- 151-
- The order in 1 Chronicles iii. 15 seems not quite exact, since Shallum or Jehoahaz
(comp. Jeremiah 22:11) seems to have been older than Zedekiah (comp. 2 Kings 23:31;
24:18).
The other three, arranging them in the order of age, were Eliakim, afterwards called
Jehoiakim; Shallum, afterwards called Jehoahaz; and Zedekiah. On the death of Josiah
"the people of the land" made and anointed,* as his successor, not the eldest royal prince,
but his younger brother Shallum, who, on his accession, assumed the name Jehoahaz,
"Jehovah holds up" (comp. 2 Kings 23:30, with Jeremiah 22:11, and 1 Chronicles 3:15).
- This probably because his appointment was out of the regular succession.
From the fate which so speedily overtook him, we may infer that the popular choice of
Jehoahaz was largely influenced by his opposition to Egypt. Of his brief reign of three
months and, according to Josephus,* ten days, we only know that "he did the evil in the
sight of Jehovah." If Josephus also characterizes him as "impure in his course of life,"
this may refer to the restoration of the lascivious rites of his grandfather's reign.
- Ant. 10. 5, 2.
Meantime, Necho had, after the battle of Megiddo, continued his march towards Syria.
Thither, at Riblah (the modern Ribleh, on the Orontes) "in the land of Hamath," the victor
summoned the new Jewish king.*
- This is, according to Josephus, the explanation of Jehoahaz's appearance in Riblah.
Manifestly it is the most natural explanation of his presence there.
On his arrival, Jehoahaz, who had been crowned without the leave of Necho, was put in
bonds. Necho does not seem, on this occasion, to have pursued his expedition against
Assyria. The great battle at Carchemish, to which the chronicler refers by anticipation (2
Chronicles 35:20), was fought on a second expedition, three years later, when the
Egyptian army under Necho was defeated with great slaughter by Nebuchadnezzar, the
son of Nabopalassar. This was after the fall of Nineveh, and when the Babylonian or
Chaldean empire had taken the place of the Assyrian. But on the present occasion Necho
seems to have returned, before encountering the Assyrians, into Egypt, whither "he
brought"* with him Jehoahaz, who died in captivity.
- Instead of "he came to Egypt" - (...) - 2 Kings 23:34, we read with the LXX. (...) "he
brought him," which agrees with 2 Chronicles 36:4.
The Pharaoh appointed, in room of Jehoahaz, his brother Eliakim, who ascended the
throne at the age of twenty-five, being two years older than Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31).
(^)