Storybook

The Books of Kings · The End

The littleflame.

Thirty months of siege, a breach in the wall, and the house Solomon built burning down in a night — and then, after all of it, the last four verses go and find one forgotten man in a prison cell. Every scene below is a real frame from our animated film.

Real film frames 2 Kings 24 – 25 Scroll to begin
Scroll to begin
A line of banners along a ridge at dusk Rank on rank of armoured infantry, unmoving The walled city on its hill, seen from the plain One sentry on the battlements, watching them arrive Siege engines being hauled forward across the ground The camp spreading round the whole circuit of the walls The city ringed, from above
Scene IIron Returns

Josiah died at Megiddo, and it took twenty-two years and four kings to undo him. In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about. 2 Kings 25 : 1

Nebuchadnezzar came up against the city.

The city under a haze of dust, seen from outside A woman and a child at a barred window A face behind the bars, watching nothing happen A soldier slumped by a fire in a gatehouse A man walking the wall at night under a thin moon He sits down and puts his head in his hands The siege ramp, built up against the stonework The ram, in position, waiting for morning
Scene IIMonths, Thinning

So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. Thirty months. Nothing cuts away to anything happening elsewhere, because nothing was: the whole of this stretch is people at windows, a ramp getting slowly higher, and a man on a wall at three in the morning who has run out of ideas. 2 Kings 25 : 2

A market with almost nothing on the stalls A basket holding a few small onions Two hands breaking one flatbread carefully in half A boy's face, watching the bread A queue of people, not pushing, not speaking A man portioning out what is left He hands a piece to the boy The boy holds it in both hands
Scene IIIThe Careful Faces

On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. The famine is done as manners: nobody grabs, nobody shouts, one loaf gets divided very precisely, and a boy is given a piece and holds it with both hands. 2 Kings 25 : 3

There was no bread for the people of the land.

A cart wheel turning in dust Gold vessels and a lampstand roped onto a wagon An escort walking beside the convoy Wheels, and more wheels behind them A guard beside a cart stacked with temple gold Young men marched away in a column One of them glances sideways He turns and looks back at the city on the hill A small figure on an empty road, looking the wrong way
Scene IVMemory in the Smoke

This had happened once already. Eleven years earlier Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jehoiachin, the craftsmen, the soldiers and the treasure, and left a puppet on the throne. That first deportation surfaces here as a memory — the carts, and one young man on the road who cannot stop turning round. 2 Kings 24 : 10–16

The wall at night, two torches burning on it Dust bursts out of the stonework Blocks come away and fall A hole, glowing orange from the other side Silhouettes coming through the gap More of them, backlit, running The city from above, red under a black sky A family scrambling across a roof A child handed across a gap between houses An old woman helped over a parapet
Scene VThe Breach

Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night. The wall gives way, and then it stays with the people on the roofs — a child passed hand to hand across a gap, an old woman lifted over a parapet — and never once follows the soldiers coming through the hole. 2 Kings 25 : 4

Then a breach was made in the city.

The temple precinct at night, lights along its length The first fires take hold at the far end Flame runs along the colonnades The whole complex alight, seen from across the city Fire coming out through the roof It burns against a black sky
Scene VIThe House Burns

He burned Yahweh's house, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire. Four hundred and ten years after Solomon dedicated it and a cloud filled it so thickly the priests could not stand up to minister, the house of Yahweh burned down in a night. 2 Kings 25 : 9

Two great bronze pillars against the fire The base of one, close, glowing with heat Cast decoration running with molten light A crack opens down the shaft The column comes apart in a burst of sparks Both of them down, lying broken The doorway they framed, standing open on fire
Scene VIIThe Pillars

The pillars of brass that were in Yahweh's house, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon. Jachin and Boaz — "he establishes" and "in him is strength" — the two pillars that had stood at the door of the temple since Solomon, cut up for scrap and carted east by weight. 2 Kings 25 : 13–17

An old priest kneeling alone in a burning court His face, lit by the fire behind him In the doorway ahead of him — a soft white cloud The cloud, glowing, where the glory used to stand It hangs over his eyes, half-remembered Steps going up into light that is not there any more He kneels in front of it One man, on his own, in a burning building
Scene VIIIRemembering a Cloud

