History of the Kings s1

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HISTORY OF THE KINGS

LESSON 11

2 Kings 23:31-34 JEHOAHAZ KING OF JUDAH

31 The Reign and Captivity of Jehoahaz

(2 Chron 36:1-4)

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 Now Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there.

NKJV

Ch. 23:31-24:17. Reigns of the Kings Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin.

2 Kings 23:31-32

Reign of Jehoahaz (cf. 2 Chron 36:1-4). - Jehoahaz, called significantly by Jeremiah (Jer 22:11) Shallum, i.e., "to whom it is requited," reigned only three months, and did evil in the eyes of the Lord as all his fathers had done. The people (or the popular party), who had preferred him to his elder brother, had apparently set great hopes upon him, as we may judge from Jer 22:10-12, and seem to have expected that his strength and energy would serve to avert the danger which threatened the kingdom on the part of Necho.

Ezekiel (Ezek 19:3) compares him to a young lion which learned to catch the prey and devoured men, but, as soon as the nations heard of him, was taken in their pit and led by nose-rings to Egypt, and thus attributes to him the character of a tyrant disposed to acts of violence; and Josephus accordingly (Ant. x. 5, 2 page 271) describes him as an impious man, and impure in his course of life.

(82) But as the king of Egypt returned from the battle, he sent for Jehoahaz to come to him to the city called Hamath, [this ancient Hamath], which is joined with Arpad, or Aradus, and with Damascus (2 Kings 18:34; Isaiah 36:19), which belongs to Syria; and when he was come, he put him in bands, and delivered the kingdom to a brother of his by the father’s side, whose name was Eliakim, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, and laid a tribute upon the land of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold; (83) and this sum of money Jehoiakim paid by way of tribute; but Neco carried away Jehoahaz into Egypt, where he died, when he had reigned three months and ten days. Josephus Ant. x 5:2

‘For thus saith the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah King of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more: 12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.’ Jeremiah 22:11, 12

HISTORY OF THE KINGS

2 Kings 23:33

"Pharaoh Necho put him in fetters at Riblah in the land of Hamath, when he had become king at Jerusalem." In 2 Chron 36:3 we have, instead of this, "the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem."

The two texts are not contradictory, but simply complete each other: for, as Clericus has correctly observed, "Jehoahaz would of course be removed from Jerusalem before he was cast into chains; and there was nothing to prevent his being dethroned at Jerusalem before he was taken to Riblah."

We are not told in what way Necho succeeded in getting Jehoahaz into his power, so as to put him in chains at Riblah. The assumption of J. D. Michaelis and others, that his elder brother Eliakim, being dissatisfied with the choice of Jehoahaz as king, had recourse to Necho at Riblah, in the hope of getting possession of his father's kingdom through his instrumentality, is precluded by the face that Jehoahaz would certainly not have been so foolish as to appear before the enemy of his country at a mere summons from Pharaoh, who was at Riblah, and allow him to depose him, when he was perfectly safe in Jerusalem, where the will of the people had raised him to the throne.

If Necho wanted to interfere with the internal affairs of the kingdom of Judah, it would never have done for him to proceed beyond Palestine to Syria after the victory at Megiddo, without having first deposed Jehoahaz, who had been raised to the throne at Jerusalem without any regard to his will.

The course of events was therefore probably the following:

1. After the victory at Megiddo, Necho intended to continue his march to the Euphrates;

2. But on hearing that Jehoahaz had ascended the throne, and possibly also in consequence of complaints which Eliakim had made to him on that account,

3. He ordered a division of his army to march against Jerusalem, and while the main army was marching slowly to Riblah,

4. He had Jerusalem taken, king Jehoahaz dethroned, the land laid under tribute,

5. Eliakim appointed king as his vassal,

6. And the deposed Jehoahaz brought to his headquarters at Riblah,

7. Then put into chains and transported to Egypt;

So that the statement in 2 Chron 36:3, "he deposed him at Jerusalem," is to be taken quite literally, even if Necho did not come to Jerusalem in person, but simply affected this through the medium of one of his generals.

2 Kings 23:35-37 JEHOIAKIM KING OF JUDAH

35 Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah

(2 Chron 36:5-8)

So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give money according to the command of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

NKJV

HISTORY OF THE KINGS

2 Kings 23:34-35

From the words "Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of his father Josiah," it follows that the king of Egypt did not acknowledge the reign of Jehoahaz, because he had been installed by the people without his consent. "And changed his name into Jehoiakim." The alteration of the name was a sign of dependence.

In ancient times princes were accustomed to give new names to the persons whom they took into their service, and masters to give new names to their slaves (cf. Gen 41:45; Ezra 5:14; Dan 1:7). - But while these names were generally borrowed from heathen deities, Eliakim, and at a later period Mattaniah (2 Kings 24:17), received genuine Israelitish names, Jehoiakim, i.e., "Jehovah will set up," and Zidkiyahu, i.e., "righteousness of Jehovah;" from which we may infer that Necho and Nebuchadnezzar did not treat the vassal kings installed by them exactly as their slaves, but allowed them to choose the new names for themselves, and simply confirmed them as a sign of their supremacy.

