The son of Jehoiachim. This is the man whom the prophet had it in commission from the Lord to write childless. (Jer. xx2: 24. to the end.) His name is also a compound, signifying from the root to prepare, that the Lord would prepare. But how seldom do we find, notwithstanding the striking names given by the Hebrews to their children, that they answered to them. In what sense Jehoiachiu was written childless, I cannot determine; somewhat different from natural things it must have been, for certain it is, that he had severalsons. (See 1 Chron. 3: 17, 18.) But what the sentence referred to besides, I know not. I should have thought it had respect to the promised seed, and that the writing this man childless might have been in other words to say, the Messiah shall not be in his family. For this was the great desire of all the tribes of Israel; and for the accomplishment of which they all earnestly longed for a numerous progeny of children. But this was so far from being the case, that in the generations of the Lord Jesus Christ after the flesh, wefind his son Salathiel enumerated. (See Matt. i. 12.) Some have thought, that the expression childless meant in relation to his kingdom, that he should have no successor in his family to sit upon the throne. And if this be the meaning, it was literally fulfilled; for Salathiel was born in Babylon, and so was his son Zorobabel. (See Matt. i. 13.) But here I leave the subject.
otherwise called Coniah, Jer 22:24, and Jeconiah, 1Ch 3:17, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and grandson of Josiah. He ascended the throne, and reigned only three months. It seems he was born about the time of the first Babylonish captivity, A.M. 3398, when Jehoiakim, or Eliakim, his father, was carried to Babylon. Jehoiakim returned from Babylon, and reigned till A.M. 3405, when he was killed by the Chaldeans, in the eleventh year of his reign; and was succeeded by this Jehoiachin, who reigned alone three months and ten days; but he reigned about ten years in conjunction with his father. Thus 2Ki 24:8, is reconciled with 2Ch 36:9. In the former of these passages, he is said to have been eighteen when he began to reign, and in Chronicles only eight; that is, he was only eight when he began to reign with his father, and eighteen when he began to reign alone. He was a bad man, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, Jer 22:24. The time of his death is uncertain; and the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, Jer 22:30, are not to be taken in the strictest sense; since he was the father of Salathiel and others, 1Ch 3:17-18; Mat 1:12.
Jehoi´achin (God-appointed), by contraction Jeconiah and Coniah, nineteenth king of Judah, and son of Jehoiakim. When his father was slain, B.C. 599, the king of Babylon allowed him, as the rightful heir, to succeed. He was then eighteen years of age, according to 2Ki 24:8; but only eight according to 2Ch 36:9. Many attempts have been made to reconcile these dates, the most usual solution being that he had reigned ten years in conjunction with his father, so that he was eight when he began his joint reign, but eighteen when he began to reign alone. There are, however, difficulties in this view, which, perhaps, leave it the safest course to conclude that ’eight’ in 2Ch 36:9, is a corruption of the text, such as might easily occur from the relation of the numbers eight and eighteen.
Jehoiachin followed the evil courses which had already brought so much disaster upon the royal house of David, and upon the people under its sway. He seems to have very speedily indicated a political bias adverse to the interests of the Chaldean empire; for in three months after his accession we find the generals of Nebuchadnezzar again laying siege to Jerusalem, according to the predictions of Jeremiah (Jer 22:18; Jer 36:30). Convinced of the futility of resistance, Jehoiachin went out and surrendered as soon as Nebuchadnezzar arrived in person before the city. He was sent away as a captive to Babylon, with his mother, his generals, and his troops, together with the artificers and other inhabitants of Jerusalem, to the number of ten thousand. Thus ended an unhappy reign of three months and ten days. If the Chaldean king had then put an end to the show of a monarchy, and annexed the country to his own dominions, the event would probably have been less unhappy for the nation. But still adhering to his former policy, he placed on the throne Mattaniah, the only surviving son of Josiah, whose name he changed to Zedekiah (2Ki 24:1-16; 2Ch 36:9-10; Jer 29:2; Jer 37:1).
