And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead, in Jerusalem.
Josiah is dead, and the crowd moves first. They pick his successor themselves. The verse reads like a routine note of succession. Commentators see more in it: the line of David slipping out of God's hands into the hands of men, and then into the hands of foreign powers.
No one hands this throne over. A crowd takes it. And the man they take is not even next in line.
Chronicles tells us that right after the death of Josiah, the people of the land took Jehoahaz (which means "Jehovah holds up") and made him king. He was not the LORD's choice, but the people's choice. He was not the eldest son, and so the people's action was unlawful and lawless.
The choice also exposes the people who made it. One writer turns the question back on them.
Jehoahaz was not the eldest son of Josiah. Eliakim was older. But Jehoahaz was the popular choice. He reigned only three months, and that short time was enough to show what was in the king's heart... Did not the people's choice of king show what was in the hearts of the people?
Until now, son had followed father on David's throne without a break. One writer treats that unbroken chain as God's own order.
It was God's order, and it held even when conspirators killed the father. So a break in this succession would be strong evidence that God had cast off the nation. And in fact that order was broken after the death of Josiah... As soon as God stops appointing kings, Satan steps in. Through his agents, the kings of Egypt and of Babylon, he sets up men whom God rejected and gave up to judgment. God did not confirm Jehoahaz on the throne, so his reign lasted only three months. The king of Egypt puts him down, carries him to Egypt, and sets Eliakim (Jehoiakim) on the throne.
A reign this short might seem too brief to judge. The record says otherwise. Jehoahaz did not take after his father at all.
God showed favour all through the reign of Josiah. The Lord filled the hearts of the people with blessing and joy. Yet none of this bears fruit in the kings who follow him. The people chose Jehoahaz and proclaimed him king in his father's place, and he "did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done." He is linked not to Josiah, but to his unbelieving and idolatrous fathers. He is not counted in the line of faith. It is not possible to have Josiah or Abraham as father without producing fruits fit for repentance.
His name, Jehovah-seized, turned out to describe what happened to him. Writers note the grim symmetry between what he grasped and what befell him.
Jehoahaz (Jehovah-seized) had seized the throne that was not his by right, and in turn was seized by Necho, God's instrument, and carried to a land of exile, there to find a grave far from the tombs of his fathers.
(cite: C Knapp)
The prophets weighed his fate against his father's and found it heavier. Josiah was mourned; his son was to be mourned more.
About Shallum we read in Jeremiah 22:10-12: "Weep not for him who is dead (that is, Josiah), nor grieve for him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away (that is, Shallum), for he shall return no more to see his native land." This suggests that something worse than being deported was in store for Josiah's worthless successor.
Behind the politics lies a change in God's dealings. Chastening had been the pattern; now judgment itself arrives.
With the death of Josiah the forbearance of God ceased and judgment soon came upon the city. It had been held back until now, for the troubles that fell on the kingdom of Judah had the character of chastening. The reformation carried out by Josiah was the last act of mercy from God while Judah remained a nation... And the first drops of the storm of judgment proved to be the removal of the last support of David's house.
The kings who follow hold no real power. But the commentators do not stop there.
Josiah was the last king worthy of the title. Three sons and a grandson succeeded him, mere puppets of their Gentile masters... but the working out of God's purposes of love awaits the coming of Christ. "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill" (Ps. 2:6).
- Chosen — The people took a king instead of receiving one. He was not the eldest son and not God's choice. Their pick exposed their own hearts.
- Broken — Here the father-to-son line of David snapped. One writer calls that break strong evidence that God had cast off the nation.
- Exposed — Three months showed whose son he really was. He took after his idolatrous ancestors, not his godly father. A good father guarantees nothing.
- Removed — Egypt carried him off after three months, and he never saw his land again. Jeremiah said that loss deserved more weeping than his father's death.
- Awaited — God's patience had run out. The last support of David's house was gone. No true king sits on that throne until Christ comes to take it.
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
Josiah's death ends the last good reign in Judah, and the throne passes to a son of twenty-three who keeps it for only three months. Two questions follow: why was the reign so short, and who put him on the throne?
This short reign was no accident of politics. It came as the first drops of a judgment long held back.
With the death of Josiah the forbearance of God ceased and judgment soon came upon the city. Up to that point God had held it back, because the disasters that fell on the kingdom of Judah had the character of chastisement. Josiah's reformation was God's last act of mercy while Judah remained a nation… But now the sky was black with coming judgment. And the first drops of the storm of judgment proved to be the removal of the last support of David's house.
The people of the land took him and made him king. One commentator notes who had no part in that act.
"Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz" — for indeed no one could say it was God now in any sense.
Another writer follows that choice through to how Scripture later records his name.
The regular succession to the throne of Judah ceased with the much-mourned Josiah. Jehoahaz was not the eldest son of the late king. Johanan and Jehoiakim were both older than he (1 Chron. 3:15). The people made him king by their own choice. It was the preference of the crowd, not the appointment of God… Ezekiel 19:1-4 compares him to "a young lion, and he learned to catch prey; he devoured men." This is the only hint we are given about the character of his sin. He was probably guilty of deeds of violence… Jeremiah 22:11 calls him Shallum, which means "to whom it is repaid"… Matthew 1 leaves his name out of the list of our Lord's ancestors.
