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Easton's Bible Dictionary
(FROM NECHO II) An Egyptian king, the son and successor
of Psammetichus (B.C. 610-594), the contemporary of Josiah, king of Judah. For
some reason he proclaimed war against the king of Assyria. He led forth a powerful
army and marched northward, but was met by the king of Judah at Megiddo, who refused
him a passage through his territory. Here a fierce battle was fought and Josiah
was slain ( 2 Chronicles 35:20 - 24 ). Possibly, as some suppose, Necho may have
brought his army by sea to some port to the north of Dor (Compare Joshua 11:2
; 12:23 ), a Phoenician town at no great distance from Megiddo. After this battle
Necho marched on to Carchemish (q.v.), where he met and conquered the Assyrian
army, and thus all the Syrian provinces, including Palestine, came under his dominion.
On his return march he deposed Jehoahaz, who had succeeded his father Josiah,
and made Eliakim, Josiah's eldest son, whose name he changed into Jehoiakim, king.
Jehoahaz he carried down into Egypt, where he died ( 2 Kings 23:31 ; 2 Chronicles
36:1 - 4 ). Four years after this conquest Necho again marched to the Euphrates;
but here he was met and his army routed by the Chaldeans (B.C. 606) under Nebuchadnezzar,
who drove the Egyptians back, and took from them all the territory they had conquered,
from the Euphrates unto the "river of Egypt" ( Jeremiah 46:2 ; 2 Kings 24:7 ,
24:8 ). Soon after this Necho died, and was succeeded by his son, Psammetichus
II. (See NEBUCHADNEZZAR .)
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
lame; beaten
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(lame). ( 2 Chronicles 35:20 , 35:22 ; 36:4 ) [PHARAOH-NECHO]
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
ne'-ko.
See From PHARAOH-NECOH.
ne'-ko (par'oh nekhoh, also nekho; Nechao (2 Kings 23:29 , 33 , 34 ; 2 Chronicles
35:22 ; 36:4, the King James Version, Necho, the Revised Version (British and
American) NECO; Jeremiah 46:2; 2 Chronicles 35:20, the King James Version Necho,
the Revised Version (British and American) NECO)):
1. Pharaoh-Necoh, 610-594 BC:
Nekau II of the monuments--Greek Nekos--was the 2nd king of the XXVIth Dynasty,
being the son of Psammetichus I, famous in Greek contemporary history, whose long
reign has left so many memorials both in Upper and Lower Egypt (Herodotus ii.153,
158, 169). The great event of his reign (610-594 BC) was his expedition across
Syria to secure for himself a share in the decaying empire of Assyria. In the
days of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, Egypt had been tributary to Assyria, and,
when it began to break up, Egypt and other subject kingdoms saw their opportunity
to throw off its yoke. Psammetichus had turned back the Scythian hordes which
had reached his border on their western march, and now his son Necoh was to make
a bold stroke for empire.
2. Battle of Megiddo, 608 BC:
On his expedition toward the East, he had to pass through the territory of Judah,
and he desired to have Josiah its king as an ally. Whatever may have been his
reasons, Josiah remained loyal to his Assyrian suzerain, declined the Egyptian
alliance, and threw himself across the path of the invader. The opposing armies
met on the battlefield of Megiddo, 608 BC, where Josiah was mortally wounded and
soon after died amid the lamentations of his people. Necoh marched northward,
captured Kadesh, and pressed on to the Euphrates. Not having met an enemy there,
he seems to have turned back and established himself for a time at Riblah in Syria.
To Riblah he summoned Jehoahaz whom the people had anointed king in room of his
father Josiah, deposed him after a brief reign of 3 months, and set his brother
Jehoiakim on the throne as the vassal of Egypt. Jehoiakim paid up the tribute
of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold which Necoh had imposed upon
the land, but he recovered it by exactions which he made from the people (2 Kings
23:35).
3. Battle of Carchemish, 604 BC:
The Egyptian monarch still kept some hold upon Syria, and his presence there had
attracted the attention of the newly established power at Babylon. The Chaldeans
under Nebuchadrezzar set out for the Euphrates, and, meeting the army of Pharaoh-necoh
at Carchemish, inflicted upon him a signal defeat. The Chaldeans were now undisputed
masters of Western Asia, and the sacred historian relates that "the king of Egypt
came not again any more out of his land; for the king of Babylon had taken, from
the brook of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of
Egypt" (2 Kings 24:7).
4. Commercial Development of Egypt:
While Pharaoh-necoh II was ambitious to extend his empire, he was bent also upon
the commercial development of Egypt. For this he set himself to collect a navy.
He had two fleets built, composed of triremes, one of them to navigate the Mediterranean,
the other to navigate the Red Sea. In order to secure a combination of his fleets,
he conceived the idea of reopening the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea
which had been originally constructed by Seti I and Rameses II, two Pharaohs of
the days of the Israelite oppression, but had become silted up by desert sands.
He excavated this old canal, following the line of the former cutting, and widening
it so that two triremes might meet and pass each other in it. According to Herodotus
he was obliged to desist from the undertaking in consequence of the mortality
among the laborers, and it was left to Darius to complete. He also resolved to
try whether it was possible to circumnavigate Africa, and, manning his ships with
Phoenician sailors, he sent them forth with instructions to keep the coast of
Africa on their right and to return to Egypt by way of the Mediterranean. They
succeeded, and, rounding the Cape of Good Hope from the East, anticipated by two
millenniums the feat which Vasco da Gama accomplished from the West. The enterprise
took more than two years, and the result of it was of no practical value. Herodotus,
when he visited Egypt in 450 BC, saw still remaining the docks which Necoh had
built for the accommodation of his fleet.
LITERATURE.
Flinders Petrie, History of Egypt, III, 335; Wiedemann, Geschichte von Alt-Aegypten,
179-90; Rawlinson, Egypt ("Story of the Nations"), 354; Herodotus ii.158, 159.
T. Nicol.
Tags:
bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, fought and killed josiah (king of judah), king of egypt, necho, pharaoh
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