2 Kings 23
PAT52G A COMMENTARY UPON [CHAF. XXIII* in the Hebrew, because they were clothed in black garments: (as Kimchi gives the reason, both upon this place and upon Zcphan. i. 4.) whereas the priests of the Most High were clothed in white; especially those whose genealogy was not questioned. They, indeed, who could not make out their descent, were clothed in a black habit, to distinguish them from undoubted priests: and so were they who had any defect or blemish in their body, as appears from the Talmud in Middoth. And indeed it is certain, that they among the heathens, who sacrificed to the infernal gods, were clothed with such vestments, as appears by Canidia in Horace, lib. i. sat. 8. and Medea in Apollonius Rhodius, lib. iii. ver. 861.; from whence some think they had the name of fit\avi)
2 Kings 23:1
jcjlND the king sent, and tltey gathered unto him all the elders of Jud&Ii and of Jerusalem. Whom he acquainted with what he intended to do; and, I suppose, had their consent, which gave the greater authority to what follows.
2 Kings 23:2
And the king went rip into the house of’the Lord, and all the men df Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, aiid the prophets. Jeremiah and Zephaniah were the principal prophets; and, it is likely, there were many more who are not mentioned. And all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant.] He ordered some to read (xxii. 10.) in* several places, so that all might h£ar; for it is not likely that one man’s voice could reach so great a multitude. Which was found in the house of the Lord.] Arid, some of the Jews say, was found lying open at that very place, where those words presented themselves, (Deut. xxviii. 36.) which awakened the king to cause all the law of God to be read to them.
2 Kings 23:3
And the king stood by a pillar. Unto which his throne adjoined; wherein the king was placed when he came to the temple, as the Hebrew doctors will have it. The king’s scat, saith Jacob Juda Leo, was in the court of the Israelites, at the entrance into the court of the priests, by a marble pillar. There he sat when he came into the temple to worship God: there Joash was made king by Jehoiada: (xi. 14.) there Ilczckiah read before the Lord the blasphemous letter which the king of Assyria sent’ him; (xix. 14.) and there Josiah now made a covenant with God that he would serve him. (Sec Vitringa Proleg. ad lib. de Synag. Vctcri. cap. 4.) And made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his comma?idments,- and his testimonies, and his statutes.] That is; all his laws of all sorts. With all their heart, and with all their soirf.] He made this covenant in his own name, and in tlie name of all the people, whom he engaged faithfully to God’s service. " To perform tlie words of the covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant.] They gave their consent to the covenant; standing before the Lord as he did, and not stirring from the place where he propounded ituhto^them.
2 Kings 23:4
And the king commanded Jtilkiah the highpriest. . It was very proper to commit the reformation of the house of God to the high-priest; and those who ministered under him. Some will have Hilkiah to be the father of Jeremiah, as is asserted by Greg. Abulfaragius, in his Histor. Dynastarum, p. 68/ Which’ is an error; for Jeremiah was, a priest of Anathoth, whither Abiathar was banished, of the seed, of Ithamar, from whom it is likely he was descended, (1 Kings ii« 26.) And the priests of the second order.] They that were under the high-priest; especially the sagan (as the Targum here hath it), who was the vicar of the high-priest, and stood at his right hand when he officiated, as the Jews tell us in joma, where they say a man could not be made a high-priest unless he had been first a sagan. And the keepers pfthe door.] Whom the Jews call amarcelim; which word wV find xii. 10. where the Targum expounds it, priests tliat were treasurers t: that is, such Leyites as had the custody of the sacred money, which’ was for the repair of the temple. And the Hebrew phrase is not much different, the keepers of the thresholds; that is, the entrance into those chambers (as Hbttinger" thinks) wherein were kept such things as were of public usc.in the temple. Of which tliere were seven; wherein the priests’ garments were laid up*, and other" such -like things’. *,;. To bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels tliat there made for Baal.] The word we translate vessels, or instruments, signifies all the various furniture be-, longing to Baal, and the rest of the false gods, which served either for offering of incense, or sacrifices, or the vestments of the priests, &c.. For Baal.] Who was the principal idol, whose worship Ahab first introduced, and Manasseh restpred after Jehu had abolished it, as was said before, xxi. 3. And for the grove.]’! observed before, that’ by a grove is meant the" image or idol of the grove; which Ahab had brought in alsoi (See there, xxi. 3. 7. and here below, ver. 6.)’ And for all the host of heaven.] That is, the planets, and the rest of the stars, which the ^abaeans, and Chaldeans, and other eastern people, worshipped. Whom the Jews impiously imitated, though they had been taught, in the very beginning of their law, that the sun, the moon, and all the stars, were all created by their God. And he burnt them without Jerusalem in the fields ofKidron, and carried the ashes of them into Beth-el] Which place (where, as Kimchi speaks, was the very foundation of idolatry) he polluted and profaned^ by casting this filth there; that they who, were wont to worship the calves in tliat place might avoid it, and not come near it.