A reign this short might seem too brief to show anything. It was not.
All God's favour under the reign of Josiah bears no fruit in the successors of this king. The blessing and the joy with which the Lord had filled the hearts of the people bear no fruit either. Jehoahaz, chosen and proclaimed king by the people in his father's place, "did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done" (2 Kings 23:32). He is linked not to Josiah, but to his unbelieving and idolatrous fathers, and he is not counted in the line of faith. No one can have Josiah or Abraham as father without producing fruits fit for repentance. Here the axe was already at the root of the tree. Judah's royal line was about to go through its last convulsions before being cut off… Josiah's son reigns only three months. Yet he still finds time to do evil, and by his conduct towards God to contradict what Josiah had established.
Those same three months were also a chance thrown away.
Even though his reign was short, what an opportunity he missed. Had he been faithful like his father, his name would have come down to us in the divine record with something of the true fame of Josiah.
One commentator finds the king's own name working against him.
Jehoahaz means "Jehovah-seized." He had seized the throne that was not his by right. In turn Necho, God's instrument, seized him and carried him to a land of exile, to find a grave far from the tombs of his fathers.
The place of his exile carries its own sting.
The people of the land placed Josiah's son Jehoahaz on the throne. But the Egyptian ruler would not allow him to be king. He carried him into Egypt, where he died a captive. Long ago the Lord had delivered His people Israel from that same land and power, with a mighty arm and wonderful signs.
Commentators differ on where he was first held. One places him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, under tribute, on his way to Egypt. He draws out the reversal:
Though Israel had been delivered from slavery in Egypt, Egypt came after them to Canaan to put them in slavery again.
- Chosen — the crowd took him, not God. He was not the eldest son, so Judah's shortest reign began with a choice God never made.
- Short — three months was still long enough to do evil. Having Josiah for a father guarantees no one a place in the line of faith.
- Squandered — had he followed his father, even three months could have won his name honour. Instead he contradicted all Josiah had built.
- Seized — his name meant "Jehovah-seized." He seized a throne that was not his, and Necho seized him and carried him off to die in exile.
- Signalled — his removal was the first drop of a storm long held back. The road out led to Egypt, the land God had once redeemed His people from.
And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and imposed a fine upon the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
Josiah, Judah's last godly king, died in battle against Pharaoh Necho, and the people made his son Jehoahaz king. Three months later Egypt removed him and fined the land — so who really ruled Jerusalem?
Jehoahaz did not come to the throne by right of birth or by God's word. Popular feeling put him there after his father's death.
Chronicles tells us that right after Josiah's death, the people of the land took Jehoahaz (which means "Jehovah holds up") and made him king. He was not the LORD's choice, but the people's choice. He was not the eldest son, and so the people's action was unlawful and lawless. He did evil, and Josephus describes him as vile.
One writer finds a quiet confirmation of this in how Scripture describes Necho's next move:
Necho, it is said, made his half-brother Eliakim "king in the place of Josiah his father." This may imply that God did not recognize Jehoahaz, the people's choice, as the true successor.
Commentators read his name in two ways. One takes Jehoahaz to mean "Jehovah holds up." Another reads it as "Jehovah-seized" and sees that meaning answered in what happened to him.
Jehoahaz (Jehovah-seized) had seized the throne that was not his by right. Necho, God's instrument, then seized him and carried him off to a land of exile, where he found a grave far from the tombs of his fathers.
Scripture gives him a second name as well.
In Jeremiah 22:11 he is called, tellingly, Shallum (to whom it is repaid), and by this name he is recorded in the royal family line of Judah. His name is left out from among those of our Lord's ancestors in Matthew 1.
Other passages say Necho put Jehoahaz in chains at Riblah, while this verse places the deposing in Jerusalem. Tracing the movements of the Egyptian army shows how both can be true.
Elsewhere we are told that he was taken to Riblah in the land of Hamath and bound. That in no way contradicts what is quoted above. History tells us that after his victory at Megiddo, Necho meant to march on to the Euphrates. But he heard that the people had raised Jehoahaz to the throne by popular acclaim. So he sent part of his army to Jerusalem. It deposed Jehoahaz and brought him captive to Riblah, where Necho and his main forces were. He did this, it is said, because he believed Jehoahaz leaned toward an alliance with Assyria against him.
The fine of silver and gold was more than a money loss. It turned back the deliverance God had once given from Egypt.
It seems that Josiah's attack on Pharaoh Necho had only drawn Pharaoh's anger against Judah. Pharaoh found Judah so weak that he took Jehoahaz captive... and imposed a tribute on the land of 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold. So, though God had delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, Egypt came after them to Canaan to put them in slavery again!
Egypt acted for its own reasons. Yet Josiah's own last act had opened the door, and the Lord used it for a purpose Pharaoh never planned.
Josiah's last act in opposing Pharaoh Necho gave that ruler the chance to interfere in the affairs of Israel. But the Lord used it to chasten the king and His wayward people. God often uses the very failures of His people to bring about their final blessing. He can also use their failures in discipline to rebuke their waywardness.
