³⁴Then Pharaoh Necoh made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz away to Egypt, where he died. ³⁵Jehoiakim gave Pharaoh the silver and the gold. But he had to tax the country to pay the silver Pharaoh had demanded. He taxed each person according to his wealth so that he could get the silver and gold from the people of the land and give it to Pharaoh Necoh.

King Jehoiakim of Judah—2 Chronicles 36:5–8

³⁶Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he began to rule, and he was king for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah. ³⁷Jehoiakim did what the Lord considered evil, as his ancestors had done.

24TH CHAPTER

¹During Jehoiakim’s reign King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked ⸤Judah⸥, and Jehoiakim became subject to him for three years. Then Jehoiakim turned against him and rebelled.

²The Lord sent raiding parties of Babylonians, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim to destroy Judah as the Lord had predicted through his servants the prophets. ³Without a doubt, this happened to Judah because the Lord had commanded it to happen. He wanted to remove the people of Judah from his sight because of Manasseh’s sins—everything he had done, ⁴including the innocent blood he had shed. He had a lot of innocent people in Jerusalem killed, and the Lord refused to forgive him.

⁵Isn’t everything else about Jehoiakim—everything he did—written in the official records of the kings of Judah? ⁶Jehoiakim lay down in death with his ancestors, and his son Jehoiakin succeeded him as king.

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