One of King Josiah's sons.  He was called originally Eliakim, meaning "(whom) God has set up," but Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt and conqueror of Josiah, changed the name Eliakim into Jehoiakim, on appointing him king of Judah.  The two names have essentially the same signification, and as the Egyptian potentate, who did not believe in Jehovah, could not have desired to honour him by substituting his name for God in the designation of the Jewish prince, it may be supposed that Necho made the change from mere despotic caprice, wishing to show that he was so much master in Jerusalem that even princes must alter their names at his word of command.  He had made the conquered people change more than names.  On the death of Josiah they had elected Jehoahaz, one of his sons, to succeed him; Necho treated the election with contempt, deposed Jehoahaz, and made him captive, then concluding by appointing Eliakim or Jehoiakim in his stead.  The prince thus elevated began to reign, or, rather, to occupy the throne, by the Hebrew chronology, about 510 B.C. being then twenty-five years old.  He departed from Jehovah, whom his father had so faithfully served, and went back to idolatry.  Jeremiah wrote a roll threatening the Divine judgment unless repentance took place; but Jehoiakim treated the matter with contempt, and after listening to three or four leaves of the roll, cut it up and committed it to the flames (Jer. xxxvi).  Babylon, and not Assyria, was now the dominant Asiatic power, and its throne was filled by the able Nebuchadnezzar.  Having quite driven Egypt from the region of the Euphrates, he made an expedition against Jehoiakim, doubtless with the object of compelling him to transfer his allegiance, if he ever felt nay, from Egypt to Babylon.  No blame attaches to the Jewish vassal for at once complying with the demand; but it was exceedingly rash in him three years' afterwards to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, without even considering whether he had good hope of success in a struggle with a potentate so mighty.  There were other troubles gathering around the devoted kingdom.  The Chaldaeans, the Syrians, the Moabites, and the Ammonites all made predatory incursions into its territories (2 Kings xxiv. 1, 2).  The rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar was fatal to Jehoikim's throne and liberty.  The Babylonian emperor entered Jerusalem, bound the Jewish rebel with chains, to carry him to Babylon, and before departing carried off the sacred vessels of the temple.  But he allowed the throne to descend to the late ruler's son Jehoiachin.  Jehoiakim's deposition (and death?), after a reign of eleven years, took place by the A.V., about the year 599 B.C. (2 Kings xxiii. 34-37; xxiv. 1-6; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 4-8). (The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Manual, Hunter, 1894)