23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 1 His mother 2 was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 23:32 He did evil in the sight of 3 the Lord as his ancestors had done. 4 23:33 Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. 5 He imposed on the land a special tax 6 of one hundred talents 7 of silver and a talent of gold. 23:34 Pharaoh Necho made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in Josiah’s place, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died. 8
1 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
2 tn Heb “the name of his mother.”
3 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
4 tn Heb “according to all which his fathers had done.”
5 tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has “when [he was] ruling in Jerusalem,” but the marginal reading (Qere), which has support from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin witnesses, has “[preventing him] from ruling in Jerusalem.”
6 tn Or “fine.”
7 tn The Hebrew term כִּכָּר (kikkar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or to a standard unit of weight, generally regarded as a talent. Since the accepted weight for a talent of metal is about 75 pounds, this would have amounted to about 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold (cf. NCV, NLT); CEV “almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold.”
8 tn Heb “and he took Jehoahaz, and he came to Egypt and he died there.”