130 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTSrepetition, not intensification. Jehoahaz's exile to Egypt and death there will
be more grievous than Josiah's death and honorable burial in Jerusalem. Com-
pare the oracle of Huldah in 2 Kgs 22: 18-20, where Josiah's death and burial
"in peace" is presented to him as preferable to being alive in future days when
grievous evil will befall the nation (cf. 2 Kgs 20: 16-19 =Isa 39:5-8). Ezekiel ap-
pears to lament Jehoahaz in Ezek 19: 1-4, indicating that Jeremiah's advice was
carried out; however, this emanates from a later time, when Zedekiah has be-
come another "captured lion" brought before an alien king ( 19:8-9). Jehoahaz
and Zedekiah had the same mother, Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah
(2 Kgs 23:31; 24:18 = Jer 52:1), who is the "lioness ... among lions" in Ezek
19:2 (Malamat 1975: 126).
Because he will not return again, and not see the land of his birth. The nega-
tive does double-duty for both verbs (cf. v 12). According to 2 Kgs 23:34, Jehoa-
haz did in fact die in Egypt. Volz and Rudolph combine the two verbs into one
verbal idea: "see again" ("wiedersehen"), but precise wording and poetic scan-
sion speak against this interpretation. The verbs belong in different colons
(RSV; NEB; JB; NJV; NIV; Holladay; pace BHS), and an intervening <[)d be-
tween them carries the meaning of "again," which precludes this meaning for
an auxiliary yasub.
l la. For thus said Yahweh to Shallum. Hebrew 'el= 'al (see Note for 11 :2).
This is a divine word "concerning" Shallum.
Shallum son oflosiah, king ofludah, who reigned in place oflosiah his father,
who departed from this place. Shallum is doubtless Jehoahaz (cf. 2 Kgs 23:30-
34; 2 Chr 36: 1-4), although different identifications are made by Jerome,
Rashi, and Calvin. Jerome and Rashi think the reference is to Zedekiah, which
it cannot be according to 1 Chr 3:15, and Calvin settles on Jehoiachin, who
then has to be a grandson of Josiah. McKane notes that the Jehoahaz identifi-
cation is rightly made by lbn Ezra. "Shall um" is widely thought to be the king's
name before he ascended the throne (Blayney; Cheyne; Duhm; Peake; Volz;
Honeyman 1948: 20; Weiser; Rudolph; Hyatt; and others). Two subsequent
Judahite kings took throne names upon accession: Eliakim, whose name was
changed to Jehoiakim (2 Kgs 23:34 = 2 Chr 36:4), and Mattaniah, whose name
was changed to Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:17). The name "Shallum" may have been
used here (and also in 1 Chr 3: 15) because this brief claimant to the throne did
not reign long enough to be considered a bona fide king or perhaps because he
was no longer king (Volz). Jehoahaz is not listed in the superscription of 1:1-3.
Also, as Malamat (1975: 127) points out, 2 Kgs 23:34 bypasses Jehoahaz in the
royal succession, stating that Neco made Jehoiakim king "in place of Josiah his
father." But here in v 11 it states that Shallum (Jehoahaz) "reigned in place of
Josiah his father." The choice of Jehoahaz over his half-brother Jehoiakim, who
was two years older, violated the principle of primogeniture. This may be at-
tributed to an anti-Egyptian stance shared with his father or maybe because the
"people of the land" put him on the throne, as they had done earlier with Jo-
siah (2 Kgs 21:24; 23:30) or else both (Malamat 1956: 126; 1973: 271; Wilcoxen
1977: 152-53). Doubtless for his anti-Egyptian sympathies he was deposed by