Kings of the Jews: The Origins of the Jewish Nation

Jehoiakim

KINGS OF JUDAH 139 JEHOIAKIM 609–598 BCE Having, by force of arms, replaced Assyria as arbiter of the fate of terminally weakened Judah, and having removed King Jehoahaz in a demonstration of their power, the Egyptians permitted his brother Eliakim to sit on the throne of the Jews. As a symbol of their authority, they assigned him a throne name—Jehoiakim. Under Jehoiakim, Judah’s continuing existence as a nation was a precarious balancing act. Tormented by a sense of hopelessness, the Jews felt abandoned by God. Idol worship, which the greatly missed Josiah had done much to eradicate, again spread through what remained of the land as many sought greater comfort from pagan deities than Yahweh was providing. The Egyptian goddess Neith, called the Queen of Heaven, became a particular household favorite. Altars and statues of various other deities appeared again on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Holy men warned in vain that if Judaeans did not turn away from such sinfulness, they were doomed. Jeremiah thundered a warning from Yahweh. The people of Judah have done what displeases Me.… They have set up their abominations in the House which is called by My name, and they have defiled it.… I will silence in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and gladness.… The whole land shall fall to ruin.[59] Jehoiakim was hard pressed to pay the Egyptians the huge tribute payments they demanded. His palace and the Temple having by then been stripped of their treasures, he expropriated the required sums from the wealthy of the land. It alienated those who craved the security they thought his obeisance to Egypt could provide, and who would therefore have been his most loyal partisans. Judah’s fate and Jehoiakim’s were to be decided by the result of the contest between the Babylonians—who were in the process of replacing their former Assyrian masters as the major power to the east—and Egypt to the southwest whose army was already planted on Judaean soil. Since regaining independence seemed beyond hope, bowing to the Egyptians was seen to be preferable as well as unavoidable. The Babylonians, who were ethnically much like the Assyrians who had wiped out the kingdom of Israel, were thought likely to be more oppressive. KINGS OF THE JEWS 140 But Jeremiah, held in popular awe, had divine intimations of an imminent decline for the Egyptians which would leave Judah exposed if it chose to be associated with them rather than the Babylonians. The prophet maintained that Nebuchadnezzar , Babylonia’s crown prince and army commander, was the instrument of God’s anger with the Jews for their sinfulness. He said Judah would be destroyed if it resisted Babylon and that its people would be driven into exile. Having angered Jehoiakim with his forebodings, the prophet thought it wise to go into hiding. Spurning his warnings, the king at first conducted himself as an Egyptian puppet . But that stance proved questionable four years into his reign when, as Jeremiah had foretold, the Babylonians decisively triumphed over the Egyptians at the battle at Carchemish on the banks of the Euphrates. Positioned between the adversaries, Judah probably would then have been occupied by the victors if the Babylonian king Nabopolassar had not suddenly died. Nebuchadnezzar rushed back to Babylon from his forward command to secure his royal succession, granting Judah respite. But the Babylonians were soon on the move again. They conquered the defiant Philistine city-state of Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast, leveled it, and drove great numbers of its inhabitants into exile. Trembling in expectation of similar treatment for Judah, Jehoiakim was blown about by changing circumstances. He quickly transferred his allegiance from Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar. Then, when the Babylonians once more pulled back to deal with other problems associated with the change of ruler, he again sought the protection of the Egyptians. But shaken by their defeat at Carchemish and suffering other difficulties, they were unable to provide it. Once Nebuchadnezzar’s more pressing concerns had been dealt with, he regrouped his forces, invaded Judah and laid siege to Jerusalem. At that fateful moment in the history of the Jews, Jehoiakim died a mysterious, violent death. His body was thrown from the walls of the city to show the invaders that he was dead and as a sign of Judah’s submission. In rabbinic legend, Jehoiakim is considered a figure of contempt and dishonor because of his persecution of Jeremiah and...