John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 8. Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign , etc.] In ( 2 Chronicles 36:9) he is said to be but eight years old; which may be reconciled by observing, that he might be made and declared king by his father, in the first year of his reign, who reigned eleven years, so that he was eight years old when he began to reign with him, and eighteen when he began to reign alone f308 . Dr. Lightfoot gives another solution of this difficulty, that properly speaking he was eighteen years old when he began to reign, but, in an improper sense, the son of eight years, or the eighth year, as the Hebrew phrase is; that is, he fell in the lot of the eighth year of the captivity of Judah, which was in the latter end of the third, or the beginning of the fourth of his father’s reign, and the first of Nebuchadnezzar’s, and it was now in the eighth of Nebuchadnezzar that he was king, (see 2 Kings 24:12), but very probably in ( 2 Chronicles 36:9) there is a mistake in the copyist of eight for eighteen, since in the Arabic and Syriac versions it is there eighteen, as here: he reigned in Jerusalem three months ; the ten days besides are here omitted for shortness, ( 2 Chronicles 36:9) and his mother’s name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem ; a person no doubt well known in those times.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 8-20 - Jehoiachin reigned but three months, yet long enough to show that he justly smarted for his fathers' sins, for he trod in their steps. Hi uncle was intrusted with the government. This Zedekiah was the last of the kings of Judah. Though the judgments of God upon the three king before him might have warned him, he did that which was evil, lik them. When those intrusted with the counsels of a nation act unwisely and against their true interest, we ought to notice the displeasure of God in it. It is for the sins of a people that God hides from them the things that belong to the public peace. And in fulfilling the secre purposes of his justice, the Lord needs only leave men to the blindnes of their own minds, or to the lusts of their own hearts. The gradua approach of Divine judgments affords sinners space for repentance, an believers leisure to prepare for meeting the calamity, while it show the obstinacy of those who will not forsake their sins _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew בן1121 שׁמנה8083 עשׂרה6240 שׁנה8141 יהויכין3078 במלכו4427 ושׁלשׁה7969 חדשׁים2320 מלך4427 בירושׁלם3389 ושׁם8034 אמו517 נחשׁתא5179 בת1323 אלנתן494 מירושׁלם׃3389
