ZEDEKIAH zĕd’ ə kī’ ə (צִדְקִיָּֽהוּ, צִדְקִיָּ֤ה; LXX Σεδεκιας; meaning Yah(u) is my righteousness). 1. A son of Chenaanah, one of four hundred false prophets who, in opposition to Micaiah, the true prophet, encouraged Ahab, king of the northern kingdom and Jehoshaphat, king of the southern kingdom, to go to war against the king of Aram in order to recapture Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings 22:1-38; 2 Chron 18:1-19:3).
The incident is of interest in part for the historical reason that it illuminates group prophecy in ancient Israel. The incident took place at the “threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria” (1 Kings 22:10). “Threshing floor” (Heb. gōren) more accurately denotes “an open public place” (grn lit. means “well-rubbed” according to Arab. etymology). J. Gray called attention to a passage in the Ras Shamra texts: “He rises to sit at the entrance to the gate, in the place of notables who are in the public place (Ug. grn).” As the four hundred false prophets predicted in unison Israel’s victory, Zedekiah made himself iron horns, an act of prophetic symbolism prob. intended to reinforce the ancient tribal oracle to Joseph (Deut 33:17).
The incident is also of theological interest for several reasons. First, Chronicles, which ignores the history of the northern kingdom records the event because of the role played by Jehoshaphat and to teach the spiritual truth proclaimed by Jehu the son of Hananai the seer: “Should you (Jehoshaphat, Yahweh’s vice-regent), help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord?” (2 Chron 19:2), a sequel to the story found only in Chronicles.
Second, the story demonstrates the attitudes toward prophecy in ancient Israel. Ahab regarded the prophets as instruments of propaganda to serve the interests of the state, using their words and actions to influence the deity. There was a whole corps of prophets willing to give him the moral support he required (1 Kings 22:5, 6, 13, 26, 27). Jehoshaphat, on the other hand, regarded the prophet not as an agent of the community to influence the deity by magic, but as the instrument of revelation of the will of God to the community (1 Kings 22:7ff.).
Finally, through the vision granted Micaiah, Yahweh makes it clear that these false prophets receive their charismatic quality from lying spirits sent forth by the one God to achieve the divine will (1 Kings 22:19-23).
2. A son of Maaseiah; a false prophet whom Jeremiah predicted would be executed along with Ahab the son of Kolaiah, by Nebuchadrezzar for his immorality and false prophesying (Jer 29:21-23).
3. A son of Hananiah, one of the princes who heard Jeremiah’s scroll read by Baruch and then in company with the king by Jehudi (Jer 36:11-26).
4. The third son of Josiah (1 Chron 3:15), whose given name Mattaniah, “Gift of Yahweh,” was changed to Zedekiah by Nebuchadrezzar as a mark of vassalage when he made Zedekiah king in place of his eighteen year old nephew, Jehoiakin, taken captive to Babylon in 597 b.c. along with the cream of the country’s leadership (2 Kings 24:8-17; Jer 29:2). He was twenty-one when he began to reign and he reigned until the fall of Jerusalem in Dec 587 b.c., eleven years of continual agitation and sedition.
Although the prophet-historian of Kings bypasses the events of Zedekiah’s reign (cf. 2 Kings 24:18-25:2), the historical incidents of his reign and his character can be traced through the Books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Here Zedekiah is portrayed as a man who is indecisive, torn asunder by conflicting emotions, recognizing Jeremiah as a true prophet but unable to act in faith on his words. Unable to choose the good by faith he acts perfidiously as seen in Jeremiah 34 and Ezekiel 17. This man who feared the Jews (Jer 38:19) rather than God, Ezekiel described as the “unhallowed wicked one, prince of Israel” (Ezek 21:25). Because he could not act in faith on the word of God through Jeremiah (cf. Jer 33:17-23) he brought death upon himself and his people instead of the life offered him.
