A Funeral Song for Israel’s Kings

19 “Sing this funeral song for the princes of Israel:

² “Son of man, sing a funeral song for Tyre,

¹⁷ Then they will wail for you, singing this funeral song:

⁶ When Jehoiakim died, his son Jehoiachin became the next king.

“This is a funeral song, and it will be used in a funeral.”

¹⁰ which he unrolled. And I saw that both sides were covered with funeral songs, words of sorrow, and pronouncements of doom.

⁵ But the Babylonian^[a] troops chased the king and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men had all deserted him and scattered. ⁶ They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where they pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah. ⁷ They made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons. Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon.

¹² Then King Jehoiachin, along with the queen mother, his advisers, his commanders, and his officials, surrendered to the Babylonians.

In the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, he took Jehoiachin prisoner.

Jehoiakim Rules in Judah

³⁴ Pharaoh Neco then installed Eliakim, another of Josiah’s sons, to reign in place of his father, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt as a prisoner, where he died.

²⁹ While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah and his army marched out to fight him,^[a] but King Neco^[b] killed him when they met at Megiddo. ³⁰ Josiah’s officers took his body back in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land anointed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and made him the next king.