2 Kings 24:8

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.

2 Kings 24:8 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 24:8

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign,
&c.] In ( 2 Chronicles 36:9 ) he is said to be but eight years old; which may be reconciled by observing, that he might be made and declared king by his father, in the first year of his reign, who reigned eleven years, so that he was eight years old when he began to reign with him, and eighteen when he began to reign alone ^F17. Dr. Lightfoot ^F18 gives another solution of this difficulty, that properly speaking he was eighteen years old when he began to reign, but, in an improper sense, the son of eight years, or the eighth year, as the Hebrew phrase is; that is, he fell in the lot of the eighth year of the captivity of Judah, which was in the latter end of the third, or the beginning of the fourth of his father's reign, and the first of Nebuchadnezzar's, and it was now in the eighth of Nebuchadnezzar that he was king, see ( 2 Kings 24:12 ) , but very probably in ( 2 Chronicles 36:9 ) there is a mistake in the copyist of eight for eighteen, since in the Arabic and Syriac versions it is there eighteen, as here:

he reigned in Jerusalem three months;
the ten days besides are here omitted for shortness, ( 2 Chronicles 36:9 )

and his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of
Jerusalem;
a person no doubt well known in those times.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F17 So in Seder Olam Rabba, c. 25.
F18 Works, vol. 1. p. 122.

2 Kings 24:8 In-Context

6 Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

7 The king of Egypt and his army never marched out of Egypt again, because the king of Babylonia now controlled all the territory that had belonged to Egypt, from the Euphrates River to the northern border of Egypt.

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.

9 Following the example of his father, Jehoiachin sinned against the Lord.

10 It was during his reign that the Babylonian army, commanded by King Nebuchadnezzar's officers, marched against Jerusalem and besieged it.