An. 610.

a

that diffolution, and confequently, that the deftruction of Nineveh, whereby this diffolution was brought to pafs, was just before this war, in the year where, according to Eufebius, I have placed it. On Necho's taking his way through Judea, a Jofiah resolved to impede his march; and therefore, getting together his forces, he posted himself in the valley of MegidJofiah 31. do, there to stop his paffage: whereon Necho fent ambaffadors unto him, to let him know, that he had no defign upon him, that the war he was engaged in was against others; and therefore advised him not to meddle with him, left it fhould turn to his hurt. But Jofiah not hearkening thereto, on Necho's marching up to the place where he was pofted to top his paffage, it there came to a battle between them; wherein Jofiah was not only overthrown, but also unfortunately received a wourd, of which, on his return to Jerufalem, he there died, after he had reigned thirty-one years.

It is the notion of many, that Jofiah engaged rafhly and unadvisedly in this war, upon an over confidence in the merit of his own righteoufnefs; as if God, for this reafon, muft neceffarily have given him fuccefs in every war which he should engage himself in. But this would be a prefumption very unworthy of fo religious a perfon. There was another reafon that engaged him in this undertaking, which hath been above hinted at. From the time of Manaffeh's restoration, the kings of Judah were homagers to the kings of Babylon, and bound by oath to adhere to them against all their enemies, especially against the Egyptians, and to defend that border of their empire against them; and, for this purpose, they feem to have had conferred on them the rest of the land of Canaan, that which had formerly been poffeffed by the other ten tribes, till conquered from them by the Affyrians. It is certain Jofiah had the whole land of Ifrael in the fame extent in which it had been held by David and Solomon, before it was divided into two kingdoms. For his reformation went through all of it; and it was executed by him, not only in Bethel (where one of Jeroboam's calves ftood), but alfo in every other part thereof, and with the fame fovereign authority as in Judea itself; and therefore he must have been king of the whole. And it is to be remarked, that the battle was fought, not within the territories of Judea, but at Megiddo, a town of the tribe of Manafleh, lying in the middle of the kingdom of Ifrael, where Jofiah would have had nothing to do, had he not been king of that kingdom alfo, as well as of the other of Judah and he could have had it no otherwife, but by grant from the king of Babylon,

Babylon, a province of whofe empire it was made by the conqueft of it, first begun by Tiglath-Pilefer, and afterwards finifhed by Salmanefer and Efarhaddon. And if this grant was not upon the exprefs conditions which I have mentioned, yet whatLoever other terms there were of this conceffion, moft certainly fidelity to the fovereign paramount, and a fteady adherence to his intereft, against all his enemies, was always required in fuch cafes, and an oath of God exacted for the performance hereof. And it is not to be doubted, but that Jofiah had taken such an oath to Nabopollafar, the then reigning king of Babylon, as Jehoiakim and Zedekiah afterwards did to Nebuchadnezzar, his fon and fucceffor in that empire; and therefore, fhould Jofiah, when under fuch an obligation, have permitted an enemy of the king of Babylon to pafs through his country to make war upon him, without any oppofition, it would plainly have amounted to a breach of his oath, and a violation of that fidelity which he had in the name of his God fworn unto him, which fo good and just a man as Jofiah was could not but abfolutely deteft. For, although the Romanists make nothing of breaking faith with heretics, yet the breaking of faith with an heathen was condemned by God himself in Jehoiakim and Zedekiah; and moft certainly it would have been condemned in Jofiah alfo, had he become guilty of it; which being what a perfon fo well inftructed in religion as Jofiah was could not but be thoroughly convinced of, the fenfe which he had of his duty, in this particular, feems folely to have been that which engaged him in this war, in which he perished: and with him perifhed all the glory, honour, and profperity of the Jewish nation; for, after that, nothing else enfued but a difmal fcene of God's judgements upon the land, till, at length, all Judah and Jerufalem. were fwallowed up by them in a woful deftruction.

