Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
Jehoiachin came to the throne at eighteen and held it for three months. Behind that short entry lie a puzzle about his age, a prophecy already spoken against him, and a name that held hope for a ruined kingdom.
The same man appears in Scripture under several different names.
Son and successor of Jehoiakim king of Judah. He reigned only three months. Then Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, and the great captivity of Judah took place. They carried Jehoiachin to Babylon and kept him in prison for thirty-six years. When Evil-merodach came to the throne, he freed him from prison and raised him above the other captive kings. Jehoiachin ate bread before the king all the days of his life. He is called JECONIAH in 1 Chr. 3:16-17; Esther 2:6; Jer. 24:1. He is also called CONIAH in Jer. 22:24, 28, and JECHONIAS in Matt. 1:11-12.
The parallel record in Chronicles gives a different age. Which number is right?
2 Chronicles 36:9 says he was eight years old when his reign began, not eighteen as here. The Greek and Latin versions say the same. But some Hebrew manuscripts read "eighteen" in Chronicles, and so do the Syriac and Arabic. So "eight" must be a copying error. All the internal evidence is in favour of eighteen.
A brief reign is not a mild one.
It was a very short reign. But it was long enough for him to show what he was, for "he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done" (verse 9).
Another writer reads the surrender to Babylon that followed as the one sensible thing he did.
Jehoiachin (also called Coniah) was only 18 years of age when he reigned for three months. But this was time enough to prove his evil character. He followed the course of his father, apparently in idol worship (vv. 8-9). Jehoiachin took the wise course of surrendering to Babylon. He and his servants were taken prisoner (v. 12).
The record of these last kings keeps naming the queen mother, and one commentator sees a pattern in it.
Jehoiachin, otherwise known as Coniah, continues in his father's path. His mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. It becomes more and more clear that the mothers of these last kings had forgotten the Lord, just as their sons had.
Her name itself reads like a warning of what was coming: "Nehushta, his mother's name, means copper. It refers to anything made of copper, whether a copper coin, a copper mirror, or fetters: and both she and her son, with all his family and household, were carried captive to Babylon."
Even a wicked king's name could steady the faith of godly people watching the throne crumble.
His character was no different from that of his two predecessors. It is the same sad, unchanging record: "He did what was evil." How the godly must have longed for the "King" Isaiah spoke of, the one who would "reign in righteousness"! They little knew, or even suspected, all that their nation would have to suffer. Nor did they know how many long, weary centuries would pass before that day of "righteousness and peace" would come. 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.
One word in the prophecy against his line is easy to misread.
"Childless" here does not mean he had no descendants. The prophecy itself mentions "his seed." It means he had no direct heir in line for the throne. Matt. 1:12 shows conclusively that he had descendants ("Jechonias begat Salathiel"), as does 1 Chron. 3:17. The prophecy probably refers to his uncle succeeding him to the throne instead of his son Assir. Anyway, God made no mistake. He speaks, and it is done; He commands, and it stands fast.
The genealogy of Matthew names him, and then stops naming kings.
His name (as "Jechonias") is the last of the kings of Judah mentioned in the list of Matthew chapter 1. The next is "Jesus who is called Christ," anointed King, not of Israel or the Jews only, but of the nations also.
- Named — one man, four names: Jehoiachin here, Jeconiah in Chronicles, Coniah in Jeremiah, Jechonias in Matthew 1.
- Numbered — eighteen, not eight. The reading in Chronicles is a copying error, and all the evidence favours eighteen.
- Judged — three months on the throne was long enough to show he was his father's son in evil.
- Written childless — he had descendants, but no heir who would ever rule in Judah again.
- Replaced — the royal list closes with Jechonias. The next King named is Jesus, and in Him the meaning of Jehoiachin's name comes true: Jehovah will establish.
And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father had done.
Jehoiachin came to the throne of Judah at eighteen and lasted three months, and God's record of him repeats the record of his father. So how much time does a person need to show what he really is — and what happens to a royal line that keeps repeating the same sin?
His reign was one of the shortest in Judah's history. One commentator says it was still long enough to show what the young king was:
Jehoiachin (also called Coniah) was only 18 years old when he reigned for three months. But this was time enough to prove his evil character, following the course of his father, evidently in idol worship.