The best invention in the whole book: an old priest on his knees in the burning courts, and superimposed over the doorway, the cloud. The cloud filled Yahweh's house, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud. He is old enough to have been told about it by someone who was told about it. He is watching the room it filled burn down. 1 Kings 8 : 10–11

A gold bowl with the burning city reflected in it A two-handled cup, and the fires curved across it The reflection, close — a whole city on a piece of metal Carts loaded with vessels and lampstands The convoy pulling away past the burning walls The line of carts going out across dark country Far off — just a row of small fires on a plain
Scene IXThe Gold Goes East Again

The pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, the basins, the two pillars, the one sea and the bases — the brass of all these vessels was without weight. Everything Solomon had made was inventoried, loaded and driven east. The city burns in the curve of a gold cup as it is carried out of the gate. 2 Kings 25 : 13–17

A column of people walking into a low sun Guards at intervals along the line A man carrying a bundle, and a child holding his cloak The line stretches back to the burning city on the hill A woman with a baby, and a girl gripping her sleeve Two hands, an adult's and a child's, holding on A girl's face, looking up at her father The column, tiny, crossing an enormous empty country
Scene XThe Exile Road

The rest of the people who were left in the city… did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away captive. But the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers. It walks with one family out of the many, and the only thing it really shows you is a hand holding another hand. 2 Kings 25 : 11–12

The column at night, small fires along its length Lamps moving in the dark across open ground Faces round a fire at the roadside A man carrying a sleeping child Dawn — the road curving away to the horizon The line goes on further than the frame A woman with a baby, still walking A child's face, turned up to the light
Scene XIThe Line Walks On

So Judah was carried away captive out of his land. Seven words for the end of a nation, four hundred years after David. It gets a night, a sunrise and a road, and lets the line keep walking after the narration has stopped. 2 Kings 25 : 21

A small stone room with one high window A shaft of light across the floor An old man sitting on a low bench against the wall His face — grey, patient, entirely still The room from the corner, and how small it is He stands and walks two paces A chain lying coiled on the flagstones He waits, because that is what he does
Scene XIIThe Clean, Tiny Cell
Year 1

And then, after the fall of everything, the Books of Kings do something nobody expects. They go and find one man. Jehoiachin — carried off as a teenager in the first deportation, king of Judah for three months — has been in a Babylonian prison ever since. He gets a clean, tiny cell and a very long time. 2 Kings 25 : 27

Thirty-seven years in a room.

The cell door, from inside, in the dark It opens, and light comes in He shields his eyes with one hand From behind — a small figure in the doorway Hands settling a good robe on his shoulders His face, not understanding Someone straightens the cloth for him He stands in a warm hall in clothes that fit
Scene XIIIInto Warm Light

In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison. "Lifted up the head" is the Hebrew idiom for a pardon. He also spoke kindly to him, which the text thought worth recording. 2 Kings 25 : 27–28

A long banquet hall full of people He is shown to a place near the head of it The king of Babylon says something to him A loaf set down in front of him Both his hands close over the bread His hands, gripping it, not eating yet His eyes, close An old man at a full table, overwhelmed
Scene XIVThe King's Own Table

He changed his prison garments, and ate bread before him continually all the days of his life. Not a state visit. Not a release into exile. A permanent place at the table, every day, for the rest of his life. And it knows exactly which moment to hold on: a man who has eaten prison rations for thirty-seven years, putting both hands on a loaf of bread. 2 Kings 25 : 29

A small clay lamp burning on a plate among the dishes His face behind the flame He lifts the little lamp in both hands He holds it, looking at it The flame steady in his cupped hands And he smiles The whole hall, and one old man with a lamp in the middle Hands breaking bread, unhurried
Scene XVThe Little Flame

For his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life. That is the last sentence of the Books of Kings. Not a victory, not a restoration — a food allowance for one old man in a foreign capital, from a line God had promised would always have a lamp in Jerusalem. The lamp is very small. It is still lit. 2 Kings 25 : 30

A continual allowance — every day, all his life.

The flame, filling the frame It becomes a fire on a hillside One shepherd sitting beside it A hill, a fire, and the Milky Way over everything A small town on a ridge in the dark A star comes up over it One lit doorway and a fire in a yard The town under the star, keeping watch The star, and everything else going quiet
Scene XVIAnd Then, a Shepherd's Fire

And then comes the thing it has been building to since the very first episode. The little flame at the Babylonian table dissolves into a fire on a hillside, and the hillside is above a town called Bethlehem, and there is a star over it. The Books of Kings end in exile with a lamp that will not go out. Six hundred years later, somebody comes to that town to be born. 2 Kings 25 : 30 · Luke 2 : 8

After the story

The last sentence is a food allowance.

