Zedekiah was the last Davidic king in Judah, and like many of his predecessors he “did evil in the sight of Yahweh.” We might imagine he oppressed the people, promoted idolatry, persecuted prophets, ignored God’s commandments and His prophets. We know from the book of Jeremiah Jehoiakim did all this, and Zedekiah did evil “according to all that Jehoiakim had done.”

But the portrait of Zedekiah in Jeremiah is not what we expect. Jehoiakim scornfully burns Jeremiah’s scroll (Jeremiah 36). Zedekiah doesn’t do anything so brash. Instead of a viciously wicked king, Zedekiah is a waffling king, a weak king, a king influenced in equal measure by the prophetic word and by public opinion.

When some of the king’s officials put Jeremiah in prison, Zedekiah brings him out to meet him, but only in secret. The officials put Jeremiah into a pit without water, and the king lets them get away with it. Soon, though, Zedekiah has second thoughts, brings Jeremiah out of the pit, and meets with Jeremiah, again in secret (Jeremiah 37-38).

Zedekiah can’t bring himself to oppose Jeremiah, but he can’t bring himself to obey Jeremiah either. He knows that Jeremiah is a prophet, but he’s too scared of his officials to endorse the prophet openly. He hops from branch to branch and can’t decide where to settle.

Evil comes in many forms, but some are more dangerously tempting than others. Few of us are tempted by open idolatry, but how many are cowards who refuse God’s word because we are frightened of public opinion or peer pressure? And what does God think of this? Was Zedekiah’s vacillation tolerable weakness? Admirable even-handedness? Realistic flexibility? No: “Zedekiah did evil in the sight of Yahweh.”