_JEHOIACHIN_
B.C. 597
2 KINGS xxiv. 8-16
"There are times when ancient truths become modern falsehoods,
when the signs of God's dispensations are made so clear by the
course of natural events as to supersede the revelations of even
their most sacred past."--STANLEY, _Lectures_, ii. 521.
Jehoiachin--"Jehovah maketh steadfast"--who is also called Jeconiah,
and--perhaps with intentional slight--Coniah, succeeded, at the age of
eighteen, to the miserable and distracted heritage of the throne of
Judah. The "eight years old" of the Chronicler must be a clerical
error, for he had a harem. He only reigned for three months; and the
historian pronounces over him, as over all the four kings of the House
of Josiah, the stereotyped condemnation of evil-doing. Was there
anything in the manner in which Josiah had trained his family which
could account for their unsatisfactoriness? In Jehoiachin's case we do
not know what his transgressions were, but perhaps his mother's
influence rendered him as little favourable to the prophetic party as
his brother Jehoiakim had been. For the _Gebîrah_ was Nehushta, the
daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. Her name means apparently "Brass,"
and nothing can be deduced from it; but her father Elnathan was (as we
have seen) the envoy who, by order of Jehoiakim, had dragged back from
Egypt the martyr-prophet Urijah.[801]
Brief as was his reign of three months and ten days[802]--a hundred
days, like that of his unhappy uncle Jehoahaz--he is largely alluded
to by the contemporary prophets.
Indignant at the sins and apostasies of Judah, and convinced that her
retribution was nigh at hand, Jeremiah took with him an earthen pot to
the Valley of Hinnom, and there shivered it to pieces at Tophet in the
presence of certain elders of the people and of the priests,
explaining that his symbolic action indicated the destruction of
Jerusalem. On hearing the tenor of these prophecies, the priest
Pashur, who was officer of the Temple, smote Jeremiah in the face, and
put him in the stocks in a prominent place by the Temple gate.[803]
Jeremiah in return prophesied that Pashur and all his family should be
carried into captivity, so that his name should be changed from Pashur
to Magor-Missabib, "Terror on every side."
Against the king himself he pronounced the doom: "'As I live,' saith the
Lord, 'though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, were the
signet on My right hand, yet will I pluck thee thence; and I will give
thee into the hands of them that seek thy life, ... even into the hand
of Nebuchadrezzar.... And I will hurl thee, and thy mother that bare
thee, into another country;[804] ... and there shall ye die.' ... Is
this man Coniah a despised broken piece of work? is he a vessel wherein
is no pleasure? wherefore are they hurled, he and his seed, and cast
into a land which they know not? O land, land, land! hear the word of
the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, 'Write ye this man childless, a man that
shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper,
sitting upon the throne of David, or ruling any more in Judah.'"
Yet there must have been something in Jeconiah which impressed
favourably the minds of men. Brief as was his reign, his memory was
never forgotten. We learn from the _Mishna_ that one of the gates of
Jerusalem--probably that by which he left the city--for ever bore his
name.[805] Josephus says that his captivity was annually commemorated.
Jeremiah writes in the Lamentations:--
"Our pursuers are swifter than the eagles of heaven: they have pursued
us upon the mountains, they have laid wait for us in the wilderness. The
breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their
pits, of whom we said, 'Under his shadow we shall live among the
heathen.'"
Ezekiel compares him to a young lion:--
"He went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and
learned to catch the prey. And he knew their palaces, and laid waste
their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by
the noise of his roaring. Then the nations set against him on every
side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken
in their pit. And they put him in ward in hooks, and brought him to
the King of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice
should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel."[806]
A prince of whom a contemporary prophet could thus write was obviously
no _fainéant_. Indeed, the energetic measures which Nebuchadrezzar
adopted against him may have been due to the fact that he had
endeavoured to rouse his discouraged people. But what could he do
against such a power as that of the Chaldæans? Nebuchadrezzar sent his
generals against Jerusalem; and when it was ripe for capture, advanced
in person to take possession of it. Resistance had become hopeless;
there lay no chance in anything but that complete submission which
might possibly avert the worst effects of the destruction of the city.
