2 Chronicles 35:20

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

After all this when Josiah had prepared the temple Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against

When Josiah had prepared the temple; when he and his people hoped that God was reconciled, and the foundation of a solid and lasting happiness was laid, their hopes were quickly blasted. So much are men oft mistaken in their judgments about the designs of God’ s counsel and providence. Charchemish; which the Assyrian had lately taken from the king of Egypt; of which he boasts, .

2 Chronicles 35:20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.Ver. 20. After all this,] viz, Thirteen years after the aforesaid passover. Necho king of Egypt,] i.e., Pharaoh with the goutish feet. And Josiah went out against him.] But better he had kept at home. See 2 Kings 23:29. Ius legionis facile est, The law of the army is easy, saith Vegetius, Non sequi, non fugere bellum; war is neither to be followed after nor fled from. Passion is an ill counsellor. It is no weighing gold in the midst of a wind. We read not that he consulted with God by any prophet. Lassitude of the members precedeth a disease, saith Hippocrates: so doth carnal security danger. I come not against thee.] Or, Be not against thyself. But against the house wherewith I have war.] Heb., The house of my war, i.e., the race royal of Assyria, perpetual enemies and emulators to the Egyptians. For God commanded me to make haste.] By Jeremiah, say the Jewish doctors; but that was more than Josiah knew. He might take it for a pretence only, like that of Rabshakeh Forbear thee form meddling with God.] Desine a Deo. It is not safe to fight against God. Lib. ii. cap. 1.

JOSIAH SLAIN IN BATTLE AGAINST NECHO KING OF EGYPT (2 Chronicles 35:20-27. Comp. 2 Kings 23:29-30; 3 Ezra 1:23-30). (20) After all this.—Comp. the similar, “after these matters, and this faithfulness” (2 Chronicles 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 r̄ ?ro, “king”). The Hebrew spelling Pa’rτh appears to be due to an assimilation of the Egyptian word to the Hebrew pĕ ?rβ’τth, “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 “Nikϋ sar ali Mimpi u ali Sβa,” i.e., “Necho, king of the city of Memphis, and the city of Sais.” Assurbanipal twice reinstated this Necho after vanquishing Tirhakah. The Necho of our text is Necho II., who reigned circ. 610 B.C. (See the Note on 2 Kings 23:29.) Against Charchemish.—At Charchemish. Syriac and Arabic, “to assault Mabϋg,” i.e., Hierapolis. Necho’s enemy was “the king of Assyria” (2 Kings 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 Jirbβs, 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 Mξsh.” 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-Mξsh, “mound of Mξsh;” Greek, Τελμησσός. (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 (2 Chronicles 35:21-25).

Verse 20. Necho king of Egypt] Pharaoh the lame, says the Targum.

20–24 (= 1Es 1:25-31; cp. 2 Kings 23:29-30). The Death of Josiah The account of Josiah’s death is very much fuller in Chron. than in Kings. The features which are peculiar to the Chronicler are, (1) Neco’s message to dissuade Josiah from war, (2) Josiah’s disguising himself and coming to fight in the valley of Megiddo, (3) the wounding of Josiah by archers, (4) the transfer of the wounded king from a war chariot to another chariot. In other words all the details which represent the meeting at Megiddo as a battle are peculiar to Chron. The account given in Kings is simply:—“King Josiah went to meet him (Necho), and he put him to death at Megiddo when he saw him. And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem.” The Hebrew expression for “went to meet” in this passage is the same as in 1 Kings 18:16; 2 Kings 16:10; it does not suggest a hostile meeting, though it can be used in a suitable context to describe one. The phrase “when he saw him” suggests an interview rather than a battle. Thus we have two traditions of Josiah’s death: according to Chron. he was mortally wounded in battle, according to Kings he sought an interview with Neco and was assassinated by him at the town of Megiddo.

After all this - i. e. 13 years after, 608 B.C. See the 2 Kings 23:28-29 notes.