(3) And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem.--Rather, removed him. 3 Esdr. 1:33 adds "from reigning," which is almost demanded by the context. The LXX. follows the reading of 2Kings 23:33 : "And Pharaoh-necho bound him in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, from reigning (i.e., so that he reigned not) in Jerusalem "; but the Syriac and Vulg. support the existing Hebrew text. The LXX. begins the verse thus: "And he did the evil before the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done; "and adds, after the clause about the fine, "and the king took him away to Egypt."

Condemned the land in.--Fined the land.--So Kings: "laid a fine upon the land."

Riblah was in Syria, on the river Orontes. Necho may have ordered or enticed Jehoahaz to meet him there.

Verse 3. - Put him down; Hebrew, וַיְסִירֵהוּ; i.e. deposed him (Revised Version). At Jerusalem. In something more than three months Pharaoh-Necho seems to have been returning, and in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. The parallel (2 Kings 23:31) tells us that he put Jahoahaz "in bands" at "Riblath in the land of Hamath" (Ezekiel 19:4). And condemned the land; i.e. inflicted a fine on the land; Hebrew, וַיַּעֲנשׁ. From this time nothing further is heard of Jehoahaz or Shallum.

36:1-21 The ruin of Judah and Jerusalem came on by degrees. The methods God takes to call back sinners by his word, by ministers, by conscience, by providences, are all instances of his compassion toward them, and his unwillingness that any should perish. See here what woful havoc sin makes, and, as we value the comfort and continuance of our earthly blessings, let us keep that worm from the root of them. They had many times ploughed and sowed their land in the seventh year, when it should have rested, and now it lay unploughed and unsown for ten times seven years. God will be no loser in his glory at last, by the disobedience of men. If they refused to let the land rest, God would make it rest. What place, O God, shall thy justice spare, if Jerusalem has perished? If that delight of thine were cut off for wickedness, let us not be high-minded, but fear.Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah,.... Of whose reign, and of the three following, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, and the account of them, from hence to the end of 2 Chronicles 36:13, what needs explanation or reconciliation; see Gill on 2 Kings 23:31, 2 Kings 23:32, 2 Kings 23:33, 2 Kings 23:34, 2 Kings 23:35, 2 Kings 23:36, 2 Kings 23:37, 2 Kings 24:5, 2 Kings 24:6, 2 Kings 24:8, 2 Kings 24:10, 2 Kings 24:17, 2 Kings 24:18