It was common among Mesopotamian kings to grant special favors to the people when they took the throne; there are even records of widespread debt forgiveness and the release of prisoners. It’s likely that Evil Merodach, Nebuchadnezzar’s successor, continued this tradition and granted amnesty not only to Jehoiachin, the king who had been taken to Babylon in the first group of deportees from Judah, but also to other captive kings. The Deuteronomist narrator mentions only Jehoiachin; the king promises him his favor, and his seat is the highest among those granted amnesty (28). With this, the narrator might be trying to give hope for a different future for Judah; he could see in Jehoiachin, now favored by the Babylonian king, the key to the continuation of the Davidic promise—specifically, the one from which the good and just king described in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 will descend.