longer, and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, in June 587 BC, it was invaded by the besiegers, who put it to the torch. Zedekiah, who had fled with his principal officers, was captured near Jericho and brought before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah (Jer. 39:2 ff.). There the wretched king saw all his sons slaughtered before his eyes (2 Kings 25:2–4); then the Chaldean king had his eyes put out, bound him in fetters, and sent him to Babylon (ibid., 25:6–7), where he died in prison. Thus tragically ended the kingdom of Judah: the Temple was burned, and the entire land was laid waste (ibid., 25:8–21).