He tried
to cut a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea; and wishing to check the
power of Babylon, he brought an army by sea to make war upon Assyria,
landing at Acre under Mount Carmel, and intending to march through
Gilead. Josiah, being a tributary of Babylon, thought it his duty to
endeavour to stop him, and going out to battle with him at Megiddo, was
there mortally wounded, and died on his way home, in the year 611. The
mourning of the Jews over their good king was so bitter, that it was a
proverb long after; and they had indeed reason to lament, for he was the
last who stood between them and their sin and their punishment.
Jehoahaz, or Shallum, his third son, a wicked young man, only reigned
while Necho was fighting a battle with the Babylonians on the Euphrates,
and then was carried off in chains to Egypt, while Necho set up Eliakim,
or Jehoiakim, another brother, in his stead. Jehoiakim was idolatrous,
cruel, and violent; he persecuted the prophets, and did everything
to draw on himself the punishment of Heaven. Necho, making another
invasion, was defeated by the great Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and
hunted back by him into Egypt.
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