The verse measures the son by his father: "according to all that his father had done." One writer follows that pattern through Judah's last kings, and notes that their mothers were no help either:
Jehoiachin, otherwise known as Coniah, continues in his father's path. His mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. It appears more and more evident that the mothers of these latter kings had themselves, like their sons, forgotten the Lord.
One writer links the verdict of this verse to the army already on its way, and asks whether such a man could be said to sit on David's throne at all:
But did Jehoiakim not have a son? He did: Jehoiachin, a wretched man, 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 — the avenger, under God's providence, of one who did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.
God's sentence on this king reached past his three months. One writer explains what it did and did not mean:
The significance of that sentence 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 that God had decreed that, as far as the throne of David was concerned, he was to be written down as childless, for none of his offspring should rule any more in Judah. God had determined the end of this sinful stock.
So where did that leave the promise of a King from David's family? One writer follows the family tree:
He had children; no offspring of the line of Solomon was ever to occupy the throne of David. But there were the descendants of David through another line, that is, Nathan's; no curse rested upon that line. The virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord, was of David through Nathan (Luke 3:31). Joseph, to whom Mary the virgin was betrothed, was a son of David through Solomon's line.
Even this king's name carried a promise. One writer shows what the godly could still hold on to:
His character was no different from that of his two predecessors. It is the same sad, unchanging record: "He did what was evil." How the godly must have longed for that "King" mentioned by Isaiah, who should "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, but they were sure of the fact. And so they could "with patience wait for it."
- Evil — three months was long enough to show what Jehoiachin was — his father's son in conduct, not just in birth.
- Inheritance — the verse ties him to his father's path, most likely idol worship. One writer notes that even the mothers of these last kings had forgotten the Lord.
- Verdict — his three months ended with the destroyer of the nations on his way — the avenger, under God's providence, of a king who did evil.
- Curse — God wrote him down as childless as far as the throne was concerned. He still had descendants, but none of them would rule in Judah, and one writer traces the promised King to David's other line, through Nathan.
- Hope — his name means "Jehovah will establish." The godly could not know the time, but they were sure of the fact, and could wait patiently for the King who would reign in righteousness.
At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
Jehoiachin had been king for only three months when Babylon's army closed in on Jerusalem. Two questions sit behind this short report: why did God allow it, and why has Israel lived under foreign rule ever since?
Commentators trace the siege back long before Jehoiachin. God had passed sentence on Judah generations earlier:
From the time of Manasseh this unchangeable decree had gone out from the Lord. He held it back during Josiah's reign, and would have kept holding it back under his successors had they been willing to listen. There were two causes for this final judgment: idolatry, and innocent blood. Jehoiakim, like Manasseh, had shed innocent blood as far as he was able in Jerusalem, the city that has killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to it.
The son also paid for his father's broken word:
It was against Jehoiachin and his people that Nebuchadnezzar poured out the anger that had built up in his heart because of the false, disloyal conduct of Jehoiakim.
Jeremiah had spoken about this siege before it happened. He even named the king by his other name, Coniah:
In Coniah's day, Nebuchadnezzar's servants besieged Jerusalem. Then this great king came to take part in the siege in person. Jehoiachin went out to him. He was carried captive to Babylon, along with his mother, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah: "As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off."
Another writer ties the whole outcome back to God's word:
This was all "as the Lord said," through His prophet Jeremiah. Heaven and earth will pass away and perish, but not one word of God.
Jehoiachin does not fight. He walks out of the city and gives himself up:
Jehoiachin took the wise course of surrendering to Babylon and, with his servants, was taken prisoner.
Judah's last king, Zedekiah, chose the opposite:
Jehoiachin went to Babylon, yielding there to the judgment of God, and in the end he was exalted. Zedekiah stayed at home, and instead of accepting the punishment of his sin by submitting to the king of Babylon, the Lord's rod, he rebelled against him, and at last perished.
Later God showed Jeremiah two baskets of figs. His view of them was the opposite of the world's:
To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness rested on this: they had submitted to the judgment God passed on their iniquity. This same principle holds true for us. Only thanks be to God, we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, condemned in our place on the cross. Once God had carried out the sentence, He could look down with favour on those who had borne it.
This siege was one of three. Together they moved world rule from Jerusalem to the nations:
Now here began "the times of the Gentiles." In 2 Kings 24 and 25 there is a record of no fewer than three separate successful expeditions against Jerusalem by this same Nebuchadnezzar. The last was the complete and decisive one. Since then Israel has been subject to Gentile rule.
