Now, after King Nebuchadnezzar had killed King Zedekiah’s sons and blinded him, the direct Davidic royal lineage ended in July 587 B.C.
Only two kings descended directly from David were still alive; the blind Zedekiah and the 27-year-old Jehoiachin who had been deposed in 597 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon along with his mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of Judah (II Kings 24:15-17).
King Zedekiah died in captivity a few years later and it left Jehoiachin as the sole king left to fulfill Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jeremiah 22:30).
However, God remembered his covenant with David (Psalms 89:30-37) and spoke through Jeremiah again (Jeremiah 23:5-8; 33:17) and Jehoiachin found grace in the sight of his Babylonian captors and he was granted conjugal rights.
In fact, he was placed in a position of authority during the Babylonian exile and was called king under exile in several Babylonian food-rationing lists (these lists can still be found at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany).
Thus, he gave birth to Shealtiel and five other sons; they would never be kings but would serve as officials in Babylonian courts.
Shealtiel then gave birth to Zerubbabel who became an influential political and religious leader in Israel during the time when Jewish exiles returned from captivity in Babylon.
The boy Zerubbabel benefited from his grandfather, Jehoiachin’s favoured status and grew up in Babylon’s royal court. His name was even Babylonian and was given a first-class education in politics and military as well as a deep study of the Torah and the Jewish faith.
When Persia overthrew Babylon around 539 B.C., Zerubbabel also found favour with Cyrus the Great and was appointed “governor” over Judah by Cyrus' successor, Darius.
In 538 B.C., Zerubbabel spearheaded the rebuilding of God’s Temple in Jerusalem and it was completed in 516 B.C. Zerubbabel’s temple, also known as the Second Temple, would last longer than Solomon’s (Haggai 2:9) as it survived for 586 years until Jerusalem was destroyed again by Emperor Titus in 70 A.D.
Now, let’s go back to 562 B.C. Babylon.
King Nebuchadnezzar eventually died and his son Evil-Merodach became the new king. His first decree was to release Jehoiachin which was done two days later.
Evil-Merodach didn’t stop there. He gave Jehoiachin a position of greater honour than the other kings who were prisoners with him and he dined at the king’s table for the rest of his life.
But why did Evil-Merodach do all these things to Jehoiachin?
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