2 Chronicles 35:20

“After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, etc.] Purified it, and cleansed it from the filth in it, and from all idolatry, and had repaired it, and put the service of it in good order, and on a good footing, after which great prosperity in church and state might have been expected: Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates; now called Querquisia, supposed by some to be the same with the Cadytis of Herodotus, which that historian calls a great city of Syria, whither he says Necho went after the battle with the Syrians f159; of which (See Gill on “<231009>Isaiah 10:9”) and of this king of Egypt, (See Gill on “<122329>2 Kings 23:29”) (See Gill on…”

“HIS DEATH. (Ch2 35:20-27) After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple--He most probably calculated that the restoration of the divine worship, with the revival of vital religion in the land, would lead, according to God's promise and the uniform experience of the Hebrew people, to a period of settled peace and increased prosperity. His hopes were disappointed. The bright interval of tranquillity that followed his re-establishment of the true religion was brief. But it must be observed that this interruption did not proceed from any unfaithfulness in the divine promise, but from the state into which the kingdom of Judah had brought itself by the national apostasy, which was drawing…”

“After all this - i. e. 13 years after, 608 B.C. See the 2 Kings 23:28-29 notes. return to 'Top of Page'”

“After all - When he and his people hoped that God was reconciled, and the foundation of a lasting happiness laid, their hopes were quickly blasted. So much are men often mistaken in their judgments about the designs of God's providence. 2 Chronicles 35:21”

“35:20-24 The narrative jumps from Josiah’s eighteenth year (622 BC) to the year of his death (609 BC). The decline of the Assyrian Empire brought Egypt and Babylon, two great powers that had long been subject to Assyria, into conflict with each other. King Neco of Egypt, who had allied with Assyria to resist Babylonian expansion, asked Josiah to allow free passage of his army. Josiah’s interception might have been the result of a coalition with Babylon, or it might have been his own attempt to establish independence from Egypt. Josiah’s death was caused by his disobedience to a divine oracle delivered by a Gentile king.”

“am 3394, bc 610 temple: Heb. house Necho: Pharaoh, the lame, says the Targumist. Kg2 23:29, Kg2 23:30, Pharaoh-necho, Jer 46:2-12 Charchemish: Isa 10:9 2 Chronicles 35:21”

“The end of Josiah's reign; his death in battle against Pharaoh Necho. Cf. Kg2 23:25-30. \- The catastrophe in which the pious king found his death is in 2 Kings introduced by the remark, that although Josiah returned unto the Lord with all his heart and all his soul and all his strength, and walked altogether according to the law, so that there was no king before him, and none arose after him, who was like him, yet the Lord did not turn away from the fierceness of His great wrath against Judah, and resolved to remove Judah also out of His sight, because of the sins of Manasseh. This didactic connecting of the tragical end of the pious king with the task of his reign, which he followed out so…”