2 Kings 23:5
And he put down^the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem. These idolatrous priests are called chemarim 3 Y
2 Kings 23:7
And he brake down the houses of the Sodomites, which’ were by the house of the Loj’d. From this some gather they were come to such a height of wickedness, that there were those among them who exposed their bodies to be abused contrary to nature, hi honour of those filthy deities which they worshipped. For these public houses were near the temple of the Lord; and therefore these were persons consecrated to impurity, contrary to Deut. xxiii. 17. (See 1 Kings xiv. 24.) And so the ancient interpreters here understand corporal filthiness: only the Chaldee translates it, the houses of things consecrated to idols. R. Solomon Jarchi thinks it probable, that among those who worshipped the statues of the moon, or Venus, there were those who prostituted themselves to filthy mixtures. But Mr. Selden, by Kedeschim (which we translate Sodomites), understands the priests of Astarte, whom St. Jerome, upon Hosea iv. calls exsectos, upon pretence of greater purity, depriving themselves of those parts that serve for procreation of children. Where the women wove hangings for the grove.] For Asherah, or Astarte, beforementioned; as Selden expounds it in the forenamed place. These hangings, or curtains, encompassed the image, and made a kind of house for it, as the Hebrew word imports, which the Greeks called Kaiakovc and vatSia, little temples or habitations. Into those tents the worshippers went, and there committed all manner of lewdness; for they had not arrived to such a degree of impudence, as not to seek for privacy in their filthiness.
2 Kings 23:8
And he brought all the priests out of the cities of JudahJ. Would not suffer them to dwell there, to corrnpt the people. And defiled the high places where priests had burnt incense.] He made them, saith Kimchi, receptacles of impurity, by casting dead carcasses there, arid other such-like unclean things; that so he might remove out of the people’s hearts all idolatry: for where sweet odours were wont before to be, there was nothing but stench. From Geba to Beer-sheba.] That is, throughout the whole country; for Geba was in the northern parts, and Beer-sheba in the southern. (See 1 Kings xv. 22. Judg. xx. 1.) And. brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.] The high places of the gates seem to have been erected there, to offer incense to those tutelar gods, unto whom their idolatrous kings had committed the protection of their city. And Kimchi thinks that the governor of the city had his private household god, and a portable altar whereon he offered to his domestic idol. “Which Josiah did not spare: but let the greatest men see his impartial zeal against all idolatry.
