2 Kings 23:29–24:7

²⁹While Josiah was king, King Neco of Egypt led an army to the River Euphrates to help the emperor of Assyria. King Josiah tried to stop the Egyptian army at Megiddo and was killed in battle. ³⁰His officials placed his body in a chariot and took it back to Jerusalem, where he was buried in the royal tombs.

The people of Judah chose Josiah’s son Joahaz and anointed him king.

King Joahaz of Judah

³¹Joahaz was 23 years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from the city of Libnah. ³²Following the example of his ancestors, he sinned against the Lord. ³³His reign ended when King Neco of Egypt took him prisoner in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and made Judah pay 3,400 kilogrammes of silver and 34 kilogrammes of gold as tribute. ^34*King Neco made Josiah’s son Eliakim king of Judah as successor to Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Joahaz was taken to Egypt by King Neco, and there he died.

King Jehoiakim of Judah

³⁵King Jehoiakim collected a tax from the people in proportion to their wealth, in order to raise the amount needed to pay the tribute demanded by the king of Egypt.

^36*Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah from the town of Rumah. ³⁷Following the example of his ancestors, Jehoiakim sinned against the Lord.

24^*While Jehoiakim was king, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judah, and for three years Jehoiakim was forced to submit to his rule; then he rebelled. ²The Lord sent armed bands of Babylonians, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim to destroy Judah, as the Lord had said through his servants the prophets that he would do. ³This happened at the Lord’s command, in order to banish the people of Judah from his sight because of all the sins that King Manasseh had committed, ⁴and especially because of all the innocent people he had killed. The Lord could not forgive Manasseh for that.

⁵Everything else that Jehoiakim did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ⁶Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

⁷The king of Egypt and his army never marched out of Egypt again, because the king of Babylonia now controlled all the territory that had belonged to Egypt, from the River Euphrates to the northern border of Egypt.