2 Kings 24:8

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

2 Kings 24:8 In-Context

6 So Jehoiakim slept with his ancestors; then his son Jehoiachin succeeded him.

7 The king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken over all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Wadi of Egypt to the River Euphrates.

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

9 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his father had done.

10 At that time the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.