2 Kings 23:9
Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the JjOrd in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. He mixed mercy together with severity. For though he did not sutler those priests^ who had offered incense in those high places, (directly contrary to the law, Deut. xii. 11.) to offer sacrifices at God’s altar; because they had defiled themselves with that sinful worship, though to the true God; yet he permitted them to partake of the bread of the priests, which comprehends all those parts of any sacrifice that were the priest’s portion. He mentions, indeed, only the meat-offering, which was to be of unleavened bread; (Lev. ii. 4, 5.11.) but that is put by a synecdoche for all other offerings belonging to the priests. So that they were put into the con-
2 Kings 23:10
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son ofHinnom. By throwing all manner of filth into it, as well as by throwing down the altars on which they sacrificed their children, as the Syriac and Arabic seem to understand it. That no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Moloch.] Though a great number of the Hebrew doctors think that their passing their. children through the fire, was nothing more than making them pass between two fires, whereby they were consecrated to that idol; yet it is certain, as I have shewn before, (xvi. 3.) that they offered their children sometimes as burnt-sacrifices to idols; which was a thing so horrid, that perhaps they invented this instead of it, to make them pass through two fires: or, perhaps, the opinion of Maimonides may be true, that they did not burn their children to Moloch, as* fhey did to other idols; but the entire worship of Moloch was absolved, by making children only pass through the fire to him; as his words are in his book of Idolatry, cap. 6. sect. 5.; which -may be confirmed from Jer. xix. 5. where he saith, they burnt their sons with fire unto Baal in Topheth. (See Selden, Syntag. i. de Diis Syris, cap. 6. where he largely treats of this.)
2 Kings 23:11
And he took away. That is, he destroyed, as the Hebrew word signifies, ver. 5. where we translate it, he put down the chemarim; that is, destroyed or slew those priests, as Bochartus interprets it. So Lev. xxvi. 6. we translate the same word, I will rid evil beasts out of the land; that is, destroy them. The LXX. here translate it KariKavnt, he burnt the horses; as before, KarUdvat x<>fwpw> he burnt the priests. Though, perhaps, in both places it should be KartTravrrz, he made to cease, as the Hebrew word literally signifies. The horses that the kings ofJudah had given to the stin.]‘That is, had consecrated to the sun; as Lev. xx. 2. they are said to give their children to Moloch. A great number of authors tell us, that among several nations these animals were sacred to the sun (as hawks and some other creatures were), because of their swiftness in their course. But it is uncertain whether they were kept to be sacrificed to the sun (as they were among the Massageta;, Persians, Armenians, and other people mentioned by Bochartus), or only to be led forth in pomp (as some of the Jews speak) every morning to meet the rising sun. Or, as others take it, the worshippers of the sun got upon these horses early in the morning, and rode out to adore the sun at its rising. (See Hierozoicon, par. i. lib. xi. cap. 10.) At the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain.] Or, the eunueh, who was some great officer in the court. Which was in the miburbs.] So the Targum interprets the word Parvarim; which most translations retain qs the name of a place, unto which the street in winch these horses were kept reached; from the chamber of Nathanmelech. He was the principal officer, perhaps, that looked after, them; and had the oversight of all those stables which were built from the temple gate to Parvarim. And perhaps he rode out himself every morning upon one of them, to salute the rising sun in the king’s name. And burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.] The ancients fancied the sun itself was carried about in a chariot (as Bochart observes in the place abovementioned), and therefore chariots as well as horses were dedicated to it. Which he makes an argument, that they were not mere brazen, silver, or golden statues of horses that are here meant; but real living horses to draw those chariots. (See Vossius, de Orig. et Prog. Idol. lib. xi. cap. 4.) Some of those who think they were only " imagines equorum et quadrigarum,” (as Selden speaks, Syntag. ii. de Diis Syris, cap. 8.) images of horses and chariots, made of some metal or other, imagine they were represented in the shape of griffins, as the famous M. Spoon thought. (See Dr. Hyde, de Relig, Vet. Pers. p. 117.)
2 Kings 23:12
And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made. They were, not satisfied with the public altars they had made, in a vast number of high places: but the roofs of their houses being flat, they made altars there, (see Jer. xix. 13. xxxii. 29. Zephan. i. 5.) and particularly upon the king’s palace, where they worshipped the sun, moon, and stars. But this could not privilege them from destruction, that they were on the top of the king’s house. And the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.] It is said in 2 Chron. xxxiii. IS. that when Manasseh repented, he took away all the altars he had made in the mountain of the house of the Lord: and I suppose those in the courts of the priests and of the people were then removed. But Amon set them up again in the very place where Manasseh had erected them; and so they are here called his altars.
