and to disfigure oneself (Job 30:18). This signification is suitable here also, where the word is transferred to the mental domain: to disfigure oneself, i.e., to undertake anything which contradicts one's character. During his whole reign, Josiah had endeavoured to carry out the will of God; while in his action against Pharaoh, on the contrary, he had acted in a different way, going into battle against the will of God.[1]
As to the motive which induced Josiah, notwithstanding Necho's warning, to oppose him by force of arms, see the remark on 2Ki 23:29. The author of the Chronicle judges the matter from the religious point of view, from which the undertaking is seen to have been against the will of God, and therefore to have ended in Josiah's destruction, and does not further reflect on the working of divine providence, exhibited in the fact that the pious king was taken away before the judgment, the destruction of the kingdom of Judah, broke over the sinful people. For further information as to the Valley of Megiddo, the place where the battle was fought, and on the death of Josiah, see 2Ki 23:29. The העבירוּני, bring me forth (2Ch 35:23), is explained in 2Ch 35:24 : his servants took him, mortally wounded by an arrow, from the war-chariot, and placed him in a second chariot which belonged to him, and probably was more comfortable for a wounded man.
Verses 25-27
The death of the pious king was deeply lamented by his people. The prophet Jeremiah composed a lamentation for Josiah: “and all the singing-men and singing-women spake in their lamentations of Josiah unto this day;” i.e., in the lamentation which they were wont to sing on certain fixed days, they sung also the lamentation for Josiah. “And they made them (these lamentations) an ordinance (a standing custom) in Israel, and they are written in the lamentations,” i.e., in a collection of lamentations, in which, among others, that composed by Jeremiah on the death of Josiah was contained. This collection is, however, not to be identified with the Lamentations
- ↑ Bertheau would alter התחפשׂ into התחזק, because the lxx, and probably also the Vulg., Syr., 3 Esr. 2Ch 1:16, and perhaps also Josephus, have so read. But only the lxx have ἐκραταιώθη, Vulg. praeparavit, 3 Esr. ἐπεχείρει; so that for התחזק only the lxx remain, whose translation gives no sufficient ground for an alteration of the text. התחזק, to show oneself strong, or courageous, is not at all suitable; for the author of the Chronicle is not wont to regard enterprises undertaken against God's will, and unfortunate in their results, as proofs of physical or spiritual strength.
