Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JEHOIACHIN

(Heb. yĕhôyāḵîn)
(also JECONIAH)

The throne name (“Yahweh has established") of Coniah, who succeeded his father Jehoiakim as the king of Judah. He became king at the age of 18 and reigned for three months during 598/597 b.c.e. His mother was Nehushta, daughter of Onathan, a high court official (2 Kgs. 24:8; 2 Chr. 36:9). After Babylon’s decisive defeat of Egypt at Carchemish (605; 2 Kgs. 24:7; Jer. 46:2), Jehoiakim (609-598) changed his allegiance from Egypt to Babylon. Following the indecisive battle between Egypt and Babylon in 601, Jehoiakim renounced his vassalage to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kgs. 24:1). In December 598 the Babylonian army responded by marching to Judah (2 Kgs. 24:2; cf. Jer. 35:11). Jehoiakim died at this time, perhaps the result of an assassination, and it was in this context that Jehoiachin became king (2 Kgs. 24:8; cf. Jer. 22:18, 19; 36:30). Nebuchadnezzar’s army arrived at Jerusalem and in March 597 the city surrendered; Jehoiachin, various relatives, and the elite and skilled population were taken into captivity in Babylon along with objects of value and prestige (2 Kgs. 24:12-17; Jer. 27:19-20; cf. 2 Kgs. 25:13-15); the king’s uncle, Mattaniah (Zedekiah), succeeded him (2 Kgs. 24:17). Cuneiform sources record some of the same details. Even after his exile, some considered Jehoiachin the legitimate ruler, and certain members of the exilic community even continued to calculate their calendar according to his reign, but Jeremiah seems to have discouraged this (Ezek. 1:2; Jer. 22:24-30). In the 37th year of Jehoiachin’s exile, the Babylonian king Evil-merodach (562-560) released him from prison and gave him a regular food allowance (2 Kgs. 25:27-30; Jer. 52:31-34); cuneiform documents from the time of Nebuchadnezzar also refer to rations distributed to King Jehoiachin and his sons (ANET, 308; cf. 1 Chr. 3:17). Jehoiachin died in exile.

Stamped storage jar handles reading “Eliakim, steward of Yaukin” were once thought to imply that Jehoiachin continued to “administer” the crown property through Eliakim, but the paleographic and archaeological data of these epigraphs suggest that the jar handles refer to an earlier, nonroyal Jehoiachin.

Bibliography. J. J. Granowski, “Jehoiachin at the King’s Table: A Reading of the Ending of the Second Book of Kings,” in Reading Between Texts: Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible, ed. D. N. Fewell (Louisville, 1992), 173-88; A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Texts from Cuneiform Sources 5 (Locust Valley, N.Y., 1975); H. G. May, “Three Hebrew Seals and the Status of Exiled Jehoiachin,” AJSL 61 (1939): 146-48.

Chris A. Rollston

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

JEHOIACHIN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)