King of Judah for a short three months in the tumultuous time that gripped the entire region when three superpowers—Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt—were engaged in a deadly fight for supremacy.
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Eldest son of King Josiah by Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah (not to be confused with Jeremiah the prophet), Jehoahaz is also known as Shallum (Jer 22:11; 1 Chron 3:15). He assumed the throne of Judah in 609 BC, at age twenty-three, when Josiah was killed in battle against the Egyptian forces at Megiddo (2 Ki 23:31), as the Egyptians were moving up north in an attempt to shore up what remained of the Assyrian empire at Haran, where they were making their last stand against the rising Babylonians. Though the attempt came too late, and the Assyrian empire returned to dust, it left Syria and Palestine under Egyptian control for the next few years. Pharaoh Neco deposed Jehoahaz (after he had been on the throne for three months) and exiled him to Egypt where he died. He was replaced on the throne by his half-brother, Eliakim-Jehoiakim. Judah remained an Egyptian vassal until 604 when the Babylonians edged out the Egyptians. The relevant narratives of Jehoahaz's short reign are to be found in 2Ki 23:30-34 & 2 Chron 36:1-4.
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