2 Chronicles 35:21

21 Neco sent messengers to Josiah saying, "What do we have against each other, O king of Judah? I haven't come to fight against you but against the country with whom I'm at war. God commanded me to hurry, so don't get in my way; you'll only interfere with God, who is on my side in this, and he'll destroy you."

2 Chronicles 35:21 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 35:21

But he sent ambassadors to him
That is, Necho sent to Josiah:

saying, what have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah?
signifying he had no quarrel with him, he did not come to fight with him, and he had no business to intermeddle between him and another prince:

I come not against thee this day;
in an hostile manner:

but against the house wherewith I have war;
the king of Assyria:

for God commanded me to make haste;
and oppose his enemy: according to the Targum, it was his idol; and which is the sense of other Jewish writers ^F25; but the true God might have appeared to him in a dream, or sent a prophet to him; or at least he might pretend this, that it might have the greater effect on Josiah; and indeed it seems to be real from the following verse:

forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy
thee not;
he concluded God was with him, and would succeed him, because he had put him upon this enterprise, and hastened him to it; therefore Josiah, in opposing him, might expect to be resisted by him, and fall.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F25 T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 22. 2.

2 Chronicles 35:21 In-Context

19 In the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated.

20 Some time later, after Josiah's reformation of The Temple, Neco king of Egypt marched out toward Carchemish on the Euphrates River on his way to war. Josiah went out to fight him.

21 Neco sent messengers to Josiah saying, "What do we have against each other, O king of Judah? I haven't come to fight against you but against the country with whom I'm at war. God commanded me to hurry, so don't get in my way; you'll only interfere with God, who is on my side in this, and he'll destroy you."

22 But Josiah was spoiling for a fight and wouldn't listen to a thing Neco said (in actuality it was God who said it). Though King Josiah disguised himself when they met on the plain of Megiddo,

23 archers shot him anyway. The king said to his servants, "Get me out of here - I'm badly wounded."