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object of his expedition than if matters continued as they were. Of the two powers which
threatened Palestine - Egypt and Assyria - the former was, at that time, certainly more to
be dreaded. Besides, had Josiah succeeded, he would have secured not only the gratitude
of Assyria, but the virtual, if not the nominal independence of his kingdom.
It was in vain that Necho remonstrated with Josiah. In the remarkable message* which
his ambassadors were instructed to deliver (2 Chronicles 35:21), he probably did not refer
to any special prophecies against Assyria, but rather to what he regarded as the general
lesson which Josiah should derive from the history of Hezekiah, viewed in connection
with subsequent events, as indicating the will of the God of Israel in regard to the
destruction of Assyria.
- At the same time, such references to God - especially in the present circumstances -
need not surprise us. Canon Cook (as quoted in the Speaker's Commentary, ad loc.) gives
an almost exactly parallel expression from a Pharaoh of the year 750 B.C. The Eastern -
in contradistinction to the Western- - mind, almost instinctively refers to the direct
agency of the Divine Being certain human actions or remarkable events, and such
expressions must not be too closely pressed according to our modern notions, nor yet
literally understood.
But Josiah gave not heed to the warning. A decisive battle was fought on "the plain of
Megiddo" (2 Chronicles 35:22). If the reading is correct that Josiah "disguised himself,"*
we would almost be reminded of the similar device of Ahab (2 Chronicles 18:29).
- The LXX. reads (...) "he strengthened himself," instead of our Massoretic (...) "he
disguised himself."
But the precaution, if adopted, was useless. Mortally wounded by the archers, Josiah was
lifted from his chariot, and probably expired on the way to Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:30),
whither they carried him. He was buried in "his own sepulcher" - apparently in the new
place of sepulcher prepared by Manasseh (2 Chronicles 35:24; comp. 2 Kings 21:18, 26).
General and deep was the mourning in Jerusalem and Judah for good King Josiah. The
prophet Jeremiah composed a "lament" for him, which, although now lost, seems to have
been inserted in a special book of "Laments" mentioned by the Chronicler (35:25). Nay,
his memory and the "lament" for him continued in Israel - and the memorial, if not some
of the words, of it are preserved in Jeremiah 22:10, 18, and so late as in Zechariah 12:11.
In truth, the defeat of the Judean army and the death of Josiah, not only put an end to his
great reformatory movement, and to the hopes of the possible re-union and recovery of
Israel and Judah, but it sounded the knell of Jewish independence. Henceforth Judah was
alternately vassal to Egypt or Babylonia. According to 1 Chronicles 3:15, Josiah had four
sons,* of whom the eldest, Johanan, seems to have died, either before his father or
perhaps in the battle of Megiddo.
(^)