When did Jehoiachin begin reigning and how long did he reign? II Kings 24:8 and II Chronicles 36:9 give two different numbers.<\/p>\n\t
“Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem<\/em>” (II Kings 24:8).<\/p>\n
“Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD<\/em>” (II Chronicles 36:9).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When dealing with dates we tend to be precise with small values and begin rounding as the value gets larger. We are likely to say that we moved into our new home three years ago, instead of noting that we moved into our new home three years, 2 months, 1 day, 5 hours, and 33 minutes ago. Therefore, for one account to say he ruled three months and another to say three months and ten days is simply a difference in what degree of rounding was done in the two records.<\/p>\n
The starting date is most likely due to a copyist error. The difference between 18 and 8 is one letter. Two old translations, the Syrian and Arabic have 18 in both accounts. In addition, a few verses later we find that as Jehoiachin goes off into exile, his wives went with him (II Kings 24:15). This would make sense if he was 18 but is strange if he was only 8.<\/p>\n
Another possible explanation is that many kings trained their successors. David did this with Solomon to prevent contentions over who would succeed him to the throne, and it became a common practice among his heirs. It is possible that Jehoiachin began a co-regency with his father, starting at the age of eight, and became the sole king at the age of 18. However, eight would be an unusually young age to start a co-regency, so I don’t think this possibility is quite as likely.<\/p>\n
A final possibility comes from when you start counting years. In I Samuel 13:1 the literal Hebrew sounds like Saul started reigning when he was one year old, but likely what is being stated is that the event occurred in the first year of his reign (See “When did Saul rule Israel?”). It just sounds odd to Americans because we don’t speak of time in that manner. Jehoiachin’s father Jehoiakim reigned for 11 years (II Kings 23:36). In the fourth year of his reign, the Babylonian captivity began (Jeremiah 25:1) when Jehoiachin was 10 years old. Thus, it is possible to say that Jehoiachin was both 18 (from his birth) and 8 (from the captivity) at the same time.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: When did Jehoiachin begin reigning and how long did he reign? II Kings 24:8 and II Chronicles 36:9 give two different numbers. Answer: “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem” (II Kings 24:8). “Jehoiachin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[568,793,1189],"class_list":["post-21396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-apparent-contradictions","tag-jehoiachin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47060,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-was-jehoiachin-released\/","url_meta":{"origin":21396,"position":0},"title":"When was Jehoiachin released?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When was Jehoiachin released? \"Now it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month,\u00a0on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26385,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/biblical-infallibility-arguments-against-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":21396,"position":1},"title":"Biblical Infallibility: Arguments Against the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: I Peter 1:22-25 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The arguments have not changed much over the years. Same given today as hundreds of years ago. II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All or Nothing \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do we have to insist on total infallibility of the Scriptures? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Some fear that one error would overthrow all of Christianity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0However, if the writers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1687,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-ahaziah-begin-his-reign\/","url_meta":{"origin":21396,"position":2},"title":"When did Ahaziah begin his reign?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When comparing II Kings 8:26 and II Chronicles 22:2, which is the true age of Ahaziah when he began to reign? Answer: \"Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri, king of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20313,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-ahaziah-begin-to-reign-in-the-eleventh-or-twelfth-year-of-jorams-reign\/","url_meta":{"origin":21396,"position":3},"title":"Did Ahaziah begin to reign in the eleventh or twelfth year of Joram’s reign?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question regarding a couple of passages in II Kings. II Kings 8:25 and II Kings 9:29 concerning when Ahaziah began to reign as king. One passage says in the twelfth year of Joram and the other passage says in the eleventh year of Joram. This was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17770,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-asa-and-jehoshaphats-reigns-overlap-in-judah\/","url_meta":{"origin":21396,"position":4},"title":"Did Asa and Jehoshaphat’s reigns overlap in Judah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: From the dates I can find, King Asa and Jehoshaphat overlapped in their reigns as kings. 873 - 870. Is that correct? And why the overlap? Also, when Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel and went to Judah do we know for sure which king was reigning over Judah (Asa\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18187,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-baasha-die-in-the-26th-year-of-king-asas-reign-or-was-he-still-alive-in-the-36th-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":21396,"position":5},"title":"Did Baasha die in the 26th year of King Asa’s reign or was he still alive in the 36th year?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Did Baasha, the king of Israel die in the 26th year of King Asa's reign (I Kings 15:33), or was he still alive in the 36th year (II Chronicles 16:1)? 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