The kings of Israel and Judah

King Jehoahaz of Judah

The kingdom of Judah (the south) · Reigned three months (2 Kings 23:31) · Also called Shallum · Evil before God · 2 Kings 23:31 to 34; 2 Chronicles 36:1 to 4

Jehoahaz, a son of the good king Josiah, was made king by the people after his father's death, but reigned only three months. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done, and Pharaoh Necho of Egypt deposed him, put the land under tribute, and carried him captive to Egypt, where he died. He was the first of Josiah's line to fall, as Judah's independence crumbled between the great empires of Egypt and Babylon.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.2 Kings 23:32 (KJV)

A three-month reign

When Josiah was killed at Megiddo, the people of the land took Jehoahaz his son and made him king in Jerusalem in his father's place. He was twenty-three years old, and he reigned three months. Despite his godly father, he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. Even the son of Josiah did not follow Josiah's God.

The prophet Jeremiah, calling him Shallum, said the people should not weep for the dead king Josiah, but weep sore for Jehoahaz who was going away, for he would return no more, but die in the land of his captivity.

Deposed and carried to Egypt

Pharaoh Necho, returning from the north, put Jehoahaz in chains at Riblah so that he could not reign in Jerusalem, and laid a heavy tribute of silver and gold on the land. Necho then made Jehoahaz's brother Eliakim king in his place, renaming him Jehoiakim, and carried Jehoahaz away to Egypt, where he died, exactly as Jeremiah had foretold.

So within months of Josiah's death, Judah had lost its independence and its king, a puppet of Egypt now on the throne. The long-delayed judgment was beginning to fall.

The biblical verdict and where it points

Little is recorded of Jehoahaz beyond the bare verdict that he did evil and the fact of his swift removal. His brief reign marks the start of the end, the moment when the kings of Judah became pawns of foreign powers and the throne of David began to totter toward its fall.

That a son of Josiah could so quickly do evil shows again that outward reform does not pass down as inward faith, and that the crisis of Judah was a crisis of the heart. As the earthly throne of David crumbled between Egypt and Babylon, the hope of God's people was being pressed toward a King whose throne no empire could shake, the Son of David who would reign for ever.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Related: Josiah · Jehoiakim · All the kings of Israel and Judah