2 Kings 23:28-30

I. THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF JOSIAH 23:28-30

TRANSLATION

(28) Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? (29) In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up on behalf of the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to confront him, and he killed him in Megiddo when he had seen him. (30) And his servants brought him in a chariot as he was dying from Megiddo; and they brought him to Jerusalem and they buried him in his sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him king in place of his father.

COMMENTS

Much more information about Josiah was contained in the prophetic annals of Judah (2 Kings 23:28). This king was remembered by his people for his goodness rather than his greatness. No mention is made of his might. The Chronicler mentions his kindness or his good deeds (2 Chronicles 35:26).

With the fall of Nineveh to the Medo-Babylonian coalition in 612 B.C., a refugee Assyrian government was established at Haran. In 610 B.C. Haran also fell to the Chaldean king Nabopolassar. Fearing that the international balance of power was about to be upset, Pharaoh Necho (609-593 B.C.) decided to intervene in the struggle on behalf of the tottering Assyrian kingdom. The King James and American Standard versions give the impression that Necho marched north to fight against the Assyrians. However a Babylonian text published by Wiseman in 1956 has made it clear that the purpose of Necho was to fight on behalf of the Assyrians.[659] The Hebrew preposition used in 2 Kings 23:29 can be translated either against or on behalf of.[660]Here is a case where the texts from antiquity have actually aided modern scholars in producing a more accurate translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Necho had to go through the narrow pass at Megiddo in northern Palestine. It is not entirely clear why Josiah decided to take his tiny army to Megiddo in an attempt to stop the advance of Necho. Probably he simply resented this Egyptian incursion into the territory which he had recently annexed.[661] Had he allowed Egyptian armies to march uncontested back and forth across his land, he would not long be able to maintain his independence. However, Necho tried to dissuade the Jewish king from this foolish confrontation. Necho assured Josiah that he had no quarrel with Judah. The Egyptian insisted that God had directed him to undertake this mission, and he warned that should Josiah persist in resisting his advance, he would be fighting against God. The Chronicler seems to concur that the action of Josiah was contrary to the will of God for he declares that Josiah hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God (2 Chronicles 35:22). The battle was joined and Josiah was mortally wounded (2 Kings 23:29).

[659] The relevant portions of this test have been translated in DOTT, p. 17. Older interpreters understood the king of Assyria in 2 Kings 23:29 to be Nabopolassar the father of Nebuchadnezzar who was then king of Babylon. On this interpretation, the Jews regarded Nabopolassar as the inheritor of the Assyrian empire, just as they later regarded the Persian kings (Ezra 6:22).

[660] Gray (OTL, p. 748) recognizes this possible translation, but still insists on the translation against. He then charges the author of Kings with failure to understand the political situation of that time.

[661] Others contend that Josiah opposed the Egyptians in support of the Chaldeans. See JNES, XII (1953), pp. 56-58.

When Josiah was wounded, his servants put him in his second chariot (2 Chronicles 35:24)a chariot of much lighter construction and drawn by fleeter horsesand hastened toward Jerusalem. The Chronicler implies that Josiah succumbed to his wound en route to the captial (2 Chronicles 35:23-24). He was buried in his sepulcher, i.e., the sepulcher of his fathers (2 Chronicles 35:24). Jeremiah seems to have led the nation in lamenting the death of this good king (2 Chronicles 35:25).[662] The people of the land, i.e., the landed gentry, then took Jehoahaz, otherwise named Shallum (1 Chronicles 3:15; Jeremiah 22:11), and made him king in place of his father (2 Kings 23:30). On what grounds the people preferred this son to his elder brother Eliakim is not known.[663] Commentators generally speculate that the elder son was pro-Egyptian and therefore was passed over in favor of the next oldest who was committed to an independent Judah. But if this be the case, why was Jehoahaz so willing to go to Riblah and meet with the Pharaoh? Rawlinson offers the hypothesis that Eliakim had accompanied his father to Megiddo and had been captured by Necho.[664]

[662] For many years the anniversary of the death of Josiah was marked by weeping and lamentation. Cf. Zechariah 12:11.

[663] Jehoahaz was twenty-three when he began to reign (2 Kings 23:31) and his brother, three months later, is said to have been twenty-five (2 Kings 23:36).

[664] Gray (OTL, p. 748) thinks the selection was made on the grounds that Jehoahaz was stronger in character than his older brother (actually, his half-brother).