In the beginning of his reign (Jer 27:1), clarified as the fifth month of his fourth year (Jer 28:1), Jeremiah warned Zedekiah not to join in the revolt with Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon against Babylon (Jer 27:1-12). The fire of insurrection was fanned at this time by false prophets among the Jews both in Jerusalem and Babylon who were predicting the defeat of Nebuchadrezzar and the liberation of Jehoiakin (Jer 28; 29). The plot in fact came to nothing. Possibly, however, it was these activities which brought him under suspicion and necessitated his visit to Babylon in 593 b.c. (Jer 51:59).
In the ninth year of Zedekiah, i.e. 589 b.c., Zedekiah openly rebelled under the influence of the pro-Egyp. party. J. C. J. Waite properly observed: “This was not merely an act of political suicide, it was a flagrant violation of the oath of loyalty to Nebuchadrezzar which the king had sworn in the name of Yahweh (Ezk. xvii)” (NBD, 1357). Most scholars think he had an understanding with the Egyp. Pharaohs, Psammetichus II (593-588 b.c.) and his son Hophra (Apries [588-569 b.c.]) who had resumed a policy of intervention in Asia. Judging from his repeated consultations with Jeremiah, he himself was indecisive in this act, but allowed the decision to be made by the “hawks” under him over whom he lacked leadership (cf. Jer 38:5).
In response to Zedekiah’s inquiry about the outcome of Babylon’s retaliatory siege of Jerusalem begun in 589 b.c., Jeremiah predicted death, pestilence, the sword, and the execution of the city’s survivors (Jer 21:1-3). They would be treated like bad figs, unfit to be eaten (Jer 24:8). Zedekiah himself, however, was not to die by the sword but to die in peace with an honorable burial (Jer 34:5).
The advance of an Egyp. army in the summer of 588 b.c. forced the Babylonians to lift the siege of Jerusalem temporarily (Jer 37:5). Probably against this background Jeremiah denounced the ruler and people for breach of faith. During the siege King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem that everyone should set free his Heb. slaves, male and female. But when the Babylonians withdrew from the city to meet the Egyp. army, those who had been set free were enslaved again (Jer 34:8-11).
At this same time, lacking decisive leadership ability, he allowed the princes to beat Jeremiah and imprison him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for it had been made into a prison (Jer 37:15). Upon Jeremiah’s plea, however, Zedekiah had him transported to the court of the guard (Jer 37:21). But once again Zedekiah appeared impotent and irresolute as he allowed the princes to cast Jeremiah into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son (Jer 38:4-6). (“The king’s son” may refer to a literal son of the king or possibly a member of the royal family. On the other hand, a similar case in 1 Kings 22:26 in connection with the confinement of Micaiah suggests that this is a title, a theory which is suggested by the fact that a seal imprint from Pal, “the son of the king,” follows the proper name where one would expect an official title (cf. J. Gray, I and II Kings [1970], 453). This time upon the plea of Ebed-melech Zedekiah had Jeremiah transported again to the court of the guard (Jer 38:7-13).
The following summer, July 587 b.c., the Babylonians breached the wall and poured in (2 Kings 25:2ff.; Jer 39:1ff; 52:5ff.). By this time the food supply was exhausted (Jer 37:21). Zedekiah with his men of war fled the city by night toward the Jordan. The Chaldeans overtook Zedekiah whose army had become separated from one another. He was brought before Nebuchadrezzar at his headquarters at Ribiah in central Syria. He was shown no mercy. His sons were slain before his eyes; he himself was blinded, bound in fetters, and brought to Babylon (Jer 52:1-11). The prophecies of Jeremiah predicting death if he lacked faith to act resolutely on the word of God’s prophet was fulfilled.
Bibliography J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts (1955); D. N. Freedman, “The Babylonian Chronicle,” BA, XIX (1956), 50-60; J. P. Hyatt, “New Light on Nebuchadrezzar and Judean History,” JBL LXXV (1956), 277-284; D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldean Kings (1956); J. Bright, A History of Israel (1959).