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.