The silver and gold taken here did not stay safe in Egypt's treasury. God later counted it as wages owed for a different king's service.
Egypt pictures the world — the place from which God has delivered His people in grace. To seek its help in anything is a grievous offence in His sight... Judgement fell first upon Judah; then, a few years later, upon Egypt also. Jehovah counted that wages were due to Nebuchadnezzar for his service in destroying Tyre... The wealth of Egypt was Jehovah's repayment to the instrument of His righteous judgements. That wealth included the silver and gold Necho had carried there from Jerusalem (Ezek. 29:18).
- Chosen — Popular acclaim made Jehoahaz king, not birthright and not God; a lawless start to a three-month reign.
- Seized — He seized a throne that was not his, and Necho seized him in turn. He died in exile, far from his fathers' graves.
- Fined — The hundred talents of silver and one of gold put Judah back under the power God had once freed them from.
- Chastened — Josiah's last act against Necho gave Egypt its opening, and God used that failure to rebuke a wayward people.
- Repaid — Scripture even names him Shallum, "to whom it is repaid." The tribute carried off to Egypt later became Nebuchadnezzar's wages. Nothing taken from God's people escapes His reckoning.
And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.
Judah's throne is no longer in Judah's hands. The king of Egypt crowns one brother, renames him, and carries the other off as a prisoner — so who rules in Jerusalem now?
Foreign rule over Jerusalem begins here, and one writer sees it running on to the end. The king of Egypt treated Judah as his own property, and even the place he sent the deposed king had a sting in it.
The dominion of the Gentiles soon began, and will only end when the Lord appears... The people of the land placed Josiah's son Jehoahaz on the throne. But the king of Egypt would not let him reign. He carried him off to Egypt, where he died a prisoner. Long ago the Lord had delivered His people Israel out of that same land and power, with a mighty arm and wonderful signs.
Jehoahaz was not the natural heir. The nation had passed over the elder son, and Pharaoh cancelled what they had done.
Eliakim was also a son of Josiah, but evidently one easier for Pharaoh to handle... Jehoahaz had become king at 23 and reigned only three months. So he was a younger brother of Eliakim, who was 25 when he took the throne. It was the people who made Jehoahaz king, no doubt because they preferred him to his older brother. But Pharaoh reversed the people's decision.
There is a fitting justice in how he lost the crown, and a hand behind Necho's. One writer finds both in the king's own name.
He never returned from Egypt. Jehoahaz — the name means "Jehovah-seized" — had seized a throne that was not his by right. In turn Necho, God's instrument, seized him and carried him to a land of exile. There he found a grave, far from the tombs of his fathers.
Why bother changing Eliakim's name at all? Both names mean much the same thing, so the point lies not in the meaning but in who does the naming.
Eliakim means "God will raise up"; Jehoiakim means "Jehovah will raise up." Why the name was changed is not clear, but it was at least an act of authority. Giving names is a mark of lordship. Nebuchadnezzar did the same. He gave new names to Daniel and his three friends when he took them into his service (Dan. 1:7). He also changed Mattaniah into Zedekiah when he set him on Judah's shaky throne. What humiliating details! How low the chosen people had now fallen! This was the fruit of centuries of persistent sin against Jehovah.
The new name announced that God raises kings up. Everything about how this king got his crown, and how he used it, said otherwise.
The king did not live up to either name. It was not the Lord who had set him on his throne. It was the king of Egypt who set him up, and he was subject to him. Like his brother, "he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done."
Necho looked like the master of Judah. Soon the man he had crowned was serving somebody else.
Egypt's own subjection shows in this: Eliakim, the man Pharaoh-necho appointed, becomes the servant of the king of Babylon (2 Chron. 36:6). See how fully Judah lies under the power of Nebuchadnezzar! He binds this king in chains. He puts a child of eight years on the throne. After three months he puts the child's uncle Mattaniah (Zedekiah) there instead.
Both kings in this verse were sons of Josiah, a godly father. Neither of them carried his father's faith forward.
For a time Josiah's godly influence had reached the priests, the Levites and the people. But his own sons show no sign of being moved by their father's life and deeds... The evil ways of the sons of Aaron, the sons of Eli, the sons of Samuel, and the sons of Josiah give a solemn warning to every godly father. He must give special attention to his own house, in case the evils he hates and condemns in others arise in his own family.
- Named — giving a name is a mark of lordship. Necho renamed Eliakim; Nebuchadnezzar later renamed Daniel and his friends.
- Owned — the new name said God raises kings up, yet the Lord had not set this king up. Egypt had, and he honoured neither name.
- Reversed — the people crowned the younger brother. Pharaoh crowned the elder and carried the younger off.
- Returned — Jehoahaz died in Egypt, the land the Lord once rescued Israel from. Necho was only God's instrument in taking him there.
- Replaced — Necho's own man soon served Babylon. The king who handed out crowns lost his grip.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and he did evil in the sight of Jehovah his God.
Chronicles gives Jehoiakim's eleven years a single line, and its verdict is one word: evil. His father was one of Judah's best kings, yet these eleven years carried Judah to the edge of ruin.
Jehoiakim's father had left him every advantage.
