The regnal account of
Jehoiachin focuses on the deportation of the king along with temple equipments (cf. verse 7). The
Babylonian Chronicles record 2 Adar (16 March), 597 BCE, as the date that Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, putting an end to the reign of
Jehoaichin and installing Zedekiah as king of Judah (
verse 10).
Verse 9 :
Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. • Cross reference:
2 Kings 24:8 • "
Jehoiachin" the son of
Jehoiakim. His existence was attested by tablets found near the
Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon (now in
Iraq), such as the
Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets, dated to c. 592 BCE, mentioning his name in
cuneiform (, "''Ia-'-ú-kinu''") and his five sons as recipients of food rations in Babylon. "Jehoiachin" is the throne name of
Jeconiah as written in
Jeremiah 24:1;
28:4;
29:2, which has the abbreviated form "Coniah" in
Jeremiah 22:24,
28;
37:1. : based on
Septuagint and
Syriac manuscripts (compare to
2 Kings 24:8), but most Hebrew manuscripts have "eight". • "Three months and ten days": according
Thiele's chronology, Jehoiachin became "co-regent" with his father, Jehoiakim, in September 608 BCE when he was 8 years old, then became the sole ruler at the age of 18 from 21
Marcheshvan to 10
Nisan (9 December 598 BCE to 22 April 597 BCE). The precise date of Jehoiachin's reign can be reconstructed from extra-biblical documents such as
Babylonian Chronicles that
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took Jerusalem on 15/16 March 597 BCE. Jehoiachin was deported to Babylon on 22 April 597 BCE, so the start of his reign of 3 months and 10 days can be calculated to be on 9 December 598 BCE, right after the death of Jehoiakim, whose corpse would be exposed to the frost of (winter) night (
Jeremiah 36:30).
Verse 10 :
And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. • "His brother": refers to
Jehoiakim. The
Nebuchadnezzar Chronicle attested the replacement of the king of Judah as follows: :
In the seventh year, the month of Kislîmu, the king of Akkad... besieged the city of Judah and on the second day of the month of Addaru he seized the city and captured the king. He appointed there a king of his own choice, received its heavy tribute and sent to Babylon. ==Zedekiah king of Judah (36:11–16)==