Reference: Jehoiakim
American
Or ELIAKIM, second son of Josiah, brother and successor of Jehoahaz or Shallum, king of Judah, for whom he was substituted by the king of Egypt. He was king during eleven years of luxury, extortion, and idolatry. In the third year, Nebuchadnezzar carried to Babylon a part of his princes and treasures. A year after, his allied the Egyptians were defeated on the Euphrates; yet he despised the warnings of Jeremiah, and cast his book into the fire. At length he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, but was defeated and ingloriously slain, B. C. 599, 2Ki 23:34; 24:6; 2Ch 36:4-8; Jer 22; 26; 36.
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Easton
he whom Jehovah has set up, the second son of Josiah, and eighteenth king of Judah, which he ruled over for eleven years (B.C. 610-599). His original name was Eliakim (q.v.).
On the death of his father his younger brother Jehoahaz (=Shallum, Jer 22:11), who favoured the Chaldeans against the Egyptians, was made king by the people; but the king of Egypt, Pharaoh-necho, invaded the land and deposed Jehoahaz (2Ki 23:33-34; Jer 22:10-12), setting Eliakim on the throne in his stead, and changing his name to Jehoiakim.
After this the king of Egypt took no part in Jewish politics, having been defeated by the Chaldeans at Carchemish (2Ki 24:7; Jer 46:2). Palestine was now invaded and conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. Jehoiakim was taken prisoner and carried captive to Babylon (2Ch 36:6-7). It was at this time that Daniel also and his three companions were taken captive to Babylon (Da 1:1-2).
Nebuchadnezzar reinstated Jehoiakim on his throne, but treated him as a vassal king. In the year after this, Jeremiah caused his prophecies to be read by Baruch in the court of the temple. Jehoiakim, hearing of this, had them also read in the royal palace before himself. The words displeased him, and taking the roll from the hands of Baruch he cut it in pieces and threw it into the fire (Jer 36:23). During his disastrous reign there was a return to the old idolatry and corruption of the days of Manasseh.
After three years of subjection to Babylon, Jehoiakim withheld his tribute and threw off the yoke (2Ki 24:1), hoping to make himself independent. Nebuchadnezzar sent bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, and Ammonites (2Ki 24:2) to chastise his rebellious vassal. They cruelly harassed the whole country (comp. Jer 49:1-6). The king came to a violent death, and his body having been thrown over the wall of Jerusalem, to convince the beseieging army that he was dead, after having been dragged away, was buried beyond the gates of Jerusalem "with the burial of an ass," B.C. 599 (Jer 22:18-19; 36:30). Nebuchadnezzar placed his son Jehoiachin on the throne, wishing still to retain the kingdom of Judah as tributary to him.
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Fausets
JEHOIAKIM or ELIAKIM ("whom El, God, established") at first; 25 years old at his accession. Second son of Josiah and Zebudah, daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah (Arumah in Manasseh, near Shechem? Jg 9:41); Johanan was the oldest son. Raised to the throne by Pharaoh Necho, who named him Jehoiakim (whom Jehovah establishes), having deposed Jehoahaz, the people's nominee, his younger brother. (See JEHOAHAZ.) Pharaoh bound Jehoiakim to exact tribute from Judah, for Josiah's having taken part with Babylon against him: one talent of gold and 100 talents of silver (40,000 British pounds). So "Jehoiakim valued ('taxed') the land to give the money to Pharaoh ... he exacted the silver and gold of every one according to his valuation" ("taxation"): 2Ki 23:33-34; Jer 22:10-12; Eze 19:4. In Jehoiakim's fourth year Necho suffered his great defeat from Babylon at Carehemish, wherein he lost his possessions between Euphrates and the Nile, and returned no more to Judaea; so that Josiah's death was not unavenged (2Ki 24:7; Jer 46:2).
The change of Jehoiakim's name marked his vassalage (Ge 41:45; Ezr 5:14; Da 1:7). The names were often from the pagan gods of the conqueror. In this case not so; the pagan kings Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiakim and Zedekiah ("Jehovah's righteousness") confirm their covenant of subjection with the seal of Jehovah's name, the Jews' own God, by whom they had sworn fealty. Jehoiakim reigned 11 years, doing evil throughout, as his forefathers before him. "His eyes and heart were only for covetousness, shedding innocent blood, oppression, and violence" (Jer 22:13-17). "He built his house by unrighteousness and wrong, using his neighbour's service without wages," using his people's forced labour to build himself a splendid palace, in violation of Le 19:13; De 24:14-15; compare Mic 3:10; Hab 2:9; Jas 5:4.