Josiah, the father of Jehoiakim, was one of the best kings who ever sat on the throne of David. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and when he died the prophet Jeremiah and the people mourned him deeply. Sadly, Jehoiakim did not follow in his godly father's steps, for "he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God." Had the king paid attention to the word of God, he would have understood this. God in His patience had postponed the judgment decreed against Judah for its idolatry, to give an opportunity for repentance. And He had done so because men like Hezekiah and Josiah had sought the Lord.
One writer weighs which way round such a family line is more surprising.
How remarkable! Not, sadly, that a godly king should have an ungodly son, but that an ungodly father should have a godly son. That indeed was grace.
The king named here was not born with this name. Pharaoh Necho of Egypt gave it to him when he deposed his brother and put him on the throne.
When Pharaoh deposed Jehoahaz, he put his elder brother Eliakim on the throne and changed his name to Jehoiakim. The first name means "God is setting up," the second "Jah sets up." The king did not live up to either name. It was not the Lord who had set him on his throne; it was the king of Egypt, and Jehoiakim was his subject.
The renaming itself carried a message about who now held real power.
Josiah was the last king worthy of the title. Three sons and a grandson followed him, mere puppets of their foreign masters… The giving of names is a mark of lordship. So Nebuchadnezzar gave new names to Daniel and his three friends when he took them into his service. He also changed Mattaniah's name to Zedekiah when he set him on Judah's shaky throne. How low the chosen people had now fallen, the result of centuries of persistent sin against the Lord.
Elsewhere Scripture fills in what that evil looked like.
Jehoiakim's character was thoroughly unpleasant — treacherous, vengeful, and bloodthirsty… He taxed the land to raise the money Pharaoh demanded. He collected silver and gold from the people of the land, from each one according to his assessment, to give to Pharaoh Necho. The people had passed him over and chosen his younger half-brother instead, so he made no effort to ease their burdens. He increased them.
The clearest single act of this reign was his response to a written message from God, read aloud in the fifth year.
Jehoiakim was quickly hardening himself past all feeling, and no twinge of conscience is visible over his sacrilegious act.
Destroying the document did nothing to the message.
The foolish and irreverent king might cut the roll, but he could not set aside the divine judgments written on it. He never imagined what would follow. Thousands of years after his death, millions of people around the world would read the very words of that roll — and read of his wicked action too.
The reign did not end quietly.
Three years after Nebuchadnezzar restored him to his kingdom, Jehoiakim rebelled against him… As Jeremiah had prophesied, Jehoiakim died a violent death. His body was dragged and thrown out beyond the walls of Jerusalem, left in the heat by day and the frost by night. He was "buried with the burial of a donkey."
The turning point had been Josiah's death.
With the death of Josiah the patience of God ceased, and judgment soon came upon the city. Until then God had held it back, for the disasters that fell on the kingdom of Judah were a form of discipline. The reformation Josiah carried out was the last act of mercy from God while Judah remained a nation.
- Inherited — Jehoiakim had a godly father and a name meaning God sets up; neither made him godly. Grace is not passed down like property.
- Borrowed — His throne was Egypt's gift, and his name was Egypt's choice. A crown held from the world's hand is not the same as one held from God's.
- Ruthless — He squeezed the people who had passed him over, and took a knife to the word of God.
- Powerless — He could cut up the roll, not the judgment. Millions read the words he destroyed; his own body ended up outside the city walls.
- Postponed, not cancelled — God delayed judgment on Judah because Hezekiah and Josiah sought the Lord. Patience was the window for repentance, and Jehoiakim spent it refusing.
Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him with chains of brass to carry him to Babylon.
Jehoiakim's reign ends with Babylon's king at his gates and chains on him — the first of Babylon's blows on Judah. Two questions follow: why did God give him up, and what did that begin?
One incident shows the kind of king Jehoiakim was. He met Jeremiah's written warnings with a knife and a fire:
In the fifth year of his reign, Baruch, Jeremiah's assistant, read the message of God from a book to all the people. Eager informers reported it to the king, and he ordered the book brought and read before him. "It was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him. As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire." It was a daring act of irreverence. A Jew above all learned to treat every sacred writing with the deepest respect. But Jehoiakim was fast hardening himself past all feeling, and no twinge of conscience shows over his sacrilegious act.
The chains did not come without warning. One writer sets them beside the sentence Jeremiah had already spoken over this king:
Jehoiakim had changed masters. He could hardly wait to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. His land had already become prey in part for all his neighbours. Then Nebuchadnezzar went up against him and bound him with chains of bronze to take him away to Babylon. We learn through Jeremiah what word the Lord had pronounced concerning him: "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night."
The chains were meant to take him to Babylon. Commentators differ over whether the journey ever happened. One writer weighs the silence:
As to his end, Scripture gives no history. 2 Chronicles 36:6 states that Nebuchadnezzar "bound him in chains to take him to Babylon." It does not say he was taken there. He may have been released after promising to submit to his conqueror. But suppose he was carried to Babylon. Even that would not contradict 2 Kings 24:6 ("So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers"). He might easily have returned to Jerusalem, as other Jewish captives did later. Scripture gives no record of his death. That silence is no proof that Jeremiah's prophecies about his end were not fulfilled to the letter.
