Meaning of JEHOIAKIM

"Jehovah raises up."
Son of King Josiah (2 Kings 23:34, 36). His name was Eliakim (God raises up). Upon the death of Josiah, the people enthroned Jehoahaz, Josiah's third son.

Three months later, Pharaoh Neco chained him and took him captive, putting his older brother Eliakim in his place, whose name he changed to Jehoiakim. He began to reign around 608 BC, at the age of twenty-five.

Jehoiakim forced his people to pay onerous tributes, which he sent to Pharaoh. This son of Josiah was unfaithful to Jehovah, and launched into idolatry.

Jeremiah wrote a scroll in which he gave God's warnings and threats, but the king, upon reading it, despised it and tore it with a penknife, throwing it into the fire (Jer. 36).

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho at the battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, then marched against Jerusalem. Jehoiakim was subjected to a tribute (2 Kings 24:1; Jer. 46:2; Dan. 1:1, 2).

Three years later, Jehoiakim recklessly rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Other serious problems also overwhelmed the kingdom, as armed bands of Moabites, Syrians and Ammonites were dedicated to plundering the land, as well as bands of Chaldeans, probably sent by the king of Babylon when he learned of the rebellion (2 Kings. 24:2).

In the end, Nebuchadnezzar personally went to Jerusalem to take him in chains to Babylon (2 Chron. 36:6). But this project must have been frustrated, either by the natural death of Joacim or by being murdered.

His corpse was thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem, and he was buried as if it were the carcass of a donkey (Jer. 22:19; 36:30; Ant. 10:6, 3). Jehoiakim had reigned eleven years, and was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin, imposed by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 23:36; 24:6).