God will repay those who repay not their neighbour's work. His "abominations which he did, and that which was found in him," are alluded to 2Ch 36:6. God finds all that is in the sinner (Jer 17:11; 23:24). Sad contrast to his father Josiah, who "did justice, and it was well with him." Nebuchadnezzar from Carchemish marched to Jerusalem, and fettered him as Pharaoh Necho's tributary, in the third (Dan 1) or fourth year of his reign (the diversity being caused by reckoning Jehoahaz' reign as a year, or not), intending to take him to Babylon; bat afterward for the sake of his former ally Josiah, his father, restored him as a vassal. At this time Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were taken to Babylon. Three years subsequently Jehoiakim rebelled with characteristic perfidy, sacrificing honour and truth in order to spend the tribute on his own costly luxuries (Jer 22:13-17). Nebuchadnezzar, not able in person to chastise him, sent marauding "bands" of Chaldaeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites (2Ki 24:1-7).
Ammon had seized on Gad's territory, upon Israel's exile, and acted as Nebuchadnezzar's agent to scourge Judah (Jer 49:1-2; Eze 25:3). Jehovah was the primary sender of these scourges (rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, after promising fealty, was rebellion against God: Jer 27:6-8; Eze 17:16-19), not only for Jehoiakim's sins but for those of his forefather Manasseh, in whose steps he trod, and the "innocent blood which Jehovah would not pardon." Jeremiah (Jer 22:18-19) foretold "concerning Jehoiakim, they shall not lament for him, Ah, my brother! or Ah, my sister!" (his queen, the lamentation of blood relatives for a private individual) nor, "Ah, lord; ah, his glory (the public lamentations of subjects for a king; alas, his majesty), he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem"; again, Jer 36:30, "he shall have none to sit (i.e. firmly established and continuing) upon the throne of David (for his son Jeconiah's reign of three months is counted as nothing, and Zedekiah was not his son but uncle); his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost." (See JECONIAH.)
Jehoiakim was probably slain in a battle with Nebuchadnezzar's Chaldean and other "bands," and had no burial; possibly his own oppressed subjects slew him, and "cast out" his body to conciliate his invaders. Nor is this inconsistent with "Jehoiakim slept with his fathers" (2Ki 24:6); it simply expresses his death, not his burial with his royal ancestors (Ps 49:16); "slept with his fathers" and "buried with his fathers" are found distinct (2Ki 15:38; 16:20). He reigned 11 years. Early in his reign (Jer 26:1-20, etc.) Jehoiakim showed his vindictive malice against Jehovah's prophets. Urijah, son of Shemaiah, of Kirjath Jearim, prophesied against Jerusalem and Judah in the name of Jehovah thereupon Jehoiakim sought to kill him; he fled to Egypt, but Jehoiakim sent Elnathan of Achbor, and men with him, who brought Urijah back from Egypt, the Egyptian king allowing his vassal Jehoiakim to do so. Jehoiakim "slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people," instead of burial in the cemetery of the prophets (Mt 23:29).
Jehoiakim gained by it only adding sin to sift, as the argument of the elders in Jeremiah's behalf implies, the notorious prostration of the state at the time intimating that heavier vengeance would ensue if Jeremiah too, as was threatened, should be slain. By God's retribution in kind Jehoiakim's own body fared as he had treated Urijah's body. 1 Esdras 1:42 speaks of "his uncleanness and impiety." His intense selfishness and indifference to the people's sufferings appear in his lavish expenditure upon building palaces for himself at the very time the people were overwhelmed with paying heavy tribute to Pharaoh (Jer 22:13-18). His crowning impiety, which had no parallel in Jewish history, was his cutting up, and burning in the fire before him, the written roll of Jeremiah's inspired prophecies (Jeremiah 36). Jeremiah being "shut up," i.e. prevented by fear of the king, sent Baruch to read them to the people assembled out of Judah to the Lord's house on the fasting day.
In the fifth year of Jehoiakim they (the princes) proclaimed a fast to all the people, or (Michaelis) "all the people proclaimed a fast"; in either reading Jehoiakim had no share in appointing it, but chose this season of all seasons to perpetrate such an audacious act. On hearing of the roll, Jehoiakim sent Jehudi his ready tool to fetch it from Elishama the scribe's chamber; for sinners fleeing from God yet, by an involuntary instinct, seek to hear His words against them. Then, as often as Jehudi read three or four columns of the long roll, Jehoiakim cut the parts read consecutively, until all was destroyed. Yet he and his servants "were not afraid," a contrast even to the princes who "were afraid both one and other when they had heard all the words"; a still sadder contrast to his father Josiah whose "heart was tender," and who "rent his clothes" on hearing the words of the law just found (2Ki 22:11,13,19-20).
Even Elnathan, who had been his tool against Urijah, recoiled from this, and interceded with Jehoiakim not to burn the roll; but he would not hear, nay even commanded his minions to apprehend Baruch and Jeremiah: but the Lord hid them (Ps 31:20; 83:3; Isa 26:20). Judicial blindness and reprobation! The roll was rewritten, not one word omitted, and with awful additions (Mt 5:18; Ac 9:5; 5:39; Re 22:19); his body should be exposed to the sun's "heat," even as he had exposed the roll to be burnt by the heat of the fire. Sinners only gain additional punishment by fighting with God's word, which is a sharp sword; they cut themselves, when trying to cut it. Compare the rewriting of the law's two tables (Ex 34:15-16; 31:18; 34:1-23; De 31:9). The two-edged sword of God's Spirit converts the humble and tender as Josiah, draws out the latent hatred of the ungodly as J. (2Co 2:15-16; Heb 4:12-13). Jehoiakim reigned from 609 B.C. to 598 B.C.
