person · P0417
Tzidkiyahu צדקיהו
Last king of Yehudah: Matanyah, uncle of Yehoyachin, renamed Tzidkiyahu by Nevuchadnetzar. Against Yirmiyahu's counsel he rebelled; Jerusalem fell after an eighteen-month siege, his sons were slaughtered before his eyes at Rivlah, his eyes were put out, and he was carried in chains to Bavel. With him the throne of David ended, 3338 AM.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- צדקיהו
- Also known as
- Zedekiah, Matanyah
- Era
- bible
- Parents
- Yoshiyahu
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3306–3338 AM (reigned 3327–3338, eleven years; twenty-one at accession; taken blinded to Bavel)
- Academic
- reigned 597–586 BCE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈32 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old at accession and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; he did evil in the eyes of God, and he rebelled against the king of Bavel.
Directly stated in the cited source.
|
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Nevuchadnetzar besieged Jerusalem from Tzidkiyahu's ninth year; in the eleventh the famine prevailed and the wall was breached; the king fled by night and was overtaken in the plains of Yericho; at Rivlah his sons were slaughtered before his eyes, his eyes were blinded, and he was brought bound in bronze to Bavel. | biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| The Lachish ostraca — Hebrew military dispatches from the final Babylonian campaign, found in the burnt gate-room of Lachish — include the report "we are watching for the fire-signals of Lachish... for we cannot see Azekah," the documentary horizon of Tzidkiyahu's last months (compare Yirmiyahu 34:7, where only Lachish and Azekah remain).
The ostraca date to the campaign and name no king; they corroborate the setting, not Tzidkiyahu personally.
|
external archaeology | ★★★★☆ | |
| The placement (reigned 3327–3338 AM) is a schematic Mesorah Atlas reconstruction: the regnal years stated in Kings are chained backward from the First Temple's destruction in 3338 AM, with sub- year reigns counted as zero — the same rule that yields Chizkiyahu 3199–3228. The cited source states the reign's length, not absolute dates.
The cited sources establish relative chronology or regnal duration; they do not state the absolute AM range.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |