Jehoiachin receives favor in Babylon
Exile & Return · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 55dbd00015e812d3 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Babylon · Jehoiachin’s thirty-seventh year in exile
In the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin’s exile, Evil-merodach releases him from prison, treats him favorably and gives him a continuing place at the royal table. Kings closes with the captive Judean king sustained in Babylon.
This is Jehoiachin, not Zedekiah. Release from prison does not mean a return to Jerusalem, restoration of Judah’s throne or the end of everyone’s exile. The ending leaves a sign of possibility within continuing foreign rule.
Primary Scripture
25:27 On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, in the year Evil-merodach became king of Babylon, he released King Jehoiachin of Judah from prison.
25:28 And he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
25:29 So Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes, and he dined regularly at the king’s table for the rest of his life.
25:30 And the king provided Jehoiachin a daily portion for the rest of his life.
Related Scripture
Jeremiah ends with a similar notice of Jehoiachin’s release and provision.
Location evidence
Babylon is identified. The marker does not locate Jehoiachin’s prison, residence or dining place within the city.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [44.422222, 32.543333]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Babylon: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [44.422222, 32.543333]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Babylon (CC BY 4.0)
OpenBible.info: Babylon (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
What hope does this ending allow, and what has not yet changed?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/exile-return.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm