^23:34Pharaoh Necho made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in Josiah’s place, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died.⁶⁸^23:35Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh the required amount of silver and gold, but to meet Pharaoh’s demands Jehoiakim had to tax the land. He collected an assessed amount from each man among the people of the land in order to pay Pharaoh Necho.⁶⁹

Jehoiakim’s Reign over Judah

^23:36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem.⁷⁰ His mother was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah. ^23:37He did evil in the sight of⁷¹ the Lord as his ancestors had done.

^24:1During Jehoiakim’s reign,¹ King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked.² Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him.³^24:2The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets.⁴^24:3Just as the Lord had announced, he rejected Judah because of all the sins which Manasseh had committed.⁵^24:4Because he killed innocent people and stained Jerusalem with their blood, the Lord was unwilling to forgive them.⁶

^24:5The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.⁷^24:6He passed away⁸ and his son Jehoiachin replaced him as king. ^24:7The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

Jehoiachin’s Reign over Judah

^24:8Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.⁹ His mother¹⁰ was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem. ^24:9He did evil in the sight of¹¹ the Lord as his ancestors had done.

^24:10At that time the generals¹² of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched to Jerusalem and besieged the city.¹³^24:11King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his generals were besieging it. ^24:12King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered¹⁴ to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign,¹⁵ took Jehoiachin¹⁶ prisoner. ^24:13Nebuchadnezzar¹⁷ took from there all the riches in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He removed all the gold items which King Solomon of Israel had made for the Lord’s temple, just as the Lord had warned. ^24:14He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land. ^24:15He deported Jehoiachin from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with the king’s mother and wives, his eunuchs, and the high-ranking officials of the land.¹⁸^24:16The king of Babylon deported to Babylon all the soldiers (there were 7,000), as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metal workers. This included all the best warriors.¹⁹^24:17The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s²⁰ uncle, king in Jehoiachin’s place. He renamed him Zedekiah.

Zedekiah’s Reign over Judah

^24:18Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem.²¹ His mother²² was Hamutal,²³ the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. ^24:19He did evil in the sight of²⁴ the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done.²⁵

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Footnotes

68 Heb “and he took Jehoahaz, and he came to Egypt and he died there.”
69 Heb “And the silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the silver at the command of Pharaoh, [from] each according to his tax he collected the silver and the gold, from the people of the land, to give to Pharaoh Necho.”
70 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
71 Heb “in the eyes of.”
1 Heb “In his days.”
2 Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (), .
3 The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”
4 Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”
5 Heb “Certainly according to the word of the Lord this happened against Judah, to remove [them] from his face because of the sins of Manasseh according to all which he did.”
6 Heb “and also the blood of the innocent which he shed, and he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.”
7 Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoiakim, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
8 Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
9 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
10 Heb “the name of his mother.”
11 Heb “in the eyes of.”
12 Heb “servants.”
13 Heb “went up [to] Jerusalem and the city entered into siege.”
14 Heb “came out.”
15 That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597 b.c.
16 Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
17 Heb “he”; the referent (Nebuchadnezzar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 Heb “and he deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king and the wives of the king and his eunuchs and the mighty of the land he led into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.”
19 Heb “the entire [group], mighty men, doers of war.”
20 Heb “his.”
21 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
22 Heb “the name of his mother.”
23 Some textual witnesses support the consonantal text (Kethib) in reading “Hamital.”
24 Heb “in the eyes of.”
25 Heb “according to all which Jehoiakim had done.”