2 Kings 23:28

THE DEATH OF KING JOSIAH

"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? In his days Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and Pharaoh-necoh slew him, when he had seen him. And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead."

The complex and troubled history of this particular period is an extensive study. The Assyrian empire was in a state of collapse. Nineveh had fallen in 612 B.C., and Pharaoh-necoh was ambitious to succeed Assyria as the world ruler. It is not exactly clear why Josiah felt it necessary to challenge the king of Egypt, but he did, losing his life as a result. Yes, God had promised through Huldah that Josiah would die in peace, but it is sinful to allege the fact of his being killed in battle as "a contradiction."

(1) The "in peace" of God's promise may have referred to the fact that Jerusalem would not be under attack at the time of his death.

(2) All of God's promises are conditional (Jeremiah 18:7-10), and it is simply astounding how many learned men apparently remain ignorant of this simple truth. In the light of it, Josiah's engagement of the king of Egypt in battle might have been contrary to God's will, nullifying the promise altogether.

See 2 Chronicles 35 for other details of Josiah's death.

"Pharaoh-necoh went up against the king of Assyria" (2 Kings 23:29). "That king of Assyria was Nabopolassar the father of Nebuchadnezzar. His proper title was `King of Babylon'";[30] a fact that became crystal clear following the battle of Charchemish (605 B.C.). "This pharaoh was Pharaoh-Necoh II, the second pharaoh of the twenty-sixth dynasty."[31]

The death of Josiah brings us very near the end of the story of the Kings of Judah. Three of Josiah's sons succeeded him. Jehoahaz (Shallum) for a brief period of about three months, Eliakim (Jehoaikim) who reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem, Jehoichin (Coniah) who reigned three months, and Zedekiah who reigned eleven years. Brief mention of the first two of these kings is made here, but the author of kings moved very rapidly to the fall of Jerusalem.

The prophet Jeremiah has written a great deal about these terminal kings of Judah in Jeremiah 20-39 on which we have written more than two hundred pages of comments (pp. 225-436 of Vol. 2 in my commentaries on the major prophets). For additional information about these kings, the reader is referred to that volume. From the times of Josiah, Judah was no longer an independent nation, being a vassal either of Egypt or of Babylon.