Chronicles II 35:20

20 And Pharao Nechao king of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians to the river Euphrates, and king Josias went to meet him.

Chronicles II 35:20 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 35:20

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple
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 ^F24; of which (See Gill on Isaiah 10:9) and of this king of Egypt, (See Gill on 2 Kings 23:29) (See Gill on Jeremiah 46:2)

and Josiah went out against him;
or to meet him, and stop him from going through his land, which lay between Egypt and Syria; Egypt being on the south of Israel, and Euphrates on the north of it, as Jarchi observes.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 159. & Galei not. in ib.

Chronicles II 35:20 In-Context

18 And there was no passover like it in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, or any king of Israel: they kept not such a passover as Josias, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Juda and Israel that were present, and the dwellers in Jerusalem, kept to the Lord.

19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josias this passover was kept, after all these things that Josias did in the house. And king Josias burnt those who had in them a divining spirit, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and the sodomites which were in the land of Juda and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law that were written in the book which Chelcias the priest found in the house of the Lord. There was no like him before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and all his soul, and all his strength, according to all the law of Moses, and after him there rose up none like him. Nevertheless the Lord turned not from the anger of his fierce wrath, wherewith the Lord was greatly angry against Juda, for all the provocations wherewith Manasses provoked him: and the Lord said, I will even remove Juda also from my presence, as I have removed Israel, and I have rejected the city which I chose, Jerusalem, and thehouse of which I said, My name shall be there.

20 And Pharao Nechao king of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians to the river Euphrates, and king Josias went to meet him.

21 And he sent messengers to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, O king of Juda? I am not come to-day to war against thee; and God has told me to hasten: beware of the God that is with me, lest he destroy thee.

22 However, Josias turned not his face from him, but strengthened himself to fight against him, and hearkened not to the words of Nechao by the mouth of God, and he came to fight in the plain of Mageddo.