King living at the time of Divided Monarchy
Jehoiachin, also known as Jeconiah, Coniah, or Shallum, was a king of Judah who reigned for three months before being exiled to Babylon.
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Also known as Joyachin · Jeconiah · Coniah · Shallum · Jechoniah · Jechonias
Jehoiachin, also referred to as Jeconiah, Coniah, or Shallum, was a king of Judah who reigned for a brief period of three months and ten days (2Ch.36.9). He was the son of King Jehoiakim and ascended to the throne at the age of eighteen (2Ki.24.8). However, during his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged Jerusalem, and Jehoiachin surrendered to him (2Ki.24.12). As a result, Jehoiachin, along with his family, nobles, and skilled workers, was taken captive to Babylon (2Ki.24.15-16; Jer.24.1; 27.20; 29.2; Ezk.1.2). Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin's uncle, Mattaniah (later renamed Zedekiah), as the new king of Judah (2Ki.24.17; Jer.37.1).
During his captivity in Babylon, Jehoiachin was imprisoned for 37 years until Evil-merodach, the new king of Babylon, released him and treated him kindly (2Ki.25.27-30; Jer.52.31-34). Jehoiachin's descendants, including Shealtiel and Zerubbabel, are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (1Ch.3.17; Mat.1.11-12).
The prophet Jeremiah prophesied about Jehoiachin, referring to him as "Coniah" and declaring that none of his descendants would prosper on the throne of David (Jer.22.24-30). Despite this prophecy, Jehoiachin's release from prison and the favor shown to him by the Babylonian king suggest that God had not forgotten him or his family.
Part of: Last kings of Judah and the prophets of the exile · The royal line: Judah to David to Jesus
Nebuchadnezzar made Mattaniah king as Zedekiah after exiling Jehoiachin. Zedekiah rebelled, the city fell after an eighteen-month siege, and Zedekiah was blinded after watching his sons killed.
Sources: 2 Kgs 24:17-20 · 2 Kgs 25:1-7
Ezekiel, a priest, was deported with Jehoiachin in 597 BC and received his call by the Chebar canal. His dating system counts years from Jehoiachin's exile, showing how the exiles regarded him as the legitimate king.
Sources: Ezek 1:1-3 · Ezek 1:2 · 2 Kgs 24:14-15
In the thirty-seventh year of exile Evil-merodach of Babylon freed Jehoiachin and gave him a seat above other kings; the account ends 2 Kings on a note of hope for the Davidic line.
Sources: 2 Kgs 25:27-30 · Jer 52:31-34
Shealtiel is called Jehoiachin's son in 1 Chronicles 3:17 and Matthew 1:12. Zerubbabel, governor under Persia, became the focus of hope for the Davidic line, and Haggai calls him the LORD's "signet ring", reversing the Jeremiah 22:24 sentence on Jehoiachin's signet.
Sources: 1 Chr 3:17 · Jer 22:24 · Hag 2:23
Matthew traces the royal line from David through Solomon and the kings of Judah to Jehoiachin, then through Shealtiel and Zerubbabel to Joseph, husband of Mary. It lists fourteen generations in each of three groups, selectively.
Sources: Matt 1:6-11 · Matt 1:12-16 · Matt 1:17
Jeremiah 22:30 says none of Jehoiachin's descendants would sit on David's throne, yet Matthew 1 places him in Jesus' legal line. Luke's different route through Nathan is sometimes used to explain the tension; others note that the oracle concerns Jehoiachin's immediate sons.
Sources: Jer 22:24-30 · Matt 1:11-12 · Hag 2:23
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Succeeded his father Jehoiakin (B.C. 599) when only eight years of age, and reigned for one hundred days (2 Chr. 36:9). He is also called Jeconiah (Jer. 24:1; 27:20, etc.), and Coniah (22:24; 37:1). He was succeeded by his uncle, Mattaniah = Zedekiah (q.v.). He was the last direct heir to the Jewish crown. He was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, along with the flower of the nobility, all the leading men in Jerusalem, and a great body of the general population, some thirteen thousand in all (2 Kings 24:12-16; Jer. 52:28). After an imprisonment of thirty-seven years (Jer. 52:31, 33), he was liberated by Evil-merodach, and permitted to occupy a place in the king’s household and sit at his table, receiving “every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life” (52:32-34).
(whom Jehovah has appointed), son of Jehoiakim, and for three months and ten days king of Judah. (B.C. 597.) At his accession Jerusalem was quite defenseless, and unable to offer any resistance to the army which Nebuchadnezzar sent to besiege it. (2 Kings 24:10,11) In a very short time Jehoiachin surrendered at discretion; and he, and the queen-mother, and all his servants, captains and officers, came out and gave themselves up to Nebuchadnezzar, who carried them, with the harem and the eunuchs, to Babylon. (Jeremiah 29:2; Ezekiel 17:12; 19:9) There he remained a prisoner, actually in prison and wearing prison garments, for thirty-six years, viz., till the death of Nebuchadnezzar, when Evilmerodach, succeeding to the throne of Babylon, brought him out of prison, and made him sit at this own table. The time of his death is uncertain.
preparation, or strength, of the Lord
JEHOI'ACHIN (whom Jehovah has appointed). Jeconiah, 1 Chr 3:17; Coniah, Jer 22:24; Jeconias, Matt 1:12. Son and successor of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, b.c. 598. 2 Kgs 24:8. He was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and reigned only three months and ten days, at which time Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city and carried the king and royal family, the chief men of the nation and great treasures unto Babylon. 2 Kgs 24:6-16. He merited this punishment. Jer 22:24-30. For thirty seven years he was a captive, but Evil-merodach on his accession liberated him and made him share the royal bounty and be head of all the captive kings in Babylon; and so to the end of his life he enjoyed a position befitting his rank.
JEHOI'ACHIN (whom Jehovah has appointed). Jeconiah, 1 Chr 3:17; Coniah, Jer 22:24; Jeconias, Matt 1:12. Son and successor of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, b.c. 598. 2 Kgs 24:8. He was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and reigned only three months and ten days, at which time Nebuchadnezzar besieged the city and carried the king and royal family, the chief men of the nation and great treasures unto Babylon. 2 Kgs 24:6-16. He merited this punishment. Jer 22:24-30. For thirty seven years he was a captive, but Evil-merodach on his accession liberated him and made him share the royal bounty and be head of all the captive kings in Babylon; and so to the end of his life he enjoyed a position befitting his rank.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
22 verses in 7 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H3078
And Jehoiakim rested with his fathers, and his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His motherʼs name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem.
Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive.
Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, as well as the kingʼs mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judahʼs King Jehoiachin, in the year Evil-merodach became king of Babylon, he released King Jehoiachin of Judah from prison.
The successors of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, and Zedekiah.
The descendants of Jeconiah the captive: Shealtiel his son,
As for the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, the abominations he committed, and all that was found against him, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD.
He had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon among those taken captive with Jeconiah king of Judah.
For this is what the LORD says concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah but has gone forth from this place: “He will never return,
“As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you off.
Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot, a jar that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants hurled out and cast into a land they do not know?
After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, as well as the officials of Judah and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD.
which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.
And I will restore to this place Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”
(This was after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths had been exiled from Jerusalem.)
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Zedekiah son of Josiah the king of Judah, and he reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim.
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil-merodach king of Babylon, he pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.
On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—
and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.