2 Kings 23:13
And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of Corruption. That is, Mount Olivet, (1 Kings xi. 2.) which was anciently called Harmischah, the mount of Unction; because of the olives that grew there in great plenty; but, by way of contempt and scorn, was called by the prophets Harmaschith, the mount of Corruption, because of the idols that were placed there, whereby the people were corrupted in their religion. Which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ash– toreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Cliemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Amtnoti.] It is not to be doubted but these detestable idols had been taken away by such religious kings as Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah; but they were restored “again by their impious successors, in the very same place, and the same figure with those ancient ones; and so are here called those that Solomon made, because he was the first author of them, or at least permitted them to be made by his wives, and connived at their worship, as R. Levi thinks. Did the king defile.] By dead men’s bones, and other unclean things, which he threw into those places. „;
2 Kings 23:14
And he brake down the images, and cut down the groves. Wherein the images were. And filled their places with the bones of men.] Which Hosea 3Y2
2 Kings 23:15
Moreover, the altar that tvas at Beth-el. For this city and the territories thereof had been under the power of Jud$h, ever since the reign of Ahijah, (2 Chron. xiii. 19, 20.) And the high places which Jeroboam the son ofNebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place, he brake down, and burnt the high place, and stamped it mall as powder, and burnt the grove.] That is, Ue burnt the golden calf, as Mr. Sclden thinks; for Asherah commonly signifies some image, as he shews in his discourse about Astarte, whose image it is likely this was; for the golden calf, as the Jews think, was carried away before this. But that is not certain: and Selden’s opinion is probable, that the golden calves were made of wood gilded over, and thence called golden, which were easily burnt. (Syntag. i. dc Diis Syris, cap. 4.) Ver. 1G. And as Josiah turned himself.’] Looking, round about him; being resolved to trust no man’s eyes but his own, in discovering the monuments of idolatry. He spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount.’] It is not said whose sepulchres they were;. but it is probable of the idolatrous priests (for in the Chronicles he is said to have burnt their bones), and of the prophets and great men, who had been instruments to promote Jeroboam’s idolatry. And sent and took tjie bor.ss out of the sepulchres, and burnt them upon the altar, and polluted it.] For nothing was more, unclean than. that which had touched dead men’s bones.. According, to the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.] Who foretold, three hundred and sixty years ago these very things should* be done by a king called Josiah, (1 Kings xiii. 2.)
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Tlien he said, What title is that that L see?. There was one stone, or pillar, I suppose, more eminent than the re^st, with the name of the persons buried under &Z and therefore called, a title,, because there was;annhr scrjption engraven upon it,* according to the custom, among, the Jews (as now among us), to preserve) thereby the me^. mory of those theyloved. And themen of the city told him, It* is the sepulchre of tjiefman of God, which came from, Judith, and proclaimed these thingsthat thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.] The king was the more curious (as Rasi,. and Kiinchi; ateo; fe telli the storyout;of the Midfasch) to know whose grave that was; because on one side of it he saw nettles and thistles grow, and on the other side myrtles and other odoriferous plants; signifying that there lay a tme.prophefc and a false. For which there is no ground, butitheir fabulous fancy. Verrl8. And he.said,Let him alone;: Ut no man movehis bones.] It is pertinently observed by, Joh. Wolfius, thafr if pious persons in those days had had. the same opinion; about relics, which nowis in the church of Rome, the king would not merely have ordered his bones to lie quiet and undisturbed, but put them into golden boxes, and carried thenvtio Jerusalem, to be there religiously worshipped by” the people. And they let his bones alone 9 and the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria*] That is,. out" of’the country of Samaria. Digitized by microsoft ®
2 Kings 23:19
And all the houses also of the high places. ’ What these houses were, whether places for worship, or for the habitation of tho priests of the high places (mentioned in the next verse), is uncertain. It is most likely the former; because they provoked God to anger. That were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger.] In such cities of Samaria as w r ere in the possession of the king of Judah; for upon the fall of the Assyrian empire, many of the cities, no doubt, became subject to their old masters. Josiah took away, and did unto them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el.] That is, he brake them down, and burnt them, and stamped them to powder, (ver. 15.)