The death of fo excellent a prince was defervedly lamented by all his people, and by none more than by Jeremiah, the prophet, who had a thorough fenfe of the greatnefs of the lofs, and alfo a full forefight of the great calamities that were afterwards to follow upon the whole people of the Jews; and therefore, while his heart was full with the view of both, he wrote ba fong of lamentation upon this doleful occafion, as he afterwards did another upon the deftruction of Jerufalem. This laft is that which we ftill have; the other is not now extant. Megiddo, where the battle was fought, was a city d in the tribe

с

Ezek. xvi. 13-19.

D 4

b 2 Chron. XXXV. 25.

This laft, referring throughout to the deftruction of Jerufalem, could not be that which was wrote upon the death of Jofiah.

d Jofhua xvii. 11. Judges i. 27.

tribe of Manaffeh, on this fide Jordan, which is by Herodotus called Magdolum, nigh it was the town of Hadad-Rimmon, afterwards called a Maximianopolis; and therefore the lamentation for the death of Jofiah is in fcripture called the "Lamentation of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo;" which was fo great for this excellent prince, and fo long continued, "that the lamentation of Hadad-Rimmon afterwards became a verbial phrafe for the expreffing of any extraordinary forrow. This great and general mourning of all the people of Ifrael for the death of this prince, and the prophet Jeremiah's joining fo pathetically with them herein, theweth in how great a reputation he was with them, which he would not have deferved, had he engaged in this war contrary to the words of that prophet, fpoken to him from the mouth of the Lord, as the apocryphal writer of the firft book of Efdras, and others from him, fay; for then he would have died in rebellion against God, and difobedience to his command; and then neither God's prophet, nor God's people, could, in this cafe, without finning against God, have expreffed fo great an esteem for him as this mourning implied; and therefore this mourning alone is a fufficient proof of the contrary. Befides, it is to be obferved, that no part of canonical fcripture gives us the leaft intimation of it; nor can we from thence have any reafon or ground to believe, that there was any fuch word from the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah, or any other prophet, to recal Jofiah from this war. All that is faid of it is from the apocryphal book I have mentioned; of which it may be truly faid, that where it is not a transcript from Ezra, or fome other canonical fcripture, it is no more than a bundle of fables, too abfurd for the belief of the Romanists themfelves (for they have not taken this book into their canonical fcripture, though they have thofe of Tobit and of Bel and the Dragon); and therefore it is deferving of no man's regard in this particular.

It is faid indeed (2 Chr. xxxv. 21.) that Necho fent meffengers to Jofiah, to tell him, that he was fent of God on this expedition; that God was with him in it; and that to meddle with him would be to meddle with God; and that therefore he ctight to forbear, that God deftroy him not; and (ver. 22.) that Jofiah hearkened not to the word of Necho from the mouth of God. And, from all this put together, fome would infer, that Jofiah was difobedient to the word of God, in going to that war. But this is utterly inconfiftent with the character which is given us in feripture of that religious and excellent prince; and therefore what is here faid muft not be understood of the truc God, the

1

Ilieronymus.

b Zechariah xii. 14.

C Chap. i. 28.

