The Last Four Kings of Judah
Twenty-two years between the four of them. Egypt takes the first, Babylon the second; the third surrenders the city at eighteen and spends thirty-seven years in prison; the fourth sees the killing of his sons as the last thing he ever sees.
After Josiah fell at Megiddo, Judah lasted twenty-two years and went through four kings. Not one of them was free to decide anything: Egypt and Babylon were dividing the country between them, and each successive king was installed by one of the two.
**Jehoahaz** — three months. The people anointed him in his father's place, but Pharaoh Neco deposed him, laid a tribute of silver and gold on the land, and took him to Egypt, where he died. Jeremiah said of him: do not weep for the dead, weep for the one who goes away, for he will never return or see the land of his birth.
**Jehoiakim** — eleven years. This is his brother Eliakim, installed by Pharaoh and renamed by him. He paid tribute to Egypt, raising it from the people by assessment, then became Nebuchadnezzar's vassal, then rebelled. In his reign Jeremiah dictated a scroll of prophecies to Baruch son of Neriah; it was read to the king in winter by a brazier, and he cut off the columns as they were read with a scribe's knife and threw them into the fire until the whole scroll was burned. The prophecy was written again, "and many similar words were added to it."
**Jehoiachin** — three months. He was eighteen years old. He went out to the besiegers and surrendered; Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon with his mother, his wives, his officials and "all the craftsmen and smiths" — the very flower of the people known as the charash and the masger. He spent thirty-seven years in a Babylonian prison, and the last chapter of the book of Kings tells how he was brought out, given new clothes and seated at the king's table. Babylonian ration tablets naming "Yaukin, king of the land of Yahudu" and his sons have been excavated: the house of David appears in Babylonian ledgers as a line item.
**Zedekiah** — eleven years, the last king of Judah. Jehoiachin's uncle, installed by Babylon and sworn to it. He wavered between Jeremiah, who demanded surrender and life, and the officers, who urged reliance on Egypt; he listened to the officers, rebelled — and got a siege. On the ninth day of the fourth month the city was breached; the king fled by night and was taken in the plains of Jericho. He was brought to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, his sons were slaughtered before his eyes, and then he was blinded and led to Babylon in fetters. The order matters, and Scripture keeps it deliberately: the death of his sons was the last thing he saw.
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim II 23:31–34 — Yehoachaz's three months, Neco, and the renaming of Elyakim
- Yirmeyahu 36 — Baruch's scroll, the scribe's knife, and the brazier
- Melachim II 24:8–16 — Yehoyachin at eighteen, the surrender, and the deportation of the craftsmen
- Melachim II 25:27–30 — after thirty-seven years Yehoyachin is brought from prison to the king's table
- Melachim II 25:1–7 — the breach, Tzidkiyahu's flight, the killing of his sons, and the blinding
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.
People and places
Jehoahaz · Jehoiakim · Jehoiachin · Zedekiah · Jeremiah · Josiah · Babylon · Jerusalem · Kings