JOSIAH SLAIN IN BATTLE AGAINST NECHO KING OF EGYPT (2Chronicles 35:20-27. Comp. 2Kings 23:29-30; 3 Ezra 1:23-30).

(20) After all this.--Comp. the similar, "after these matters, and this faithfulness" (2Chronicles 32:1). The phrase calls attention to the difference between the event and what might naturally have been expected. In spite of Josiah's fidelity to Jehovah, this was his end.

Necho king of Egypt came up.--Kings, "In his days came up Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt." So LXX. here. Syriac, "Pharaoh the Lame, king of Egypt." Pharaoh is simply "the king;" Coptic Pouro, or Perro (pi "the," ouro or r?ro, "king"). The Hebrew spelling Pa'r?h appears to be due to an assimilation of the Egyptian word to the Hebrew p?r?'oth, "leaders" (Judges 5:1). An inscription of Assurbanipal gives a list of twenty subject kings appointed by Esarhaddon his father to bear rule in Egypt, the first name in the list being that of "Nik- sar ali Mimpi u ali Saa," i.e., "Necho, king of the city of Memphis, and the city of Sais." Assurbanipal twice reinstated this Necho (Necho I., circ. 664 B.C. ) after vanquishing Tirhakah.

The Necho of our text is Necho II., who reigned circ. 610 B.C. (See the Note on 2Kings 23:29.)

Against Charchemish.--At Charchemish. Syriac and Arabic, "to assault Mab-g," i.e., Hierapolis. Necho's enemy was "the king of Assyria" (2Kings 23:29; so LXX. here), i.e., Esarhaddon II. (Saracus), the last of the rulers of Nineveh; not Nabopalassar, king of Babylon, for the Assyrian empire had not yet fallen before the united assault of the Medes and the Babylonians. Charchemish has been identified with the modern Jirbas, on the western bank of the middle Euphrates. Its situation, as Schrader observes, suits an intended expedition against Nineveh and Assyria, rather than against Babylon. It was one of the great Hittite capitals, and inscriptions in hieroglyphics, similar to those of Hamath, have recently been disinterred on the site, and brought thence to the British Museum. The name means, "Fortress of Mish." Comp. "Mesha" (Genesis 10:30), the Assyrian Masu, i.e., the part of the Syrian desert which ran along the right bank of the Euphrates. The place was also called Tel-Mish, "mound of Mish;" Greek, ?????????. (Thenius thinks the phrase, "against Charchemish," was originally a marginal gloss, noting the place of the final and decisive encounter between Necho and the Babylonians).

Josiah went out against him.--To this statement Kings only adds that Necho "slew him at Me-giddo, when he saw him," i.e., at the outset of the encounter. The chronicler, therefore, has derived the details of the following verses from another source (2Chronicles 35:21-25).

Verse 20. - After all this. A period of about thirteen years of happy retrospect is now the portion of the good king. This period brings itself to an unhappy and even fatal termination in the year B.C. 608; when, as it would appear by the result, King Josiah did wrong, and went out of his way, in opposing the march of Pharaoh-Necho (who reigned B.C. 611-595), successor of Psammetichus King of Egypt, against Cyaxares (the monarch who, with Nabo-polassar, had taken Nineveh, B.C. 625) King of Assyria (2 Kings 23:29), or King of Babylon at Circesium on the River Phrat, the head-quarters now of the united Assyrian and Babylonian power. Where the fault or sin of Josiah lay - whether he ran before he was sent, or whether, according to our following two verses, he set out against the Divine word by Necho - is certainly a question left in obscurity. Nothing is said in our history or its parallel to accredit the tale of Necho, or to discredit the heart and motive of Josiah - nothing except what silence and the result seem to say. One other clement of interest and of difficulty may be added to the question; for of the thirteen years' interval, which we have described above as one presumably of happy retrospect in certain aspects for Josiah, we know nothing from Scripture, but have every reason to suppose that during it Josiah and his kingdom had become subject, if only nominally, to Nabopolassar; so that, in offering to resist Necho of Egypt, he was offering to strengthen so far forth the royal line which did dishonour to his own country and his country's God. Upon this supposition, however, we can lay no stress.

35:20-27 The Scripture does not condemn Josiah's conduct in opposing Pharaoh. Yet Josiah seems to deserve blame for not inquiring of the Lord after he was warned; his death might be a rebuke for his rashness, but it was a judgment on a hypocritical and wicked people. He that lives a life of repentance, faith, and obedience, cannot be affected by the sudden manner in which he is removed. The people lamented him. Many mourn over sufferings, who will not forsake the sins that caused God to send them. Yet this alone can turn away judgments. If we blame Josiah's conduct, we should be watchful, lest we be cut down in a way dishonourable to our profession.After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple,.... Purified it, and cleansed it from the filth in it, and from all idolatry, and had repaired it, and put the service of it in good order, and on a good footing, after which great prosperity in church and state might have been expected:

Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates; now called Querquisia, supposed by some to be the same with the Cadytis of Herodotus, which that historian calls a great city of Syria, whither he says Necho went after the battle with the Syrians (x); of which See Gill on Isaiah 10:9 and of this king of Egypt; see Gill on 2 Kings 23:29, Jeremiah 46:2.

and Josiah went out against him; or to meet him, and stop him from going through his land, which lay between Egypt and Syria; Egypt being on the south of Israel, and Euphrates on the north of it, as Jarchi observes.

(x) Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 159. & Galei not. in ib.