Jehoiachin remained in prison at Babylon during the lifetime of Nebuchadnezzar: but when that prince died, his son, Evil-merodach, not only released him, but gave him an honorable seat at his own table, with precedence over all the other dethroned kings who were kept at Babylon, and an allowance for the support of his rank (2Ki 25:27-30; Jer 52:31-34). To what he owed this favor we are not told; but the Jewish commentators allege that Evil-merodach had himself been put into prison by his father during the last year of his reign, and had there contracted an intimate friendship with the deposed king of Judah.
The name of Jehoiachin reappears to fix the epoch of several of the prophecies of Ezekiel (Eze 1:2), and of the deportation which terminated his reign (Est 2:6). In the genealogy of Christ (Mat 1:11) he is named as the ’son of Josias’ his uncle.
Son and successor of Jeohiakim, king of Judah, B. C. 509, reigned three months, and was then carried away to Babylon, where he was imprisoned for thirty-six years, and then released and favored by Evil-merodach, 2Ki 24:6-16 25:27 2Ch 3:9,10 . In this last passage he is said to have been eight years old at the commencement of his reign. If the text has not here been altered from eighteen years, as it stands in the first passage, we may conclude that he reigned ten years conjointly with his father. He is also called Coniah, and Jeconiah, 1Ch 3:16 Jer 27:20 37:1. The prediction in Jer 22:30, signified that no son of his should occupy the throne, 1Ch 3:17,18 Mat 1:12 .\par
Jeho-i’achin. (whom Jehovah has appointed). Son of Jehoiakim, and for three months and ten days, king of Judah. (B.C. 597). At his accession, Jerusalem was quite defenseless, and unable to offer any resistance to the army, which Nebuchadnezzar sent to besiege it. 2Ki 24:10-11.
In a very short time, Jehoiachin surrendered at discretion; and he, and the queen-mother, and all his servants, captains and officers, came out and gave themselves up to Nebuchadnezzar, who carried them, with the harem and the eunuchs, to Babylon. Jer 29:2; Eze 17:12; Eze 19:9.
There he remained a prisoner, actually in prison and wearing prison garments, for thirty-six years, namely, till the death of Nebuchadnezzar, when Evilmerodach, succeeding to the throne of Babylon, brought him out of prison, and made him sit at this own table. The time of his death is uncertain.
("appointed by Jehovah, or he whom Jehovah establishes or fortifies" (Keil).) JECONIAH, CONIAH. Son of Jehoiakim and Nehushta; at 18 succeeded his father, and was king of Judah for three months and ten days; 20th king from David. In 2Ch 36:9 his age is made "eight" at his accession, so Septuagint, Vulgate. But a few Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac and Arabic, read "eighteen" here also; it is probably a transcriber’s error. The correctness of eighteen, not eight, is proved by Eze 19:5-9, where he appears as "going up and down among the lions, catching the prey, devouring men, knowing the widows" (margin) of the men so devoured; unless Jehoiakim is meant. The term "whelp" appears to apply more to his son Jehoiachin, who moreover answers better to the description of the mother (Judah) "taking another of her whelps, and making him a young lion."
Lord A. C. Hervey prefers "eight," from Mat 1:11. "Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon," fixing his birth to the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion (2Ki 24:1), namely, three years after Jehoiakim’s accession, and eight before his reign ended and Jehoiachin succeeded; but Matthew’s language hardly justifies this; Jeremiah’s language implies Jehoiachin was a "man," and capable of having a "child" (2Ki 22:28; 2Ki 22:30). Jerusalem was an easy prey to Nebuchadnezzar at this time, Judah having been wasted for three or four years by Chaldaean, Ammonite, and Moabite bands, sent by Nebuchadnezzar (as Jehovah’s executioner of judgment) in consequence of Jehoiakim’s rebellion. Egypt, after its defeat at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar, could not interpose (2Ki 23:7-17).
