³⁶Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 11 years. His mother’s name was Zebidah. She was the daughter of Pedaiah. She was from Rumah.

³⁷Jehoiakim did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did just as the kings who had ruled before him had done.

24During Jehoiakim’s rule, Nebuchadnezzar marched into the land and attacked it. He was king of Babylonia. He became Jehoiakim’s master for three years. But then Jehoiakim decided he didn’t want to remain under Nebuchadnezzar’s control.

²The Lord sent robbers against Jehoiakim from Babylonia, Aram, Moab and Ammon. He sent them to destroy Judah. That’s what the Lord had said would happen. He had spoken that message through his servants the prophets.

³Those things happened to Judah in keeping with what the Lord had commanded. He brought enemies against his people in order to remove them from his land. He removed them because of all of the sins Manasseh had committed. ⁴He had spilled the blood of many people who weren’t guilty of doing anything wrong. In fact, he spilled so much of their blood that he filled Jerusalem with it. So the Lord refused to forgive him.

⁵The other events of the rule of Jehoiakim are written down. Everything he did is written down. All of those things are written in the official records of the kings of Judah.

⁶Jehoiakim joined the members of his family who had already died. His son Jehoiachin became the next king after him.

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