2 Kings 23:20
And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars. There were some priests* of the high places (of whom we read before, ver. 8, 9.) that he did not kill; for they were such as sacrificed only unto God in the high places. But those whom he slew, were either the priests of Jeroboam who worshipped the calves, and had no right to the priesthood, (but had invaded it by the favour of their king); or such priests of the order of Aaron as sacrificed to Baal, or other false gods. * And burnt men’s bones upon them.] Which w r as the highest pollution of those altars, (ver. 13, 14.). And returned to Jerusalem.] Having made a progress through all the country, to abolish idolatrous worship where it was practised; he returned to Jerusalem, there to restore the solemnities of true religion.
2 Kings 23:21
And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. AVhich he had bound them and himself to observe,(ver.3.) and now tried them whether they would stand to the covenant, as they promised, by making a proclamation through the whole kingdom that they should keep this feast, which was a* commemoration of the greatest benefit God ever bestowed on them, before the.giving. thenvthe law, for it made them a free nation. Ver.. 22. Surely there ivas not held* such a Passover, from the days of tlie judges, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah.] Since the time of the prophet Samuel, the lastof their judges, there had never been such a great concourse of people at any Passover, nor such’ a> multitude of sacrifices offered; nor such an exact observation of the ritesand ceremonies belonging to this feast, For in the time of Hezekiah many were absent; and’ many had not purified themselves as.thcy ought: but now, as Ralbag expounds iti they were all turned to the Lord; and there were no idolaters nor apostates among them. (See Seldcn, lib. i. de Syned. cap. 12. p. 478.)
2 Kings 23:23
But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this Passover tvas held nnto the Lord in Jerusalem. \n the same year that he took care to have the temple repaired, (xxii. 3.) and to purge it from all idols, (xxiii. 4.) he restored the true worship of God to such* purity, as it had not been in for some ages..
2 Kings 23:24
Moreover, the ivorkers with familiar spirits, and the wizards. Of which see what I have noted upon Lev. xix. 31. xx. G. And the images.] In the Hebrew the teraphim, which were very ancient among idolaters, as I have observed upon the book of Genesis, xxxi. 19. CHAP. XXIII*] THE SECOND BOOK OF tftE KINGS. And the idols J] Of which there were many sorts, that are all comprehended in this word. And all the abominations that xoere spied in the land of Judah, and in Jerusalem.’] What these* abominations were is not certain, but it is likely they were such as Ezekiel saw and describes in aftertimes; when God shewed him what odious things they committed secretly. (See Ezek. viii. 6. 9, 10. 13. 15, &c.) Did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law, which were written in the book tlutt Hilkiah the priest found in tlu, house of the Lord.] He had his spies, it is probable, to discover all secret idolatry, as well as public, which, being found out, he abolished, as abominable unto God. >
2 Kings 23:25
And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.] He doth not compare him with David and Hezekiah (as Procopius Gazaeus here notes), but with other pious kings, such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Jotham; who were far inferior to him in piety. And. Hezekiah himself was not so exact, and did not make such a thorough search as he did, after all idolatrous practices. The nation also was so much cor-^ rupted since his days, by his son Manasseh, who reigned a long time, that it made the work of reformation more difficult in the timo of Josiah. Yet in some regard Hezekiah excelled him; and therefore the same character is given of him xviii. 5. which is here given of Josiah; because of his trust in God, in the. time of his greatest distress, for which he. was very eminent. But as to repentance; Josiah was most exemplary. Ver, 2G. Notwitlistanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.] Though Josiah was most sincere in what he did, and omitted nothing to restore the purity of God’s worship among them; yet he could not procure the preservation of the nation from destruction, but only a forbearance, of itfor a time. For the people were so corrupted by Manasseh, that" they rather complied with Josiah in his reformation, than heartily desired it, out of an inward affection to it. The innocent blood also shed by Manasseh was unpardonable, (xxiv. 3, 4.) Of which the people it is likely approved, and so fell under an irreversible sentence of destruction. (See Ezek. xxiv. G.)
