Neco appointed Josiah’s second son as king instead of Jehoahaz. Thus, he was in fact no more than a vassal of the Egyptian king. This is also apparent from the change of name: Eliakim became Jehoiakim by order of the pharaoh. Thus, this king also appears in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 3:15.
We see here that God’s punitive intervention goes so far as to determine the naming in the genealogy; a pagan king wrote
a piece of the Bible, as a scar to warn later Bible readers. It is a miracle that the heathen king gave a name that refers to Yahweh; for Jehoiakim means Yahweh will raise up.
This is different with Joseph, who was also given a different name by a Pharaoh (see Genesis 41:45). That change was from a name that referred to Yahweh (Joseph means may Yahweh add another son to me
) to a name in which the Egyptian life
resounds, thus imposing the pagan view of life and death on the person of Joseph.
34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.