2 Chronicles 36:9, commentary and pictures

Jehoiachin began his brief rule in Jerusalem at eighteen, not eight, the eight being a copyist's error corrected by 2 Kings 24:8 and by his having wives and being carried to Babylon, and he reigned only three months and ten days doing evil in the sight of the Lord. He succeeded his father Jehoiakim after Nebuchadnezzar deposed him, but after rebellion Nebuchadnezzar returned, removed him with his court and the royal family to Babylon, stripped the temple of its treasures, left only the poorest in the land, and set Zedekiah on the throne. He stands among the disobedient, vacillating last kings after Josiah, the last obedient king, in Judah's rapid decline to the laying waste of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple, and the end of the kingdom in 586 B.C. That history shows Judah failed to learn the lessons of Sinai, sinning, rejecting God's messengers, and wandering into idolatry, with forgetting the Sabbath that certified Jehovah as Creator and Sanctifier as the primal cause that brought exile, captivity and bondage upon themselves.

Text and Historical Setting

The figure of eight years at the start of Jehoiachin's reign is a copyist's corruption of the original manuscript, one of a few such copying mistakes found in the Bible. The correct age is eighteen, as given in 2 Kings 24:8 and supported by the Syriac and Arabic versions. That older age fits his having wives and being taken to Babylon, circumstances inconsistent with a child of eight. An eight-year-old boy would not have been reckoned a wicked king. His brief reign is therefore to be understood as that of an eighteen-year-old.

He reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. His three-month reign ended with his being taken to Babylon.

He succeeded his father Jehoiakim after Nebuchadnezzar deposed Jehoiakim. After Jehoiachin rebelled and Nebuchadnezzar suspected his loyalty, Nebuchadnezzar returned against Jerusalem. He deposed and removed Jehoiachin with his court to Babylon. In that campaign he stripped the temple of its treasures and carried away the royal family, wealthy people and artisans, leaving only the poorest in Judah. He made Zedekiah king in his place.

Judah's Decline and Captivity

Jehoiachin stands among the disobedient, vacillating final kings who followed Josiah, the last king of Jerusalem that obeyed the commandments of the Lord and kept His statutes, in Judah's rapid decline before Jerusalem was laid waste and its temple burned. That decline ended with the kingdom's end in 586 B.C., and the scattering of Israel began in this national calamity brought on by disobedience to God's commandments. The history is the record of Judah's failure to learn the lessons of Sinai, for the people sinned and rejected God's messengers, and punishment through disobedience brought exile, captivity and bondage upon themselves.

Sabbath transgression was the primal cause of the overthrow and the Babylonian captivity, for God's people wandered from Him, forgot His Sabbath and turned to idolatry. The Sabbath certified that Jehovah who sanctified Israel and created all things was the living God, and while Israel kept it the people did not forget the Lord. The chapter records Nebuchadnezzar's repeated campaigns and sieges of Jerusalem, providing a sufficient account of the siege even where 2 Kings does not name it explicitly. During Jehoiakim's reign he attacked and took the city and carried some of its chief men to Babylon, including Daniel and his three companions.

The first great captivity was in B.C. 606 when Daniel and his companions were taken, beginning the seventy years' captivity 602 years before the birth of Christ four years before the common era. Only part of the vessels of the house of God was carried to Babylon at first, with the last of the treasures removed in later takings. Jerusalem was taken a second time in B.C. 598, when Ezekiel and many others were taken with much treasure. Those who reckoned the later takings as B.C. 599 and B.C. 588 taught that the treasures were removed in those later stages rather than all at first.

The final destruction and complete overthrow, with Jerusalem completely destroyed and many taken to Babylon, was in B.C. 586, with seventy years from the first captivity reaching to the first year of Cyrus in his rule over all Medo-Persia including Babylon in B.C. 536. Those who dated by B.C. 588 taught that Jerusalem was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar in 606 B.C. and the people were removed to Babylon by 588 B.C., when Jerusalem was conquered and completely destroyed. Josiah's reign ended in B.C. 607, ending the Jewish jubilees when not more than 21 jubilees had been kept. With 23 lacking to the great jubilee of jubilees of 49 times 50 years, or 2450 years, reckoned from B.C. 607 it reaches A.D. 1843, after which no year of release or jubilee was ever kept nor could be kept, for neither their kings, their nobles, their people, nor their lands could have been redeemed.