2 Kings 24 · a question people ask
Matthew says Josiah became the father of Jechoniah. Wasn't Jehoiachin Jehoiakim's son?
2 Kings says, "So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place" (24:6), and Jehoiakim was "Eliakim the son of Josiah" before Pharaoh Necoh "changed his name to Jehoiakim" (23:34). Matthew's genealogy says, "Amon became the father of Josiah" (Matthew 1:10), then "Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon" (Matthew 1:11), and doesn't name Jehoiakim. The book of Jeremiah calls the king Nebuchadnezzar carried away "Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah" (Jeremiah 24:1), and 1 Chronicles lists "The sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son" (1 Chronicles 3:16). Matthew doesn't say why he wrote the line this way, and 2 Kings doesn't speak of Matthew's list. These notes set the verses side by side as they stand and don't try to fit them together.
The verses
“So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.”
“Pharaoh Necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; but he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.”
“Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.”
“The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the LORD’s temple, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.”