Jehoiachin

“ Moreover a daily ration of food was supplied to him by the king for the maintenance of his retainers, who formed his little court. The חיּיו כּל־ימי of 2Ki 25:30, upon which Thenius throws suspicion without any reason, refers to Jehoiachin like that in 2Ki 25:29; for the historian intended to show how Jehoiachin had fared from the day of his elevation to the end of his life. At the same time, we cannot infer from this with any certainty that Jehoiachin died before Evil-merodach; for the favour shown to him might be continued by Evil-merodach’s successor. ”

“ Scrivener, Introd. to A.V. § vii., and Sayce, Tobit, 1903, p. xvi.
Without necessarily implying it, v. 2 might easily be taken to convey the impression that Jehoiachin married in Babylon. Thus Hippolytus asserts, Ἰωακεὶμ πάροικος γενόμενος ἐν Βαβυλῶνι λαμβάνει τὴν Σωσάνναν εἰς γυναῖκα (Migne, Patr. gr. X. 689) . And, on 'the same year' of v. 5, Reuss gives the interrogative note, "Im Jahre der Verheiratung des Joakim?"
If Susanna's husband really be Jehoiachin, he is the Jechonias who finds a place in the genealogy of Christ, St. Matt. i. 11, 12, Jehoiakim (Eliakim) being omitted. ”

“ In Jehoiachin's case we do not know what his transgressions were, but perhaps his mother's influence rendered him as little favourable to the prophetic party as his brother Jehoiakim had been. For the Gebîrah was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. Her name means apparently "Brass," and nothing can be deduced from it; but her father Elnathan was (as we [Pg 432] have seen) the envoy who, by order of Jehoiakim, had dragged back from Egypt the martyr-prophet Urijah. ”

“ As yet, the long-suffering of God, and, hence, the patience of the Chaldeans, were not at an end. Jehoiachin or Jeconiah was raised to the throne of his father. Even the short reign of three months gave to the youth sufficient occasion to manifest the wickedness of his heart, and his enmity to God. ”

“ He announced to them that in place of Jehoiakim, whom he had slain, he had installed Mattaniah, the rebel's son, called Jehoiachin, as king over Judah, and the people uttered the warning: "One cannot educate a well-behaved puppy whose dam was ill-conditioned; let alone an ill-conditioned puppy whose dam was ill-conditioned."
Nebuchadnezzar returned to Daphne, and informed the Sanhedrin, who hastened from Jerusalem to meet him, that he desired the surrender of Jehoiachin. If they refused to satisfy his demand, he would destroy the Temple. ”

“ Jehoiachin was led away captive to Babylon, and under Zedekiah the kingdom was destroyed with the burning of Jerusalem and the temple. Yet the Lord did not suffer the light to be altogether extinguished to His servant David; but when Jehoiachin had pined in captivity at Babylon for thirty-seven years, expiating his own and his fathers' sins, he was liberated from his captivity by Nebuchadnezzar's son, and raised to honour once more (2Ki 25:27-30) . ”

“ We have thus tried to estimate the development of Jeremiah's character during the second period of his ministry, which began with the death of Josiah and terminated with the brief reign of Jehoiachin. Before considering Jeremiah's judgment upon this prince we will review the scanty data at our disposal to enable us to appreciate the prophet's verdict.
Jehoiakim died while Nebuchadnezzar was on the march to punish his rebellion. His son Jehoiachin, a youth of eighteen, [89] succeeded his father and continued his policy. ”

“ But to the land for which they long they shall not return.
"Is Coniah despised as a broken vessel and thrown forth into a land which he knoweth not? O land, land, hear the word of the Lord! Write down this man as childless! For no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah."
But Jehoiachin continued his stubborn defense until, driven by the horrors of famine, he
"together with his mother and his servants, his princes and his chamberlains went to meet Nebuchadrezzar." ”

“ Nebuchadnezzar, in his conquests, made many kings and princes his captives, and kept them in the dungeon in Babylon, and, among the rest, Jehoiachin King of Judah; but after many days, when Nebuchadnezzar's head was laid, his son visited them, and granted (as should seem) some reviving to them all in their bondage; for it is made an instance of his particular kindness to Jehoiachin that he set his throne above the throne of the rest of the kings that were with him, Jer. lii. 32. If we apply this to the general state of mankind, it imports a revolution of conditions ”

