The Jehoiachin ration tablets
The exiled king of Judah, and even his sons, appear in Babylon's own ration lists — exactly the situation 2 Kings describes when it says he ate at the king's table.
Named outside the BibleObjectc. 592 BC
Administrative tablets listing oil rations issued from the royal stores in Babylon. Among the recipients: "Yaukin, king of the land of Yahudu" — Jehoiachin of Judah — and his sons. Palace bookkeeping, written with no interest in the Bible, records a deported Judahite king being maintained at the Babylonian court.
10 sila of oil to Yaukin, king of the land of Yahudu; 2½ sila to the five sons of the king of Yahudu.
- Found
- A storeroom near the Ishtar Gate, Babylon, 1899 — Robert Koldewey's excavation (published by E. F. Weidner, 1939)
- Now held at
- Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin
- Language
- Akkadian
How far it goes
The identification of Yaukin with Jehoiachin is standard and secure.
How historians use it
A routine citation in secular studies of the Babylonian exile and of Neo-Babylonian administration.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Weidner, "Jojachin, König von Juda, in babylonischen Keilschrifttexten" (1939)
- Jehoiachin's rations tablets — overview
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.