According to 1 Chronicles 3:15, King Josiah had four sons (Johanan, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah, Shallum = Jehoahaz). We read nothing more about the first. He may have already died when the question of succession came into play, or he may have been unfit for kingship due to physical and/or mental limitations. Perhaps the people preferred the younger one because of his anti-Egypt attitude. For it was the people who proclaimed him king (see 2 Kings 23:30). If you compare this verse with 2 Kings 23:36 you see that after Jehoahaz, his older brother (Josiah’s second son, Jehoiakim) becomes king. The third son of Josiah also comes to the throne, Zedekiah. In 2 Kings 24:17 he is described as the uncle of Jehoiachin (the son of Jehoiakim).
It is remarkable that in 1 Chronicles 3:15 the third son of Josiah is called by the king’s name (Zedekiah) and not by his own name Mattaniah, and the fourth son by his own name (Shallum) and not by his king’s name (Jehoahaz). The reason for this could be the intention of the writer of Chronicles to explain that serving the Lord is the most important thing. Chronicles wants to warn against not going the way of the kings again who were to blame for the captivity into exile. When things go wrong in the service of the Lord, there is punishment and it goes so far that pagan kings even determine the names of the Davidic princes. For it was the king of Babylon who gave him his name, Zedekiah; you can give a name to a man if you have power over him. Thus, one may say it is a miracle that Nebuchadnezzar gave him a name with a beautiful meaning: Yahweh is my righteousness
; and not, as in Daniel 1:1–21, names containing elements of Babylonian idols.
We can use the history of each of these four last kings’ lives as a warning to take the judgment of the Lord seriously (see further at 2 Kings 24:17).
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.