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2 Chronicles 35:20

in 2 Chronicles 35

After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt marched up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to confront him.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

KJV

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

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This verse in 2 Chronicles 35

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Commentators are not agreed whether it was really a divine commission given him through Jeremiah, or whether he merely used the name of God as an authority that Josiah would not refuse to obey. As he could not know the truth of Necho's declaration, Josiah did not sin in opposing him; or, if he sinned at all, it was a sin of ignorance.

This site's exposition

marched up to fight at Carchemish

on 2 Chronicles 35:20-22

At the height of the reform, Neco of Egypt marches and tells Josiah, “God told me to hurry”. Verse 22 names what he refused as “Neco’s words from the mouth of God”. Albert Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take them as a real oracle carried by an unlikely messenger.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

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.
After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Necho king of Egypt - Pharaoh the lame, says the Targum.
After all this - i. e. 13 years after, 608 B.C. See the 2Ki 23:28-29 notes.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

And Elohim (=God) said that I should hurry; refrain, then, from interfering with Elohim who is with me.
Radak: Provence, 1160–1235 · Radak on II Chronicles 35:21:1, via Sefaria, The Commentary of Radak to Chronicles: A Translation with Introduction and Supercommentary, by Yitzhak Berger, Brown University, 2007

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • אַחֲרֵ֣יafter

    ʾachareiH310 →715 times

  • כָל־all

    khol-H3605 →5413 times

  • זֹ֗אתthis

    zotH2063 →603 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֨רwhen

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • הֵכִ֤יןhe had prepared

    hekhinH3559 →217 times

  • יֹֽאשִׁיָּ֙הוּ֙Josiah

    yoshiyahuH2977 →53 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • הַבַּ֔יִתthe house

    habayitH1004 →2046 times

  • עָלָ֞הhe came up

    ʾalahH5927 →890 times

  • נְכ֧וֹNecho

    nekhoH5224 →8 times

  • מֶֽלֶךְ־[the] king of

    melekh-H4428 →2525 times

  • מִצְרַ֛יִםEgypt

    mitzrayimH4714 →641 times

  • לְהִלָּחֵ֥םto do battle

    lehilachemH3898 →177 times

  • בְּכַרְכְּמִ֖ישׁat Carchemish

    bekharkemishH3751 →

  • עַל־on

    ʾal-H5921 →5755 times

  • פְּרָ֑ת[the] Euphrates

    peratH6578 →

  • וַיֵּצֵ֥אand he went out

    vaiyetze'H3318 →1067 times

  • לִקְרָאת֖וֹto meet him

    likratoH7122 →

  • יֹאשִׁיָּֽהוּ׃Josiah

    yoshiyahuH2977 →53 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Isaiah 10:9

    “Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

    it leads to

    • 2 Kings 16:9

      So the king of Assyria responded to him, marched up to Damascus, and captured it. He took its people to Kir as captives and put Rezin to death.

    • Genesis 10:10

      His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

    • Jeremiah 46:2

      concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of…

    • Jeremiah 49:23

      Concerning Damascus: “Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, for they have heard a bad report; they are agitated like the sea; their anxiety cannot be calmed.

    • 2 Kings 17:5–6

      Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.

Where this verse is studied

What the record shows

1 entry
  • Necho II — attested in contemporary inscriptionundisputed

    Ashurbanipal inscriptions; Babylonian Chronicle

    Biblical figure (Pharaoh, 610-595 BC) identified in extra-biblical epigraphy.

About 2 Chronicles

Saphan Reading the Book of the Law to Josiah, Philip Galle, engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1569, Royal Library of Belgium. Public domain.
Saphan Reading the Book of the Law to Josiah, Philip Galle, engraving after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1569, Royal Library of Belgium. Public domain.
2 Chronicles: the study guide →Read 2 Chronicles 35 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.

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