The Inadequacy of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:13-19).
With Jehoahaz out of the way as a prospect hopes may have turned on Jehoiakim, whom Pharaoh had made king in place of his brother, having changed his name from Eliakim (thus demonstrating his authority over him). But Jeremiah makes quite clear that he is not YHWH's chosen one. Indeed he is castigated for building great palaces for himself and draining the nations resources at time of great need, without properly paying his workers, and for neglecting the good of the realm. Thus he declares that his reign was so unjust that he would die unlamented and come to a fool's end.
By his great building schemes Jehoiakim might well have been trying to ape Solomon or Pharaoh (or both). Inadequate men often bolster themselves up with grandiose schemes. But all that he in fact did was divide even more an already divided country, impoverish that country and make the common people bitter.
‘Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
And his chambers by injustice,
Who uses his neighbour's service without wages,
And does not give him his hire,
Who says, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers,
And cuts himself out windows,
And it is panelled with cedar,
And painted with vermilion.'
It appears that having become king Jehoiakim, totally ignoring the country's needs, (they had just paid heavy tribute to Egypt), set about building himself a magnificent palace, calling on Israelite levies and treating them as slaves without paying them (he probably did not have the money). All that they would receive for their labours would be meagre rations. Indeed Jeremiah sees his actions as despicable in every way. The palace was extravagant and ostentatious, it was built of dishonestly obtained labour, and it would seem that he behaved despicably throughout. ‘Builds his house in unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice' may signify that he also obtained the materials required for the project by confiscating them, although it may be the ‘penny-pinching' on wages that may be in mind The whole affair was unworthy of a king, and at such a time was unforgivable.
Note the emphasis on its luxuriousness. It was a wider than usual palace (a wide house) with a large top storey (spacious chambers). That would be the part which would be most difficult to build and would demand the most work expended on it of a precarious nature. Furthermore it was built with excessively large windows which would be covered with lattice work, and one possible reason may have been so that he could display himself to the people. The word translated ‘cuts himself out' actually indicates ‘dilating, expanding'. It is used of a woman dilating her eyes by the use of make-up (antimony), thus indicating eye-catching windows. It was then panelled with expensive cedar and painted with a red pigment, similar to that used on great houses in Egypt. Jehoiakim clearly thought only of himself and not of his kingdom.
“Will you reign,
Because you strive to excel in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink,
And do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him,
He judged the cause of the poor and needy,
Then it was well.
Was not this to know me? the word of YHWH.”
Jeremiah was so incensed that he sardonically asked him whether he really thought that he could rule a country simply because he was an ostentatious and self-satisfied builder. Let him consider the modesty of his father, Josiah. He lived a modest life, eating and drinking and ensuring justice and righteousness, the good life extolled by the writer of Ecclesiastes 2:24. And as a result it was well with him. Furthermore he was careful to give justice to the poor and the needy, something that added to his wellbeing under YHWH. And this was a king who lived in prosperous times, had no tribute to pay, at least in the second half of his life, and ruled over a country of large proportions having annexed part of what had been Northern Israel (he carried out reform at Bethel). But he had not sought to build himself a huge palace. Did not this prove that he truly knew YHWH and knew what would please Him?
“Because on nothing are your eyes and your heart set,
Except rather for your gain, and for shedding innocent blood,
And for oppression, and for violence (crushing),
To do it.”
What a contrast with Jehoiakim. His eyes were not set on ruling his country diligently, but only on building up profits and wealth, and on using violence to obtain his ends, and on oppressing the weak, and on generally crushing the people. And these were the very things that he had done. He was in complete contrast to his father. ‘Shedding innocent blood' was a phrase probably intended to link him with Manasseh (see 2 Kings 21:16; 2 Kings 24:4).
Incidentally we might look at Jehoiakim and Zedekiah and ask how such a good father could have had such unworthy sons? And the answer must probably lie in the method of their upbringing. They would be brought up by their respective mothers with their servants and have very little contact with Josiah until they grew older, by which time it was too late to do anything about it. It was one of the problems with having a number of wives.
“Therefore thus says YHWH concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
“They will not lament for him,
‘Ah my brother! or, Ah sister!'
They will not lament for him,
‘Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!'
He will be buried with the burial of an ass,
Drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
YHWH thus passed His verdict on Jehoiakim. He would not be lamented on his death, not even by his siblings. There would be no feelings of friendliness towards him. They would not look at each other and say, ‘Ah, brother', and ‘Ah, sister'. Nor would his courtier and advisers look at each other and say, ‘Ah, lord', and ‘Ah, his glory.' They would be glad to get rid of him and not consider that he had any glory. And in the end he would have an ignominious burial similar to that of an ass which would be dragged out beyond the gates of Jerusalem and cast out for the scavengers to finish off (the description is of the ignominious ass's burial and may not specifically be intended to literally reflect what happened to Jehoiakim). Jeremiah 36:30 does, however, confirm that ‘his dead body will be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night.'
We do not know where he died or how he was buried. Even the writer of Kings who usually gives burial details is silent on the subject. He merely says that ‘he rested with his fathers' (2 Kings 24:6) which was not the same thing as being buried with his fathers (compare 2 Kings 15:38; 2 Kings 16:20; 1 Kings 16:28) and simply indicates that he died. Nor does it necessarily mean that he had a peaceful death, for the same phrase was used of Ahab who died in battle (1 Kings 22:40). It is clear that it was at one stage Nebuchadrezzar's intention to carry him off in chains to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:6), but it is never said that he did so. Having possibly handed himself over to Nebuchadrezzar so that his son could negotiate satisfactory peace terms, (if so possibly his only good act), that is the last that we know of him, in which case he may have been executed and his body tossed outside the city walls for the defenders to gaze at. Alternately he may have been killed battling with the troops that preceded Nebuchadrezzar and his body similarly dealt with, or murdered by his own people and his body tossed over the wall over so as to assuage Nebuchadrezzar's anger. Whichever way it was he was certainly not God's chosen one.