Bible Contradiction? Did Zedekiah’s eyes behold the king of Babylon?

For other posts dealing with Bible contradictions see our Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.

For today’s post will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: Did Zedekiah’s eyes behold the king of Babylon?

Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:

Yes, his eyes beheld the king of Babylon.

“You will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be captured and delivered into his hand; and you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.’” (Jeremiah 34:3)

No, his eyes were removed before he reached Babylon.

“They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon” (2 Kings 25:7)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. As always we must also check to see if the verses cited by the skeptic validate the premises that the skeptic stated.
   1. The skeptic cited Jeremiah 34:3 as making the claim that Zedekiah’s eyes beheld the king of Babylon.  The skeptic is right to infer from Jeremiah 34:3 that Zedekiah saw the king of Babylon since Jeremiah predicted of Zedekiah that “you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye.“
   2. The skeptic cited 2 Kings 25:7 as making the claim that Zedekiah’s eyes were removed before he reached Babylon.  Again the skeptic properly made an inference from the verse since they “put out the eyes of Zedekiah” before they “bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.“
3. We must note that the first claim that “Zedekiah’s eyes beheld the king of Babylon” is not logically contradictory with the second claim that “Zedekiah’s eyes were removed before he reached Babylon.”  It is not necessarily contradictory since Zedekiah could have seen the king of Babylon before his eyes were put out.  This would of course have to take place before Zedekiah was taken to Babylon.  The skeptic makes the unfounded assumption that the king of Babylon was at Babylon.
4. From point 3 the location of where the king of Babylon is crucial in seeing whether or not this is a Bible contradiction.
5. The king of Babylon at this time was Nebuchadnezzar.  The context of both passage confirms this; see 2 Kings 25:1 and Jeremiah 34:1.
6. From 2 Kings 25 we see that Nebuchadnezzar was not in Babylon but rather campaigning against Zedekiah by surrounding Jerusalem.
   1. 2 Kings 25:1 states “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, camped against it and built a siege wall all around it.”  Note Nebuchadnezzar with his army was camped outside Jerusalem instead of him being in Babylon.
   2. 2 Kings 25:6 states “Then they captured the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and he passed sentence on him.”
      1. Note that upon capturing Zedekiah he was brought “brought him to the king of Babylon.“
      2. The verse even tells us the location: “at Riblah.”
      3. The purpose was stated and what Nebuchadnezzar did was stated: “he passed sentence on him.“
      4. From this verse it is clear that Zedekiah saw Nebuchadnezzar before he was blinded.
7. Rather than 2 Kings 25:7 showing that Zedekiah did not see Nebuchadnezzar before Zedekiah’s eyes were blinded, 2 Kings 25:6 demonstrated that Zedekiah did see Nebuchadnezzar before his eyes were put out.  There is not a contradiction here.
8. What is amazing is that the skeptic cited 2 Kings 25:7 as proof  that Zedekiah did not see Nebuchadnezzar with his own eyes but the VERY verse before it states otherwise.  This is a classic example of how the skeptic failed to read the Bible in context when he tries to build a case for a Bible contradiction when the passage does not warrant one.

Again there is no Bible contradiction here.  It’s like the skeptic’s eyes were put out from seeing the context.