Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 25
Babylon’s soldiers had no use for Jerusalem’s wood or its stone. So they burned the wood and they pulled down the stones. However, metal was valuable. So, the commander ordered that the soldiers must take away all the metal from Jerusalem’s buildings.
At the time of Solomon, Jerusalem had been a truly wealthy city. So, Solomon could afford to use the most precious metals in the temple (God’s house) and in his palaces. Since then, many attackers had taken away Jerusalem’s precious metals; and its kings had sold or destroyed other objects. However, there still remained many metal objects in Jerusalem from the time of Solomon.
Solomon had set up two great columns in front of the temple. They were bronze, a brown metal – and they were the work of skilled workmen. Their purpose was to remind Israel’s people that God had established the temple; also, he had established Israel as a strong nation in its own land. Now, Babylon’s soldiers began the work to remove these bronze objects. They were a great weight – too heavy even to weigh (1 Kings 7:15-22).
There were many other bronze objects at the temple, too. These included the object called the Sea; it was a great basin for the water that the priests used to wash. There were the stands that had formerly (16:17) held smaller basins. There were also many small metal objects that the priests had used in their daily work at the temple. Many of those objects were silver or gold.
The soldiers took all these things away. Now that they had burned down the temple, the ceremonies at the temple had to stop. For their prayers, the people who were still loyal to God, turned towards the former place of the temple (1 Kings 8:46-51; Psalm 137; Daniel 6:10).
Next part: The judgment of Judah's officials (2 Kings 25:18-21)
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© 2026, Keith Simons.