Bible Strands
Jeremiah 52:2
And Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records King Zedekiah’s conduct at the outset of his eleven-year reign in Jerusalem, following his accession at age twenty-one. This assessment immediately precedes the explanation of Jerusalem’s banishment due to Yahweh’s anger.
The words — The idiom בְּעֵינֵי יְהוָה (be./'ei.Nei Yah.weh) literally means "in the eyes of Yahweh," denoting divine scrutiny. The verb וַיַּעַשׂ (va/i.Ya.'as) translates as "he did," joined with הָרַע (ha./Ra'), "the evil," to mark active moral failure.
The thread — The identical phrasing appears in 2 Kings 24:19 and mirrors the recurring judgment pattern of 1 Kings 14:22. The text explicitly ties Zedekiah’s actions to the prior reign of Jehoiakim and the subsequent divine banishment.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that Zedekiah’s political rebellion against Babylon stems from a documented, repeated pattern of covenant failure. It demands a clear causal link between royal disobedience and national consequence without moral evasion.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 14:22 And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and by the sins they committed they provoked Him to jealous anger more than all their fathers had done.
- 2 Kings 24:19 And Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
- Jeremiah 26:21 King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and officials heard his words, and the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah found out about it, he fled in fear and went to Egypt.
- Jeremiah 36:21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing beside him.
- Jeremiah 36:29 You are to proclaim concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah that this is what the LORD says: You have burned the scroll and said, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon would surely come and destroy this land and deprive it of man and beast?’
- Ezekiel 17:16 ‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘he will die in Babylon, in the land of the king who enthroned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke.
- Ezekiel 21:25 And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your final punishment.’
- 2 Chronicles 36:12 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for the LORD.