After sending his servants (generals distinct from the Chaldaean and other bands) to besiege Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar in person came (2Ch 36:10 margin) at the turn of the year, i.e. spring, in the eighth year of his reign, counting from the time that his father transferred the command of the army against Necho to him (so that his first coincides with the fourth of Jehoiakim, Jer 25:1). Jehoiachin seeing the impossibility of resistance made a virtue of necessity by going out to Nebuchadnezzar, he, the queen mother (who, as the king was only 18, held chief power; Jer 13:18 undesignedly coincides with and confirms the history, "Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves," etc.), servants, princes, and eunuchs (margin).
Nebuchadnezzar, after Jehoiakim’s rebellion (notwithstanding his agreement at Nebuchadnezzar’s first advance to be his vassal) (2Ki 24:1; Dan 1:1), would not trust his son Jehoiachin, but carried him away, the queen mother, his wives, chamberlains, and all the men of might, 7,000, and 1,000 crafts. men and smiths; fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer 22:24, etc.), He had already taken at the first siege of Jerusalem in Jehoiakim’s third year part of the vessels of God’s house (Dan 1:1-2; 2Ch 36:7) and put them in the house of his god in Babylon, namely, the smaller vessels of solid gold, basins, goblets, knives, tongs, etc., which Cyrus restored (Ezr 1:7, etc.). Now he cut the gold off (not "cut in pieces," 2Ki 24:13) the larger vessels which were plated, the altar of burnt offering, the table of shewbread, and the ark, so that at the third conquest of Jerusalem under Zedekiah there were only the large brazen vessels of the court remaining, beside a few gold and silver basins and firepans (2Ki 25:13-17).
Nebuchadnezzar also carried off the treasures of Jeconiah’s house (2Ki 24:13), "as Jehovah had spoken" to Hezekiah long before (2Ki 20:17; Jer 15:13; Jer 17:3; Jer 29:2). The inhabitants carried off were the best not only in means but in character. In 2Ki 24:14 they are said to be 10,000; the details are specified in 2Ki 24:15-16; "none remained save the poorest sort of the people of the land," having neither wealth nor skill to raise war, and therefore giving Nebuchadnezzar no fear of rebellion. The "princes" (satire) are the king’s great court officials; "the mighty men of valor" (
The craftsmen (masons, smiths, and carpenters) and locksmiths (including weapon makers,
Jehoiachin wore prison garments for 36 years, until at the death of Nebuchadnezzar, having been for a time sharer of his imprisonment (Jer 52:31-34), "in the 12th month, the 25th day of the month (in 2Ki 25:27 ’the 27th,’ the day when the decree for his elevation, given on the 25th, was carried into effect) lifted up the head of Jehoiachin (compare Gen 40:13-20; Psa 3:3; Psa 27:6), and brought him forth out of prison, and spoke kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, and changed his prison garments (for royal robes; compare Zec 3:1-5; Luk 15:22), and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life (compare 2Sa 9:13); and there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day its portion (compare margin 1Ki 8:59) until the day of his death."
God, in sparing and at last elevating him, rewarded his having surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, which was God’s will (Jer 38:17; Jer 27:6-12; compare 2Ki 24:12). In the fourth year of his uncle Zedekiah (so called by Nebuchadnezzar instead of Mattaniah), false prophets encouraged the popular hope of the return of Jehoiachin to Jerusalem (Jer 28:4).
Jeremiah (Jer 22:28) mentions distinctly "his seed," therefore "childless" in Jer 22:30 means having no direct lineal heir to the throne. One of his sons was Zedekiah (Zidkijah), distinct in name and fact from Zedekiah (Zidkijahu), Jeconiah’s uncle, whose succession after Jehoiachin would never cause him to be called "his son" (1Ch 3:16). This Zedekiah is mentioned separately from the other sons of Jehoiachin, Assir and Salathiel, because probably he was not led to Babylon as the other sons, but died in Judea (Keil). In Luk 3:27 Shealtiel (Salathiel) is son of Neri of the lineage of David’s son Nathan, not Solomon. Probably Assir left a daughter, who, according to the law of heiresses (Num 37:8; Num 36:8-9), married a man of a family of her paternal tribe, namely, Neri descended from Nathan. Shealtiel is called Assir’s "son" (1Ch 3:17), i.e. grandson.
