The sons of Josiah: Johanan the bekhor (=first-born). This is Jehoahaz, whom Pharaoh Neco took and exiled to Egypt, where he died (2 Kings 23:34); and he had two names. How then could the text say “the first-born?” After all, Jehoiakim was two years older than he! For it says “Jehoahaz was twenty-three … when he became king” (2 Kings 23:31) and “Jehoiakim was twenty-five … when he became king” (2 Kings 23:36); and there were only three months between their respective ascents to the throne (2 Kings 23:31–34). Rather, it calls him bekhor because he was the bekhor for kingship, meaning that he reigned first. This is how our Sages, of blessed memory, explain it (b. Horayot 11b).

The third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. Our Sages, of blessed memory (ibid.), say that Shallum is Zedekiah, and that the text calls him Shallum because he was wholesome (mushlam) in his deeds. For he was righteous—it was the people of his generation who were wicked. Furthermore, it calls him Shallum because the Davidic kingship came to a close (shalemah) in his day. And it says concerning him “the third” because he was the third son of Josiah, and “the fourth” because he was the fourth since Josiah’s reign. But it does not seem so according to the plain sense. Rather, this Shallum is Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim son of Josiah. We cannot say that Josiah had another son named “Shallum”; for among the kings who reigned after Josiah we find only Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, and in the book of Jeremiah, Shallum is called a king: “concerning Shallum son of Josiah … who succeeded his father Josiah as king” (Jeremiah 22:11). The concern of that entire prophecy is rather Jehoiachin, who was exiled to Babylon; and when it says “son of Josiah,” this is because he was his grandson, and grandsons are like sons: one finds this in many places. And whereaes here too the text records him in the list of Josiah’s sons, this is only because he preceded his uncle Zedekiah in assuming the Josiahide kingship. This, in fact, is why it proceeds to mention him again—in the appropriate list (v. 16).