“ The genealogy with which the gospel of Matthew opens, I had long known to be a stumbling-block to divines, and I had never been satisfied with their explanations. On reading it afresh, after long intermission, and comparing it for myself with the Old Testament, I was struck with observing that the corruption of the two names Ahaziah and Uzziah into the same sound (Oziah) has been the cause of merging four generations into one; as the similarity of Jehoiakim to Jehoiachin also led to blending them both in the name Jeconiah. ”

“ Judæan youths, from the royal house of David, were to be found at his court as eunuchs. How often have these guardians of the harem, these servants of their master's whims, become in turn masters of their master. The king Evil-Merodach appears to have been under the influence of a Judæan favourite, who induced him to release the captive king Jehoiachin, who had been imprisoned for thirty-seven years. The Babylonian monarch clothed him in royal garments, invited him to the royal table, and supplied his wants most generously. ”

“ Before we pass on to the reigns of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, we must consider certain utterances which deal with the personal character and career of Jehoiakim. We are helped to appreciate these passages by what we here read, and by the brief paragraph concerning this reign in the Second Book of Kings. In Jeremiah the king's policy and conduct are specially illustrated by two incidents, the murder of the prophet Uriah and the destruction of the roll. The historian states his judgment of the reign, but his brief record [69] adds little to our knowledge of the sovereign. ”

“ Clinging to God's promises with desperate and pathetic tenacity he gilds his last page, as with one faint sunbeam struggling out of the stormy darkness of the exile, by narrating how Evil-merodach released Jehoiachin from his long captivity, and treated [Pg 41] him with kindness, and advanced him to the first rank among the vassal kings in the court of Babylon. If the ruler of Judah must be a hopeless prisoner, let him at least occupy among his fellow-prisoners a sad pre-eminence!
2. The historian has been blamed for the perpetual gloom which enwraps his narrative. ”

“ Moreover the kind benevolent conduct of Evilmerodach towards king Jehoiachin, who was languishing in prison, does not stand in contradiction to the vileness of his character, as testified to by Berosus; for even an unrighteous, godless ruler can be just and good in certain instances. Moreover the circumstance that, according to the Canon of Ptolemy, Evilmerodach ruled two years, while, on the contrary, in Dan 8:1 mention is made of the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, forms no inexplicable discrepancy. ”

“ Perhaps the prophet did not regard this impotent sovereign as the responsible representative of the state, and when the long-expected catastrophe at last befell the doomed people, neither Zedekiah nor his doings distracted men's attention from their own personal sufferings and patriotic regrets. At the point where a paragraph on Zedekiah would naturally have followed that on Jehoiachin, we have by way of summary and conclusion to the previous sections a brief denunciation of the shepherds of Israel. ”

“ They portray a temporal ruler; but the spirit which actuates him and the principles which guide him are noble and unselfish. As subsequent history clearly shows, the prophet or prophets who painted these portraits apparently hoped that a son or grandson of Jehoiachin would realize them. It is exceedingly probable in the light of the later predictions of Haggai and Zechariah (Sections XCIV, XCV) that these prophecies were written not long after the birth of Zerubbabel. ”

“ The result of Jehoiakim’s rebellion against Nebuchadrezzar was according to 2 Kings simply that “bands” of Chaldeans and their allies invaded Judah. Probably Jehoiakim’s life and reign came to an end (how we do not know; compare Jeremiah xxii. 18, 19) during this petty warfare, and then three months later, the main Chaldean army under Nebuchadrezzar having arrived, Jerusalem was taken, and Jehoiakim’s son and successor Jehoiachin was carried off with the golden vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon. The Chronicler seems to foreshorten the history at this point. ”

“ He also continued to practise the horrors of idolatry and immorality as his father had done. But this blindness of Jehoiachin and his mother lasted only a short time.307 Nebuchadnezzar at length was enabled to withdraw, from the siege of Tyre, a great portion of his army, with which he proceeded against Egypt. This Chaldæan army easily subdued the entire country south of Phœnicia as far as the Egyptian river (Rhinokolura) . The whole of Judah was also taken, with the exception of a few fortified towns in the south. Those who fell into the hands of the enemy were made prisoners. ”

