Zedekiah (Jehoiakim)

1. Judah’s last king and a key political figure in the fateful final decade of the southern kingdom. His reign (597–586 BC) spanned Nebuchadnezzar’s two attacks on Jerusalem, in 597 and 586. The first attack was in reprisal for the rebellion of Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim (609–598 BC), against Nebuchadnezzar; however, by the time his forces captured Jerusalem, Jehoiakim was dead and had been succeeded by his 18-year-old son Jehoiachin. Nebuchadnezzar deposed the young king and deported him to Babylon, along with the elite of the nation: government officials, army officers, and craftsmen. As Jehoiachin’s replacement, Nebuchadnezzar appointed his uncle Mattaniah, a younger brother of Jehoiakim and of the earlier, short-lived King Jehoahaz (609 BC). Mattaniah was thus the third son of Josiah to occupy the throne of Judah. The Babylonian king named him Zedekiah, which means “the Lord is my righteousness.”

Zedekiah found himself in a difficult position as Judah’s king. Many evidently still regarded Jehoiachin as the real king (cf. Jer 28:1–4). Certainly the Judeans deported to Babylonia dated events by reference to Jehoiachin (2 Kgs 25:27; Ez 1:2). Though the Babylonians exacted from Zedekiah an oath of loyalty (2 Chr 36:13; Ez 17:13–18), evidence suggests that they too viewed Zedekiah’s predecessor as the legitimate king and Zedekiah as regent. They may have been holding him in reserve for possible restoration to power, should events require it.