Yet the godly in Judah still had one thing to hold on to. This king's name meant something his life did not:
But there was something about even this wicked king that could give them hope — his name, "The LORD will establish." They might not know when it would come, but they were sure it would come. And so they could wait for it patiently.
- Cause — The siege was no accident of politics. Idolatry and innocent blood had already brought God's sentence. Josiah's reign delayed it, and Jehoiakim's treachery set it off.
- Word — Every detail matched what Jeremiah had spoken. Even if this king had been the signet ring on God's right hand, God would still have torn him off, because not one word of His fails.
- Surrender — Jehoiachin walked out and gave himself up. Zedekiah resisted the rod and perished; submission to God's judgment is the wiser path.
- Reversal — God called the exiles the good figs and the ones left behind the bad. Those who accept His verdict come under His favour, as believers do through Christ judged in their place.
- Hope — World rule passed to the nations here, and Israel has lived under them since. But the captive king's name still says the LORD will establish, so His people can wait for that day.
And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, while his servants were besieging it.
Judah's new king had reigned just three months when Babylon's army surrounded Jerusalem, and then the emperor came in person. Was this only a strong empire crushing a weak one, or was Someone else directing the siege?
One writer traces what happened, and ties the outcome to words Jeremiah had already spoken.
Jehoiachin, otherwise known as Coniah, continues in his father's path... It grows more and more clear that the mothers of these last kings had forgotten the Lord, just as their sons had. In Coniah's day, Nebuchadnezzar's servants besieged Jerusalem. This great king himself then came to take part in the siege in person. Jehoiachin went out to him. He was carried captive to Babylon, along with his mother, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah.
The king at the city wall was not the real mover of these events. One writer sets out the place God gave him.
He was the man in whom God set up the Gentiles. The house of David, the throne of Judah, had corrupted itself. The people's sin had reached its full measure, and God's patience with them had run out in Nebuchadnezzar's day. So the Lord used him as the rod of His anger against Jerusalem, and as the hand that took from Him the sword of rule and judgment in the earth.
The king, his mother, and his whole household went into exile. One writer draws the weight of the whole account from one short phrase in it.
The king's mother and her son, with all his family and household, were carried captive to Babylon... This was all "as the Lord said," through His prophet Jeremiah. Heaven and earth will pass away and perish, but not one word of God.
Babylon's armies — the Chaldeans — came against Judah more than once. This deportation was one stage in a longer collapse, and it swept up Ezekiel, who would later prophesy among the exiles.
The Chaldeans overthrew the kingdom of Judah and carried away her king, princes, priests, and people on three separate occasions. In 599 B.C. Jehoiachin, the second last king of Judah, had reigned only three months. He was then taken captive, along with the leading people of the land, including Ezekiel (2 Kings 24).
What began with these invasions outlasted the exile itself.
In 2 Kings 24 and 25 we have a special record of three separate successful expeditions against Jerusalem. All were made by this same Nebuchadnezzar. The last was the complete and decisive one. Since then Israel has been under Gentile rule. Its kings have been only servants of other masters. The nation has had to pay tribute to one Gentile power after another, and has depended on their will.
Jehoiachin did not fight. At eighteen, after three months on the throne, he walked out and gave himself up.
Jehoiachin (also called Coniah) was only 18 years old when he reigned for three months. But this was time enough to prove his evil character. He followed the course of his father, evidently in idol worship (vv.8-9). Jehoiachin took the wise course of surrendering to Babylon, and Babylon took him and his servants prisoner (v.12).
Another king of Judah, Zedekiah, went the opposite way. One writer draws the contrast and turns it on us.
We must be broken to be blessed... We would sooner "bend our roots" towards whatever may help us in the world. But that way, which is our own way, will end, as with Zedekiah, in shame and ruin. Accepting the judgment of God, submitting under His mighty hand, will end, as with Jehoiachin, in blessing and exaltation.
After this deportation Jeremiah saw two baskets of figs. God's view of them turned the popular verdict upside down.
What people saw was exactly the opposite of what God reveals to Jeremiah. To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness lay in this: they had submitted to God's judgment, which their sin deserved. This same principle holds true for us, only thanks be to God, we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, condemned in our place upon the cross.
