"Jehoiakim" or "Zedekiah" in Jeremiah 27:1?

"¹ In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ² Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, ³ And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;" (Jeremiah 27:1-2)

Both Jehoiakim and Zedekiah were sons of Josiah (2 Kings 23:34 and 2 Kings 24:17), but some allege that "Jehoiakim" in Jeremiah 27:1 is an error because the prophecy concerns matters when Zedekiah was "king". Jehoiakim's reign began and ended before Zedekiah's. Despite the seeming textual problem, most Hebrew manuscripts have "Jehoiakim". Although the NIV has "Zedekiah", the footnote to the verse says, "most Hebrew manuscripts [have] Jehoiakim". Furthermore, there is nothing unusual about God providing a prophecy of a future king during the reign of an earlier king. The very nature of a prophecy is its foretelling of an event far into the future. The previous prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 26 was also given during the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign. It is possible that God gave a series of prophecies at the same time during the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign. Of course, Jeremiah responded to the instructions in each prophecy during the proper time.

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