THE REIGN OF JEHOIACHIN. BEGINNING OF THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY

(2Kings 24:8-16).

(8) Jehoiachin.--"Jah will confirm." Four or five different forms of this name occur in the documents. Ezekiel 1:2 gives the contraction Joiachin. In Jeremiah we find a popular transposition of the two elements, thus: Jechonjahu (once, viz., Jeremiah 24:1, Heb.), and usually the shorter form, Jechoniah (Jeremiah 27:20; Esther 2:6); which is further abridged into Coniah (Heb., Chonjahu) in Jeremiah 22:24; Jeremiah 22:28. Ewald thinks this last the original name; but Hengstenberg supposes that the prophet altered the name, so as to make of it a "Jah will confirm" without the "will," in order to foreshadow the fate which awaited this king.

Nehushta.--Referring, perhaps, to her complexion (as we say "bronzed").

Elnathan.--See Jeremiah 26:22; Jeremiah 36:12; Jeremiah 36:25; one of Jehoiakim's "princes."

Verses 8-16 - REIGN OF JEHOIACHIN. The short reign of Jehoisshin is now described. It lasted but three months. For some reason which is unrecorded, Nebuchadnezzar, who had placed him on the throne, took offence at his conduct, and sent an army against him to effect his deposition. Jehoiachin offered scarcely any resistance. He "went out" of the city (ver. 12), with the queen-mother, the officers of the court, and the princes, and submitted himself to the will of the great king. But he gained nothing by his pusillanimity. The Babylonians entered Jerusalem, plundered the temple and the royal palace, made prisoners of the king, his mother, the princes and nobles, the armed garrison, and all the more skilled artisans, to the number altogether of ten thousand souls (Josephus says 10,832, 'Ant. Jud.,' 10:7. § 1), and carried them captive to Babylon. Zedekiah, the king's uncle, was made monarch in his room. Verse 8. - Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign. In 2 Chronicles 36:9 he is said to have been only eight years old, but this is probably an accidental corruption, the yod, which is the Hebrew sign for ten, easily slipping out. As he had "wives" (ver. 15) and "seed" (Jeremiah 22:28), he could not well be less than eighteen. And he reigned in Jerusalem three months. "Three months and ten days," according to 2 Chronicles (l.s.c.) and Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' l.s.c.). And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. Elnathan was one of the chief of the Jerusalem princes under Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:22; Jeremiah 36:12, 25). His daughter, Nehushta - the Noste of Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 10:6. § 3) - was probably the ruling spirit of the time during her son's short reign. We find mention of her in Jeremiah 26:26; 29:2; and in Josephus, 'Ant. Jud.,' 10:6. § 3, and Jeremiah 10:7. § 1. Ewald suggests that she "energetically supported" her son in the policy whereby he offended Nebuchadnezzar.

24:8-20 Jehoiachin reigned but three months, yet long enough to show that he justly smarted for his fathers' sins, for he trod in their steps. His uncle was intrusted with the government. This Zedekiah was the last of the kings of Judah. Though the judgments of God upon the three kings before him might have warned him, he did that which was evil, like them. When those intrusted with the counsels of a nation act unwisely, and against their true interest, we ought to notice the displeasure of God in it. It is for the sins of a people that God hides from them the things that belong to the public peace. And in fulfilling the secret purposes of his justice, the Lord needs only leave men to the blindness of their own minds, or to the lusts of their own hearts. The gradual approach of Divine judgments affords sinners space for repentance, and believers leisure to prepare for meeting the calamity, while it shows the obstinacy of those who will not forsake their sins.Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign,.... In 2 Chronicles 36:9 he is said to be but eight years old; which may be reconciled by observing, that he might be made and declared king by his father, in the first year of his reign, who reigned eleven years, so that he was eight years old when he began to reign with him, and eighteen when he began to reign alone (q). Dr. Lightfoot (r) gives another solution of this difficulty, that properly speaking he was eighteen years old when he began to reign, but, in an improper sense, the son of eight years, or the eighth year, as the Hebrew phrase is; that is, he fell in the lot of the eighth year of the captivity of Judah, which was in the latter end of the third, or the beginning of the fourth of his father's reign, and the first of Nebuchadnezzar's, and it was now in the eighth of Nebuchadnezzar that he was king, see 2 Kings 24:12, but very probably in 2 Chronicles 36:9 there is a mistake in the copyist of eight for eighteen, since in the Arabic and Syriac versions it is there eighteen, as here:

he reigned in Jerusalem three months; the ten days besides are here omitted for shortness, 2 Chronicles 36:9.

and his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem; a person no doubt well known in those times.

(q) So in Seder Olam Rabba, c. 25. (r) Works, vol. 1. p. 122.