Royal succession became confusing in the last years of the kingdom of Judah, a confusion that was compounded by the similarity of some of their names. This page is an attempt to help sort out some of that confusion.
- Josiah, the son of King Amon, reigned for 31 years from 640 BC to 609 BC (2 Kings 22:1 – 23:30), and was killed by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt.
- Jehoahaz, a son of Josiah, reigned for 3 months in the year 609 BC (2 Kings 23:31-34), and was taken by Pharaoh Neco to Egypt.
- Jehoiakim (fka Eliakim), another son of Josiah, reigned for 11 years from 609 BC to 598 BC (2 Kings 23:35 – 24:7), and was set on the throne by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt who gave him the name Jehoiakim in place of his birth name Eliakim (2 Kings 23:34).
- Jehoiachin (aka Jeconiah or Coniah), the son of Jehoiakim, reigned for 3 months from 598-597 (2 Kings 24:8-17; 25:27-30), and was exiled to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597, then released and shown favor by Evil-merodach king of Babylon in 562 BC (2 Kings 25:27-30; Jer 52:31-34).
- He, his son Shealtiel (1 Chr 3:17), and his grandson Zerubbabel (Ezra 3:2; Neh 12:1; Hag 1:1) are direct links in the ancestral chain between David and Messiah (Matt 1:11-13).
- See note on Jehoiachin’s uncle and brother below.
- Zedekiah (fka Mattaniah), the uncle of Jehoiachin, reigned for 11 years from 597 BC to 586 BC (2 Kings 24:18-20), was Jehoiachin’s uncle (2 Kings 24:17), was set on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, and, at the end of his reign, was made to watch the execution of his son and subsequently be blinded by Nebuchadnezzar at the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
- When Nebuchadnezzar set Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah on the throne, Nebuchadnezzar changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:17). This causes some confusion because that gave Jehoiachin both an uncle and a brother with the name Zedekiah (1 Chr 3:15-16).
The Duty of a Man 