Lives of Scripture

Jehikhiah appears once in Scripture, during the reign of Ahaz of Judah, at a moment when the northern kingdom of Israel had just won a bloody victory over Judah and marched thousands of Judean women and children north as captives (2 Chronicles 28:5-8). The prophet Oded met the returning army at Samaria's border and rebuked them sharply: their own sins made them in no position to enslave their kinsmen, and doing so would only add fresh guilt before the LORD (28:9-11). Jehikhiah, identified as the son of Shallum and one of the heads of the tribe of Ephraim, joined three other leaders -- Azariah, Berechiah, and Amasa -- in standing up against the soldiers returning from battle, insisting that the captives not be brought in as slaves (28:12-13). Their intervention succeeded: the soldiers left the prisoners and plunder before the officials and the assembly, and Jehikhiah and the others personally clothed the naked captives from the plunder, gave them sandals, fed and gave them drink, anointed the weak with oil, set them on donkeys, and escorted them all the way to Jericho, "the city of palm trees," before returning home (28:14-15). It is a rare bright moment of mercy within the northern kingdom's otherwise grim history.