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The Kings of Judah were the monarchs who ruled over the ancient Kingdom of Judah, which was formed in about 930 BC, according to the Hebrew Bible, when the United Kingdom of Israel split, with the people of the northern Kingdom of Israel rejecting Rehoboam as their monarch, leaving him as solely the King of Judah.
Zedekiah [a] (/ z ɛ d ɪ ˈ k aɪ ə /) was the twentieth and final King of Judah before the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. His birth name was Mattaniah/Mattanyahu ( Hebrew : מַתַּנְיָהוּ , Mattanyāhū , "Gift of God "; Greek : Μαθθανίας ; Latin : Matthanias ).
Zedekiah was twenty one years old when he ascended the shaky throne of Judah, in the year 3327. He was put on the throne by the grace of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, whose power extended over Judah and all neighboring countries after his victory over Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, at Carchemish.
Zedekiah's sons were murdered before him, and he was then blinded and led into exile, as Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple in 586 BCE (2 Kings 25:1–7). Thus, he can rightly be understood as the final king of Judah in a historical sense.
Zedekiah (flourished 6th century bc) was the king of Judah (597–587/586 bc) whose reign ended in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of most of the Jews to Babylon. Mattaniah was the son of Josiah and the uncle of Jehoiachin, the reigning king of Judah.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Apr 15, 2024 · Zedekiah, originally named Mattaniah, was the last king of Judah, appointed by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. His reign is recorded in various biblical texts, including 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and the Book of Jeremiah.
The article deals with the biblical and historical kings of the Land of Israel — Abimelech of Sichem, the three kings of the United Kingdom of Israel and those of its successor states, Israel and Judah, followed in the Second Temple period, part of classical antiquity, by the kingdoms ruled by the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties.
