In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim - cf. Jeremiah 25:1, "the fourth year:" Jehoiakim came to the throne at the end of the year, which Jeremiah reckons as the first year, but which Daniel leaves out of count, being an incomplete year: thus, in Jeremiah, it is "the fourth year;" in Daniel. "the third" (Jahn). However, in Jeremiah 25:1 ("In the fourth year of Jehoiakim ... that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar"), Jeremiah 46:2, ("The army of Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish ... Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim"), Jeremiah merely says the fourth year of Jehoiakim coincided with the first of Nebuchadnezzar, when the latter conquered the Egyptians at Carchemish: not that the deportation of captives from Jerusalem was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. This probably took place in the end of the third year of Jehoiakim, shortly before the battle at Carchemish (Fairbairn).
Nebuchadnezzar took away the captives as hostages for the submission of the Hebrews. Historical Scripture gives no positive account of this first deportation under Jehoiakim with which the Babylonian captivity - i:e., Judah's subjection to Babylon for 70 years-begins (Jeremiah 29:10); but 2 Chronicles 36:6-7 states that Nebuchadnezzar had intended "to carry Jehoiakim to Babylon," and that he "carried off the vessels of the house of the Lord" there. But Jehoiakim died at Jerusalem Before the conqueror's intention as to him was carried into effect (Jeremiah 22:18-19; Jeremiah 36:30), and his dead body, as was foretold, was dragged out of the gates by the Chaldean besiegers, and left unburied ("Thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem"). The second deportation under Jehoiachin was eight years later (2 Kings 24:12-16).