Eliakim altered his name into Jehoiakim, i.e., El (God) into Jehovah, to set the allusion to the establishment of the kingdom, which is implied in the name, in a still more definite relation to Jehovah the covenant God, who had promised to establish the seed of David (2 Sam 7:14), possibly with an intentional opposition to the humiliation with which the royal house of David was threatened by Jeremiah and other prophets. –

"But Jehoahaz he had taken, and he came to Egypt and died there" - when, we are not told. - In v. 35, even before the account of Jehoiakim's reign, we have fuller particulars respecting the payment of the tribute which Necho imposed upon the land (v. 33), because it was the condition on which he was appointed king. –

"The gold and silver Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh; yet (but in order to raise it) he valued the land, to give the money according to Pharaoh's command; of every one according to his valuation, he exacted the silver and gold of the population of the land, to give it to Pharaoh Necho."

2 Kings 23:36-37

Reign of Jehoiakim (cf. 2 Chron 36:5-8). - Jehoiakim reigned eleven years in the spirit of his ungodly forefathers (compare v. 37 with v. 32). Jeremiah represents him (2 Kings 22:13 ff.) as a bad prince, who enriched himself by the unjust oppression of his people, "whose eyes and heart were directed upon nothing but upon gain, and upon innocent blood to shed it, and upon oppression and violence to do them" (compare 2 Kings 24:4 and Jer 26:22-23).

24:1 Nebuchadnezzar. Or Nebuchadrezzar (Jeremiah 21:2, 7; 22:25), or Nebuchadonosor in Josephus and Berosus, also the LXX and Vulgate. This is the first occurrence of his name in Scripture. The Companion Bible

HISTORY OF THE KINGS

2 Kings 24:1-7

24:1 Judah Overrun by Enemies

In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 And the LORD sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon; He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken by His servants the prophets. 3 Surely at the commandment of the LORD this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done 4 and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD would not pardon.

5 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 6 So Jehoiakim rested with his fathers. Then Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

7 And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates.

NKJV

2 Kings 24:1

"In his days Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babel, came up; and Jehoiakim became subject to him three years, then he revolted from him again." He was the son of Nabopolassar, the founder of the Chaldaean monarchy, and reigned, forty-three years, from 605 to 562 B.C. With regard to his first campaign against Jerusalem.

It is stated in 2 Chron 36:6, that "against him (Jehoiakim) came up Nebuchadnezzar, and bound him with brass chains, to carry him to Babylon;" and in Dan 1:1-2, that "in the year three of the reign of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem and besieged it; and the Lord gave Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, into his hand, and a portion of the holy vessels, and he brought them (the vessels) into the land of Shinar, into the house of his god," etc.

2 Kings 24:1

The words of our text, "Jehoiakim became servant to him," i.e., subject to him, simply affirm that he became tributary, not that he was led away. And in the book of Daniel also there is nothing about the leading away of Jehoiakim to Babylon. Whilst, therefore, the three accounts agree in the main with one another, and supply one another's deficiencies.

So that we learn that Jehoiakim was taken prisoner at the capture of Jerusalem and put in chains to be led away, but that, inasmuch as he submitted to Nebuchadnezzar and vowed fidelity, he was not taken away, but left upon the throne as vassal of the king of Babylon; the statement in the book of Daniel concerning the time when this event occurred, which is neither contained in our account nor in the Chronicles, presents a difficulty when compared with Jer 25 and 46:2, and different attempts, some of them very constrained, have been made to remove it.

HISTORY OF THE KINGS

SOME HISTORY FROM JOSEPHUS

1. (84) Now in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, one whose name was Nebuchadnezzar took the government over the Babylonians, who at the same time went up with a great army to the city Carchemish, which was at Euphrates, upon a resolution he had taken to fight with Neco, king of Egypt, under whom all Syria then was. (85) And when Neco understood the intention of the king of Babylon, and that this expedition was made against him, he did not despise his attempt, but made haste with a great band of men to Euphrates to defend himself from Nebuchadnezzar; (86) and when they had joined battle, he was beaten, and lost many ten thousand [of his soldiers] in the battle. So the king of Babylon passed over Euphrates, and took all Syria, as far as Pelusium, excepting Judea.

2. Jehoiakim brought his peace with Nebuchadnezzar with money, and brought the tribute he was ordered to bring for three years. He did not pay his tribute when he heard that Nebuchadnezzar was fighting with the Egyptians again. He placed his hope on Egypt and according to the prophecies of Jeremiah, the city would be overthrown by the king of Babylon, and Jehoiakim the king would be subdued by him (89) Also Micah signified the same before him, as well as many others.