- Siege — Nebuchadnezzar's officers surrounded the city. Then the emperor came himself, and the greatest power of the day pressed on one small capital.
- Servant — That conqueror was God's rod. Judah's guilt was full and God's patience had run out. Rule over the earth passed from David's house to the Gentiles.
- Said — Every loss matched what God had spoken through Jeremiah. Heaven and earth will pass away, but not one word of His.
- Submission — Jehoiachin gave himself up and came to blessing. Zedekiah went his own way and ended in shame and ruin. Breaking comes before blessing.
- Selection — The world pitied the exiles, but God called them the good figs. They had bowed to His judgment — and believers now see that judgment borne for them at the cross.
And Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his chamberlains; and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.
Jerusalem is under siege, and Judah's king walks out of the gate to give himself up to Nebuchadnezzar. It looks like a small political note, but commentators treat it as the moment the throne of David passed out of Jewish hands.
Jehoiachin's surrender did not surprise God. One writer sets it beside words Jeremiah spoke years before.
Jehoiachin, also known as Coniah, continues in his father's path. In Coniah's day, Nebuchadnezzar's servants besieged Jerusalem. Then the great king came to take part in the siege in person. Jehoiachin went out to him. Nebuchadnezzar carried him and his mother captive to Babylon. This fulfilled Jeremiah's prophecy: "As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off… I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die."
There is no battle in this verse. One writer notes what left the temple with the king.
2 Kings 24:10-12 records that the Babylonians came to besiege the city, though we are not told the immediate reason for this. Jehoiachin and his servants surrendered without resistance. 2 Chronicles 36:10 tells us that Nebuchadnezzar sent for him to come to Babylon. The valuable articles from the house of God went to Babylon too, though not all of them yet. This pictures how the truth of God has been stolen from the Church little by little in our own day, through the failure and disobedience of the people.
Nebuchadnezzar looks like the decisive figure here. One writer gives him a smaller part.
Nebuchadnezzar was only the executor of God's sentence. No son of David has since that time sat upon his throne. Here Matthew's second period closes. The foreigner has ruled them ever since, and will until the true Heir, the next King of the house of David, even the Lord Jesus, come. Until then they lie under the judgment of God.
What changed hands was more than a crown. Writers call the period that opened here "the times of the Gentiles" — the stretch of history in which nations other than Israel hold the ruling power.
The whole order of things that came from His dwelling at Jerusalem was set aside. Universal supremacy passed to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, the first great chief of the Gentiles. It was with him that the times of the Gentiles began.
Jeremiah's sentence on this same king sounds absolute. One writer weighs the word "childless" against the rest of the same verse.
The significance of this verse is not that he should have no family, for it speaks of his seed; 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 was to be written childless. That is because none of his descendants would rule in Judah any more. God had determined the end of this sinful stock.
So how could the promised King still come from David? One writer points to a second branch of the family:
A curse was thus pronounced upon the house of David in the line of Solomon. But there was still the line of Nathan the son of David. Messiah, the Son of David, could therefore not spring from the line of Solomon; He must come from the line of Nathan. Joseph, the husband of the virgin Mary of Nazareth, was a son of David through the line of Solomon, the disinherited line. But Mary of Nazareth was a daughter of David through the line of Nathan.
Those taken away with Jehoiachin looked like the losers. One writer sets what people saw beside what God told Jeremiah.
What men saw was exactly the opposite of what God reveals to Jeremiah. To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness rested on one thing: they had submitted to the judgment their sin deserved. The same principle holds true for us. Thank God, we have suffered our judgment in the person of Christ, who was condemned in our place on the cross. Once God had carried out the sentence, He could look down with favour on those who had borne it.
- Word first. Jeremiah had already named Coniah and said God would tear him off like a signet ring. The surrender carried out a word already spoken.
- Surrender, not siege. Jehoiachin gave himself up without resistance. The temple's treasures went to Babylon by stages — a warning picture of truth lost little by little.
- Sentence, not accident. Nebuchadnezzar was the executor of God's sentence, and no son of David has sat on that throne since.
- Handover. With him the times of the Gentiles began. Power over Jerusalem passed to the nations, and stays there until the true Heir comes.
- Grace to the exiles. God called the captives the good figs, because they had bowed to His judgment. Christ has borne ours.