[57] 2 Kings xxiii. 24. The question whether Necho came by land from Egypt or brought his troops in his fleet to Acre is hardly answered by the fact that Josiah went to Megiddo to meet him. But Megiddo on the whole tells more for the land than the sea. It is not on the path from Acre to the Euphrates; it is the key of the land-road from Egypt to the Euphrates. Josiah could have no hope of stopping Pharaoh on the broad levels of Philistia; but at Megiddo there was a narrow pass, and the only chance of arresting so large an army as it moved in detachments. Josiah’s tactics were therefore analogous to those of Saul, who also left his own territory and marched north to Esdraelon, to meet his foe—and death. [58] A. B. Davidson, _The Exile and the Restoration_, p. 8 (Bible Class Primers, ed. by Salmond; Edin., T. & T. Clark, 1897). [59] 2 Kings xxiii. 33-35. [60] Jer. xxii. 13-15. [61] Jer. xi. [62] xxv. 1 ff. [63] xxxvi. [64] 2 Kings xxiv. 1. In the chronological table appended to Kautzsch’s _Bibel_ this verse and Jehoiakim’s submission are assigned to 602. But this allows too little time for Nebuchadrezzar to confirm his throne in Babylon and march to Palestine, and it is not corroborated by the record in the Book of Jeremiah of events in Judah in 604—602. [65] Nebuchadrezzar did not die till 562. [66] See _Isaiah i.—xxxix._ (Expositor’s Bible), pp. 223 f. [67] See above, p. 26, n. 56. [68] 2 Kings xxiv. 2. [69] Jer. xxxvii. 30, but see 2 Kings xxiv. 6. [70] So Josephus puts it (X. _Antiq._, vii. 1). Jehoiachin was unusually bewailed (Lam. iv. 20; Ezek. xvii. 22 ff.). He survived in captivity till the death of Nebuchadrezzar, whose successor Evil-Merodach in 561 took him from prison and gave him a place in his palace (2 Kings xxv. 27 ff.). _ZEPHANIAH_ _Dies Iræ, Dies Illa!_—ZEPH. i. 15. “His book is the first tinging of prophecy with apocalypse: that is the moment which it supplies in the history of Israel’s religion.” CHAPTER II _THE BOOK OF ZEPHANIAH_ The Book of Zephaniah is one of the most difficult in the prophetic canon. The title is very generally accepted; the period from which chap. i. dates is recognised by practically all critics to be the reign of Josiah, or at least the last third of the seventh century. But after that doubts start, and we find present nearly every other problem of introduction.