Josiah died in battle as we learned in 2Kings 23:29-30. In today's passage, there is more detail about those events. Neco the king of Egypt told Josiah that his fight wasn't with him. Even so, Josiah went into battle and went so far as to disguise himself. An arrow found Josiah and he died. His body was taken back to Jerusalem and he was buried in the tomb of the kings. The people made Jehoahaz king of Judah in his place.
Jehoahaz ruled for 3 months and was dethroned by the king of Egypt. The Egyptian king made Jehoahaz's brother king and changed his name to Jehoiakim. (We learned all this last month reading 2Kings.) Both brothers did evil things.
Jehoiachin succeeded his father as king of Judah. After 3 months, Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem and personally carted off the temple treasury and Jehoiachin. He appointed Zedekiah, Jehoiachin's uncle king of Judah. Zedekiah ruled 11 years and did evil things. God sent prophets to warn the people, but they would not listen. So God let Nebuchadnezzar have them. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink! Many of the people were killed and the temple was destroyed. All who were left were dragged off to Babylon, where they served 70 years.
Fast forward 70 years later... Cyrus king of Persia heard a message from God and sent the people back to Jerusalem to build a temple to God. So they prepared to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem. They loaded up their possessions and livestock and journeyed to the land of their fathers. Their number was 42,360 people, not including the servants and singers. When they got there they started by taking a collection to see what they had to work with. Then they settled in their towns. After 7 months the people gathered in Jerusalem and built an altar and made offerings to the Lord. Then they began rebuilding the temple. They made arrangements to get the necessary materials and paid the workers. The Levite priests supervised the building and finally the foundation was done. The people shouted and sang praises. Some of the older priests who had seen the original cried aloud. There was so much noise that no one could tell who was laughing and who was crying.
Tomorrow read Ezra 4-7
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