1. After the death of Josiah, the people of Judah crowned his son Jehoahaz their new king.
2. He was twenty-three years old at the time, and he ruled only three months from Jerusalem.
3. King Neco of Egypt captured Jehoahaz and forced Judah to pay three thousand four hundred kilogrammes of silver and thirty-four kilogrammes of gold as taxes.
4. Then Neco appointed Jehoahaz's brother Eliakim king of Judah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He led Jehoahaz away to Egypt as his prisoner.
5. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he was appointed king, and he ruled eleven years from Jerusalem. Jehoiakim disobeyed the Lord his God by doing evil.
6. During Jehoiakim's rule, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judah. He arrested Jehoiakim and put him in chains, and he sent him to the capital city of Babylon.
7. Nebuchadnezzar also carried off many of the valuable things in the Lord's temple, and he put them in his palace in Babylon.