Skip to content
Wellsprings
King of Judah

King of Judah

b. c. 618 BCE · Biblical era · Jerusalem

See the world in their lifetime (583 BCE) →

Tzidkiyahu, born Mattanyah, was a son of King Yoshiyahu (Jeremiah 1:3) and the last king of Judah. Nevuchadnetzar of Babylon took his nephew Yehoyachin into exile and installed Mattanyah as king in his place, renaming him Tzidkiyahu (2 Kings 24:17). He was twenty-one and reigned eleven years (24:18). Nevuchadnetzar had made him swear loyalty in God's name (2 Chronicles 36:13), but he rebelled and looked to Egypt for help (2 Kings 24:20; Ezekiel 17:15). Throughout the Babylonian siege he consulted the prophet Yirmiyahu in secret, even while keeping him confined for predicting the city's fall (Jeremiah 32:1-5; 37:17; 38:14-16). When the wall was breached he fled by night but was caught in the plains of Jericho. He was brought to Nevuchadnetzar at Riblah, made to watch his sons being killed, and then blinded and taken to Babylon in chains (2 Kings 25:4-7). He stayed in prison there until his death (Jeremiah 52:11). The Talmud takes a gentler view of him personally, describing Tzidkiyahu as a good king whose generation was not good (Arakhin 17a).

See King of Judah’s journey on the map →

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →

Stop 1 of 4597 BCE–586 BCERoyal seat; the siege

JerusalemירושליםJudea

What they did here

He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:18). He was there through the Babylonian siege, which began in his ninth year (25:1-2), and met Yirmiyahu there in secret (Jeremiah 38:14-16).

Jerusalem in this era

In the Hebrew Bible, David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and makes it his capital, Solomon builds the First Temple there, and Nehemiah rebuilds its walls after the return from Babylon; in 164 BCE Judah Maccabee rededicated the Temple, the origin of Hanukkah. Archaeologists debate how large the city was in the 10th century BCE; it is well attested as the capital of Judah by the 8th century BCE, and Babylon destroyed it in 586 BCE.

About Jerusalem

Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.

In Jerusalem at the same time

Chavakuk HaNavi, Baruch HaSofer, Ovadiah HaNavi, Gedaliah ben Achikam

See other sages who lived in Jerusalem→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with King of Judah’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with King of Judah’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.

Luminaries & Explorers

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.