Jehoiakim

Jehoiakim, born Eliakim, was a son of Josiah set on the throne of Judah by Pharaoh-necoh after the brief reign of his brother Jehoahaz. His eleven-year rule sat between Egyptian and Babylonian overlordship, and his confrontation with Jeremiah and Baruch's scroll became the defining act of the period leading into the exile.

Family and Royal Line

Jehoiakim was the second of Josiah's named sons: "the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum" (1Ch 3:15). His original name was Eliakim, given before his accession; the name Jehoiakim was imposed by his Egyptian overlord. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and his mother was "Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah" (2Ki 23:36).

Installation by Pharaoh-necoh

After Josiah's death, Pharaoh-necoh removed Jehoahaz from the throne and put his elder brother in his place: "And Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim: but he took Jehoahaz away; and he came to Egypt, and died there" (2Ki 23:34). The Chronicler gives the parallel: "And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Neco took Joahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt" (2Ch 36:4). The new king was thus a vassal from his first day, and his first recorded act was to fund Egyptian tribute by taxing his own land: "And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the silver according to the mouth of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it to Pharaoh-necoh" (2Ki 23:35).

Reign Evaluated as Evil

The Deuteronomistic verdict on Jehoiakim is unsparing: "And he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done" (2Ki 23:37). Jeremiah, looking back from the reign of Zedekiah, sets him as a measure of unfaithfulness — Zedekiah "did that which was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done" (Jer 52:2). The prophetic indictment in Jeremiah 22 sharpens the picture from policy to character. Jehoiakim built his palace by forced and unpaid labor:

"Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; who uses his fellow man's service without wages, and does not give him his wages" (Jer 22:13).

He prized cedar paneling and vermilion paint over justice (Jer 22:14), and Yahweh contrasted him directly with his father Josiah: "Will you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn't this the knowledge of me? says Yahweh" (Jer 22:15-16). The summary charge was covetousness, "shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it" (Jer 22:17). The book of Kings echoes the same charge of innocent blood for the wider judgment that came on Judah: "and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood: and Yahweh would not pardon" (2Ki 24:4).

Persecution of the Prophets

Jehoiakim's reign was the immediate setting for much of Jeremiah's ministry. The book opens by dating its words across that span: "It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah" (Jer 1:3). His fourth year was the same as the first year of Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, the date of the great oracle to "all the people of Judah" (Jer 25:1) and of Pharaoh-neco's defeat at Carchemish (Jer 46:2). The "beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim" framed another oracular block (Jer 26:1).

When the prophet Uriah son of Shemaiah escaped to Egypt, Jehoiakim pursued him: "Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, [namely], Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt; and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people" (Jer 26:22-23).

The scroll incident is the fullest portrait of his defiance. In his fourth year Yahweh told Jeremiah to dictate a roll of all his prior words to Baruch (Jer 36:1-4); Baruch read it in the temple court on a fast-day in the fifth year (Jer 36:9-10). When the princes heard, they were afraid and warned Baruch and Jeremiah to hide (Jer 36:16, 19). The roll was then read before the king himself in the winter-house: "And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that [the king] cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his slaves who heard all these words" (Jer 36:23-24). Three of his own princes — "Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll; but he would not hear them" (Jer 36:25). The king then ordered Baruch and Jeremiah arrested, "but Yahweh hid them" (Jer 36:26). Jeremiah dictated a second roll, and to it "there were added besides to them many like words" (Jer 36:32).

Yahweh's response to the burning was a personal sentence on Jehoiakim. He would have no descendant to sit on David's throne, and his corpse would lie unburied: "He will have none to sit on the throne of David; and his dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost" (Jer 36:30). The same oracle appears in Jeremiah 22 in the form of a refused mourning rite — "they will not lament for him, [saying,] Ah my brother! Ah best brother! They will not lament for him, [saying,] Ah lord! Ah his excellence!" — followed by, "He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (Jer 22:18-19).

Babylonian Subjugation

The shift from Egyptian to Babylonian overlordship came through Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel dates the first siege early: "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god: and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god" (Da 1:1-2). The book of Kings adds the political sequel: "In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his slave three years: then he turned and rebelled against him" (2Ki 24:1). The rebellion brought a second wave of pressure: "And Yahweh sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the sons of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his slaves the prophets" (2Ki 24:2). The narrator reads the disaster theologically: "Surely according to the mouth of Yahweh this came upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did, and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood: and Yahweh would not pardon" (2Ki 24:3-4).

The Chronicler adds a personal humiliation: "Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of Yahweh to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon" (2Ch 36:6-7).

Death and Succession

Both Kings and Chronicles close his record with the standard formula but no account of his actual burial. "Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead" (2Ki 24:5-6). The Chronicler's parallel is similarly summary: "Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the disgusting things that he did, and that which was found in him, look, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead" (2Ch 36:8). The dynasty passed to his son Jehoiachin, who would himself be carried to Babylon within months.