thereby become so formidable that they drew upon themselves the jealousy of all their neighbors. Nechao, alarmed at the danger, advanced to the Euphrates, at the head of a powerful army, in order to check their progress. Josiah, king of Judah, so famous for his uncommon piety observing that he took his route through Judea, resolved to oppose his passage. With this view, he raised all the forces of his kingdom, and posted himself in the valley of Megiddo, a city on this side of Jordan, belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, and called Magdolus by Herodotus. Nechao informed him by a herald, that his enterprize was not designed against him; that he had other enemies in view, and that he undertook this war, in the name of God, who was with him; that for this reason he advised Josiah not to concern himself with this war, for fear it should turn to his disadvantage. However, Josiah was not moved by these reasons: he was sensible that the bare march of so powerful an army through Judea, would entirely ruin it. And besides, he feared that the victor, after the defeat of the Babylonians, would fall upon him, and dispossess him of part of his dominions. He therefore marched to engage Nechao; and was not only overthrown by him but unfortunately received a wound, of which he died at Jerusalem, whither he had ordered himself to be carried.
Nechao, animated by this victory, continued his march and advanced towards the Euphrates. He defeated the Babylonians; took Carchemish, a large city in that country; and securing to himself the possession of it, by a strong garrison, returned to his own kingdom, after having been absent three months from it.
Being informed in his march homeward, that Jehoahaz had caused himself to be proclaimed king at Jerusalem without first asking his consent, he commanded him to meet him at Riblah in Syria. The unhappy prince had no sooner arrived there, but he was put in chains by Nechao's order, and sent prisoner to Egypt, where he died. From thence, pursuing his march, he came to Jerusalem, where he gave the sceptre to Eliakim [called by him Jehoiakim] another of Josiah's sons, in the room of his brother; and imposed an annual tribute on the
