Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Chronicles 36

THE REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ (2 Chronicles 36:1–4). (Compare to 2 Kings 23:30–35; 2 Kings 3:0).

Then. — And.

The people of the land took Jehoahaz. —Compare to 2 Chronicles 26:1; 2 Chronicles 33:25. Jehoahaz or Shallum was not the firstborn (1 Chronicles 3:15). See Notes on 2 Kings 23:30, with which this verse agrees.

Jehoahaz was twenty and three. —So Kings, adding the mother’s name as usual. (So the Septuagint here.)

And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem. —Rather, removed him. 3 Esdras 1:33 adds from reigning, which is almost demanded by the context.

The Septuagint follows the reading of 2 Kings 23:33: And Pharaoh-necho bound him in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, from reigning (i.e., so that he reigned not) in Jerusalem; but the Syriac and Vulgate support the existing Hebrew text.

The Septuagint begins the verse thus: And he did the evil before the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done; and adds, after the clause about the fine, and the king took him away to Egypt.

Condemned the land in. —Fined the land.—So Kings: laid a fine upon the land.

Riblah was in Syria, on the river Orontes. Necho may have ordered or enticed Jehoahaz to meet him there.

And the king of Egypt made Eliakim. —The verse agrees with 2 Kings 23:34.

Carried him to Egypt. — Made him come. Kings says, and he came to Egypt, and died there. Compare to Jeremiah 22:10-12.

The Septuagint adds: and the silver and the gold he gave to the Pharaoh. Then the land began to be assessed, in order to give the money into the mouth of Pharaoh. And each according to ability used to demand the silver and the gold from the people of the land to give to Pharaoh-necho.

THE REIGN OF JEHOIAKIM (2 Chronicles 36:5–8). (Compare to 2 Kings 23:24–36:7; Jeremiah 25:26)

Jehoiakim ... in Jerusalem. — 2 Kings 23:36, adding the mother’s name here. So the Septuagint.

And he did ... the Lord. — 2 Kings 23:37, which adds, “according to all that his fathers had done.” So the Septuagint.

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. — Nabium-kudurri-u ç ur (“Nebo guard the crown!”) was the son of Nabopolassar, who had founded this dynasty by a successful revolt against Assyria. His extant inscriptions chiefly relate to palace and temple building.

Schrader gives a short inscription from a brick now in the Zürich Museum: “Nabû-Kudurri-uçur, king of Babylon, restorer of Esagili and Ezida [two famous temples], son of Nabû-abala-uçur, King of Babylon am I.” No truly historical inscription is known except for a fragment relating to his Egyptian campaign in his 37th year (568 B.C.), and an illegible one on the rocks of Nahr-el-Kelb near Beirut.

The Septuagint here interpolates the account of Jehoiakim’s three years of vassalage, his revolt against Nebuchadnezzar, and the other events and reflections contained in 2 Kings 24:1–4. The Septuagint makes Jehoiakim, instead of Manasseh, “fill Jerusalem with innocent blood,” contrary to the Hebrew text.

And bound him in fetters. — Two bronze (chains), as in 2 Chronicles 33:11.

To carry him to Babylon. — To make him go. It is not said that this intention was carried out. (Compare to 2 Chronicles 33:11, “and carried him to Babylon.”) Nebuchadnezzar, who, according to Jeremiah 46:2, had defeated Necho in a great battle at Carchemish in the 4th year of Jehoiakim, appears to have left the king of Judah to reign as a vassal-king after inflicting upon him a severe humiliation.

(The Septuagint, 3 Esdras, Vulgate, and Arabic, but not the Syriac, read: “and carried him to Babylon.”) Thenius says this must be the right reading, and then denies its claim to credibility.

He further asserts that, “in order to allow ample scope for the fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah” (see Note on 2 Chronicles 36:8), the chronicler has represented Jehoiakim as carried alive to Babylon in the last year of his reign. This statement does not rest upon objective historical grounds, but upon subjective prejudices against the chronicler.

Daniel 1:1, by a transcriber’s error, puts this first capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the third year of Jehoiakim, whereas Nebuchadnezzar only became king in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (2 Kings 25:8; Jeremiah 25:1).