Jehoahaz
(whom the Lord sustains). The son and successor of jehu, reigned 17 years, B.C. 856-840, over Israel in Samaria. His inglorious history is given in ( 2 Kings 13:1-9 ) Throughout his reign, ver. ( 2 Kings 13:22 ) he was kept in subjection by Hazael king of Damascus. Jehoahaz maintained the idolatry of Jeroboam; but in the extremity of his humiliation he besought Jehovah, and Jehovah gave Israel a deliverer—probably either Jehoash, vs. ( 2 Kings 13:23 ) and 2Kin 13:25 Or Jeroboam II., ( 2 Kings 14:24 , 25 ) Jehoahaz, otherwise called Shallum, son of Josiah, whom he succeeded as king of Judah. He was chosen by the people in preference to his elder (comp. ( 2 Kings 23:31 ) and 2Kin 23:36 ) brother, B.C. 610, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. Pharaoh-necho sent to Jerusalem to depose him and to fetch him to Riblah. There he was cast into chains, and from thence he was taken into Egypt, where he died. The name given, ( 2 Chronicles 21:17 ) to Ahaziah, the youngest son of Jehoram king of Judah.
Jehoash
(given by the Lord), the uncontracted form of Joash. The eighth king of Judah; son of Ahaziah. ( 2 Kings 11:21 ; 12:1 , 2 , 4 , 6 , 7 , 18 ; 14:13 ) [ Joash , 1] The twelfth king of Israel; son of Jehoahaz. ( 2 Kings 13:10 , 25 ; 14:8 , 9 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 16 , 17 ) [ Joash , 2]
Jehoiakim
(whom Jehovah sets up), called Eliakim, son of Josiah and king of Judah. After deposing Jehoahaz, Pharaoh-necho set Eliakim, his elder brother, upon the throne, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, B.C. 608-597. For four years Jehoiakim was subject toi Egypt, when Nebuchadnezzar, after a short siege, entered Jerusalem, took the king prisoner, bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon, and took also some of the precious vessels of the temple and carried them to the land of Shinar. Jehoiakim became tributary to Nebuchadnezzar after his invasion of Judah, and continued so for three years, but at the end of that time broke his oath of allegiance and rebelled against him. ( 2 Kings 24:1 ) Nebuchadnezzar sent against him numerous bands of Chaldeans, with Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites, ( 2 Kings 24:7 ) and who cruelly harassed the whole country. Either in an engagement with some of these forces or else by the hand of his own oppressed subjects Jehoiakim came to a violent end in the eleventh year of his reign. His body was cast out ignominiously on the ground, and then was dragged away and buried “with the burial of an ass,” without pomp or lamentation, “beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” ( Jeremiah 22:18 , 19 ; 36:30 ) All the accounts we have of Jehoiakim concur in ascribing to him a vicious and irreligious character. ( 2 Kings 23:37 ; 24:9 ; 2 Chronicles 36:5 ) The reign of Jehoiakim extends from B.C. 609 to B.C. 598, or, as some reckon, 599.
Jehu
(the living). The founder of the fifth dynasty of the kingdom of Israel, son of Jehoshaphat. ( 2 Kings 9:2 ) He reigned over Israel 28 years, B.C. 884-856. His first appearance in history is when he heard the warning of Elijah against the murderer of Naboth. ( 2 Kings 9:25 ) In the reigns of Ahaziah and Jehoram, Jehu rose to importance. He was, under the last-named king, captain of the host in the siege of Ramoth-gilead. During this siege he was anointed by Elisha’s servant, and told that he was appointed to be king of Israel and destroyer of the house of Ahab. ( 2 Kings 9:12 ) The army at once ordained him king, and he set off full speed for Jezreel. Jehoram, who was lying ill in Jezreel, came out to meet him, as it happened on the fatal field of Naboth. ( 2 Kings 9:21-24 ) Jehu seized his opportunity, and shot him through the heart. ( 2 Kings 9:24 ) Jehu himself advanced to the gates of Jezreel and fulfilled the divine warning on Jezebel as already on Jehoram. He then entered on a work of extermination hitherto unparalleled in the history of the Jewish monarchy. All the descendants of Ahab that remained in Jezreel, together with the officers of the court and the hierarchy of Eastward, were swept away. His next step was to secure Samaria. For the pretended purpose of inaugurating anew the worship of Baal, he called all the Bailouts together at Samaria. The vast temple raised by Ahab, ( 1 Kings 16:32 ) was crowded from end to end. The chief sacrifice was offered, as if in the excess of his zeal, by Jehu himself. As soon as it was ascertained