2 Chronicles 36 Bible study: Let him go up

In 36:1-13, four kings reign after Josiah. "The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father’s place in Jerusalem" (36:1). "Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem" (36:2): the WEB spells him both ways, Jehoahaz (36:1) and Joahaz (36:2, 36:4). "The king of Egypt removed him from office at Jerusalem" (36:3), and "made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim" (36:4). "Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem" (36:5), and "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon" (36:6). "Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem" (36:9), and "At the return of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon" (36:10). "Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem" (36:11). Of Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah the chapter says each did "that which was evil" in the LORD's sight (36:5, 36:9, 36:12). Of Jehoahaz it gives no verdict; 2 Kings says of him, "He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, according to all that his fathers had done" (2 Kings 23:32). 2 Kings tells these reigns too, in 2 Kings 23:31-25:7, and where the two books differ, these notes quote both.

2 Chronicles 36:15→leads toLuke 20:10-13

2 Chronicles says, "The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place" (36:15), "but they mocked the messengers of God, despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets" (36:16). In Jesus' parable, a man who planted a vineyard "sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty" (Luke 20:10). "He sent yet another servant" (Luke 20:11), and "He sent yet a third" (Luke 20:12). Then the lord of the vineyard said, "I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him" (Luke 20:13). Jesus doesn't cite 2 Chronicles 36, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject: messengers sent, one after another, and turned away. Some hear in the parable what 36:15-16 tells, and see in "my beloved son" (Luke 20:13) one sent after all the messengers. Others read the parable as those who heard it did, "for they knew he had spoken this parable against them" (Luke 20:19), and don't look from it to 2 Chronicles 36.

חָמַלchamalsay kha-MAL

Strong's: "to commiserate; by implication, to spare"; Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "spare". The LORD sent his messengers "because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place" (36:15). In 36:17 the same verb says what the king of the Chaldeans did not do: he "had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or infirm" (36:17). These are the only two times 2 Chronicles uses the verb. Its first use in the Hebrew Bible is Pharaoh's daughter: "She had compassion on him" (Exodus 2:6).