2 Raja-raja 23:31-34

Jehoahaz’s Reign over Judah

23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 23:32 He did evil in the sight of ³  the Lord as his ancestors had done. ⁴  23:33 Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. ⁵  He imposed on the land a special tax ⁶  of one hundred talents ⁷  of silver and a talent of gold. 23:34 Pharaoh Necho made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in Josiah’s place, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died. ⁸ 

2 Raja-raja 24:1-2

24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, ⁹  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. ¹⁰  Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. ¹¹  24:2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. ¹² 

2 Raja-raja 24:6

24:6 He passed away ¹³  and his son Jehoiachin replaced him as king.

2 Raja-raja 24:12

24:12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered ¹⁴  to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, ¹⁵  took Jehoiachin ¹⁶  prisoner.

2 Raja-raja 25:7

25:7 Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. ¹⁷  The king of Babylon ¹⁸  then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.

2 Raja-raja 25:27-30

Jehoiachin in Babylon

25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh ¹⁹  day of the twelfth month, ²⁰  King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned ²¹  King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him ²²  from prison. 25:28 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than ²³  the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 25:29 Jehoiachin ²⁴  took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. 25:30 He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died. ²⁵ 

[23:31]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[23:31]  ² tn Heb “the name of his mother.”

[23:32]  ³ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[23:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to all which his fathers had done.”

[23:33]  ⁵ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “when [he was] ruling in Jerusalem,” but the marginal reading (Qere), which has support from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses, has “[preventing him] from ruling in Jerusalem.”

[23:33]  ⁶ tn Or “fine.”

[23:33]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold.”

[23:34]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he took Jehoahaz, and he came to Egypt and he died there.”

[24:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “In his days.”

[24:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 306.

[24:1]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”

[24:2]  ¹² tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”

[24:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

[24:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “came out.”

[24:12]  ¹⁵ sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597 b.c.

[24:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “were killed before his eyes.”

[25:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:27]  ¹⁹ sn The parallel account in Jer 52:31 has “twenty-fifth.”

[25:27]  ²⁰ sn The twenty-seventh day would be March 22, 561 b.c. in modern reckoning.

[25:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”

[25:27]  ²² tn The words “released him” are supplied in the translation on the basis of Jer 52:31.

[25:28]  ²³ tn Heb “made his throne above the throne of.”

[25:29]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:30]  ²⁵ tc The words “until the day he died” do not appear in the MT, but they are included in the parallel passage in Jer 52:34. Probably they have been accidentally omitted by homoioteleuton. A scribe’s eye jumped from the final vav (ו) on בְּיוֹמוֹ (bÿyomo), “in his day,” to the final vav (ו) on מוֹתוֹ (moto), “his death,” leaving out the intervening words.