He was succeeded as king by his son.
So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.
2 Kings 24:6 NASBu
He had no one to succeed him.
Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, “He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night …”
Jeremiah 36:30 NASBu
An unfulfilled prophecy?
Jeremiah once prophesied that Jehoiakim would have no one sitting on the throne of David and that his dead body would be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. What might be the meaning of this word, as his son Jehoiachin became king after him.
In trouble till his death
We learn from the books 2 Kings 24:1-7 and 2 Chronicles 36:5-8 that Jehoiakim reigned eleven years and that he was defeated by king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. We also read that he was in chains (2 Chronicles 36:6) ready to be brought to Babylon. However, Nebuchadnezzar must have changed his mind as Jehoiakim had to fight till his death against Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites.
“1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 The Lord sent against him bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arameans, bands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonites. So He sent them against Judah to destroy it, …” 2 Kings 24:1-2
The conditions, wars, seemed to be present for Jeremiah’s prophecy to come true. It seemed that Jeremiah prophesied that Jehoiakim would fall in battle and that his dead body would lay on the field for some time in the heat of the day and the frost of the night.
Sit or sitting?
Jehoiakim indeed had no son at the end of his life sitting on the throne beside him as king. Compare the enthronization of Solomon by his father David and how he could instruct his son Solomon. Jehoiakim simply ended his life too early (he died at the age of 36). That was certainly meant by Jeremiah’s prophecy as he used an active participle “He shall have no one sitting on the throne of David …” and not as most translations have “He shall have no one to sit [after him] on the throne of David, ” which is a mistranslation. (This is the same form we find in Isaiah 6:1 “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne …”)
And so …
Jehoiakim had no one sitting on the throne.
He had someone to succeed him: his son Jehoiachin.
No Bible Contradiction