ZEDEKIAH Irrpiv; 'etas). 1. Son of Josiah, the twentieth and last king of Judah, was, in place of his brother Je hoiakim, set on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, who changed his name from Mattaniah to that by which he is ordinarily spoken of. As the vassal of the Babylonian monarch, he was compelled to take an oath of allegiance to him, which, however, he observed only till an opportunity offered for throwing off his yoke. Success in such an under taking was not likely to attend his efforts. His ' heart was not right before God, and therefore was he left without divine succour. Corrupt and weak, he gave himself up into the hands of his nobles, and lent an ear to false prophets ; while the faithful lessons of Jeremiah were unwelcome, and repaid by incarceration. Like all of his class, he was unable to follow good, and became the slave of wicked men, afraid alike of his own no bility and of his foreign enemies. By his folly and wickedness he brought the state to the brink of ruin. Yet the danger did not open his eyes. Instead of looking to Jehovah, he threw himself for support on Egypt when the Chaldan came into the land and laid siege to his capital. The siege was begun on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of his reign. For a year and a half did Jerusalem effectually withstand Nebuchad nezzar. At the end of that time, however, the city was stormed and taken (B.c. 588), when Zede kiah, who had fled, was captured on the road to Jericho. Judgment was speedily executed ; his sons were slain before his eyes, and he himself was deprived of sight and sent in chains to Babylon, where he died in prison (2 Kings xxiv. 17, seq. ;
xxv. 1, seq. ; 2 Chron. ixxvi. ro, seq. ; Jer. xxviii. xxxiv. xxxvii. xxxviii. xxxix. ; Ezek. xvii. 15). —J. R. B.
2. A false prophet who, when Micaiah the pro phet of Jehovah was, in compliance with the re quest of Jehoshaphat, summoned to advise whether he and Ahab should go against Ramoth-Gilead to battle, set himself to oppose Micaiah. In the vehemence of his rage he even struck the prophet on the cheek, probably as Josephus (Antiq. viii. 15. 3) states, in bravado as a challenge to him to inflict, if he could, some such judgment on him as Iddo inflicted on Jeroboam for a similar insult. 111 icaiah contented himself with obscurely inti mating that on some season of approaching danger he should be compelled to hide himself, and then should see the falsehood of those declarations by which he was misleading the kings (1 Kings xxii. I1-24 ; 2 Chron. xviii. io-24)• 3. The son of Maaseiah, a false prophet de nounced by Jeremiah, and who was taken captive to Babylon along with Jeconiah. Jeremiah de clared that he should be burnt to death by order of Nebuchadnezzar, and that under circumstances which should make his name and fate a proverb (Jer. xxix. 21, 22).
4. The son of Hananiah (Jer. xxxvi. 12. W. L. A.