Jeconiah

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Ykhanya (Hebrew: יְכָנְיָה‎, jəxɔnjɔh, meaning "God will fortify (his people)", see Theophory in the Bible; Greek: ιεχονιας, jɛxonias; trad. English: Jeconiah, Coniah, Jechonia), also known as Yhoyakhin (Hebrew: יְהֹויָכִין‎, jəhoˑjɔxiˑm; trad. English: Jehoiachin), was king of Judah, the son of King Jehoiakim and Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. He was a contemporary of the Prophet Jeremiah.

Both William F. Albright and E. R. Thiele date his reign to 598 BC. He began to reign in Jerusalem at the age of eighteen (according to the Books of Kings, according to most of the Hebrew Manuscripts of the Books of Chronicles his age was eight), upon the death of his father, Jehoiakim. His children included Assir and Salathiel.

After reigning for three months and ten days, he was removed from office by the Babylonians, and Zedekiah was placed as king in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:9). Jeconiah, with his household, many of the rulers of Judah, and many craftsmen, were exiled to Babylon and imprisoned by Nebuchadnezzar II. Cuneiform records dated to 592 BC mention Jeconiah ("Ia-'-ú-kinu") and his five sons as recipients of food rations in Babylon. He was still called king while in captivity.

In the thirty-seventh year of his captivity (562 BC), he was removed from prison by Amel-Marduk, King of Babylon.

The beginning of the Gospel of Matthew claims that Jeconiah's father was King Josiah ("Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile." (Matthew 1:11)

During the excavations around 1900 found Robert Koldewey in the south castle of Babylon administrative documents, which describe food rations for Jojachin and five of his sons (1.Chronika 3:16 - 18). 1933 succeeded to decipher it for the first time the cuneiform script on such a board. Altogether four different receipts are received, in which king Jojachin is mentioned. Such a cuneiform script board is publicly issued in the Pergamon Museum to Berlin.