2 Kings 23:31
Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
The verse stands in the final section of the history of the monarchy in Kings, covering Judah after the ten tribes had been swept away and continuing through 2 Kings 25 to the Babylonian Captivity. Within that close it belongs to 2 Kings 23-24, part of the sad story of transgression, war, strife, defeat, captivity and conspiracy under the kings. Its immediate chapter reports Josiah's national revival and reformation, when after the neglected temple was repaired the forgotten book of the law was found and read to the king, its warnings stirred reform, idolatrous objects and shrines were destroyed, and the Passover was celebrated with great rejoicing. The same chapter records the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the man of God to Jeroboam, declared hundreds of years earlier.
Josiah was the last king of Jerusalem who obeyed God's commandments and kept His statutes, and the end of his reign is dated to 607 B.C., marking when the Jews ceased keeping the Sabbaths and jubilees. The verse introduces Josiah's son Jehoahaz as king after Josiah was killed in battle and died, when the people made him king, beginning at twenty-three years old and reigning three months, but returning to the evil ways of his fathers. His evil conduct brought consequences on the nation, causing Jerusalem to lose its independence and become tributary to Egypt with a foreign king appointing its ruler. It began the downward course that brought the wrath kindled in the days of Hezekiah and ended with Jerusalem coming under the power of Babylon.
Pharaoh-Necho allowed Jehoahaz to reign only three months before deposing him and taking him captive. He then made his brother, another son of Josiah, Eliakim the elder brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was a wicked king who rejected the Lord's word and put the prophet Urijah to death, and he was king when Nebuchadnezzar led his army against Jerusalem.