Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.
So God allowed the king of Babylon to attack them. The Babylonian army killed their young men right inside their holy temple and showed no mercy to anyone—not to young men or women, not to the elderly or those bent over with age. God let the enemy conquer them all.
God allowed the Babylonians to completely defeat and destroy Jerusalem because of the people's persistent disobedience, showing that divine judgment can be severe when people refuse to turn back to God.
📚 Historical Context
This verse describes the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC under King Nebuchadnezzar. The Chronicler is explaining that this devastating defeat—including the destruction of the temple and the exile of the Jewish people—was God's judgment for generations of unfaithfulness and idol worship. This was the end of the kingdom of Judah and the beginning of the Babylonian exile.
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