Nehushta

Nehushta is the queen mother of Judah at the moment the kingdom collapses — the wife of Jehoiakim and the mother of Jehoiachin, named once when her son's brief reign is summarized.

Wife of Jehoiakim, Mother of Jehoiachin

She enters the narrative at the death of her husband: "So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead" (2Ki 24:6). The accession formula for the new king then names her: "Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned in Jerusalem three months: and his mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem" (2Ki 24:8). The notice fixes her family — daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem — and dates her son's three-month reign, which is immediately followed in the surrounding narrative by the Babylonian deportation.