Chapter 2

¹ We must, therefore, in setting out the demonstration of these matters, take up what lies before us with precision, so as to carry conviction with our hearers; and let us not pass over which captivities, and of what kind, befell the people, and under which kings.

² For these were the five sons of the blessed Josiah: Jehoahaz; Eliakim, who is also Jehoiakim; Johanan; Zedekiah, who is also Jeconiah; and Shallum.

³ And Jehoahaz, after the death of his father, was anointed king by the people, being twenty-three years old.

⁴ Against him Pharaoh Necho came up in the third month of his reign, and seizing him, led him away in bonds into Egypt; he imposed upon the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and ten talents of gold, and set up in his place his brother Eliakim as king over the land, whom he also renamed Jehoiakim. This man reigned eleven years.

⁵ Against him Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and seizing him, led him away in bonds into Babylon, together with a portion of the vessels of the house of the Lord that were in Jerusalem.

⁶ This man, kept in confinement as a friend of Pharaoh and set up as king by him, was brought out in the thirtieth year by Evilmerodach king of Babylon. And he shaved his head, and he became his counselor and ate at his table until the day he died.