So "Jechonias (it is said Mat 1:12) begat Salathiel," i.e. was his forefather. Jecamiah Assir, as often occurs in genealogies, is skipped in Matthew.
Jehoiachin (je-hoi’a-kĭn), whom Jehovah has appointed. Jeconiah, 1Ch 3:17; Coniah, Jer 22:24; Jeconias, R. V. "Jechoniah." Mat 1:12. Son and successor of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, b.c. 598. 2Ki 24:8. In his brief reign Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and carried the king and royal family, the chief men of the nation, and great treasures, unto Babylon. 2Ki 24:6-16. Jehoiachin merited this punishment. Jer 22:24-30. For 37 years he was a captive, but Evil-merodach liberated him and made him share the royal bounty and be head of all the captive kings in Babylon.
[Jehoi’achin]
Son and successor of Jehoiakim king of Judah. According to 2Ki 24:8 he began to reign when he was eighteen years of age, but 2Ch 36:9 says ’eight years’ (one being apparently an error of the copyist). He reigned but three months, B.C. 599, when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and the great captivity of Judah was accomplished. Jehoiachin was carried to Babylon and kept in prison thirty-six years; on the accession of Evil-merodach, B.C. 561, he was released from prison and exalted above the other captive kings, and he ate bread before the king all the days of his life. 2Ki 24:6-15; 2Ki 25:27; 2Ch 36:8-9; Jer 52:31; Eze 1:2. He is called JECONIAH in 1Ch 3:16-17; Est 2:6; Jer 24:1; Jer 27:20; Jer 28:4 (where his return from Babylon is falsely prophesied of); Jer 29:2. He is also called CONIAH in Jer 22:24; Jer 22:28; Jer 37:1, and JECHONIAS in Mat 1:11-12.
By: Emil G. Hirsch, Bernhard Pick, Solomon Schechter, Louis Ginzberg
—Biblical Data:
King of Judah; son and successor of Jehoiakim (II Kings xxiv. 6); reigned a little over three months. He was scarcely on the throne when Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Unable to resist, he soon surrendered with the queen-mother Nehushta, the servants, captains, and officers. With these he was sent captive to Babylon. The treasures of the palace and the sacred vessels of the Temple were also carried away. For thirty-six years Jehoiachin remained in prison at Babylon, his throne having been given by Nebuchadnezzar to Mattaniah (son of Josiah), whose name was changed to "Zedekiah" (ib. xxiv. 11-17; II Chron. xxxvi. 9-10; Jer. xxxvii. 1). When Nebuchadnezzar died, his son Evil-merodach released Jehoiachin and gave him an honorable seat at his own table (II Kings xxv. 27-30; Jer. lii. 31-34).
—In Rabbinical Literature:
Jehoiachin was made king in place of his father by Nebuchadnezzar; but the latter had hardly returned to Babylon when some one said to him, "A dog brings forth no good progeny," whereupon he recognized that it was poor policy to have Jehoiachin for king (Lev. R. xix. 6; Seder 'Olam R. xxv.). In Daphne, near Antiochia, Nebuchadnezzar received the Great Sanhedrin, to whom he announced that he would not destroy the Temple if the king were delivered up to him. When the king heard this resolution of Nebuchadnezzar he went upon the roof of the Temple, and, turning to heaven, held up the Temple keys, saying: "As you no longer consider us worthy to be your ministers, take the keys that you have entrusted to us until now." Then a miracle happened; for a fiery hand appeared and took the keys, or, as others say, the keys remained suspended in the air where the king had thrown them (Lev. R. l.c.; Yer. Sheḳ. vi. 50a; other versions of the legend of the keys are given in Ta'an. 29a; Pesiḳ. R. 26 [ed. Friedmann, p. 131a], and Syriac Apoc. Baruch, x. 18). The king as well as all the scholars and nobles of Judah were then carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar (Seder 'Olam R. l.c.; compare Ratner's remark ad loc.). According to Josephus, Jehoiachin gave up the city and his relatives to Nebuchadnezzar, who took an oath that neither they nor the city should be harmed. But the Babylonian king broke his word; for scarcely a year had elapsed when he led the king and many others into captivity.
