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.
Lave'i 'i tu'a mei he Tohi TapuMe'ac. 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.
- Na'e 'ilo'i
- A storeroom near the Ishtar Gate, Babylon, 1899 — Robert Koldewey's excavation (published by E. F. Weidner, 1939)
- 'Oku tauhi 'i
- Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin
- Lea
- Akkadian
Hono lahi 'o 'ene fakamo'oni
The identification of Yaukin with Jehoiachin is standard and secure.
Founga hono ngāue'aki 'e he kau hisitōlia
A routine citation in secular studies of the Babylonian exile and of Neo-Babylonian administration.
'I he Folofola
Fekau'aki mo
Ngaahi ma'u'anga fakamatala
- Weidner, "Jojachin, König von Juda, in babylonischen Keilschrifttexten" (1939)
- Jehoiachin's rations tablets — overview
'Oku 'i he lea faka-Pilitānia 'a e ngaahi fakamatala ko 'eni he taimi ni. 'E muimui mai 'a e liliu.