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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

2 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

came up to fight against Carchemish

on 2 Chronicles 35:20-22

After all this marks a sudden reversal at the height of the reform: Necho of Egypt marches for Carchemish and sends word that his war is not with Judah, for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Josiah will not turn, disguising himself before the battle exactly as Ahab disguised himself at Ramoth-gilead in 2 Chr 18:29, a scene Chronicles has already told once as a warning, and verse 22 names what he refused as the words of Necho from the mouth of God. The commentators divide over what kind of word this was: Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it as a real oracle Josiah should have weighed, carried through an unlikely messenger, while the text itself gives Necho no identity beyond a pagan king's own claim, a claim the outcome will vindicate.

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.

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

Solomon Receives the Queen of Sheba, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Solomon Receives the Queen of Sheba, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
2 Chronicles: the study guide →Read 2 Chronicles 35 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible.

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