Jeconiah

Jeconiah: see Jehoiachin.

Ykhanya (יְכָנְיָה, jəxɔnjɔh, meaning "God will fortify (his people)", see Theophory in the Bible; Greek: ιεχονιας, jɛxonias; trad. English: Jeconiah, Coniah, Jechonia), also known as Yhoyakhin (יְהֹויָכִין, jəhoˑjɔxiˑn; trad. English: Jehoiachin), was a king of Judah and the son of Jehoiakim with Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. He was a contemporary of the Prophet Jeremiah.

Both William F. Albright and E. R. Thiele date Jeconiah's reign to 598 BCE. According to the Books of Kings, he became king at the age of eighteen (according to most of the Hebrew Manuscripts of the Books of Chronicles his age was eight), upon the death of his father, Jehoiakim and at the start of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 597 BCE.

He reigned for three months and ten days, and was deposed by the Babylonians at the end of the siege by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE. It has been suggested that the three month siege was so short because it took place during the winter when food would have been scarce and resources stretched by refugees.

Zedekiah succeeded him as king of Judah. Jeconiah, with his household, many of the rulers of Judah, and many craftsmen, were exiled to Babylon and imprisoned by Nebuchadnezzar II. Cuneiform records dated to 592 BC mention Jeconiah ("Ia-'-ú-kinu") and his five sons as recipients of food rations in Babylon. He was still called king while in captivity.

In the thirty-seventh year of his captivity (562 BC), he was freed from prison by Amel-Marduk, King of Babylon. lists Josiah as the father of Jeconiah: "Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile."

His children included Assir and Salathiel.

References

External links

• Jehoiachin in Babylonia, discussion of the Babylonian evidence

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