Jehoiachin
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Jehoiachin

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Succeeded his father Jehoiakin (B.C. 599) when only eight years of age, and reigned for one hundred days (2 Chronicles 36:9). He is also called Jeconiah (Jeremiah 24:1; 27:20, etc.), and Coniah (22:24; 37:1). He was succeeded by his uncle, Mattaniah = Zedekiah (q.v.). He was the last direct heir to the Jewish crown. He was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, along with the flower of the nobility, all the leading men in Jerusalem, and a great body of the general population, some thirteen thousand in all (2 Kings 24:12-16; Jeremiah 52:28). After an imprisonment of thirty-seven years (Jeremiah 52:31, 33), he was liberated by Evil-merodach, and permitted to occupy a place in the king's household and sit at his table, receiving "every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life" (52:32-34).

Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia

JEHOIACHIN

je-hoi'-a-kin (yehoyakhin, "Yahweh will uphold"; called also "Jeconiah" in 1 Chronicles 3:16 Jeremiah 24:1; yekhonyah, "Yahweh will be steadfast," and "Coniah" in Jeremiah 22:24, 28; konyahu, "Yahweh has upheld him"; 'Ioakeim): A king of Judah; son and successor of Jehoiakim; reigned three months and surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar; was carried to Babylon, where, after being there 37 years a prisoner, he died.

1. Sources:

The story of his reign is told in 2 Kings 24:8-16, and more briefly in 2 Chronicles 36:9-10. Then, after the reign of his successor Zedekiah and the final deportation are narrated, the account of his release from prison 37 years afterward and the honor done him is given as the final paragraph of 2 Kings (25:27-30). The same thing is told at the end of the Book of Jeremiah (52:31-34). Neither for this reign nor for the succeeding is there the usual reference to state annals; these seem to have been discontinued after Jehoiakim. In Jeremiah 22:24-30 there is a final pronouncement on this king, not so much upon the man as upon his inevitable fate, and a prediction that no descendant of his shall ever have prosperous rule in Judah.

2. His Reign:

Of the brief reign of Jehoiachin there is little to tell. It was rather a historic landmark than a reign; but its year, 597 B.C., was important as the date of the first deportation of Jewish captives to Babylon (unless we except the company of hostages carried away in Jehoiakim's 3rd (4th) year, Daniel 1:1-7). His coming to the throne was just at or near the time when Nebuchadnezzar's servants were besieging Jerusalem; and when the Chaldean king's arrival in person to superintend the siege made apparent the futility of resistance, Jehoiachin surrendered to him, with all the royal household and the court. He was carried prisoner to Babylon, and with him ten thousand captives, comprising all the better and sturdier element of the people from prince to craftsman, leaving only the poorer sort to constitute the body of the nation under his successor Zedekiah. With the prisoners were carried away also the most valuable treasures of the temple and the royal palace.

3. The Two Elements:

Ever since Isaiah fostered the birth and education of a spiritually-minded remnant, for him the vital hope of Israel, the growth and influence of this element in the nation has been discernible, as well in the persecution it has roused (see under MANASSEH), as in its fiber of sound progress. It is as if a sober sanity of reflection were curing the people of their empty idolatries. The feeling is well expressed in such a passage as Habakkuk 2:18-20. Hitherto, however, the power of this spiritual Israel has been latent, or at best mingled and pervasive among the various occupations and interests of the people. The surrender of Jehoiachin brings about a segmentation of Israel on an unheard-of principle: not the high and low in wealth or social position, but the weight and worth of all classes on the one side, who are marked for deportation, and the refuse element of all classes on the other, who are left at home. With which element of this strange sifting Jeremiah's prophetic hopes are identified appears in his parable of the Good and Bad Figs (Jeremiah 24), in which he predicts spiritual integrity and upbuilding to the captives, and to the home-staying remainder, shame and calamity. Later on, he writes to the exiles in Babylon, advising them to make themselves at home and be good citizens (Jeremiah 29:1-10). As for the hapless king, "this man Coniah," who is to be their captive chief in a strange land, Jeremiah speaks of him in a strain in which the stern sense of Yahweh's inexorable purpose is mingled with tender sympathy as he predicts that this man shall never have a descendant on David's throne (Jeremiah 22:24-30). It is as if he said, All as Yahweh has ordained, but-the pity of it!

4. Thirty-seven Years Later:

In the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's successor, perhaps by testamentary edict of Nebuchadnezzar himself, a strange thing occurred. Jehoiachin, who seems to have been a kind of hostage prisoner for his people, was released from prison, honored above all the other kings in similar case, and thenceforth to the end of his life had his portion at the royal table (2 Kings 25:27-30 Jeremiah 52:31-34). This act of clemency may have been due to some such good influence at court as is described in the Book of Daniel; but also it was a tribute to the good conduct of that better element of the people of which he was hostage and representative. It was the last event of Judean royalty; and suggestive for the glimpse it seems to afford of a people whom the Second Isaiah could address as redeemed and forgiven, and of a king taken from durance and judgment (compare Isaiah 53:8), whose career makes strangely vivid the things that are said of the mysterious "Servant of Yahweh."

John Franklin Genung

Multi-Version Concordance

Jehoiachin (20 Occurrences)

2 Kings 24:6 So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

2 Kings 24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned in Jerusalem three months: and his mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

2 Kings 24:12 and Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

2 Kings 24:15 He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon; and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the chief men of the land, carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

2 Kings 24:17 The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's father's brother, king is his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. (WEB ASV BBE NIV)

2 Kings 25:27 It happened in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison; (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

2 Kings 25:29 and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life: (WEB ASV NAS NIV)

1 Chronicles 3:16 And the sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son. (See NIV)

1 Chronicles 3:17 The sons of Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son, (See NIV)

2 Chronicles 36:8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

2 Chronicles 36:9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Esther 2:6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captives who had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. (See NIV)

Jeremiah 22:24 I live -- an affirmation of Jehovah, Though Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah Were a seal on My right hand, Surely thence I draw thee away, (See NIV)

Jeremiah 27:20 That Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath not taken, in his removing Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon with all the freemen of Judah and Jerusalem, (See NIV)

Jeremiah 28:4 And Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the removed of Judah, who are entering Babylon, I am bringing back unto this place -- an affirmation of Jehovah; for I do break the yoke of the king of Babylon.' (See NIV)

Jeremiah 37:1 And reign doth king Zedekiah son of Josiah instead of Coniah son of Jehoiakim whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had caused to reign in the land of Judah, (See NIV)

Jeremiah 52:31 It happened in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison; (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)

Jeremiah 52:33 and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life: (WEB ASV NAS NIV)

Jeremiah 52:34 and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life. (See NIV)

Ezekiel 1:2 In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity, (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV)




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Jehoiachin

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