II. JEHOAHAZ, otherwise Shallum, the son of Josiah King of Judah. Josiah having been wounded mortally by Necho King of Egypt, and dying of his wounds at Megiddo, Jehoahaz was made King in his room, tho’ he was not Josiah’s eldest son. He was in all probability thought fitter than any of his brethren to make head against the King of Egypt. He was three and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned about three months only in Jerusalem.
King Necho at his return from his expedition against Carchemish, being pro-voked at the people of Judah’s placing this Prince upon the Throne without his participation, sent for him to Riblah in Syria, divested him of the Kingdom, loaded him with chains, and sent him into Egypt, where he died. Jehoiakim or Eliakim his brother, was made King in his room. Ezekiel intimates, that Jehoa-haz resisted Necho, gave him battle, and lost it. See his words: What is thy mother? a lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions. And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey, it devoured
9 F men, men. The nations also heard of him, he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains into the land of Egypt. Jehoahaz is visibly denoted by this young lion. The Rabbins believe, that he raised an army, and marched even into Egypt, to revenge the death of his father Josiah.
There is a considerable difficulty in the Chronology of this Prince’s reign. The 2 Kings xxiii. 31.Scripture says, That he was three and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 2 Kings xxiii. 36.His brother Jehoiakim succeeded him, being of the age of five and twenty. The generality conclude from hence, that the people placed Jehoahaz upon the throne without following the natural order of succession, tho’ he was not the eldest son of Josiah. The reason of this preference is not known; but it seems unquestionable, from what was said just before of the age of Jehoahaz, compared with that of Jehoiakim his brother and successor. Others assert, that Jehoahaz, otherwise Shallum, was Josiah’s eldest son; and to reconcile what the Scripture relates of the age of Jehoahaz, who was made King at three and twenty, and of Jehoiakim his brother, who was set upon the throne three months after, being then five and twenty, some alledge that Jehoahaz was indeed carried to Riblah three months after his being established King of Judah, but that the sacred Writer did not acknowledge the Throne of Judah to be vacant, till after his death, which happened two or three years after his deposition; and that then Jehoiakim his younger brother had attained to the age of five and twenty: during the imprisonment of Jehoahaz, his brother Jehoiakim was looked upon only as his Vicar or Lieutenant.
Others place an Interregnum of nine months between the two Kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, and suppose farther, that the years of Jehoahaz are full, Jehoiakim’s begun only; by this expedient the two years are filled up which the Scripture gives Jehoiakim above his elder brother Jehoahaz. But without fatiguing ourselves in forming dubious systems of Chronology, it were better to confess, that Jehoahaz was younger than Jehoiakim, and that the people without regard to age, placed the youngest son of Josiah on his Throne, for reasons which the Scripture has not thought proper to declare.