Jehoahaz of Judah ( he, יְהוֹאָחָז, ''Yəhō’aḥaz'', "

Yahweh Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he posse ...

has held"; el, Ιωαχαζ ''Iōakhaz''; la, Joachaz), also called Shallum, was the seventeenth

king of Judah The Kings of Judah were the monarchs who ruled over the ancient Kingdom of Judah. According to the biblical account, this kingdom was founded after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David to rule over it. After seven years, David ...

(3 months in 609 BC) and the fourth sonHirsch, Emil G. and Ira Maurice Prie (1906)
"Jehoahaz", ''Jewish Encyclopedia''
/ref> of king

Josiah Josiah ( or ) or Yoshiyahu; la, Iosias was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE) who, according to the Hebrew Bible, instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Josiah is credited by most biblical s ...

whom he succeeded.Kautzsch, E. "Jehoahaz", ''The New Scaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge'', Vol.IV, Samuel Macauley Jackson (ed.), Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1953)
/ref> His mother was Hamautal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. He was born in 633/632 BC.

Background

In the spring or early summer of 609 BC, Pharaoh

Necho II Necho II (sometimes Nekau, Neku, Nechoh, or Nikuu; Greek: Νεκώς Β'; ) of Egypt was a king of the 26th Dynasty (610–595 BC), which ruled from Sais. Necho undertook a number of construction projects across his kingdom. In his reign, accord ...

began his first campaign against Babylon, in aid of the Assyrians. He moved his forces along the coastal route

Via Maris Via Maris is one modern name for an ancient trade route, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia — along the Mediterranean coast of modern-day Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Syr ...

towards

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, along the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon and prepared to cross the ridge of hills which shuts in the

Jezreel Valley The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...

on the south. There he found his passage blocked at

Megiddo Megiddo may refer to: Places and sites in Israel * Tel Megiddo, site of an ancient city in Israel's Jezreel valley * Megiddo Airport, a domestic airport in Israel * Megiddo church (Israel) * Megiddo, Israel, a kibbutz in Israel * Megiddo Junction, ...

by the Judean army led by Josiah. After a fierce

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

Josiah was killed. The Assyrians and their allies the Egyptians fought the Babylonians at

Harran Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border cr ...

. The Babylonian Chronicle dates the battle from

Tammuz Dumuzid or Tammuz ( sux, , ''Dumuzid''; akk, Duʾūzu, Dûzu; he, תַּמּוּז, Tammûz),; ar, تمّوز ' known to the Sumerians as Dumuzid the Shepherd ( sux, , ''Dumuzid sipad''), is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with shep ...

(July–August) to

Elul Elul ( he, אֱלוּל, Standard ''ʾElūl'', Tiberian ''ʾĔlūl'') is the twelfth month of the Jewish civil year and the sixth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a month of 29 days. Elul usually occurs in August� ...

(August–September) of 609 BC. Josiah was therefore killed in the month of Tammuz, 609 BC, or the month prior, when the Egyptians were on their way to

. Chronological considerations related to his successor limit the month in which Josiah was killed and Jehoahaz took the throne to Tammuz.

Reign

Although he was two years younger than his brother,

Eliakim Eliakim ( he, אֶלְיָקִים) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Menashe Heights, it falls under the jurisdiction of Megiddo Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The village was established in 1949 as a mosha ...

, he was elected to succeed his father on the throne at the age of twenty-three, under the name Jehoahaz. This fact attests the popularity of the young man, and probably also his political affiliations or policy, as being in line with those of his father. He reigned for only three months, before being deposed by the Egyptian

Pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...

and taken into Egyptian captivity ( 2 Kings 23:31– 34). He disregarded the reforms of his father Josiah. () Both

William F. Albright William Foxwell Albright (May 24, 1891– September 19, 1971) was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. He is considered "one of the twentieth century's most influential American biblical scholars." ...

and E. R. Thiele dated his reign to 609 BC, making his birth in 633/632 BC.

Necho II deposes Jehoahaz

After the failed siege of Harran, Necho left a sizable force behind, but returned himself to Egypt. On his return march, he found that the Judeans had selected Jehoahaz to succeed his father Josiah. Necho brought Jehoahaz to

Riblah The ancient town of Riblah, today a Tell (archaeology), tell covered by a cemetery not far from the town of Rablah, Ribleh on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon, was in Hebrew Bible, biblical times located on the northern frontier of the la ...

and imprisoned him there. He then deposed Jehoahaz and replaced him with his older brother Eliakim as king, changing his name to

Jehoiakim Jehoiakim, also sometimes spelled Jehoikim; la, Joakim was the eighteenth and antepenultimate king of Judah from 609 to 598 BC. He was the second son of king Josiah () and Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. His birth name was Eliakim.; ...

. Jehoahaz had ruled for three months. Necho brought Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner, where Jehoahaz ended his days.

Philip J. King Philip J. King (March 26, 1925 – December 7, 2019) was an American Roman Catholic priest, historian, and archaeologist. Life King was born in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated in 1945 from Saint John's Seminary in Boston. King was ordained to ...

, ''Jeremiah: An Archaeological Companion'' (Westminster John Knox Press, 1993), page 20. The prophet

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish ...

said of him to "weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because he will never return nor see his native land again."()

References

{{IsraeliteKings 630s BC births 600s BC deaths 7th-century BC Kings of Judah Dethroned monarchs