2 Kings 24:5

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim . . .—Assuming with Hitzig that the passage Habakkuk 2:9-14 refers to him, we gather that he severely oppressed his people by his exactions of forced labour upon the defences of Jerusalem. Thenius concludes from the words, “that he may set his nest on high,” &c., that Jehoiakim strengthened and enlarged the fortress on Ophel erected by Manasseh. (Comp. also Jeremiah 22:13-17.)

Are they not written . . .—The last reference to this authority. Bähr concludes that the work did not extend beyond the reign of Jehoiakim.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:1-7 If Jehoiakim had served the Lord, he had not been servant to Nebuchadnezzar. If he had been content with his servitude, and true to his word, his condition had been no worse; but, rebelling against Babylon, he plunged himself into more trouble. See what need nations have to lament the sins of their fathers, lest they smart for them. Threatenings will be fulfilled as certainly as promises, if the sinner's repentance prevent not.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Comparing Jeremiah 22:19; Jeremiah 36:6, Jeremiah 36:30; and Ezekiel 19:8-9, it would seem that Nebuchadnezzar must in the fifth or sixth year after Jehoiakim's revolt have determined to go in person to Riblah, to direct operations, first against Tyre and then against Jerusalem. Jehoiakim was taken prisoner, and brought in chains to Nebuchadnezzar, who at first designed to convey him to Babylon, but afterward had him taken to Jerusalem, where he was executed. Afterward, when the Babylonians had withdrawn, the remains were collected and interred in the burying-place of Manasseh, so that the king ultimately "slept with his fathers" 2 Kings 24:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. the Lord would not pardon—(see on [356]2Ki 23:26; Jer 15:1).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim,.... In 2 Chronicles 36:8, it is added, "his abominations, and that which was found in him": which besides his rebellion against the king of Babylon, and his shedding innocent blood, is interpreted of marks made in his body for superstitious and idolatrous purposes; so Lyra.

Geneva Study Bible

Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim] One of the most conspicuous acts of Jehoiakim’s impiety was the burning of Jeremiah’s roll of prophecies (Jeremiah 36), and the way in which evil-doing had made men callous is expressed in the prophet’s narrative: ‘Yet they were not afraid nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants’. So the prophecy of the Lord against Jehoiakim was, ‘He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David’. In another place Jeremiah foretells (2 Kings 22:18-19) the fate which shall befall him. ‘They shall not lament for him … he shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem’. And in another passage, ‘His dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost’. The evil and self-indulgent character of Jehoiakim is abundantly set forth in Jeremiah 22:11-17.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim; and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Among the acts of Jehoiakim recorded elsewhere in the Old Testament, the most remarkable are the following:

(1) His execution of Urijah the son of Shemaiah (Jeremiah 26:23);

(2) his destruction of the first collection of the early prophecies made by Jeremiah, in a fit of anger at hearing its contents (Jeremiah 36:20-23);

(3) his order that Jeremiah and Baruch should be arrested (Jeremiah 36:26);

(4) his capture by some of the "nations" which Nebuchadnezzar had stirred up against him, and delivery into the hands of that monarch (Ezekiel 19:9), probably at Jerusalem. How Nebuchadnezzar treated him is uncertain. Josephus says ('Ant. Jud.,' 10:6. § 3) that he put him to death, and east him out unburied beyond the walls of the city. But from the biblical notices we can only gather that he died prematurely after a reign of no more than eleven years ( B.C. 608 to B.C. 597), and was u-lamented, "buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (Jeremiah 22:18, 19). Conjecture has filled up the blanks of this history in several ways, the most purely imaginative being, perhaps, that of Ewald, who says ('History of Israel,' vol. 4. p. 262), "When the Chaldean armies presented themselves at the gates of the capital, Jehoiakim seems to have been betrayed into the same error as his brother (Jehoahaz), eleven years before. He gave ear to a crafty invitation of the enemy to repair for negotiations to their camp, where, in sight of his own city, he was made prisoner. He offered a frantic resistance, and was dragged away in a scuffle, and miserably cut down; while even an honorable burial for his corpse, which his family certainly solicited, was refused." 2 Kings 24:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

יי על־פּי אך: "only according to the mouth (command) of Jehovah did this take place against Judah," i.e., for no other reason than because the Lord had determined to put away Judah from before His face because of Manasseh's sins (cf. 2 Kings 21:12-16, and 2 Kings 23:27). "And Jehovah would not forgive," even if the greatest intercessors, Moses and Samuel, had come before Him (Jeremiah 15:1.), because the measure of the sins was full, so that God was obliged to punish according to His holy righteousness. We must repeat בּ from the preceding words before הנּקי דּם.