2 Kings 24:8

WEB

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned in Jerusalem three months: and his mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

KJV

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother’s name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

Commentary

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign,.... In Ch2 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 (q). Dr. Lightfoot (r) 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 Kg2 24:12 , but very probably in Ch2 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, Ch2 36:9 . and his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem; a person no doubt well known in those times. (q) So in Seder Olam Rabba, c. 25. (r) Works, vol. 1. p. 122.