Jehoiachin's Rations Tablets

A group of cuneiform tablets discovered during excavations at ancient Babylon by Robert Koldewey between 1899 and 1917, published by Ernst Weidner in 1939. The tablets are administrative records from the royal Babylonian court listing food rations distributed to captives and foreign dignitaries. Among the recipients listed is "Yaukin, king of the land of Yahud" — Jehoiachin (also spelled Jeconiah or Coniah), king of Judah, who was taken captive to Babylon in 597 BCE as recorded in 2 Kings 24:12-15. The tablets also mention Jehoiachin's five sons, confirming the biblical statement that the royal family was taken into exile. The rations included oil and barley. These tablets independently confirm that Jehoiachin was held in Babylon as a captive king and was provided for by the Babylonian court — consistent with the account in 2 Kings 25:27-30 that Jehoiachin was eventually released from prison and "ate bread regularly before the king" for the rest of his life.