2 Chronicles 36:5

Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

THE REIGN OF JEHOIAKIM (2Chronicles 36:5-8). (Comp. 2Kings 23:36 to 2Kings 24:7, 2 Kings 3 Esdr. 1:37-41; Jeremiah 25:26)

(5) Jehoiakim . . . in Jerusalem.—2Kings 23:36, adding the mother’s name. here. So LXX.

And he did . . . the Lord.—2Kings 23:37, which adds “according to all that his fathers had done.” So LXX.

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.—Nabium-kudurri-uçur (“Nebo guard the crown! “) son of Nabopalassar, who had founded this dynasty by successful revolt against Assyria. His extant inscriptions chiefly relate to palace and temple building. Schrader gives a short inscription from a brick now in the Zürich Museum. “Nabû-Kudurri-uçur, king of Babylon, restorer of Esagili and Ezida [two famous temples], son of Nabû-abala-uçur, King of Babylon am I.” No really historical inscription is known except a fragment relating to his Egyptian campaign in his 37th year (568 B.C. ), and an illegible one on the rocks of Nahr-el-Kelb near Beirut. The LXX. here interpolates the account of Jehoiakim’s three years of vassalage, and his revolt against Nebuchadnezzar, and the other events and reflections contained in 2Kings 24:1-4. The LXX. makes Jehoiakim, instead of Manasseh, “fill Jerusalem with innocent blood,” contrary to the Hebrew text.

And bound him in fetters.—Two bronze (chains), as in 2Chronicles 33:11.

To carry him to Babylon.—To make him go. It is not said that this intention was carried out. (Comp. 2Chronicles 33:11, “and carried him to Babylon.”) Nebuchadnezzar, who, according to Jeremiah 46:2, had defeated Necho in a great battle at Carchemish, in the 4th year of Jehoiakim, appears to have left the king of Judah to reign as a vassal-king, after inflicting upon him a severe humiliation. (The LXX., 3 Esdr., Vulg., and Arabic, but not the Syriac, read: “and carried him to Babylon.”) Thenius says this must be the right reading, and then denies its claim to credibility. He further asserts that, “in order to allow ample scope for the fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah” (see Note on 2Chronicles 36:8), the chronicler has represented Jehoiakim as carried alive to Babylon in the last year of his reign. This statement rests not upon objective historical grounds, but upon subjective prejudices against the chronicler.

Daniel 1:1, by a transcriber’s error, puts this first capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in the third year of Jehoiakim; whereas Nebuchadnezzar only became king in the fourth of Jehoiakim. (2Kings 25:8; Jeremiah 25:1.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

36:1-21 The ruin of Judah and Jerusalem came on by degrees. The methods God takes to call back sinners by his word, by ministers, by conscience, by providences, are all instances of his compassion toward them, and his unwillingness that any should perish. See here what woful havoc sin makes, and, as we value the comfort and continuance of our earthly blessings, let us keep that worm from the root of them. They had many times ploughed and sowed their land in the seventh year, when it should have rested, and now it lay unploughed and unsown for ten times seven years. God will be no loser in his glory at last, by the disobedience of men. If they refused to let the land rest, God would make it rest. What place, O God, shall thy justice spare, if Jerusalem has perished? If that delight of thine were cut off for wickedness, let us not be high-minded, but fear.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The narrative runs parallel with 2 Kings marginal reference) as far as 2 Chronicles 36:13. The writer then emits the events following, and substitutes a sketch in which the moral and didactic element preponderates over the historical.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2Ch 36:5-8. Jehoiakim, Reigning Ill, Is Carried into Babylon.

5. Jehoiakim … did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord—He followed the course of his idolatrous predecessors; and the people, to a great extent, disinclined to the reforming policy of his father, eagerly availed themselves of the vicious license which his lax administration restored. His character is portrayed with a masterly hand in the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jer 22:13-19). As the deputy of the king of Egypt, he departed further than his predecessor from the principles of Josiah's government; and, in trying to meet the insatiable cupidity of his master by grinding exactions from his subjects, he recklessly plunged into all evil.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah,.... Of whose reign, and of the three following, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, and the account of them, from hence to the end of 2 Chronicles 36:13, what needs explanation or reconciliation; see Gill on 2 Kings 23:31, 2 Kings 23:32, 2 Kings 23:33, 2 Kings 23:34, 2 Kings 23:35, 2 Kings 23:36, 2 Kings 23:37, 2 Kings 24:5, 2 Kings 24:6, 2 Kings 24:8, 2 Kings 24:10, 2 Kings 24:17, 2 Kings 24:18

Geneva Study Bible

Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was {c} evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

(c) Because he and the people did not turn to God by his first plague, he brought a new one on him, and at length rooted them out.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5–8 (= 1Es 1:39-42; 2 Kings 23:35 to 2 Kings 24:7). The Reign of Jehoiakim

5. in Jerusalem] The Chronicler omits his mother’s name (cp. 2 Chronicles 36:2, note) and also the statement that he raised the indemnity imposed by Neco by means of a poll-tax (2 Kings 23:35).

he did that which was evil] Cp. 2 Kings 23:37; Jeremiah 22:13-18; Jeremiah 26:20-23; Jeremiah 36:1-32.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Here we note the age of Jehoiakim as greater than that of Jeoahaz, and in the parallel we read that his mother was different. 2 Chronicles 36:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The reign of Jehoiakim. Cf. 2 Kings 23:36-24:7. - Jehoiakim was at his accession twenty-five years of age, reigned eleven years, and did that which was evil in the eyes of Jahve his God.