Page 137 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible revised

Jehoiachin’s age when He became King

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem;
and his mother’s name was Nehushta … .
2 Kings 24:8 NASB

But ….
9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in
Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
2 Chronicles 36:9 NASB

Isn’t this a contradiction. Both can’t be true, can they?

Explanation

It helps to study the context of Scripture and carefully scrutinize the historical events of the time to
understand why Jehoiachin was two ages when he became king. Let’s do so…

Jehoiachin wasn’t the first who became king in his childhood under a regency (e.g., Jehoash under the
priest Jehoiada; Josiah under his mother Jedida). Remarkable is that Jehoiachin became king so
young while his father Jehoiakim was still alive and active as king. After governing a period of 11 years
Jehoiakim died at the age of 36 and was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin as active king, who was then
18 years (2 Kings 23:36, 24:8). For 10 years Jehoiachin had the title of king during his father’s reign; what
could be the reason for that? To understand this, we have to go back to King Josiah (grandfather of
Jehoiachin) and his sons (uncles of Jehoiachin) as described in 1 Chronicles 3:15-16.

15 The sons of Josiah were Johanan the firstborn, and the second was Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the
fourth Shallum.
16 The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah [Jehoiachin] his son, Zedekiah his son.
(1 Chronicles 3:15-16)

Before these verses (15-16) a list of kings is given descending from king Solomon up to and including
king Josiah (verses 1-14). Apparently verse 15 was written when Josiah was still alive to arrange the
succession after him, and it gives four names representing the order of succession of his sons. Here
follows the diagram tree of verse 15:

King Josiah
____________(sons)_________________
| | | |
Johanan Jehoiakim Zedekiah Jehoahaz
(firstborn) (Eliakim) (Mattaniah) (Shallum)

The suggestion is given that this order was inspired by their ages. The firstborn (Johanan) had the first
rights and so on down to the youngest Shallum (also known as Jehoahaz; Jeremiah 22:11) who got the
last right to become king if the others died prematurely.

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