JEHOAHAZ jĭ hō’ ə hăz (יְהﯴאָחָ֨ז, 2 Kings 14:1, [not KJV]; LXX ̓Ιωαχας, the Lord has taken hold, cf. Ps 73:23 [Noth, Isr. Personennamen 62, 179]; equivalent to Ahaz[iah], e.g., for Ahaziah of Judah, 2 Chron 21:17; 22:1 before he was king [cf. 25:23 Heb]; and for Ahaz [Annals of Tiglath Pileser, Documents of OT Times 56f.]). JOAHAZ, jō’ e hăs, 2 Kings 14:1.
1. Jehoahaz ben Jehu,who succeeded his father in 814/3 b.c. (the twenty-third year of Joash of Judah) and reigned for seventeen years (2 Kings 13:1-9). His son Joash (Jehoash) succeeded in the thirty-seventh year of Joash of Judah (13:10); Albright therefore emends “seventeen” to fifteen in 13:1, but Thiele explains “seventeen” by assuming the introduction of postdating (accession year reckoning) in the reign of Jehoahaz (see Joash), and by reckoning the regnal year from spring in Israel, but fall in Judah. His theory avoids emendations, but the motive for change is obscure. Assyrian influence (usually cited to explain the later prevalence of postdating) was in 798 b.c. only beginning to recover from setbacks; perhaps the shift was due to the Syr. domination of Israel. Pavlovsky and Vogt do not admit postdating before Pekah; they emend “thirty-seventh” to thirty-ninth, and date Jehoahaz from summer 813 to summer 797 b.c.
At this ebb tide of Israel’s prosperity, Syria controlled virtually the whole country, having penetrated down the coastal road, taken Gath, and extracted heavy tribute from Judah. Jehoahaz was only allowed to maintain ten chariots and fifty horsemen with 10,000 footmen; Ahab’s army at Qarqar, with the same infantry, had 2,000 chariots. Although Jehoahaz had no idea of abandoning the apostate cult of Bethel (“the sins of Jeroboam”) or removing the “Asherah” from Samaria (2 Kings 13:6, cf. 21:3), he did in desperation invoke the name of the Lord, and his prayer was answered in God’s compassion for His people (13:4f.). The oblique reference to “a savior” may suggest Adadnirari III, the Assyrian king who began in 805 b.c. to resume the pressure on Syria. Gray, however, suggests Elisha as the deliverer.
Bibliography J. Montgomery, Kings, ICC (1951); W. Hallo, BA, 23 (1960), 42; J. Gray, Kings (1964); E. Thiele, Mysterious Numbers2 (1965).
2. Jehoahaz ben Josiah,also known as Shallum, a son of Josiah king of Judah, chosen to succeed his father in the summer of 609 b.c., but deposed by Pharaoh Necho three months later (2 Kings 23:30-34; 2 Chron 36:1-4). For the date see Josiah.
Shallum was a shortened form of Shelemiah, cf. Shelomo (Solomon). Albright considers it a personal name, although not as in Solomon’s case, where as Jehoahaz was a throne name like Jehoiakim (JBL 51, p. 85 n. 25; cf. Jer 22:11), a very personal reference. Shallum was the fourth son of Josiah (1 Chron 3:15).
Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim were twenty-three and twenty-five respectively in 609 b.c. (2 Kings 23:31, 36). This means that Jehoiakim was born when his father (Josiah) was only fourteen; he could hardly have been much younger, as Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin was born in 616. However, Chronicles names first Johanan (who perhaps died young), and third Zedekiah, though he was ten when Jehoahaz became king (24:18). Albright doubts the genuineness of the figures, and concludes that Jehoahaz was senior and that Jehoiakim was not passed over. However, the text is consistent on this point, and the intervention of the “people of the land” seems to imply that Jehoahaz was not the natural successor.
The precise meaning of the term “people of the land” has been debated, but it clearly refers to the countryfolk as distinct from the population of Jerusalem, though not quite in the rabbinic sense of “provincials.” They were not necessarily less royalist, but they retained a tribal view of the nature of the kingship. They must have invaded the city in considerable numbers at times of crisis or at festivals, besides coming in the ordinary course of commerce or under threat of invasion (cf. 2 Kings 11:14; 21:24; 25:19; Jer 26:2; 36:9; etc.). Their action in 609 b.c. recalls the enthronement of Josiah thirty years earlier; but if they felt they had established their right to control the succession, the harsh realities of great power politics soon destroyed this hope. Returning that fall from his campaign in Assyria, and aiming to secure his passage for the future, Necho installed Eliakim as his vassal and deported Jehoahaz to Egypt. Comparison of 2 Chronicles 36:3 (abbreviated and perhaps miscopied) with 2 Kings 23:33 indicates that he directed the operation from Riblah (cf. Jer 22:10-12).
Bibliography W. F. Albright, JBL, LI (1932), 85, 92; R. Gordis, JQR, xxv (1935), 242ff.; S. E. Wurthwein, Der ’Am ha’aretz, BWANT (1936); J. Montgomery, Kings ICC, (1951); A. Alt, Kleine Schriften II (1953), 237; D. J. Wiseman, Chronology of the Chaldaean Kings (1956), 18ff.; E. Kutsch, ZATW, LXXI (1959), 270ff.; J. Gray, Kings (1964); J. Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (1964), s. 313; E. Thiele, Mysterious Numbers2 (1965), 163-165.