2nd Chronicles Chapter 35 verse 20 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - After all this. A period of about thirteen years of happy retrospect is now the portion of the good king. This period brings itself to an unhappy and even fatal termination in the year B.C. 608; when, as it would appear by the result, King Josiah did wrong, and went out of his way, in opposing the march of Pharaoh-Necho (who reigned B.C. 611-595), successor of Psammetichus King of Egypt, against Cyaxares (the monarch who, with Nabo-polassar, had taken Nineveh, B.C. 625) King of Assyria (2 Kings 23:29), or King of Babylon at Circesium on the River Phrat, the head-quarters now of the united Assyrian and Babylonian power. Where the fault or sin of Josiah lay - whether he ran before he was sent, or whether, according to our following two verses, he set out against the Divine word by Necho - is certainly a question left in obscurity. Nothing is said in our history or its parallel to accredit the tale of Necho, or to discredit the heart and motive of Josiah - nothing except what silence and the result seem to say. One other clement of interest and of difficulty may be added to the question; for of the thirteen years' interval, which we have described above as one presumably of happy retrospect in certain aspects for Josiah, we know nothing from Scripture, but have every reason to suppose that during it Josiah and his kingdom had become subject, if only nominally, to Nabopolassar; so that, in offering to resist Necho of Egypt, he was offering to strengthen so far forth the royal line which did dishonour to his own country and his country's God. Upon this supposition, however, we can lay no stress.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersJOSIAH SLAIN IN BATTLE AGAINST NECHO KING OF EGYPT (2Chronicles 35:20-27. Comp. 2Kings 23:29-30; 3 Ezra 1:23-30).(20) After all this.--Comp. the similar, "after these matters, and this faithfulness" (2Chronicles 32:1). The phrase calls attention to the difference between the event and what might naturally have been expected. In spite of Josiah's fidelity to Jehovah, this was his end.Necho king of Egypt came up.--Kings, "In his days came up Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt." So LXX. here. Syriac, "Pharaoh the Lame, king of Egypt." Pharaoh is simply "the king;" Coptic Pouro, or Perro (pi "the," ouro or r?ro, "king"). The Hebrew spelling Pa'r?h appears to be due to an assimilation of the Egyptian word to the Hebrew p?r?'oth, "leaders" (Judges 5:1). An inscription of Assurbanipal gives a list of twenty subject kings appointed by Esarhaddon his father to bear rule in Egypt, the first name in the list being that of "Nik- sar ali Mimpi u ali Saa," i.e., "Necho, king of the city of Memphis, and the city of Sais." Assurbanipal twice reinstated this Necho (Necho I., circ. 664 B.C. ) after vanquishing Tirhakah.The Necho of our text is Necho II., who reigned circ. 610 B.C. (See the Note on 2Kings 23:29.) . . .