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2Ki_23:29 In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
Ver. 29. In his days Pharaohnechoh,] i.e., Claudus Pharaoh, the club-foot, so called for distinction. Tamerlane was likewise lame of one foot.
Went up against the king of Assyria.] Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, who had subdued the Assyrians, and gloried in that noble title, king of Assyria. See 2Ki_20:12.
To the river Euphrates,] i.e., To the city Carchemish bordering thereupon.
And king Josiah went against him.] This was rashly done. The soldier’s motto is, Nec temere nec timide. Josiah fearing more to be counted timorous than temerarious, rushed upon his own death; not so much as advising with that famous prophet Jeremiah, or Zephaniah, or Urijah, the prophets then living; besides a whole college of seers. Sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts. Perhaps he feared lest the Egyptian, aliud agens, should seize upon his country; or lest it lying between these two mighty monarchs, should be made the field or seat of their war, and so should be ground to powder, as grain between two millstones. In this respect Abulenais excuseth Josiah from all blame; but that cannot be. See 2Ch_35:22. God had a holy hand in it, howsoever, for the just punishment of that sinful nation, way being now made by the death of this good prince for God’s judgments to rush in upon them with full force.
And he slew him.] That is, He, by his archers, gave him his deathly wound at Megiddo, forty-four miles from Jerusalem, whither he was by his servants bright, but died by the way, and was greatly lamented. {2Ch_35:24 Zec_12:11} So was that thrice noble king of Sweden slain in Germany, yet not without the victory; which made one say,
“Upon this place the great Gustavus died,
Whilst Victory lay bleeding by his side.”
When he had seen him,] i.e., At the first encounter, as 2Ki_14:8, priusquam inter se acies concurrerent, saith Sulpitius; before the battle began. Whilst he was setting the battle in array, riding from one wing to another, and giving instructions, saith Josephus, an Egyptian archer slew him, and together with him all the felicity of that state, which was thenceforth known, as Thebes was after the death of Epaminondas, by their calamities only.