The kings of Israel and Judah

King Jehoiakim

The kingdom of Judah (the south) · Reigned eleven years (2 Kings 23:36) · Also called Eliakim · Evil before God · 2 Kings 23:34 to 24:7; 2 Chronicles 36:5 to 8; Jeremiah 22, 36

Jehoiakim, another son of Josiah, was placed on the throne by Pharaoh Necho and later became a vassal of Babylon. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, oppressed his people to pay tribute and build himself a fine palace, and is remembered above all for cutting up and burning the scroll of the prophet Jeremiah in his fire. He rebelled against Babylon, and the invasions that would end in exile began in his reign. Jeremiah foretold that he would have the burial of a donkey.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.2 Kings 23:37 (KJV)

An oppressive and faithless king

Made king and renamed by Pharaoh Necho, Jehoiakim taxed the land heavily to pay Egypt's tribute, wringing the silver and gold from the people. He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. Jeremiah denounced him for building himself a grand cedar palace by unrighteousness and injustice, using his neighbor's labor without wages, saying his eyes and heart were set only on covetousness, and on shedding innocent blood.

He was a king who spent the last years of a dying nation on his own comfort and cruelty, deaf to the prophets God kept sending.

Burning the word of God

The most infamous act of his reign came when Jeremiah dictated a scroll of God's warnings and had it read in the temple and then before the king. As it was read, column by column, in the winter house by the fire, Jehoiakim cut the pages with a penknife and threw them into the fire on the hearth, until the whole scroll was burned, and he was not afraid, nor did he tear his clothes as his father Josiah had at the reading of the law.

It was a deliberate act of contempt for the word of God. But the word could not be burned: God told Jeremiah to write it all again, and more was added. Where Josiah trembled at Scripture, his son destroyed it, and the contrast is the measure of the man.

Rebellion and the beginning of exile

Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years, then rebelled. Bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites were sent against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD by his prophets, because of the sins of Manasseh and the innocent blood he had shed, which the LORD would not pardon. Jehoiakim died, and Jeremiah had foretold a shameful end for him, buried with the burial of an ass, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

His son Jehoiachin succeeded him into a kingdom now doomed, with Babylon at the gates.

The biblical verdict and where it points

Jehoiakim is judged wholly evil, an oppressor who burned the word of God and led Judah deeper into the ruin his fathers had prepared. His reign is the point where the warnings of the prophets began to come true in earnest, and the exile drew near.

The burning of Jeremiah's scroll is a vivid picture of the human heart's rebellion against God's word, and of that word's indestructibility. Kings and kingdoms rise and fall, but the word of the LORD endureth for ever, and it was fulfilled to the letter. That enduring word points to the living Word, Jesus Christ, whom men would also try to destroy, and who, like the scroll, could not be held by the fire or the grave, but rose to reign.

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: Jehoahaz of Judah · Jehoiachin · All the kings of Israel and Judah