In Second Kings, chapter twenty-four, verse two, Nebuchadnezzar, the captivity of the southern kingdom by Babylon received prediction one hundred and fifty years before it occurred, as in Isaiah six, eleven through twelve. Nebuchadnezzar is the son of Nabopolassar, the founder of the Chaldee monarchy. This invasion came in the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s and the first of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, as in Jeremiah twenty-five, verse one, to Jeremiah forty-six, verse two. The young king of Assyria was probably detained at home on account of his father’s demise, despatched, along with the Chaldean troops on his border, an army composed of the tributary nations that were contiguous to Judea, to chastise Jehoiakim’s revolt from his yoke. But this hostile band was only an instrument in executing the divine judgment as in the beginning verse, denounced by the prophets against Judah for the sins of the people, and for that reason, described as sent by the Lord as in the verse after.
To punish Jehoiakim’s rebellion, Jehovah sent hosts of Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites against him and against Judah to destroy it. Nebuchadnezzar was probably too occupied with other matters relating to his kingdom during the earliest years of his reign after his father’s death to be able to proceed at once against Jehoiakim and punish him for his revolt. He may also have thought it a matter of too little importance for him to go himself, as there was not much reason to be afraid of Egypt since its first defeat. He merely sent such troops against him as were in the neighborhood of Judah. For, after the Lord had given Judah into the hands of the Chaldaeans as a punishment for its apostasy from Him, all revolt from them was rebellion against the Lord.