the Lord Jehovah, who was the God of Ifrael, but of the Egyptian gods, whofe oracles Jofiah had no reason to have any regard to. For Necho, being an heathen prince, knew not the Lord Jehovah, nor ever confulted his prophets or his oracles: the Egyptian gods were thofe only whom he worshipped, and whole oracles he confulted; and therefore when he faith he was fent of God on this expedition, and that God was with him, he meant none other than his false Egyptian gods, whom he ferved: for, wherever the word God occurs in this text, it is not expreffed in the Hebrew original by the word Jehovah, which is the proper name of the true God, but by the word Elohim, which, being in the plural number, is equally applicable to the falfe gods of the heathens, as well as to the true God, who was the God of Ifrael; and, in the feriptures of the Old Teftament, it is equally used for the exprefling of the one as well as the other. For, wherever there is occafion therein to speak of thofe falfe gods, it is by the word Elohim that they are there mentioned. And, whereas it is faid (ver. 22.), that "Jofiah hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God," (and from hence it is chiefly inferred, that the meffage which Necho fent to Jofiah was truly from God), it is to be obferved, that the phrafe, which we render from the mouth of God, is, in the Hebrew original Mippi Elohim, i. e. from the mouth of Elohim, which may be interpreted of the falfe gods, as well as of the true God (as hath been already faid), and much rather, in this place, of the former, than of the latter. For, wherever elfe, a through the whole Hebrew text of the holy fcriptures, there is mention made of any word coming from the mouth of God, he is there mentioned by the name Jehovah, which determines it to be the true God; and this is the only place, in the whole Hebrew Bible, where, in the ufe of this phrafe, it is expreffed otherwife, that is, by the name Elohim, and not by the name Jehovah; which change in the phrafe, in this place, is a fufficient proof to me, that there must be here a change in the figuification alfo, and that the word, which is here faid to come from the mouth of Elohim, is not the fame with the word which is, every where elfe, in the ufe of this phrafe in fcripture, faid to come from the mouth of Jehovah, but that Elohim muft, in this place, fignify the falfe gods of the Egyptians; and that from their falfe oracles only Necho had this word which he fent to Jofiah. For what had he to do with any word from the true God, who knew him not, nor ever worshipped him? Or how could any fuch revelation come to him,

2 Chr. xxxvi. 12.

See Deut. viii. 3. Joh. ix. 14. 1 Kings xiii. 21. If.. 20. xl. 5. viii. 14. Ixti. 2. Jer. ix. 12. & xxiii. 16. Micah iv. 4.

a

him, who knew not any of his prophets, or ever confulted them? And therefore, moft certainly, the word which is here faid to come Mippi Elohim, i. e. from the mouth of Elohim, must be understood only of Necho's Elohim, that is, of thofe falfe Egyptian gods, whofe oracles he confulted, before he undertook this expedition, as it was than ufual with heathen princes, on fuch occafions, to confult the falfe deluding oracles of the gods they worshipped. And had it been here Mippi Jehovah, i. e. from the mouth of Jehovah, instead of Mippi Elohim, confidering who fent the meffage, it would not have much mended the matter; for Jofiah would have had no reason to believe it from fuch a meffenger. When Sennacherib came up against Judah,he fent Hezekiah word, that the Lord (Jehovah in the Hebrew) faid unto him, Go up against this land, and destroy it. But it was not reckoned a fault in Hezekiab, that he believed him not, neither could it be reckoned a fault in Jofiah in doing the fame. For it is certain, that Sennacherib, in io pretending, lied to King Hezekiah; and, why might not Jofiah then have as good reafon to conclude that Necho, in the like pretence, might have lied alfo unto him? for God ufed not to fend his word to his fervants by fuch meffengers. But Necho's pretence was not fo large as Sennacherib's; for Sennacherib pretended to be fent by Jehovah, the certain name of the true God, but Necho pretended to be fent only by Elohim, which may be interpreted of his falfe Egyptian gods, as well as of the true God. And it seems clear he could mean none other than the former by that word in this text; and therefore Jofiah could not be liable to any blame, in not hearkening to any words which came from them. After the death of Jofiah, the people of the land took Jeho ahaz, his fon, who was alfo called Shallum, and made him king in his fead. He was much unlike his father, for he did that which was evil in the fight of the Lord, and therefore he was foon tumbled down from his throne into a prifon, where he ended his days with mifery and difgrace in a strange land.

b

For Pharaoh-Necho, having had the good fuccefs, in his expedition, to beat the Babylonians at the Euphrates; and having thereon taken Carchemith, a great city in thofe parts, and fecured it to himself with a good garrifon, after three months returned again towards Egypt, and hearing, in his way, that Jehoahaz had taken upon him to be king of Judah, without his confent, dhe fent for him to Riblah in Syria, and, on his arri

22 Kings xviii. 25. If. xxxvi. 10.

b2 Kings xxiii, 31. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 1. Jofephus Antiq. lib. 10. c. 6.

d2 Kings xxiii. 33. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 3. 4.

val,