Editing Zedekiah (section)

==Chronological dispute==
{{Further|Jeconiah}}

[[File:102.Zedekiah's Sons Are Slaughtered before His Eyes.jpg|thumb|Zedekiah's sons are slaughtered before his eyes, by [[Gustave Doré]]]]
The [[Babylonian Chronicles]] give 2 Adar (16 March), 597 BC, as the date that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem.<ref>D. J. Wiseman, ''Chronicles of Chaldean Kings in the British Museum'' (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1956) 73.</ref> At that time, Nebuchadnezzar deposed King [[Jeconiah]] and installed Zedekiah—Jeconiah's uncle—in his place. Zedekiah's installation as king by Nebuchadnezzar can therefore be firmly dated to the early spring of 597 BC.

Historically there has been considerable controversy over the date when Jerusalem was captured the second time and Zedekiah's reign came to an end. There is no dispute about the month: it was the summer month of Tammuz (Jeremiah 52:6). The problem has been to determine the year. It was noted above that Albright preferred 587 BC and Thiele advocated 586 BC, and this division among scholars has persisted until the present time. If Zedekiah's years are by accession counting, whereby the year he came to the throne was considered his "zero" year and his first full year in office, 597/596, was counted as year one, Zedekiah's eleventh year, the year the city fell, would be 587/586. Since Judean regnal years were measured from [[Tishrei]] in the fall, this would place the end of his reign and the capture of the city in the summer of 586 BC. Accession counting was the rule for most, but not all, of the kings of [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]], whereas "non-accession" counting was the rule for most, but not all, of the kings of [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Israel]].<ref name=Thiele /><ref>Leslie McFall, "A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles," ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' 148 (1991) 45.[https://web.archive.org/web/20030807124024/http://www.btinternet.com/~lmf12/TransGuide.pdf]</ref>

The publication of the [[Babylonian Chronicles]] in 1956 yielded evidence that the years of Zedekiah were measured in a non-accession sense.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} According to this method, 598/597 BC—the year Zedekiah was installed by Nebuchadnezzar according to Judah's Tishrei-based calendar—is considered to be "year one" of Zedekiah's reign. Therefore, the fall of Jerusalem in his eleventh year would have been in year 588/587 BC, i.e. in the summer of 587 BC.

The Babylonian Chronicles allow the fairly precise dating of the capture of [[Jeconiah]] and the start of Zedekiah's reign, and they also give the accession year of Nebuchadnezzar's successor [[Amel-Marduk]] (Evil Merodach) as 562/561 BC,{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} which was the 37th year of Jeconiah's captivity according to 2 Kings 25:27. These Babylonian records related to Jeconiah's reign are consistent with the fall of the city in 587 but not in 586, thus supporting Albright's date.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} Nevertheless, scholars who assume that Zedekiah's reign should be calculated by accession reckoning continue to adhere to the 586 date.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}