2 Kings 23:27
And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.] He peremptorily decreed that they should be carried away captive, as the ten tribeshad been; and that his Divine presence among themshould not save< them; but he would abandon his owndwelling-place, and, removing frointheni, leave them aprey to their enemies: which we findlivelily represented in Ezek.‘x. 18, 19, where the* prophet saw, the glory of the Lord departing* from his house, and carried away by the* cherubims… This may seem strange, as Abarbinel observes, that Godshould thus visit the sins of Manasseh, of which he had* repented; and not be reconciled after Josiah had abolished all monuments of idolatry, and the Israelites had’ kept such a Passover, as 2 is befor&oieritioned: unto which he answers, that though it be said M’&nbsseh’ repented/ yet • it is not said he turned to God’ with all’ hi? heart, arid with all his soul, as Josiah did. For Manasseh repented onty • when he was in great distress; and though he repented, the people did not; but fell to theit idolatrous practices as > soon as he w v as dead, following his wicked son Am on. Nay, he thinks in the days of Josiah they were little bet- * ter, as he gathers from the eleventh and twelfth of Jeremiah; To which may be added what we read in the pro-~ phet Zephaniah, who lived in the days of Josiah, and threatened in the name of God, “I will utterly consume all things from’ off the land, and consume both man and beast,” (Zeph. i. 2, 3.) For they were still private idolaters, though they complied with the public reformation; swearing by the Lord, and by Malcom; and when the high places were taken away, worshipping the host of heaven upon the house-tops, (ver. 5.)
2 Kings 23:28
Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 23:29
In his days Pharaoh-Nechoh king of Egypt. Whom Herodotus, in his second book, calls Nbca>c> and mentions the fight which he had with the Syrians, h May-’ SdXy. (See Usher’s Annals, ad A. M. 3394.) Went up against the king of Assyria.’] Who wag then king of Babylon; for he had subdued the Assyrians, and brought them under his empire. There are those, indeed, who think this happened before that time, and that this king of Egypt w r ent to revenge the injuries done them by Sennacherib; ahdlic hoped for the better success, because’ he was much weakened by that slaughter the angel had made of his army; and because the IVtedes and Babylo-’ nians had rebelled against the Assyrians. But why Josiah should go to help the Assyrians no account can be given. Our forementioned primate hath’ better expounded it r that as the king of Persia, having subdued Babyjon and Assyria, is called the king of Assyria; (Ezra vi. 22.) so’ here the king of Babylon, having subdued Assyrians called king of Assyria. Besides that, Babylon was anciently accounted a part of Assyria; and the land of the Chaldeans is said to he founded by the Assyrians, (Isa. tfxiii. 13.) And thus Josephus expressly saith, (lib. x. Antiq. cap.6i) MtjSovc 7ro\ifiwy teal rove BafivXwviovg, ol rrjv’Affffvpiov KariXvvav apyfl v * Th e king’ of Egypt came to fight the Medes and Babylonians, who had, overturned the Assyrian empire. To the river Euphrates.] To besiege Carchemish, which lap upon that river; as we read'2Chron. xxxv. 20. which city was possessed by the Assyrians in the time of Sennacherib; (Isa. x. 9.).but their empire being overthrown, ^returned* under the power of the Babylonians.. And king Josiah went’ against 1 him.] Being afraid he intended to invade his country in his passage; or to divert’ him from his expedition against the Babylonians, with whom* he was inleague. It is likely the latter was the rea-’ son; for the king^of Egypt’ assured him he hatd.no quarrel with him,* and yet he would fight him, (2*Chron.xxxv. And he slew him in Megiddo.] Gave him a mortal wound; of which he died, not till he came to Jerusalem, (2 Chron. xxxv. 24.)