2 Kings 24:6

So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers.—The usual notice of the king’s burial is omitted, and the omission is significant, considered in the light of Jeremiah’s prophecy: “Thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; 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”(Jeremiah 22:18-19; comp. Jeremiah 36:30). Jehoiakim appears to have been slain in an encounter with the bauds of freebooters mentioned in 2Kings 24:2, so that his body was left to decay where it fell, all his followers having perished with him. Ewald supposes that he was lured out of Jerusalem to a pretended conference with the Chaldeans, and then treacherously seized, and, as he proved a refractory prisoner, slain, and his body denied the last honours, his family craving its restoration in vain. (The words of the text do not necessarily imply a natural and peaceful death, as Thenius alleges, but simply death without further qualification.)

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 24:6. So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers — But it is not said he was buried with them. No doubt the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled, that he should not be lamented as his father was, but buried with the burial of an ass. Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead — Called also Jechoniah, 1 Chronicles 3:16, and in a way of contempt Coniah, Jeremiah 22:24.

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

Jehoiachin - Also called Jeconiah and Coniah. Jehoiachin and Jeconiah both mean "Yahweh will establish," Coniah, "Yahweh establishes." Probably his original name was Jehoiachin. When he ascended the throne, and was required to take a new name, anxious not to lose the good men contained in his old one, he simply transposed the two elements. Jeremiah shortened this new name from Jeconiah to Coniah, thus cutting off from it the notion of futurity, to imply that that would not be which the name declared would be. In other words, "Yahweh establishes," but this prince he will not establish.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. Jehoiakim slept with his fathers—This phraseology can mean nothing more than that he died; for he was not buried with his royal ancestors; and whether he fell in battle, or his body was subjected to posthumous insults, he was, according to the prediction (Jer 22:19), not honored with the rites of sepulture (Jer 36:30).

Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead—The very brief reign of this prince, which lasted only three months, during which he was a humble vassal of the Assyrians, is scarcely deserving to be taken into account, and therefore is in no way contradictory to the prophetic menace denounced against his father (Jer 36:30).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Jehoiachin, called also Jeconiah, 1 Chronicles 3:16, (as Jehoiakim also was, by comparing this with Matthew 1:11) and, in way of contempt,

Coniah, Jeremiah 22:24.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers,.... He died as they did, but was not buried with them, and indeed had no burial at all, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 22:18 for, falling into the hands of the king of Babylon, he was bound in chains, in order to be carried to Babylon, but died as soon as he came out of Jerusalem, at the gates of which he was cast, and had no burial, 2 Chronicles 36:6. At this time also some of the vessels of the temple were carried away, and put in the idol's temple at Babylon, 2 Chronicles 36:7, and Eupolemus (p) says, that whatever gold, silver, and brass, were in the temple, were carried away:

and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead; called sometimes Jeconiah, and by contempt Coniah, Jeremiah 22:24.

(p) Ut supra. (Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 9. c. 39. p. 454.)

Geneva Study Bible

So Jehoiakim {c} slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

(c) Not that he was buried with his fathers, but he died in the way, as they let him prisoner toward Babylon, see Jer 22:19.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. Jehoiakim slept with his fathers] How the violent death which the prophet foretold came about the history makes no record. Whether he fell in fight with the numberless invaders, or, as seems suggested by the form of the prophecies quoted in the previous note, was slain by his own subjects and his body cast forth from the city we cannot decide. No mention is made of any burial.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers. It is not certain that the writer means anything more by this than that "Jehoiakim died." His body may, however, possibly have been found by the Jews after the Babylonians had withdrawn from before Jerusalem, and have been entombed with those of Manasseh, Amen, and Josiah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead, Josephus says (l.s.c.) that Nebuchadnezzar placed him upon the throne, which is likely enough, since he would certainly not have quitted Jerusalem without setting up some king or other. Jehoiachin has in Scripture the two other names of Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 3:16, 17; Jeremiah 27:20; Jeremiah 28:4; Jeremiah 29:2) and Coniah (Jeremiah 22:24, 28; Jeremiah 37:1). Jehoiachin and Jeconiah differ only, as Jehoahaz and Ahaziah, by a reversal of the order of the two elements. Both mean "Jehovah will establish (him)." "Conlah" cuts off from "Jeconiah" the sign of futurity, and means "Jehovah establishes." It is used only by Jeremiah, and seems used by him to signify that though "Jehovah establishes," Jeconiah he would not establish. 2 Kings 24:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Jehoiakim lay down to (fell asleep with) his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his stead." That this statement is not in contradiction to the prophecies of Jeremiah 22:19 : "Jehoiakim shall be buried like an ass, carried away and cast out far away from the gates of Jerusalem," and Jeremiah 36:30 : "no son of his shall sit upon the throne of David, and his body shall lie exposed to the heat by day and to the cold by night," is now generally admitted, as it has already been by J. D. Michaelis and Winer. But the solution proposed by Michaelis, Winer, and M. v. Niebuhr (Gesch. p. 376) is not sufficient, namely, that at the conquest of Jerusalem, which took place three months after the death of Jehoiakim, his bones were taken out of the grave, either by the victors out of revenge for his rebellion, or by the fury of the people, and cast out before the city gate; for Jeremiah expressly predicts that he shall have no funeral and no burial whatever. We must therefore assume that he was slain in a battle fought with the troops sent against him, and was not buried at all; an assumption which is not at variance with the words, "he laid himself down to his fathers,"' since this formula does not necessarily indicate a peaceful death by sickness, but is also applied to king Ahab, who was slain in battle (1 Kings 22:40, cf. 2 Kings 22:20).

(Note: The supposition of Ewald (Gesch. iii. p. 733), that Jehoiakim was enticed out of the capital by a stratagem of the enemy, and taken prisoner, and because he made a furious resistance was hurried off in a scuffle and mercilessly slaughtered, is at variance with the fact that, according to v. 10, it was not till after his death that the army of the enemy advanced to the front of Jerusalem and commenced the siege.)

- And even though his son Jehoiachin ascended the throne after his father's death and maintained his position for three months against the Chaldaeans, until at length he fell into their hands and was carried away alive to Babylon, the prophet might very truly describe this short reign as not sitting upon the throne of David (cf. Graf on Jeremiah 22:19). - To the death of Jehoiakim there is appended the notice in 2 Kings 24:7, that the king of Egypt did not go out of his own land any more, because the king of Babylon had taken away everything that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates. The purpose of this notice is to indicate, on the one hand, what attitude Necho, whose march to the Euphrates was previously mentioned, had assumed on the conquest of Judah by the Chaldaeans, and on the other hand, that under these circumstances a successful resistance to the Chaldaeans on the part of Judah was not for a moment to be thought of.