that all, and none but, the idolaters were there, the signal was given to eighty trusted guards, and sweeping massacre removed at one blow the whole heathen population of the kingdom of Israel. This is the last public act recorded of Jehu. The remaining twenty-seven years of his long reign are passed over in a few words, in which two points only are material:—He did not destroy the calf-worship of Jeroboam:— The transjordanic tribes suffered much from the ravages of Hazael. ( 2 Kings 10:29-33 ) He was buried in state in Samaria, and was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz. ( 2 Kings 10:35 ) His name is the first of the Israelite kings which appears in the Assyrian monuments. Jehu son of Hanani; a prophet of Judah, but whose ministrations were chiefly directed to Israel. His father was probably the seer who attacked Asa. ( 2 Chronicles 16:7 ) He must have begun his career as a prophet when very young. He first denounced Baasha, ( 1 Kings 16:1 , 7 ) and then, after an interval of thirty years, reappeared to denounce Jehoshaphat for his alliance with Ahab. ( 2 Chronicles 19:2 , 3 ) He survived Jehoshaphat and wrote his life. ch. ( 2 Chronicles 20:34 ) A man of Judah of the house of Hezron. ( 1 Chronicles 2:38 ) A Simeonite, son of Josibiah. ( 1 Chronicles 4:35 ) Jehu the Antothite was one of the chief of the heroes of Benjamin who joined David at Ziklag. ( 1 Chronicles 12:3 )
Jeremiah
Seven other persons bearing the same name as the prophet are mentioned in the Old Testament:— Jeremiah of Libnah, father of Hamutal wife of Josiah. ( 2 Kings 23:31 ) (B.C. before 632.) 2,3,4. Three warriors—two of the tribe of Gad— in David’s army. ( 1 Chronicles 12:4 , 10 , 13 ) (B.C. 1061-53.) One of the “mighty men of valor” of the transjordanic half-tribe of Manasseh. ( 1 Chronicles 5:24 ) (B.C. 782.) A priest of high rank, head of the second or third of the twenty-one courses which are apparently enumerated in ( Nehemiah 10:2-8 ; 12:1 , 12 ) (B.C. 446-410). The father of Jazaniah the Rechabite. ( Jeremiah 35:3 ) (B.C. before 606.) (whom Jehovah has appointed) was “the son of Hilkiah of the priests that were in Anathoth.” ( Jeremiah 1:1 ) History.—He was called very young (B.C. 626) to the prophetic office, and prophesied forty-two years; but we have hardly any mention of him during the eighteen years between his call and Josiah’s death, or during the short reign of Jehoahaz. During the reigns of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, B.C. 607-598, he opposed the Egyptian party, then dominant in Jerusalem, and maintained that they only way of safety lay in accepting the supremacy of the Chaldeans. He was accordingly accused of treachery, and men claiming to be prophets had the “word of Jehovah” to set against his. ( Jeremiah 14:13 ; 23:7 ) As the danger from the Chaldeans became more threatening, the persecution against Jeremiah grew hotter. ch. 18. The people sought his life; then follows the scene in ( Jeremiah 19:10-13 ) he was set, however, “as a fenced brazen wall,” ch. ( Jeremiah 15:20 ) and went on with his work, reproving king and nobles and people. The danger which Jeremiah had so long foretold at last came near. First Jehoiakim, and afterwards his successor Jehoiachin, were carried into exile, 2Kin 24 ; but Zedekiah, B.C. 597-586, who was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, was more friendly to the prophet, though powerless to help him. The approach of an Egyptian army, and the consequent departure of the Chaldeans, made the position of Jeremiah full of danger, and he sought to effect his escape from the city; but he was seized and finally thrown into a prison-pit to die, but was rescued. On the return of the Chaldean army he showed his faith in God’s promises, and sought to encourage the people by purchasing the field at Anathoth which his kinsman Hanameel wished to get rid of. ( Jeremiah 32:6-9 ) At last the blow came. The city was taken, the temple burnt. The king and his princes shared the fate of Jehoiachin. The prophet gave utterance to his sorrow in the Lamentations. After the capture of Jerusalem, B.C. 586, by the Chaldeans, we find Jeremiah receiving better treatment; but after the death of Gedaliah, the people, disregarding his warnings, took refuge in Egypt, carrying the prophet with them. In captivity his words were sharper and stronger than ever. He did not shrink, even there, from speaking of the Chaldean king once more as “the servant of Jehovah.” ( Jeremiah 43:10 ) After this all is uncertain, but he probably died in Egypt. Character.