פירוש על מגילה 22:9

As the Master said, "The first year, he conquered Nineveh": As it was the capital of the kingdom of Assyria, for the king was in Nineveh.

In his second, he conquered Yehoyakim: The verses are expounded in Seder Olam: It is written at the beginning of the book of Daniel (1:1-2), "In the third year of the reign of Yehoyakim [...], Nebuchadnezzar [...] came to Jerusalem [...]. And the Lord delivered King Yehoyakim into his hand." Is it possible to say this? And is it not that he did not reign until the fourth year of Yehoyakim? As it is stated in the book of Jeremiah (45) [that] the thing that happened in the fourth year of Yehoyakim, was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar! Rather what do we learn to say - "In the third year of the reign of Yehoyakim?" It was in the third year of his rebellion. After he conquered him, he served him three years and [then] rebelled against him. As it is stated (II Kings 24:1), "and [Yehoyakim] became his servant for three years, and then he turned and rebelled against him." And it teaches you here that he held up in his rebellion three years. Behold, it is six years from his being conquered; and this time he was given into his hand and he killed him, such that, "He shall have the burial of a donkey" (Jeremiah 22:19) was fulfilled. And Nebuchadnezzar crowned Yehoyachin, his son, in his place and came [back] to Babylonia. His advisers said to him, "The father rebelled against you, and you crowned his son? They say a parable - a good puppy does not come from a bad dog." So he recanted at the end of the year and exiled him; and crowned Tzidkiyahu. (Vayikra Rabbah 19, Metzora) And likewise is it written in the book of Kings at its end. It comes out that the exile of Yehoyachin was in the seventh year of the conquering of Yehoyakim. Yet behold the verse calls it the eighth year! It was the eighth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. [As] at the end of the book of Kings we learned that he conquered him in the second year of his reign.

Evil-merodach, king of Babylonia, lifted up, etc.: We learned that Evil-merodach [began to] reign in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Yehoyachin; and Nebuchadnezzar had already reigned eight years before the exile of Yehoyachin. Eight and thirty-seven is forty-five; and the twenty-three of Evil-merodach; and the two of Belshazzar.