2 Chronicles 35:20

CONCLUSION OF THE REIGN OF GOOD KING JOSIAH

"After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemesh by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; and God hath commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations unto this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they were written in the lamentations. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Jehovah, and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah."

The remarkable thing in this paragraph concerns the claim of Neco that the message he gave to Josiah came from the true God. Not for a moment, may we believe that Neco believed in Jehovah; but yet his claim here to have received a message from the true God is supported by a statement in the apocryphal book of 1Esdras (1:27f), which states that "The warning came from Jeremiah."[1] Meyers based this opinion on a reference he cited from the Apochrypha (1 Esdras 1:27f), but we are not able to find any such reference in 1Esdras.). Nevertheless our text here clearly indicates that it was indeed a true message from God that came to Josiah by the mouth of Neco (verse 22); where Neco received it, or how, we do not know.

Some have made a big point out of the fact that God's promise of a peaceful death for Josiah was not fulfilled; but all such objectors should read again Jeremiah 18:7-10. Josiah's disobedience here nullified the prophecy. Certainly we may reject the insistence of Curtis (Madsen), and their school of critics, that this whole account is "probably fiction."[2] The reason for all such opinions is because Second Chronicles so effectively contradicts their darling theory of the D Document.

At this junction in Israel's history, God did indeed speak to them, in some instances, through pagan kings, as witnessed also in the decree of Cyrus.

The historical situation at that time found Assyria a tottering, weakened empire, destined to fall within a couple of years to Babylon in the battle of Carchemish. Whether Josiah was acting as an ally of Assyria, or in hopes of establishing his independence is not clear; but neither the strengthening of Assyria nor the independence of Israel, doomed to fall to Babylon in the near future, was in line with God's will.