2 Kings 23:21-35

Celebration of the Passover. The mention of the eighteenth year (2 Kings 23:23; cf. 2 Kings 22:3) shows that the reforms of Josiah occupied six months. The book was discovered in the first month of the civil year, in autumn. It was read (cf. Deuteronomy 31:10) at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Passover contemplated in Deuteronomy 16:6 was celebrated in the central sanctuary. It was not the domestic feast of the Priestly Code (Exodus 12), but a general assembly of the nation. In 2 Chronicles 30 Hezekiah is said to have kept a similar feast, but this is denied in 2 Kings 23:22.

2 Kings 23:29 f. Death of Josiah. Pharaoh-necoh (pp. 60, 72) is the first Pharaoh in the Bible whose name is given. He belonged to the 26th Dynasty. Apparently, when he advanced to occupy a position on the Euphrates, Josiah, prompted either by loyalty to his former masters, the Assyrians, or confident that his reforms had secured him Divine support, tried to stop the progress of the Egyptians at Megiddo. His defeat sealed Judah's ruin (Jeremiah 22:10). Megiddo is the Armageddon (Har-magedon) of the Apocalypse (Revelation 16:16). The date of Josiah's defeat is about 608 B.C.

2 Kings 23:31 to 2 Kings 25:21. Fall and Captivity of Judah. The last kings of Judah were Jehoahaz and Eliakim (Jehoiakim), sons of Josiah; Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim; and Zedekiah (Mattaniah), another son of Josiah. The history of this period is related or alluded to throughout the Book of Jeremiah. Its most important feature is the rise of the Babylonian or Chaldean empire under Nabopolassar and his son Nebuchadrezzar (pp. 60, 72f.).

2 Kings 23:31. Jehoahaz. This king was also called Shallum (Jeremiah 22:11). His captivity in Egypt is the subject of an elegy by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 19:1). The scene of his first imprisonment, Riblah in the land of Hamath, was also that of Zedekiah's humiliation (2 Kings 25:21; Jeremiah 39:5).