WHO SUCCEEDED KING JOSIAH? (II CHRONICLES 36:1; JEREMIAH 22:11)

II Chronicles says it was his son Jehoahaz, but Jeremiah says that it was Josiah's son Shallum.

I will have admit right at the start that history was never my strong suit, especially the political history found in I-II Samuel, I-II Kings and I-II Chronicles. Some of the problems in trying to following the convoluted history of Israel are:

The time frames covered by Samuel, Kings and Chronicles greatly overlap, but tell basically the same story, sometimes with slightly different details. A great aid in correlating the varying accounts is A Harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles since it places the parallel stories in chronological order so that they can be compared side-by-side.

The second problem in reading these books is that after Israel became divided there was a Northern (also called Israel) and Southern (Judah) Kingdom. So these historical books have to alternate back and forth in their accounts between the two separate kingdoms, making it very hard to see the events in proper chronological order.

In addition to understanding the details given in the Historical Books in the Bible is the complicating factor that the Prophetical Books are also filled with accounts of the times in which they lived, as the criticism above demonstrates.

Getting even closer to the “contradiction” posed above, another complicating factor is that certain names of kings and their sons are repeated from generation to generation. As one example, there are two Zedekiah's, one being the uncle of the other.

Even more pertinent to the question at hand is the fact that sometimes when men became king, their personal name was changed to a throne name. For example, II Chronicles 36:4 (immediately after the problem passage above) says that Eliakim, Jehoahaz' brother, was appointed king in his place and his name changed to Jehoiakim.

Thus, it is highly possible that Shallum (who is listed in I Chronicles 3:15, as well as Jeremiah 22:11, as a son of Josiah) is the personal name of King Jehoahaz. And, in fact, this is precisely what is stated in a footnote in my handy New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV). Again, this proves the great usefulness of a good study Bible.

When a question like the one above arises, one of the most useful resource to consult is a Bible dictionary. The New Bible Dictionary confirms what my study Bible states, as does the more detailed Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books (one volume in an eight-volume set covering the whole Bible). In addition, the several commentaries on Jeremiah and I-II Chronicles that I consulted all said the same thing.

So again, we see the same sad story repeated in which skeptics, who have no real interest in knowing what the Bible really says, use any tricks they can come up with in attempts to justify their preconceived notions and mislead others.