Jehoiakim

“ Meanwhile Uriah, having been secretly warned of his danger, fled to Egypt. Jehoiakim, however, was so enraged against him, that he sent one of his nobles to Egypt to demand his surrender. He was brought back to Jerusalem and beheaded, his body being cast on the burial-place of the common people. This murder of the prophet, instead of intimidating Jeremiah, seems to have confirmed him in his energetic action. With the accession of Jehoiakim and the relapse of the nation into its former state of sin, he began anew his work as a prophet, which had been in abeyance during the reign of Josiah. ”

“ Jehoiakim sat on a magnificent throne, gilded over with pure gold. A large number of war officers sat near him. A royal herald passed through the throng, crying, "Listen to the oration of Sherakim! Listen to the oration of Sherakim!" Soon silence was obtained, and Sherakim the Orator stood before the vast concourse, and began:
"Princes and Nobles of Judah! With merry hearts, we assemble from different parts of the kingdom to hail this festal day—the eleventh anniversary of the reign of our illustrious sovereign. ”

“ Of Uriah, son of Shemaiah, from the Forest City (Kirjath-Jearim) , nothing is known, except his tragical death. At the commencement of the reign of King Jehoiakim (between 607–604) he had prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and of the whole land, if the people did not give up their evil ways. When Jehoiakim was informed of this prophecy of evil, he dispatched messengers to seize and kill its author. ”

“ YOU heard what a bad, cruel king Jehoiakim was. Still there was a hope that he and his people would take warning, when he heard that God would punish his sin; so Jeremiah the Prophet had all his prophecies written out on a roll of parchment, and his friend Baruch went to the Temple, and read to the people that if they would not worship God and serve Him faithfully, He would cause them all to be taken away prisoners to a strange land. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament for him, saying 'Ah, my brother!' or, 'Ah sister!' they shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah lord!' or, 'Ah his glory!'
'He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
"Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan: and cry from Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, 'I will not hear.' This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice. ”

“ On the defeat of Josiah at Megiddo his younger brother Jehoahaz (or Shallum) was chosen by the Judaeans, but the Egyptian conquerer Necho summoned him to his headquarters at Riblah (south of Hamath on the Orontes) and removed him to Egypt, appointing in his stead Eliakim, whose name (“El [God] raiseth up”) was changed to its better-known synonym, Jehoiakim. For a time Jehoiakim remained under the protection of Necho and paid heavy tribute ”

“ Observe, The greatest of men must look upon the meanest as their neighbours, and be just to them accordingly, and love them as themselves. Jehoiakim was oppressive, not only in his buildings, but in the administration of his government. He did not do justice, made no conscience of shedding innocent blood, when it was to serve the purposes of his ambition, avarice, and revenge. ”

“ No doubt this is true; and yet perhaps Renan is so far right that Jehoiakim's failure was rather his misfortune than his fault. We may doubt whether any king of Israel or Judah would have been equal to the supreme crisis which Jehoiakim had to face. Our scanty information seems to indicate a man of strong will, determined character, and able [Pg 77] statesmanship. Though the nominee of Pharaoh Necho, he retained his sceptre under Nebuchadnezzar, and held his own against Jeremiah and the powerful party by which the prophet was supported. ”

“ I suppose these Chaldeans have put his valor to flight. Jared! how many armed men have we within the royal enclosures?"
"Two hundred of the royal guard, O king, are present—all armed and ready to face death for their illustrious sovereign."
"It is well!" said Jehoiakim, filling his bowl. "Ha, ha, ha! Let the King of Babylon beware of my vengeance? What does the fool desire? The King of Judah is not to be frightened. Jared! where is Sherakim?"
"Sherakim, O king, is not to be found." ”

“ Jehoiakim—"He whom Jehovah establisheth"—still sounded strange in his ears, when the prophet of Jehovah publicly menaced the king with [Pg 65] condign punishment. Renan is naturally surprised that Jehoiakim tolerated Jeremiah, even for a moment. But, here as often elsewhere, the French critic's dramatic instinct has warped his estimate of evidence. We need not accept the somewhat unkind saying that picturesque anecdotes are never true, but, at the same time, we have always to guard against the temptation to accept the most dramatic interpretation of history as the most accurate. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nay, it must exceed that, for it must be painted with minium, or vermilion, which dyes red, or, as some read it, with indigo, which dyes blue. No doubt it is lawful for princes and great men to build, and beautify, and furnish their houses so as is agreeable to their dignity; but he that knows what is in man knew that Jehoiakim did this in the pride of his heart, which makes that to be sinful, exceedingly sinful, which is in itself lawful. ”

“ Jehoiakim was set up by the king of Egypt, an old enemy to their land, gave what king he pleased to the kingdom and what name he pleased to the king! v. 4. He made Eliakim king, and called him Jehoiakim, in token of his authority over him. Jehoiakim did that which was evil (v. 5) , nay, we read of the abominations which he did (v. 8) ; he was very wild and wicked. Idolatries generally go under the name of abominations. We hear no more of the king of Egypt, but the king of Babylon came up against him (v. 6) , seized him, and bound him with a design to carry him to Babylon ”

