Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 23:29

"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 at Megiddo, when he had seen him." — 2 Kings 23:29 (ASV)

Pharaoh-nechoh. —Necho II., the successor of Psammetichus and the sixth king of the 26th or Saite dynasty, called Νεκὼς by Herodotus (ii. 158, 159; 4:42); he reigned around 611-605 B.C. but is not mentioned in the Assyrian records, as far as they are currently known to us.

The king of Assyria. —It is sometimes assumed that Necho’s expedition was directed against “the ruler at that time of what had been the Assyrian empire” (Thenius and others), and that the king in question was Nabopalassar, the conqueror of Nineveh, who became king of Babylon in 626-625 B.C. If the fall of Nineveh preceded or coincided with this last event, then Nabopalassar must be intended by the historian here.

But if, as the chronology of Eusebius and Jerome represents, Cyaxares the Mede took Nineveh in 609-608 B.C., or, according to the Armenian chronicle, as found in Eusebius, in 608-607 B.C., then Necho’s expedition (around 609 B.C.) was really directed against a king of Assyria in the strict sense. After the death of Assurbanipal (626 B.C.) it appears that two or three kings reigned at Nineveh, namely, Assur-idil-ilani-ukinni, Bel-sum-iskun and Esar-haddon II. (the Saracus of Abydenus and Syncellus).

Nineveh must have fallen before 606 B.C., as Assyria does not occur in the list of countries mentioned by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:19–26) in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, that is, 606 B.C. The probable date of its fall is 607 B.C. A year or so later Necho made a second expedition, this time against the king of Babylon, but was utterly defeated at Carchemish. (See Schrader, K. A. T., pp. 357-361.) Josephus says that Necho went to wage war with the Medes and Babylonians, who had just put an end to the Assyrian empire, and that his object was to win the dominion of Asia.

King Josiah went against him. —Probably as a vassal of Assyria, and as resenting Necho’s trespass on territory which he regarded as his own. The Syriac adds: “to fight against him: and Pharaoh said to him, Not against you have I come; return from me. And he did not listen to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh struck him.” This may once have formed part of the Hebrew text, but is more likely a gloss from Chronicles.

At Megiddo. —In the plain of Jezreel (1 Kings 4:12). (Compare Zechariah 12:11.) Herodotus calls it Magdolus (ii. 159). The fact that this was the place of battle shows that Necho had not marched through southern Palestine, but had taken the shortest route over sea, and landed at Accho (Acre). Otherwise, Josiah would not have had to go so far north to meet him.

When he had seen him. —At the outset of the encounter; as we might say, the moment he got sight of him. According to the account in Chronicles, which is derived from a different source, Josiah was wounded by the Egyptian archers, and carried in a dying state to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 35:22 and following). Thenius thinks that Jeremiah 15:7-9 was spoken on occasion of Josiah’s departure with his army from the north, and that the prophet’s metaphor, her sun went down while it was yet day, refers to the eclipse of Thales, which had recently happened, 610 B.C. (Herod, i. 74, 103).