Another writer sees the chains as a humiliation that stopped short of removal, and the start of something far larger:
The king of Egypt took possession of the land and made Jehoiakim king in Jerusalem. Jehoiakim's wickedness was far from leading to any restoration on God's part. Then came one more powerful than the king of Egypt, a king through whom God would begin the rule of the Gentiles. He comes up against Jerusalem and binds Jehoiakim in chains, yet after all leaves him to end his reign and his life at Jerusalem. Three years later he carried away his son to Babylon.
Why does this early raid matter more than the invasions that followed?
This matter of the vessels is extremely important. There had been three deportations: one under king Jehoiakim, then under his son Jehoiachin, and finally under Zedekiah. The last of the three did by far the most damage. The temple was burnt, and huge numbers went into captivity. But the 70 years of captivity count from the first deportation, the one we would call minor. Why was this first one the important one in God's eyes? It is because of the vessels. Nebuchadnezzar had taken the vessels of the temple to Babylon, and even put them into the house of his idols. Such a thing had never happened before.
Nebuchadnezzar could have emptied the temple at once. One writer sees purpose in the fact that he did not:
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came against him and took Jehoiakim captive to Babylon. He also took some of the articles from the temple and put them in his own temple at Babylon. The Lord allowed this as a warning to Judah. Nebuchadnezzar might have taken all the treasures of the house, but he did not. If Judah had turned back to the Lord, this might have preserved them from the later damage.
- Cause — Jehoiakim cut up and burned the scroll of God's warnings and felt nothing. The chains came after.
- Word — Jeremiah had said none of his line would sit on David's throne and his dead body would be cast out. The chains begin the fulfilment.
- Chains — The verse says he was bound for Babylon. It never says he arrived, and commentators differ on what followed.
- Vessels — Babylon put the temple vessels among its idols. That had never happened before, and the seventy years count from it.
- Warning — Nebuchadnezzar took only part, leaving Judah room to turn back. They did not, and the heavier blows came later.
And Nebuchadnezzar carried [part] of the vessels of the house of Jehovah to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
Judah's last kings fell one after another. Here Babylon strips the temple of part of its sacred furniture and sets it in the house of Nebuchadnezzar's god — so how could God allow that, and what did this raid begin?
This raid was the opening move in a long collapse. One writer fills in the date and the detail:
In the third or fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah — the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — this same Nebuchadnezzar came up against Jerusalem and laid siege to it (Dan. 1:1). He took Jehoiakim captive and bound him with bronze chains to carry him away to Babylon. At this time he carried away part of the vessels of the house of the Lord, to decorate the temple of his god. He also carried away to Babylon a number of young people from either the royal family or the nobility.
Nebuchadnezzar was not just the stronger king here. Another writer shows both who acted and why:
The Lord had given Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. He had so fully abandoned His house in Jerusalem that He allowed the sacred vessels of the temple — already profaned by the sins of the kings of Judah — to be carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of Nebuchadnezzar's god. So God removed His lampstand at Jerusalem for the time. He removed it in judgment, because it had stopped giving out God's light to guide and bless a world in moral darkness.
after_note_ignore: n/a
One writer points to what else changed hands:
The ruin of Israel brought with it the transfer of the government of the earth — that is, of kingly power — from the king of Judah to the king of Babylon.
By damage, this was the mildest of the three invasions. Yet the seventy years count from here, and one writer explains why:
There had been three deportations: one in the days of king Jehoiakim, then of his son Jehoiachin, and finally of Zedekiah. The last of the three did the most damage. The temple was burnt, and very large numbers went into captivity. But the 70 years of captivity count from the first deportation, the one we would call relatively unimportant. Why was this first one the important one in God's eyes? It's because of the vessels. Nebuchadnezzar took the vessels of the Temple to Babylon, and even put them into the house of his idols. Such a thing had never happened before. True, some kings had taken silver from the treasury, and even from the doors of the temple, to buy off the king of Assyria. But no one had ever touched the holy vessels.
Losing them cost Israel more than treasure:
Without vessels, it was impossible to bring sacrifices as prescribed. No vessels, no worship! This is the tragedy.
None of this came without warning. Long before, a king had shown his treasures to visitors from Babylon:
About a hundred years before Jehoiakim came to the throne, the good king Hezekiah unwisely showed the treasures of his house to the ambassadors of Babylon. Isaiah the prophet came to him and said, "Hear the word of the LORD. Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have stored up, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD." That prophecy was now close to its fulfilment.
God's patience with Babylon had a limit:
God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the temple, after the glory had departed, and to take its holy vessels into Babylon. But in His own time God brought Nebuchadnezzar low. Later the godless Belshazzar challenged the God of Israel: he used the holy vessels to praise the gods of his own making. So God stepped in to defend the honour of His Name, and He overthrew Babylon and its godless ruler. God was long-suffering. He let the holy vessels stay in Nebuchadnezzar's temple, but He would not tolerate their use in the worship of other gods.
Captivity never changed what the vessels were:
The holy vessels were holy still in God's eyes, however polluted they had been by the sins of His kings and priests, for they had been used in the house where He had put His name for ever.