Accordingly, Jeconiah, accompanied by his mother, his court, his
princes, and his officers, went out in procession, and threw
themselves on the mercy of the King of Babylon. Nebuchadrezzar was far
less brutal than the Sargons and Assurbanipals of Assyria; but Judah
had twice revolted, and the defection of Tyre showed him that the
affairs of Palestine could no longer be neglected. He thoroughly
despoiled the Temple and the palace, and carried the spoils to
Babylon, as Isaiah had forewarned Hezekiah should be the case.[807]
That he might further weaken and humiliate the city, he stripped it of
its king, its royal house, its court, its nobles, its soldiers, even
its craftsmen and smiths, and carried ten thousand eight hundred and
thirty-two captives to Babylon (Jos., _Antt._, X. vii. 1), among whom
was the prophet Ezekiel. He naturally spared Jeremiah, who regarded
him as "the sword of Jehovah" (Jer. xlvii. 6), and as "Jehovah's
servant, to do His pleasure" (Jer. xxv. 9, xxvii. 6, xliii. 10). On
the whole, Nebuchadrezzar is not treated with abhorrence by the Jews.
There was something in his character which inspired respect; and the
Jews deal with him leniently, both in their records and generally in
their traditions. "Nebuchadnezzar," we read in the Talmud (_Taanith_
f. 18, 2), "was a worthy king, and deserved that a miracle should be
performed through him."
From the allusion of Ezekiel we might infer that Jehoiachin was
violent and self-willed; but Josephus speaks of his kindness and
gentleness.[808] Was he, as Jeremiah had prophesied, literally
"childless"?[809] It is true that in 1 Chron. iii. 17, 18, eight sons
are ascribed to him, and among them Shealtiel, in whom the royal line
was continued. But it is far from certain that these sons were not the
sons of his brother Neri, of the House of Nathan,[810] and it seems
that they were only adopted by the unhappy captive. The Book of Baruch
describes him weeping by the Euphrates.[811] But if we may trust the
story of Susannah, his outward fortunes were peaceful, and he was
allowed to live in his own house and gardens in peace, and in a
certain degree of splendour.[812]
FOOTNOTES:
[801] Jer. xxvi. 22.
[802] 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9.
[803] Jer. xx. 2. There seem to have been special "stocks" and "collars"
in the Temple, reserved, by order of the priest Jehoiada, for those whom
the priests regarded as unruly prophets (Jer. xxix. 26).
[804] Jer. xxii. 24-30. The captivity of the queen-mother struck men's
imaginations (Jer. xxix. 2).
[805] _Middoth_, ii. 6, quoted by Cheyne, p. 163; Jos., _B. J._, VI.
ii. 1. Comp. Ezek. i. 2.
[806] Ezek. xix. 6-9. The special allusions are no longer certain.
[807] 2 Kings xx. 17. The expression "_he cut to pieces_ all the
vessels of gold which Solomon had made" is hardly consistent with Ezra
i. 7-11, unless we understand the word in a loose sense.
[808] He says that he nobly gave himself up to save the city (_Antt._,
X. vii. 1). His captivity was made an era from which to date Ezek. i.
2, viii. 1, xxiv. 1, xxvi. 1, etc. Comp. Susannah 1-4.
[809] Jer. xxii. 30, '_arîrî_. His "son" Assir (1 Chron. iii. 17) may
have been made an eunuch (Isa. xxxix. 7).
[810] Luke iii. 27, 31; Matt. i. 12.
[811] Baruch i. 3, 4.
[812] The favourable notice of Nebuchadrezzar in _Taanith_ (quoted
above) is not found in _Berachoth_, f. 57, 2, where he is called "the
wicked." There are many wild legends about him. In _Nedarim_ (f. 65,
2), R. Yitzchak says: "May melted gold be poured into the mouth of the
wicked Nebuchadrezzar! Had not an angel struck him on the mouth, he
would have outshone all David's songs and praises." With reference to
Isa. xxii. 1, 2, the Rabbis say that Jeconiah went to the Temple roof,
and flung up the keys into the air, when Nebuchadrezzar required them:
"a hand took them, and they were seen no more" (_Shekalim_, vi. 5). In
_Nedarim_ (f. 65, 2) we are told that Zedekiah's rebellion consisted
in divulging, contrary to his oath, that he had seen Nebuchadrezzar
eating a live hare (Hershon, _Treasures of the Talmud_).