Pharaoh Neco II (reigned 610–595 BC, XXVIth Dynasty) marched north to seize a share of the collapsing Assyrian empire. King Josiah of Judah, still loyal to his Assyrian overlord, threw himself across Neco's path and was mortally wounded at Megiddo in 609 BC (2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chronicles 35:20–24), the standard date today; the 1915 ISBE and other older works give 608. Neco deposed Josiah's son Jehoahaz after three months, set up Jehoiakim as his tribute-paying vassal, and held Syria briefly, until Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonians crushed him at Carchemish in 605 BC, after which "the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land; for the king of Babylon had taken … all that pertained to the king of Egypt" (2 Kings 24:7). The ISBE notes that Neco was also a builder and trader who began the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea that Darius later finished. (Source: ISBE 1915, "Pharaoh-necoh.")
Empires and rulers of the Old Testament world
Pharaoh Neco: the death of Josiah
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- 2 Kings 23:29bsb
During Josiah’s reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to confront him, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo.
- 2 Chronicles 35:22bsb
Josiah, however, did not turn away from him; instead, in order to engage him in battle, he disguised himself. He did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, but went to fight him on the Plain of Megiddo.
- 2 Kings 24:7bsb
Now the king of Egypt did not march out of his land again, because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory, from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.
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