The vessels did not stay in Babylon. But their return was not a full recovery:
The holy vessels were counted and restored, as far as was fitting, for Jehovah's house in Jerusalem. The ark, the centre, the highest in value, the nearest to the glory, was not there. Alas! the glory itself had withdrawn.
- Given, not grabbed. Nebuchadnezzar did not simply win a war. The Lord gave Jehoiakim and the temple vessels into his hand.
- Vessels, not damage. The seventy years count from this smaller raid, because here a pagan king touched the holy vessels for the first time.
- No vessels, no worship. Israel could not bring the prescribed sacrifices without them. That was the tragedy.
- Holy still. The vessels stayed holy in God's eyes. He acted when Belshazzar used them to praise gods of his own making.
- Counted back. The vessels came back to Jerusalem, counted one by one. The ark did not, and the glory itself had withdrawn.
And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
Verse 8 closes Jehoiakim's reign with a note and a hand-off. His other acts, his abominations and "what was found against him" all stand on record in another book. His son then takes the throne. Two questions follow. What were those abominations, and what was found against him?
Verse 8 sums up the reign with one word: abominations. In the Old Testament that word has a narrower sense than we expect:
Of all sins, idolatry is the one most abominable to God. It is the open, formal denial of His Godhead. It puts the creature in the place of the Creator Himself. So we find in the Old Testament that the word "abomination" has a special use, meaning an object of false worship. For example: "Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites."
Verse 8 names no details. Other passages describe the man it sums up:
Jehoiakim was a deeply unpleasant man — treacherous, vengeful, and bloodthirsty… He taxed the land to give the money as Pharaoh commanded: "he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco." The people had passed him over and chosen his younger half-brother. So he made no effort to ease their burdens; he increased them.
What was found against him shows up in one recorded scene. Jehudi read a scroll of God's words aloud to the king:
"As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments." It was an act of daring irreverence. A Jew above all was taught to treat every sacred writing with the greatest reverence. But Jehoiakim was fast hardening himself past all feeling. Jeremiah then sent him a spoken message in person, and no king ever heard a more terrible one: "Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night."
Jehoiakim refused a prophet's body an honourable grave. His own end answered that in kind:
So the king who denied the prophet's body an honourable burial was himself "buried with the burial of a donkey." He cut up and burned God's book. His own body was dragged out in turn, and burned unburied in the scorching sun.
Nebuchadnezzar had already carried Jehoiakim off to Babylon. What he left behind matters:
At the same time he took some of the articles from the temple and put them in his own temple at Babylon. The Lord allowed this as a warning to Judah. Nebuchadnezzar might have taken all the treasures of the house, but he did not. If Judah had turned back to the Lord, this might have preserved them from the later damage of verses 10 and 18.
Jeremiah had said Jehoiakim would have no one to sit on David's throne. Yet verse 8 ends with his son on the throne:
But did Jehoiakim not have a son? Wretched was he, Jehoiachin, who inherited his father's guilt and misery. How could he be said to sit on the throne of David? He reigned in Jerusalem only three months. Then the lion came up from his thicket and the destroyer of the nations was on his way. Under God's providence he was the avenger of one who did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.
More than a change of kings happened in Jehoiakim's reign:
Jehoiakim's name, like his brother's, is missing from the royal genealogy of Matthew 1… During his reign, when Nebuchadnezzar took the kingdom, "the times of the Gentiles" began. And until they are "fulfilled," Jerusalem will be "trampled underfoot," as it is to this day.
- Written — His abominations did not die with him. They went on record, and the word points to idolatry, the open denial of God's Godhead.
- Warned — Only some temple vessels went to Babylon. Repentance at that point could have spared Judah the total loss that came later.
- Hardened — He cut up and burned the scroll of God's words. Neither he nor his servants was afraid.
- Repaid — He refused a prophet's body a decent grave. He was buried like a donkey himself, dragged out and burned unburied.
- Replaced — His son inherited his guilt and lasted three months. Jehoiakim's own name is missing from Matthew 1's royal line, and Jerusalem stays trampled underfoot until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem; and he did evil in the sight of Jehovah.
Judah's last kings get only a few verses each, and Jehoiachin gets two: a reign counted in days, ending with his removal to Babylon. Two questions press on this verse — how old was he, and how can so short a reign carry so heavy a verdict?
The number here does not match the parallel account in 2 Kings. Commentators call it a copying slip, not a contradiction. One writer sets out the manuscript evidence:
2 Chronicles 36:9 makes him eight years old at the start of his reign, instead of eighteen as 2 Kings has it; the Greek and Latin versions read the same. But some Hebrew manuscripts, and the Syriac and Arabic, read "eighteen" in Chronicles, so "eight" must be an error of transcription. All the internal evidence is in favour of eighteen.
The verse pairs a very short reign with a plain verdict.
He reigned only three months, which was enough to prove him evil in the sight of the Lord.
By now the throne of David had become a plaything of foreign powers, handed back and forth as Egypt and Babylon pleased.
The king of Egypt made Eliakim king and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But as Egypt's king made him king, so Babylon's king unmade him. He comes up, carries him to Babylon, and sets up Jehoiachin his son in his place. And Jehoiachin too did what was evil, and Babylon carried him away as well.