Jehoiachin's sad experiences changed his nature entirely, and as he repented of the sins which he had committed as king he was pardoned by God, who revoked the decree to the effect that none of his descendants should ever become king (Jer. xxii. 30; Pesiḳ., ed. Buber, xxv. 163a, b); he even became the ancestor of the Messiah (Tan., Toledot, 20 [ed. Buber, i. 140]). It was especially his firmness in fulfilling the Law that restored him to God's favor. He was kept by Nebuchadnezzar in solitary confinement, and as he was therefore separated from his wife, the Sanhedrin, which had been expelled with him to Babylon, feared that at the death of this queen the house of David would become extinct.
They managed to gain the favor of Queen Semiramis, who induced Nebuchadnezzar to ameliorate the lot of the captive king by permitting his wife to share his prison. As he then manifested great self-control and obedience to the Law, God forgave him his sins (Lev. R. xix., end). Jehoiachin lived to see the death of his conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar, which brought him liberty; for within two days of his father's death Evil-merodach opened the prison in which Jehoiachin had languished for so many years.
Jehoiachin's life is the best illustration of the maxim, "During prosperity a man must never forget the possibility of misfortune; and in adversity must not despair of prosperity's return" (Seder 'Olam R. xxv.). On the advice of Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar's son cut his father's body into 300 pieces, which he gave to 300 vultures, so that he could be sure that Nebuchadnezzar would never return to worry him ("Chronicles of Jerahmeel," lxvi. 6). Evil-merodach treated Jehoiachin as a king, clothed him in purple and ermine, and for his sake liberated all the Jews that had been imprisoned by Nebuchadnezzar (Targ. Sheni, near the beginning). It was Jehoiachin, also, who erected the magnificent mausoleum on the grave of the prophet Ezekiel (Benjamin of Tudela, "Itinerary," ed. Asher, i. 66). In the Second Temple there was a gate called "Jeconiah's Gate," because, according to tradition, Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) left the Temple through that gate when he went into exile (Mid. ii. 6).
JEHOIACHIN, king of Judah, ascended the throne when Nebuchadrezzar was on the march to punish the rebellion of Jehoiakim. On the approach of the Chaldæan army, the young king surrendered and was carried away to Babylon (2Ki 24:8 ff.). His reign had lasted only three months, but his confinement in Babylon extended until the death of Nebuchadrezzar—thirty-seven years. Ezekiel, who seems to have regarded him as the rightful king of Judah even in captivity, pronounced a dirge over him (2Ki 19:1 ff.). At the accession of Evil-merodach he was freed from durance, and received a daily allowance from the palace (2Ki 25:27 f.). Jeremiah gives his name in Jer 24:1, Jer 27:20, Jer 28:4, Jer 29:2 as Jeconiah, and in Jer 22:24; Jer 22:28, Jer 37:1 as Coniah. In 1Es 1:43 he is called Joakim, in Bar 1:3; Bar 1:9 Jechonias, and in Mat 1:11-12 Jechoniah.
H. P. Smith.
1. Sources
The story of his reign is told in 2Ki 24:8-16, and more briefly in 2Ch 36:9-10. Then, after the reign of his successor Zedekiah and the final deportation are narrated, the account of his release from prison 37 years afterward and the honor done him is given as the final paragraph of 2 Ki (2Ch 25:27 -30). The same thing is told at the end of the Book of Jer (Jer 52:31-34). Neither for this reign nor for the succeeding is there the usual reference to state annals; these seem to have been discontinued after Jehoiakim. In Jer 22:24-30 there is a final pronouncement on this king, not so much upon the man as upon his inevitable fate, and a prediction that no descendant of his shall ever have prosperous rule in Judah.
