Despite the financial burden that was therefore already on the people, Jehoiakim made plans for building a new, luxurious palace. Probably to keep down the cost, he oppressively withheld the laborers’ wages. Consequently Jehovah, through Jeremiah, pronounced woe upon this wicked ruler, indicating that he would have the burial of a he-ass.​—Jer 22:13-19.

Early in Jehoiakim’s reign Jeremiah warned that unless the people repented, Jerusalem and her temple would be destroyed. Thereafter the prophet was threatened with death. However, the prominent man Ahikam stood up for Jeremiah and saved the prophet from harm. Previously, similar prophesying by Urijah had so enraged Jehoiakim that he had determined to kill him. Although fearful Urijah had fled to Egypt, he did not escape the king’s wrath. Jehoiakim had had Urijah brought back and then had killed him with the sword.​—Jer 26:1-24.

The fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim (625 B.C.E.) saw Nebuchadnezzar defeat Pharaoh Necho in a battle over the domination of Syria-Palestine. The battle took place at Carchemish by the Euphrates, over 600 km (370 mi) N of Jerusalem. (Jer 46:1, 2) In that same year Jeremiah began dictating to his secretary Baruch the words Jehovah directed against Israel, Judah, and all the nations, recording messages that had begun to be delivered from the 13th year of Josiah’s reign (at which time Jehoiakim had been about six years old) onward. Nearly a year later, in the ninth lunar month (Chislev, November/​December), the scroll containing the dictated message was read before King Jehoiakim. As soon as Jehudi read three or four page-columns, that section was cut off and thrown into the fire burning in the brazier of the king’s winter house. Thus the entire scroll was committed to the flames section by section. Jehoiakim ignored the pleas of three of his princes not to burn the roll. He particularly objected to the prophetic words that pointed to the desolation of Judah at the hands of Babylon’s king. This suggests that Nebuchadnezzar had not yet come against Jerusalem and made Jehoiakim his vassal.​—Jer 36:1-4, 21-29.

Jehovah’s prophecy through Jeremiah (22:18, 19; 36:30) indicated that Jehoiakim was not to receive a decent burial; his corpse was to lie unattended outside the gates of Jerusalem, exposed to the sun’s heat by day and the frost by night. Just in what way Jehoiakim was ‘given into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar’ (Da 1:2) is not revealed. It may have been in the sense of his dying under siege and of his son’s thereafter having to go out into captivity, so that Jehoiakim’s line suffered the loss of the kingship at Nebuchadnezzar’s hands. There is no way to confirm the Jewish tradition (recorded by Josephus) that Nebuchadnezzar killed Jehoiakim and commanded that his dead body be thrown outside Jerusalem’s walls. (Jewish Antiquities, X, 97 [vi, 3])

After Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin surrendered, Nebuchadnezzar elevated Jehoiachin’s uncle Zedekiah to the throne of Judah. (2Ch 36:9, 10) This fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy that Jehoiakim would have no one sitting on the throne of David. (Jer 36:30) Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin ruled a mere three months and ten days.