Two books, four hundred years, forty kings — and the closing line of the whole thing is an accounting note about a daily ration for a man in captivity. No restoration, no army, no return. But God had promised David a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, and here at the very end, after the city burned and the line was broken and the gold went east, there is still somebody alive from that family, and he is being fed. That is the whole of the hope the book leaves you with. It is enough.

A small town on a ridge at night under a single star The star rising over the rooftops of Bethlehem
The last shot of the Books of Kings, and the first shot of everything after them.

Voices of the exile · hover or tap to turn

Jehoiachin holding the little lamp Jehoiachin

"Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life."

— 2 Kings 25:29
Jerusalem under a burning sky The City

"Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night…"

— 2 Kings 25:4
A girl on the exile road looking up at her father The Exiles

"So Judah was carried away captive out of his land."

— 2 Kings 25:21

The end of Kings

How closely were you watching?

1. How long did the siege of Jerusalem last?

2. What happened to the temple?

3. Who do the Books of Kings end with?

4. What is the very last thing the book records?

What this story teaches

God keeps promises at the smallest possible scale.

The promise was a lamp for David's line in Jerusalem. What survives at the end of the book is one pardoned prisoner eating dinner nine hundred miles from Jerusalem. The promise is not broken. It is just very small.

"…that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem…" 1 Kings 11:36

Endings in the Bible are rarely tidy.

Kings does not end with a lesson or a victory. It ends mid-story, in exile, on a detail so ordinary it reads like an administrative note — and then stops.

"…every day a portion, all the days of his life." 2 Kings 25:30

The hope was already in the room.

Nobody at that table knew what the family line would eventually produce. It cuts from the lamp to a hillside above Bethlehem and lets you do the rest.

"There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock." Luke 2:8
Read the scripture itself. 2 Kings 24 – 25 · World English Bible

2 Kings 24

1In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.

2Yahweh sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by his servants the prophets.

3Surely at the commandment of Yahweh this came on Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did,

4and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not pardon.

5Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

6So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

7The king of Egypt didn’t come out of his land any more; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that belonged to the king of Egypt.

8Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

9He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, according to all that his father had done.

10At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.

11Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it,

12and Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers; and the king of Babylon captured him in the eighth year of his reign.

13He carried out from there all the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in Yahweh’s temple, as Yahweh had said.

14He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. No one remained, except the poorest people of the land.

15He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, with the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the chief men of the land. He carried them into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

16All the men of might, even seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths one thousand, all of them strong and fit for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

17The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s father’s brother, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

18Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

19He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

20For through the anger of Yahweh, this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

2 Kings 25

1In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it around it.

2So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

3On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

4Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city around it); and the king went by the way of the Arabah.

5But the Chaldean army pursued the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

6Then they captured the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they passed judgment on him.

7They killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, then put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

8Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9He burned Yahweh’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire.

10All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

11Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive the residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude.

12But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

13The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of brass that were in Yahweh’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house, and carried the brass pieces to Babylon.

14They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered.

15The captain of the guard took away the fire pans, the basins, that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver.

16The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which Solomon had made for Yahweh’s house, the brass of all these vessels was not weighed.

17The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a capital of brass was on it. The height of the capital was three cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital around it, all of brass; and the second pillar with its network was like these.

18The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold;

19and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and five men of those who saw the king’s face, who were found in the city; and the scribe, the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city.

20Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

21The king of Babylon attacked them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.

22As for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor.

23Now when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

24Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, “Don’t be afraid because of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.”

25But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal offspring came, and ten men with him, and struck Gedaliah, so that he died, with the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah.

26All the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose, and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

27In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;

28and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon,

29and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life;

30and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him from the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.

World English Bible (WEB) — a public-domain modern English translation. Read it freely, share it freely.

NEXT — A NEW BOOK

Naked I came.

Kings closes with a lamp still burning in exile. Job goes further back and a great deal deeper down — to a wager nobody on earth is told about, and four messengers arriving on one afternoon.

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