2. His Reign
Of the brief reign of Jehoiachin there is little to tell. It was rather a historic landmark than a reign; but its year, 597 bc, was important as the date of the first deportation of Jewish captives to Babylon (unless we except the company of hostages carried away in Jehoiakim’s 3rd (4th) year, Dan 1:1-7). His coming to the throne was just at or near the time when Nebuchadnezzar’s servants were besieging Jerusalem; and when the Chaldean king’s arrival in person to superintend the siege made apparent the futility of resistance, Jehoiachin surrendered to him, with all the royal household and the court. He was carried prisoner to Babylon, and with him ten thousand captives, comprising all the better and sturdier element of the people from prince to craftsman, leaving only the poorer sort to constitute the body of the nation under his successor Zedekiah. With the prisoners were carried away also the most valuable treasures of the temple and the royal palace.
3. The Two Elements
Ever since Isaiah fostered the birth and education of a spiritually-minded remnant, for him the vital hope of Israel, the growth and influence of this element in the nation has been discernible, as well in the persecution it has roused (see under MANASSEH), as in its fiber of sound progress. It is as if a sober sanity of reflection were curing the people of their empty idolatries. The feeling is well expressed in such a passage as Hab 2:18-20. Hitherto, however, the power of this spiritual Israel has been latent, or at best mingled and pervasive among the various occupations and interests of the people. The surrender of Jehoiachin brings about a segmentation of Israel on an unheard-of principle: not the high and low in wealth or social position, but the weight and worth of all classes on the one side, who are marked for deportation, and the refuse element of all classes on the other, who are left at home. With which element of this strange sifting Jeremiah’s prophetic hopes are identified appears in his parable of the Good and Bad Figs (Jer 24:1-10), in which he predicts spiritual integrity and upbuilding to the captives, and to the home-staying remainder, shame and calamity. Later on, he writes to the exiles in Babylon, advising them to make themselves at home and be good citizens (Jer 29:1-10). As for the hapless king, “this man Coniah,” who is to be their captive chief in a strange land, Jeremiah speaks of him in a strain in which the stern sense of Yahweh’s inexorable purpose is mingled with tender sympathy as he predicts that this man shall never have a descendant on David’s throne (Jer 22:24-30). It is as if he said, All as Yahweh has ordained, but - the pity of it!
4. Thirty-Seven Years Later
In the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, perhaps by testamentary edict of Nebuchadnezzar himself, a strange thing occurred. Jehoiachin, who seems to have been a kind of hostage prisoner for his people, was released from prison, honored above all the other kings in similar case, and thenceforth to the end of his life had his portion at the royal table (2Ki 25:27-30; Jer 52:31-34). This act of clemency may have been due to some such good influence at court as is described in the Book of Daniel; but also it was a tribute to the good conduct of that better element of the people of which he was hostage and representative. It was the last event of Judean royalty; and suggestive for the glimpse it seems to afford of a people whom the Second Isaiah could address as redeemed and forgiven, and of a king taken from durance and judgment (compare Isa 53:8), whose career makes strangely vivid the things that are said of the mysterious “Servant of Yahweh.”
At the time of Babylon’s attack on Jerusalem in 597 BC, the Judean king Jehoiakim died and was succeeded by his eighteen year old son Jehoiachin (also known as Jeconiah, or Coniah). After three months resistance, Jehoiachin surrendered (2Ki 24:6; 2Ki 24:8; 2Ki 24:12). The Babylonians then plundered Judah’s treasures and took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon, along with the royal family, palace officials and most of Judah’s best people (2Ki 24:8-16; Est 2:6; Jer 22:24-30; Jer 24:1; Jer 27:20; Jer 29:2). One of the captives was Ezekiel (Eze 1:1-2).
In 561 BC a new Babylonian king released Jehoiachin from prison and treated him with special favour. To the captive Jews this was a sign of hope that one day they would all be released (2Ki 25:27-30). When, after Persia’s conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, the Jews were released and returned to Jerusalem, a grandson of Jehoiachin, Zerubbabel, became their governor (1Ch 3:17; Ezr 3:2; Hag 1:1; Mat 1:12).