Three kings in a row receive the same verdict. Yet this king's name still gave the faithful something to hope for.
His character was no different from that of the two kings before him. It is the same sad, unchanging record: "He did what was evil." How the godly must have longed for the "King" Isaiah spoke of, who would "reign in righteousness"! ... But there was something about even this wicked king that could give them hope — his name, Jehovah will establish. They might not know the time; the fact they were assured of. And so they could "with patience wait for it."
Jeremiah pronounced sentence on this same king, whom he calls Coniah. One writer explains what "childless" means there:
God calls the whole earth to listen to what He says to Coniah (Jehoiachin): "O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD, write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days: for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah" (vv. 29-30). The significance of this verse is not that he should have no family, for it speaks of his offspring; and Matthew 1:11-12 shows his descendants. What we are told is this: God had decreed that, as far as the throne of David was concerned, he should be written down as childless. None of his offspring would rule in Judah again. God had determined the end of this sinful stock.
The man who lost the throne in three months spent decades in a Babylonian prison — and then the story turns.
He did more than bring the captive king of Judah out of prison with kind words. He set his throne above the other subject kings who were there. Every day, for the rest of his life, he gave him bread to eat at his own table. So the prophets had given solemn warnings, and one king of Judah was now proving them true in his own misery. Yet in Jehoiachin's case God was showing that He holds the hearts of all men under His control. He can change long years of languishing, at His will, into a peaceful end of life — though not a prosperous one, according to His word (Jer. 22:30). But this does not hinder His pitifulness and tender mercy.
Another writer reads that release as a picture of something far larger:
This is a striking picture of grace shown to one who has long been in shame and disrepute. Is it not a foreshadowing of the eventual recovery of the nation Israel from their long history of disobedience to God? Jehoiachin did not deserve this grace. It came only from the kindness of the king of Babylon. In the same way, God will bring Israel back from misery and bondage by His own sovereign work of grace toward them.
- Eight or eighteen. Kings says eighteen, Chronicles says eight. Some Hebrew manuscripts and other early versions read eighteen, so commentators call "eight" a copyist's slip.
- Short is enough. Three months and ten days gave him no time to build, but time enough to prove what he was. Egypt and Babylon were already making and unmaking the throne at will.
- Same record, same throne. Three kings in a row earn the same verdict. Hope rested not on the man but on his name: Jehovah will establish.
- Childless as to the throne. "Write this man down as childless" does not deny him children. Matthew names his descendants. It closes the throne of David to his line.
- Mercy at the end. After thirty-seven years in prison, Babylon's king brought him out with kind words, seated him above other kings and fed him at his own table: grace to the unworthy, and a picture of Israel's own recovery.
And at the turn of the year king Nebuchadnezzar sent and had him brought to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of Jehovah; and he made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
Spring came, and with it Nebuchadnezzar. He took the young king Jehoiachin to Babylon, took the treasures of God's house with him, and put an uncle on the throne instead. Two things in this short verse settle the rest of Judah's story. The holy vessels leave the land, and the last king of David's line sits on a throne that is not his to hold.
Judah was not destroyed in one blow. This was the second of three deportations, and Babylon would come back for more.
Jehoiachin and his servants surrendered without a fight. 2 Chronicles 36:10 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar summoned him to Babylon, and that the costly articles from the house of God went to Babylon too — though not all of them yet. This is a picture of how the truth of God has been slowly stolen from the Church in our own day, because of the failure and disobedience of the people. Nebuchadnezzar then made Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother (Jehoiachin's uncle), king in Judah… he was clearly trying to find someone he could fully control.
The verse calls Zedekiah Jehoiachin's brother. He was in fact his uncle — the brother of Jehoiachin's father.
Measured by damage, this was not the worst invasion. Measured by God's clock, it was the one that counted.
The last of these three did the most damage. The temple burned, and very large numbers went into captivity. But the 70 years of captivity are counted from the first deportation — the one we would call minor. Why was that first one the important one in God's eyes? Because of the vessels… Such a thing had never happened before. True, some kings had taken silver from the treasury, and even from the doors of the temple (Ahaz and Hezekiah), to buy off the king of Assyria. But no one had ever touched the holy vessels.
God's sentence on Jehoiachin sounds like a curse of childlessness. It is not.
The point of that sentence is not that he would have no family, for it speaks of his descendants, and Matthew 1:11-12 lists them. What we are told is this: God had decreed that, as far as the throne of David went, he counted as childless, because none of his descendants would rule in Judah again. God had decided the end of this sinful line.
Zedekiah did not choose his own name. Nebuchadnezzar gave it, and the giving of it said everything about who was really in charge.
Nebuchadnezzar changed his name as a sign that he was now a subject king. But he did not give him the name of some pagan god, as he did with Daniel and the three young Hebrew men. He "had made him swear by God." His new name, Righteousness of Jehovah, may have been given to remind him of that oath. Or it may have had some link, even in the pagan king's mind, with Jehovah's righteousness in stripping this wicked people — a people called by His name — of their political independence, and bringing them under his rule.
The verse reads like politics. It is judgment. God was moving the king who moved all the other kings.
