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Study Resources :: Dictionaries :: Jehoiachin

Dictionaries :: Jehoiachin

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Easton's Bible Dictionary

Jehoiachin:

succeeded his father Jehoiakin (B.C. 599) when only eight years of age, and reigned for one hundred days (2Ch 36:9). He is also called Jeconiah (Jer 24:1; 27:20, etc.), and Coniah (22:24; 37:1). He was succeeded by his uncle, Mattaniah = Zedekiah (q.v.). He was the last direct heir to the Jewish crown. He was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, along with the flower of the nobility, all the leading men in Jerusalem, and a great body of the general population, some thirteen thousand in all (2Ki 24:12-16; Jer 52:28). After an imprisonment of thirty-seven years (Jer 52:31,33), he was liberated by Evil-merodach, and permitted to occupy a place in the king's household and sit at his table, receiving "every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life" (52:32-34).

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary

Jehoiachin:

preparation, or strength, of the Lord

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Jehoiachin:

je-hoi'-a-kin (yehoyakhin, "Yahweh will uphold"; called also "Jeconiah" in 1Ch 3:16; Jer 24:1; yekhonyah, "Yahweh will be steadfast," and "Coniah" in Jer 22:24,28; konyahu, "Yahweh has upheld him"; ‘Ioakeim): A king of Judah; son and successor of Jehoiakim; reigned three months and surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar; was carried to Babylon, where, after being there 37 years a prisoner, he died.

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 2Ki (25:27-30). The same thing is told at the end of the Book of 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, Da 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), 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."

Written by John Franklin Genung

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Jehoiachin:

(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 (2 Kings 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 (Jeremiah 29:2; Ezekiel 17:12; 19:9). There he remained a prisoner, actually in prison and wearing prison garments, for thirty‐six years, viz., 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.

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