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In 2 Chronicles, Josiah ignores a warning that Pharaoh Necho says came from God and dies after the battle at Megiddo. 1 Esdras retells the battle but credits the warning Josiah ignored to the prophet Jeremiah, speaking for God.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Chronicles 35:22
Hebrew Bible
20 After Josiah had done all this for the temple, King Necho of Egypt marched up to do battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates River. Josiah marched out to oppose him. 21 Necho sent messengers to him, saying, “Why are you opposing me, O king of Judah? I am not attacking you today, but the kingdom with which I am at war. God told me to hurry. Stop opposing God, who is with me, or else he will destroy you.” 22 But Josiah did not turn back from him; he disguised himself for battle. He did not take seriously the words of Necho that he had received from God; he went to fight him in the Plain of Megiddo. 23 Archers shot King Josiah; the king ordered his servants, “Take me out of this chariot, for I am seriously wounded.” 24 So his servants took him out of the chariot, put him in another chariot that he owned, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors; all the people of Judah and Jerusalem mourned Josiah.
1 Esdras 1:28
Esdras A, 3 Esdras
Deuterocanon
25 Now after all these acts of Josiah, it came to pass that Pharaoh the king of Egypt came to make war at Carchemish on the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him. 26 But the king of Egypt sent to him, saying, “What do I have to do with you, O king of Judea? 27 I wasn’t sent out from the Lord God against you, for my war is against the Euphrates. Now the Lord is with me, yes, the Lord is with me hastening me forward. Depart from me, and don’t be against the Lord.” 28 However, Josiah didn’t turn back to his chariot, but tried to fight with him, not regarding the words of the prophet Jeremiah from the Lord’s mouth, 29 but joined battle with him in the plain of Megiddo, and the commanders came down against King Josiah. 30 Then the king said to his servants, “Carry me away out of the battle, for I am very weak!” Immediately his servants carried him away out of the army. 31 Then he got into his second chariot. After he was brought back to Jerusalem he died, and was buried in the tomb of his ancestors.
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Notes and References
“... 1:24–26. and the king of Egypt The main thrust of Pharaoh’s address is that he was sent to battle by God and should not be disturbed on the way. Pharaoh refers to his God as “the Lord who is with me”; the Chronicler identified this God with the God of Josiah but used the general title “God.” In all the occurrences of this title—five times in this short passage—1 Esdras replaces “God” by the title “the Lord God” or simply “the Lord,” the title of the God of Israel. According to 1 Esdras, Pharaoh’s God was the God of Israel, and he was hastening him to wage war on the Euphrates. Moreover, rather than “Josiah . . . [was] heedless of Necho’s words from the mouth of God” (2 Chron. 35:22),1 Esdras reads “Josiah . . . did not heed the words of the prophet Jeremiah from the mouth of the Lord.” 1 Esdras does not specify where and when Jeremiah spoke to Josiah about this issue, but the message is clear: Josiah should have listened to the Lord’s warning and retreated from battle, but he did not. The tragic outcome was thus fully justified. ...”
Japhet, Sara
"1 Esdras" in Feldman, Louis H.; Kugel, James L.; Schiffman, Lawrence H. (ed.) Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture
(p. 152) Jewish Publication Society, 2013
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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