Discovery Box2 Kings 23:30-33
Context23:30 His servants transported his dead body 1 from Megiddo in a chariot and brought it to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, poured olive oil on his head, 2 and made him king in his father’s place.
23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 3 His mother 4 was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 23:32 He did evil in the sight of 5 the Lord as his ancestors had done. 6 23:33 Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. 7 He imposed on the land a special tax 8 of one hundred talents 9 of silver and a talent of gold.
[23:30] 2 tn Or “anointed him.”
[23:31] 3 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[23:31] 4 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
[23:32] 5 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[23:32] 6 tn Heb “according to all which his fathers had done.”
[23:33] 7 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “when [he was] ruling in Jerusalem,” but the marginal reading (Qere), which has support from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses, has “[preventing him] from ruling in Jerusalem.”
[23:33] 9 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold.”