—Canon Cook says of Jeremiah, “His character is most interesting. We find him sensitive to a most painful degree, timid, shy, hopeless, desponding, constantly complaining and dissatisfied with the course of events, but never flinching from duty...Timid in resolve, he was unflinching in execution; as fearless when he had to face the whole world as he was dispirited and prone to murmuring when alone with God. Judged by his own estimate of himself, he was feeble, and his mission a failure; really, in the hour of action and when duty called him, he was in very truth ’a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land.’ ch. ( Jeremiah 1:18 ) he was a noble example of the triumph of the moral over the physical nature.” (It is not strange that he was desponding when we consider his circumstances. He saw the nation going straight to irremediable ruin, and turning a deaf ear to all warnings. “A reign of terror had commenced (in the preceding reign), during which not only the prophets but all who were distinguished for religion and virtue were cruelly murdered.” “The nation tried to extirpate the religion of Jehovah;” “Idolatry was openly established,” “and such was the universal dishonesty that no man trusted another, and society was utterly disorganized.” How could one who saw the nation about to reap the awful harvest they had been sowing, and yet had a vision of what they might have been and might yet be, help indulging in “Lamentations”?—ED.)
Joash
(to whom Jehovah hastens, i.e. to help), contracted from Jehoash . Son of Ahaziah king of Judah (B.C. 884), and the only one of his children who escaped the murderous hand of Athaliah. After his father’s sister Jehoshabeath, the wife of Jehoiada the high priest, had stolen him from among the king’s sons, he was hidden for six years in the chambers of the temple. In the seventh year of his age and of his concealment, a successful revolution, conducted by Jehoiada, placed him on the throne of his ancestors, and freed the country from the tyranny and idolatries of Athaliah. For at least twenty-three years, while Jehoiada lived, his reign was very prosperous; but after the death of Jehoiada, Joash fell into the hands of bad advisers, at whose suggestion he revived the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth. When he was rebuked for this by Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, Joash caused him to be stoned to death in the very court of the Lord’s house. ( Matthew 23:35 ) That very year Hazael king of Syria came up against Jerusalem, and carried off a vast booty as the price of his departure. Joash had scarcely escaped this danger when he fell into another and fatal one. Two of his servants conspired against him and slew him in his bed and in the fortress of Millo. Joash’s reign lasted forty years, from 878 to 838 B.C. Son and successor of Jehoahaz on the throne of Israel from B.C. 840 to 825, and for two full years a contemporary sovereign with the preceding. ( 2 Kings 14:1 ) comp. with 2Kin 12:1 ; 13:10 When he succeeded to the crown the kingdom was in a deplorable state from the devastations of Hazael and Ben-hadad, kings of Syria. On occasion of a friendly visit paid by Joash to Elisha on his death-bed, the prophet promised him deliverance from the Syrian yoke in Aphek, ( 1 Kings 20:26-30 ) He then bade him smite upon the ground, and the king smote thrice and then stayed. The prophet rebuked him for staying, and limited to three his victories over Syria. Accordingly Joash did defeat Ben-hadad three times on the field of battle, and recovered from him the cities which Hazael had taken from Jehoahaz. The other great military event of Joash’s reign was the successful war with Amaziah king of Judah. He died in the fifteenth year of Amaziah king of Judah. The father of Gideon, and a wealthy man among the Abiezrites. ( Judges 6:11 ) (B.C. before 1256.) Apparently a younger son of Ahab, who held a subordinate jurisdiction in the lifetime of his father. ( 1 Kings 22:26 ; 2 Chronicles 18:25 ) (B.C. 896.) A descendant of Shelah the son of Judah, but whether his son or the son of Jokim is not clear. ( 1 Chronicles 4:22 ) A Benjamite, son of Shemaah of Gibeah, ( 1 Chronicles 12:3 ) who resorted to David at Ziklag. One of the officers of David’s household. ( 1 Chronicles 27:28 ) Son of Becher and head of a Benjamite house. ( 1 Chronicles 7:8 )