Jehoiakim Son of Josiah

Scripture: 2 Kings 23:34–24:6; Jeremiah 22:13–19; 26:20–23; 36; Daniel 1:1–2

Installed by Egypt (2 Kings 23:34), Jehoiakim was not the natural successor to Josiah. After Josiah died at Megiddo fighting Pharaoh Neco, the people of the land made his son Jehoahaz king. Pharaoh Neco deposed Jehoahaz after three months and took him to Egypt as a prisoner, where he died. Neco then installed Jehoiakim, Josiah's other son, whose original name was Eliakim, as king and imposed heavy tribute on Judah (2 Kings 23:33–35). Jehoiakim began as a king installed by the foreign power that had killed his father.

The palace oracle (Jeremiah 22:13–19), YHWH's word against Jehoiakim is one of the most pointed oracles in the prophetic corpus: "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages" (22:13). Jehoiakim was building a paneled cedar palace with large windows and bright colors: "Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar?" (22:15). Contrast with his father: "Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the LORD" (22:15–16). The oracle on Jehoiakim's death: "With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (22:19). This meant no funeral procession, no lamentation, no royal burial.

The killing of Uriah (Jeremiah 26:20–23), When Jeremiah prophesied against the Temple and the city, some officials sought to put him to death. The elders intervened, citing the precedent of Micah (Jeremiah 26:17–18). But the text records a parallel case: "There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah. And when King Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and all the officials, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt. Then King Jehoiakim sent to Egypt certain men... who took Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who struck him down with the sword and dumped his body into the burial place of the common people" (26:20–23). Jehoiakim extradited a prophet from Egypt to kill him. The contrast with Jeremiah's survival is the point: Ahikam son of Shaphan protected Jeremiah (26:24).

The burning scroll (Jeremiah 36), In the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, YHWH told Jeremiah to write all his prophecies on a scroll. Baruch read the scroll in the Temple on a fast day. The officials had it read to them privately and were afraid. When it was read to the king, "sitting in the winter house... and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him", his response was deliberate destruction. As each section of three or four columns was read, he cut it off with his penknife and threw it into the fire, "until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot" (36:23). The officials urged him not to burn the scroll; he did not listen. He commanded that Jeremiah and Baruch be arrested; YHWH hid them. A second scroll was dictated, with personal judgment on Jehoiakim added.

His end (2 Kings 24:1–6; Daniel 1:1–2), Jehoiakim served Nebuchadnezzar for three years, then rebelled. Nebuchadnezzar came against him with bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites. "And the LORD sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servants the prophets" (2 Kings 24:3). Jehoiakim died after eleven years, possibly killed by the Babylonians or dying during the siege; the text does not fully resolve how. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him and was taken into Babylonian exile after three months. Jeremiah's oracle that no heir of his would sit on the throne was fulfilled: Jehoiachin reigned but was taken away; the dynasty ended.

Jehoiakim's defining act is the burning scroll. He heard words of judgment against his kingdom and his person, and he responded by cutting them apart and feeding them to the fire, column by column, as if destruction of the text destroyed the reality the text described. Jeremiah's response was to dictate the whole thing again. The Sanctum holds Jehoiakim as the study in the refusal to hear, the ruler who builds his house on unpaid labor, hunts down prophets across national borders, and finally cuts up the word of YHWH with a penknife. The word survived the fire. He did not survive the judgment it announced.