IOACHIN. — King of Judah, better known as Iechonia (the same name with the component parts transposed [“Jahweh disposes”]: cf. Ier. 37, 1; I Par. 3, 16-17; Mt. 1, 11-12). Ioakim (v.), he succeeded his father at the age of 18, while the city of Jerusalem was under siege by the Chaldeans (597 B.C.). But after three months he had to surrender to Nabuchodonosor, who sent him into exile, together with his mother and the court, to Babylon, where he remained a prisoner for 37 years.
Many other people were deported with King I., including 7000 warriors and dignitaries and a thousand skilled workers to be employed in construction work in Babylon: in Jerusalem “nothing remained except the poor of the land” (II Reg. 24, 14 ff.). On the throne of Judah, Nabuchodonosor placed an uncle of I., Matthania, the third son of Iosia, EZECHIA (v.). For the entire time Nabuchodonosor lived, that is, for nearly 37 years, I. endured harsh imprisonment in Babylon: it is known only that, in the fifth year of his captivity, the prophet Baruch read his prophecy to the imprisoned king and the other exiles in Babylon, who listened to it with emotion and sent offerings to Jerusalem, imploring prayers for King Nabuchodonosor and for themselves (Bar. 1, 2-13).
Nabuchodonosor’s successor, Evilmerodach, as soon as he ascended the throne (561 B.C.), “brought him out of prison, spoke kindly to him, and set his seat above those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon”; indeed, he admitted him among his table companions (II Reg. 25, 27 f.). This detail, with which II Kings concludes, has recently received splendid confirmation from the cuneiform tablets discovered in Babylon in 1912 and reported in 1939 by E. F. Weidner: among other things, they record month by month the supplies provided at the expense of the king of Babylon to “Jaukim, king of the land of Judah,” to his five sons, and to eight Jews in his retinue; he was therefore regarded as a vassal king and treated with the consideration due to his dignity. The messianic hopes of the Davidic dynasty were focused on this exiled king, and the genealogical line after the exile, extending to Christ, is connected with him
(cf. Mt. 1, 11-12). It is not known how many more years he lived or when he died.