2 Kings 24:1-12

24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, ¹  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. ²  Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. ³  24:2 The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. ⁴  24:3 Just as the Lord had announced, he rejected Judah because of all the sins which Manasseh had committed. ⁵  24:4 Because he killed innocent people and stained Jerusalem with their blood, the Lord was unwilling to forgive them. ⁶ 

24:5 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. ⁷  24:6 He passed away ⁸  and his son Jehoiachin replaced him as king. 24:7 The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

Jehoiachin’s Reign over Judah

24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. ⁹  His mother ¹⁰  was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem. 24:9 He did evil in the sight of ¹¹  the Lord as his ancestors had done.

24:10 At that time the generals ¹²  of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched to Jerusalem and besieged the city. ¹³  24:11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his generals were besieging it. 24:12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered ¹⁴  to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, ¹⁵  took Jehoiachin ¹⁶  prisoner.

[24:1]  ¹ tn Heb “In his days.”

[24:1]  ² tn Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 306.

[24:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”

[24:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “he sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by the hand of his servants the prophets.”

[24:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “Certainly according to the word of the Lord this happened against Judah, to remove [them] from his face because of the sins of Manasseh according to all which he did.”

[24:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “and also the blood of the innocent which he shed, and he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.”

[24:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jehoiakim, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”

[24:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

[24:8]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[24:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the name of his mother.”

[24:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[24:10]  ¹² tn Heb “servants.”

[24:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “went up [to] Jerusalem and the city entered into siege.”

[24:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “came out.”

[24:12]  ¹⁵ sn That is, the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, 597 b.c.

[24:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jehoiachin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.