The king of Babylon carries out Jehovah's wrath on Jerusalem, and Egypt must now submit to the man God had appointed to rule the world. Nebuchadnezzar set up anyone he chose, and he threw down anyone he chose… See how completely Judah lies under the power of Nebuchadnezzar! He puts this king in chains, sets a child of eight years on the throne, and three months later puts his uncle Mattaniah (Zedekiah) there instead.
Even in the wreckage, the names of Judah's last king carry something forward.
His name means "the gift of Jehovah," and Nebuchadnezzar changed it to Zedekiah, "the righteousness of Jehovah." Surely there is a prophetic hint here. When Judah and Jerusalem went down under judgment, in ruin and shame beyond words, God showed in the very names of the last king that One would still come from David's line: He who is God's own precious gift, and in whom righteousness will be given and established.
- Vessels first. No one had ever touched the holy vessels before. God counts the seventy years from the day they were taken, not from the later burning of the temple.
- Truth gone. The vessels left in stages, not all at once — a picture of how God's truth is slowly stolen from His people through failure and disobedience.
- Throne gone. Jehoiachin counted as "childless" only as to the throne. His family line continued, but no descendant of his would rule in Judah again.
- Name gone. A foreign king now chose Judah's king and renamed him. The new name proved whose authority stood over David's throne.
- God not gone. Nebuchadnezzar was only carrying out Jehovah's wrath. And the last king's two names, "gift of Jehovah" and "righteousness of Jehovah," still pointed to the One yet to come from David's line.
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
Zedekiah was the last king of David's line to reign in Jerusalem, and a foreign king put him on the throne. The verse gives only his age and the length of his reign. Everything that follows in the chapter hangs on how he used those years.
Zedekiah did not choose his own name. One writer explains where it came from.
Zedekiah was Josiah's youngest son, and the full brother of Jehoahaz. When his father died he was only ten years old. Nebuchadnezzar changed his name to show that Zedekiah was now under his rule. But he did not give him the name of some heathen god, as happened with Daniel and the three Hebrew young men. He "had made him swear by God," and his new name, Righteousness of Jehovah, may have been given to remind him of his oath.
At twenty-one he was old enough to know what God had already said and done.
At the age of twenty-one Zedekiah had his chance to show that he had profited from the hard and striking lessons God had taught the nation. God taught them through the words of the prophet and by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. But "he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done." He also rebelled against the king of Babylon, whom God had used to set him on the throne in Jerusalem.
His father Josiah had been a good king. Another writer marks how fast Judah fell after him:
Zedekiah was the last of the kings ruling in Judah before their complete captivity. He proved as evil as the kings before him, though he was a son of Josiah. So, following Josiah's good reign, the condition of Judah went downhill fast.
Breaking with Babylon looks like patriotism. One writer treats it instead as a refusal to accept what God had arranged.
One thing in particular provoked the anger of Jehovah: he rebelled against the king of Babylon. When Judah fell away, God had given that king the empire of the world. The faithful had a clear duty to bow to God's sovereignty in this. They had all the more reason, because it was the idolatry of the people of Judah and of the king of David's house that in the end brought on this solemn change in the government of the world.
In his own palace the king turned out to be the weakest man of all.
In fact the king is the prisoner of his own captains and princes, and he does not dare to resist them. He did not truly hate Jeremiah. He acted under the pressure of the fear of men, and not under the fear of the Lord, whom he had despised and dishonoured.
That same fear drove him to break his word:
This fear of his servants moved Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. He had already sworn an oath by God, an oath of loyalty to that king. This was plain dishonesty, and God could not excuse it on the grounds of his fear of men.
With Zedekiah, something larger than one man's reign ends.
While David's throne stood, it was still "the throne of Jehovah," however feeble and contemptible its occupants might be. The last king, Zedekiah, brought on the ruin by his treachery. Nebuchadnezzar "made him swear by God," but he despised the oath by breaking the covenant. Nothing was sacred in his eyes.
Yet one writer finds a signal in his two names:
Nebuchadnezzar made Mattaniah, the youngest son of Josiah, king over Judah. His name means "the gift of Jehovah," and Nebuchadnezzar changed it to Zedekiah, "the righteousness of Jehovah." Here is without doubt a prophetic hint. Judah and Jerusalem went down in judgment, in unspeakable ruin and shame. Yet in the very names of the last king God showed that One would still come from David's line. He is God's own precious gift, and in Him righteousness will be given and established.
- Given — Zedekiah was Josiah's youngest son. Nebuchadnezzar put him on the throne and renamed him "Righteousness of Jehovah," a mark of who now ruled him and perhaps a reminder of the oath he swore by God.
- Tested — at twenty-one he had the lessons of the prophet and of Babylon in front of him, and eleven years to profit from them. Instead he repeated the evil of Jehoiakim.
- Refused — his rebellion against Babylon was not courage. He would not bow to God's transfer of world rule, which Judah's own idolatry had brought on.
- Feared — the king was the captive of his own princes, ruled by fear of men and not by fear of the Lord. His broken oath was plain dishonesty, and his fear was no excuse.
- Kept — the throne of Jehovah fell with him. Yet his two names still pointed to One still to come from David's line: God's gift, in whom righteousness would be established.