“ The battle was the turning-point of the age, and with it the succession of the new Chaldean or Babylonian kingdom was assured. But the relations between Egypt and Judah were not broken off. The course of events is not clear, but Jehoiakim (q.v.) at all events was inclined to rely upon Egypt. He died just as Nebuchadrezzar, seeing his warnings disregarded, was preparing to lay siege to Jerusalem. His young son Jehoiachin surrendered after a three months’ reign, with his mother and the court; they were taken away to Babylonia, together with a number of the artisan class (596) . ”

“ When this youth of sixteen was in the full career of victory, the Pope predicted that his army would be scattered like smoke, and pointed out the prince and his allies as victims for the sacrifice. When Conradin was executed after his defeat at Tagliacozzo, Christendom was filled with abhorrence at the suspicion that Clement had countenanced the doing to death of the hereditary enemy of the Papal See. Jehoiachin's friends felt towards Jeremiah somewhat as these thirteenth-century Ghibellines towards Clement. ”

“ Which “three years” (2 Kings xxiv. 1) are intended is disputed; it is uncertain whether Judah suffered in 605 B.C. (Berossus in Jos. c. Ap. i. 19) or was left unharmed (Jos. Ant. x. 6. 1) ; perhaps Nebuchadrezzar made his first inroad against Judah in 602 B.C. because of its intrigue with Egypt (H. Winckler, Keilinschrift. u. d. alte Test., pp. 107 seq.) , and the three years of allegiance extends to 599. The chronicler’s tradition (2 Chron. xxxvi. 5-8) speaks of Jehoiakim’s captivity, apparently confusing him with Jehoiachin. ”

“ Some were carried off under Jehoiachin, the rest under Zedekiah; 2 Kings xxiv. 13, xxv. 13‒17. Compare last note.
in his temple] So LXX.; 1 Esdras i. 39 [41] ; Daniel i. 2. Note the margin, “in his palace.” The Hebrew word (heykāl) is a loan-word; the original (ikallu) is the ordinary word in Assyrio-Babylonian for “palace.”
8Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in1 him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin2 his son reigned in his stead. ”

“ Job, though a righteous man, could not preserve his children from being killed by the fall of their house. Daniel, though a righteous man, could not prevent the captivity of his country. Daniel must have been contemporary with Ezekiel. He was taken captive in the third year of Jehoiakim, [246] . After this Jehoiakim reigned eight years, [247] . And this prophecy, as appears from [248] , was uttered in the sixth year of Jehoiachin's captivity, who succeeded Jehoiakim, and reigned only three months, [249] , [250] . Therefore at this time Daniel had been Fourteen years in captivity. See Newcome. ”

“ The question “why then?” when taken with what follows, involves the reproof that Israel has struck out a course opposed to its divine calling,
Page:05.BCOT.KD.PropheticalBooks.A.vol.5.GreaterProphets.djvu/2273 and will now have to taste the bitter fruits of this assumption of heathen ways. The heathen nations have taken captive its king, and led him away into heathen lands. ישׁמעוּ אליו, they heard of him (אליו for עליו) . The fate of Jehoahaz, to which Eze 19:4 refers, is related in 2Ki 23:31. - Eze 19:5-7 refer to Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, and not to Zedekiah, as Hitzig imagines. ”

“ Something sinister in the man's face, all found; but to Jehan, who never doubted his dark powers, and who shrank from his eye, and flinched at his voice, and cowered when he spoke, there was a cold malevolence in the face, an evil knowledge, that made the boy's flesh creep and chained his soul with dread.
The astrologer saw this, and revelled in it, and went about to increase it after a fashion of his own. Hearing the boy, on an occasion when he had turned to him suddenly, ejaculate "Oh, Dieu!" he said, with a dreadful smile, "You should not say that! Do you know why?" ”

“ In a little those gods will gather him to them, Nayangap and Tocha. You will see; his death has left the underworld to bring him thither. And harken well—" her voice rising a little—"you maidens who have heard must forget that you have heard! I have commanded, I, Yahoya!"
Even yet she did not believe. Though two men had told her, first Northrup, who claimed her one of his own blood, next Inaa, who told her of his own trickery, Yahoya would not believe. Too deeply had the training of a lifetime sunken into her mind to be wiped out in an instant. ”