2 Kings 23:30

carried himin a chariot] The italics are wrong as also in 2 Kings 9:28. The verb signifies -to carry in a chariot". The R.V. prints in common type. According to the Chronicler, they moved him from his war chariot into a second chariot which he had at hand. From Zechariah 12:11 -As the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo" it has been supposed that Josiah did not die till he reached Hadad-Rimmon, and that the mourning there mentioned by the prophet was for this good king's death. The Chronicler dwells at length on the sorrow which this event caused. -Jeremiah lamented for him, and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations unto this day". Some have thought that the lamentation here spoken of is preserved to us in the poem contained in Lamentations 4. But there is hardly anything in it which can be taken as clear allusion to this time. Jeremiah's dirge for Josiah has probably perished with much other literature of the period.

Jehoahaz … and anointed him To anoint a king who succeeded in the ordinary way was not usual. Hence some have thought that the people of the land were not acting according to what Josiah himself would have wished, nor choosing the recognised successor in passing over the elder brother. They wished therefore, by this solemn rite, to ensure his acceptance as their religiously consecrated monarch.

It appears from the history in Kings that Eliakim (Jehoiakim) was older than Jehoahaz, because on Eliakim's succession he is stated to have been 25 years old, while Jehoahaz, whose reign was only of three months" duration, is said to have been 23 when he came to the throne (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Kings 23:36). But in the genealogy (1 Chronicles 3:15) the sons of Josiah are put down as -the firstborn Johanan (and this the margin of A.V. identifies with Jehoahaz), the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum". If the margin of A.V. is correct then Jehoahaz would have succeeded in his proper place. But he is called Shallum in Jeremiah 22:11, and so he would be, according to the Chronicler, the fourth son.