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Hastings
JEHOIAKIM, whose original name was Eliakim, was placed upon the throne of Judah by Pharaoh-necho, who deposed the more popular Jehoabaz. His reign of eleven years is not well spoken of by Jeremiah. The religious abuses which had been abolished by Josiah seem to have returned with greater strength than ever. At a time when the kingdom was impoverished by war and by the exactions of Egypt, Jehoiakim occupied himself in extravagant schemes of building to be carried out by forced labour (2Ki 23:24 to 2Ki 24:7). Things were so had that in the fourth year of his reign Jeremiah dictated to Baruch a summary of all his earlier discourses, and bade him read it in public as though to indicate that there was no longer any hope. The king showed his contempt for the prophetic word by burning the roll. Active persecution of the prophetic party followed, in which one man at least was put to death. Jeremiah's escape was due to powerful friends at court (Jer 22:13-19; 36:1-26; 26:20-24). It was about the time of the burning of the Book of Jeremiah that the Egyptian supremacy was ended by the decisive battle of Carchemish. The evacuation of Palestine followed, and Jehoiakim was obliged to submit to the Babylonians. His heart, however, was with the Pharaoh, to whom he owed his elevation. After three years he revolted from the Babylonian rule. Nebuchadrezzar thought to bring him into subjection by sending guerilla bands to harry the country, but as this did not succeed, he invaded Judah with an army of regulars. Before he reached Jerusalem, Jehoiakim died, and the surrender which was inevitable, was made by his son. Whether Jeremiah's prediction that the corpse of the king should be denied decent burial was fulfilled is not certain.
H. P. Smith.
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Morish
Jehoi'akim
Name given by Pharaoh-Necho, to ELIAKIM son of Josiah king of Judah, whom he made king in the room of Jehoahaz his brother. He reigned from B.C. 610 to 599. 2Ki 23:34-36. He was at first tributary to Egypt; but Egypt being defeated by Assyria at Carchemish, B.C. 606, he became tributary to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar visited Jerusalem, bound Jehoiakim in chains to carry him to Babylon, but apparently altered his plans and left him at Jerusalem as a vassal; or, if he carried him to Babylon, allowed him to return. 2Ch 36:5-8; Da 1:2. After three years Jehoiakim revolted and God sent against him bands of the Chaldees, the Syrians, the Moabites, and the Ammonites to destroy Judah on account of their wickedness. 2Ki 24:1-5.
Jehoiakim was warned many times, but he resented the admonitions, and put Urijah the prophet to death. In the fourth year of his reign, Jeremiah wrote in a book his prophecies against Judah and Israel, which were read in the Lord's house; but when tidings of this reached the king he sent for the book, heard it read, and then cut it in pieces and burnt it. He ordered the arrest of Jeremiah and of Baruch who had written the book; but the Lord hid them. God declared he would punish him, and said, "He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem:" his end is not recorded. Jer 22:18,24; 26:21-23; 36:9-32.
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Smith
Jeho-i'akim
(whom Jehovah sets up), called Eliakim, son of Josiah and king of Judah. After deposing Jehoahaz, Pharaoh-necho set Eliakim, his elder brother, upon the throne, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, B.C. 608-597. For four years Jehoiakim was subject toi Egypt, when Nebuchadnezzar, after a short siege, entered Jerusalem, took the king prisoner, bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon, and took also some of the precious vessels of the temple and carried them to the land of Shinar. Jehoiakim became tributary to Nebuchadnezzar after his invasion of Judah, and continued so for three years, but at the end of that time broke his oath of allegiance and rebelled against him.
Nebuchadnezzar sent against him numerous bands of Chaldeans, with Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites,
and who cruelly harassed the whole country. Either in an engagement with some of these forces or else by the hand of his own oppressed subjects Jehoiakim came to a violent end in the eleventh year of his reign. His body was cast out ignominiously on the ground, and then was dragged away and buried "with the burial of an ass," without pomp or lamentation, "beyond the gates of Jerusalem."
All the accounts we have of Jehoiakim concur in ascribing to him a vicious and irreligious character.
The reign of Jehoiakim extends from B.C. 609 to B.C. 598, or, as some reckon, 599.
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Watsons
JEHOIAKIM, or ELIAKIM, the brother and successor of Jehoahaz, king of Judah, was advanced to the throne by Pharaoh-Necho, king of Egypt, A.M. 3395, 2Ki 23:34. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and did evil in the sight of the Lord. When Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, this prince was also taken and put to death, and his body thrown into the common sewer, according to the prediction of Jer 22:18-19.