“ The king's objections did not deter the Sanhedrin from following the example of Joab acting under the direction of David. They made Jehoiakim glide down from the city walls of Jerusalem by a chain. Below, the Babylonians stood ready to receive him. Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim in fetters to all the cities of Judah, then he slew him, and, his rage still unabated, threw his corpse to the dogs after having stuck it into the carcass of an ass. ”

“ There was no treasure at that time in the palace or the Temple. Jehoiakim, therefore, taxed all the wealthy according to their wealth, and caused these imposts to be forcibly collected by his servants. Added to this humiliation there arose another evil. The moral and religious improvement brought about by Josiah was, according to the predictions contained in the law lately discovered, to bring happier times in its wake, and now the people found themselves sorely disappointed. The God-fearing king had fallen on the battle-field, and had been brought back dying to the capital ”

“ To punish Jehoiakim’s rebellion, Jehovah sent hosts of Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites against him and against Judah to destroy it (להאבידו) . Nebuchadnezzar was probably too much occupied with other matters relating to his kingdom, during the earliest years of his reign after his father’s death, to be able to proceed at once against Jehoiakim and punish him for his revolt. ”

“ This name is compounded with the Divine name Jehovah. Probably Neco made the new king swear fealty by Jehovah, and then declared his official name to be Jehoiakim, in order that he and his people might have something to remind them of the oath he had taken. (Eliakim = “God establishes”; Jehoiakim = “Jehovah establishes.”) The rendering of this verse in 1 i. 38 is due to misreadings of the Hebrew. ”

“ Nebuchadrezzar had taken up his headquarters where Pharaoh-Necho had encamped at Riblah, and there received the homage of the little Syrian and Palestinian states that he had wrested from Egypt.
To Jeremiah's great surprise, Jehoiakim sent a secret embassy to
Nebuchadrezzar vowing allegiance to Babylon.
Jehoiakim's submission pleased Jeremiah. He saw in it a splendid opportunity for Judah. All that was needed now was to keep the people in the path of right. Their future, he felt, could be worked out well enough as long as the country was at peace, free from the ravages of war. ”

“ II. Here is the doom of Jehoiakim, who succeeded him. Whether he had any better right to the crown than Shallum we know not; for, though he was older than his predecessor, there seems to be another son of Josiah, older than he, called Johanan, 1 Chron. iii. 15. But this we know he ruled no better, and fared no better at last. Here we have,
1. His sins faithfully reproved. It is not fit for a private person to say to a king, Thou art wicked; but a prophet, who has a message from God, betrays his trust if he does not deliver it, be it ever so unpleasing, even to kings themselves. ”

“ At the very beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, the priests, the prophets, and the people assembled in the temple, laid hands on Jeremiah, because he had declared that Zion should share the fate of Shiloh, and that Jerusalem should be destroyed. He was by them found worthy of death, and he escaped from the power of his enemies only by the mediation of the princes of Judah, who hastened to his rescue, and reminded the people that in Hezekiah's days the prophet Micah had uttered a like prophecy, and yet had suffered nothing at the hand of the king, because he feared God. ”

“ Several of the princes appealed to the king not to destroy it. In reply, Jehoiakim walked up and down the chamber, cursing and swearing that such things should be in his kingdom. He punctuated his remarks by throwing piece after piece of the scroll into the brazier until it was all consumed. Then he dismissed the princes, called them back and ordered that the army prepare for rebellion, dismissed them again, once more called them back and gave command that Jeremiah and Baruch be found and brought before him, dead or alive. ”

“ 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) . ”

“ On the dethronement of his brother by the King of Egypt, Jehoiakim had mounted the throne of his father Josiah, and for eleven years he reigned in Jerusalem. The sins of this wicked monarch drew down upon himself and his people the wrath of the Lord. For many years had the Prophet Jeremiah uttered the voice of solemn warning; sadly had he foretold the coming desolation. "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. ”

“ Jehoiakim then issued an order that the prophet of evil and his disciple be sought, in order that they might be killed as Uriah had been. Happily, the anxious princes had previously made arrangements to save Jeremiah and Baruch by hiding them in a secure place.
It was, doubtless, a day of intense excitement for Jerusalem. The entire nation that had assembled for the fast departed without having gained its end. The reading of the scroll had, however, one effect: it brought about a division in the council of the princes. ”

“ Jehoiakim's reign Jehovah entrusted Jeremiah with a message of mercy, saying: "It may be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may repent Me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings." ”

“ Turning to the third section, Jehoiakim’s reign, we find one feature of the prophecy which suits it admirably. The temper described in ver. 12—men who are settled on their lees, who say in their heart, Jehovah doeth neither good nor evil—is the kind of temper likely to have been produced among the less earnest adherents of Jehovah by the failure of the great Reform in 621 to effect either the purity or the prosperity of the nation. ”