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Defeat and Exile
2Ch 36:11-23
It is expressly stated in Eze 17:13 that Nebuchadnezzar administered to Zedekiah an oath of fealty in the presence of Jehovah. Hence by his rebellion, he not only broke his promise to the king of Babylon, but profaned the name of God. It is in reference to this profanation of his oath that Zedekiah is addressed in Eze 21:25, r.v., as “thou deadly wounded wicked one… whose day is come.”
It also appears from Eze 8:1 that toward the close of this reign idolatrous rites of various kinds intruded upon the sacred precincts of the Temple. Hebrew women bewailed Tammuz; elders burned incense to the forms of beasts portrayed on the walls; and men, turning their backs on the sanctuary, worshiped the sun. There was no remedy but exile.
It had been distinctly predicted that if the Hebrew people disobeyed, their land should become a desolation, and their cities a waste, until the soil had enjoyed the rest which they had failed to give it. Compare Lev 25:4 with 26:34, 35. There was a point beyond which the divine judgment would not go. God loved the people whom he chastened; and since He hates putting away, the recreant nation, at the instigation of Cyrus, had one further opportunity of fulfilling their great mission to mankind.