2 Kings 23:30

And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) And his servants carried him . . .—See Notes 2Chronicles 35:24.

The people of the land.—Thenius says they were the soldiery who had fled to Jerusalem; but this is doubtful.

Took Jehoahaz.—He was not the eldest son (see 2Kings 23:36), but he may have been thought a more capable prince amid the emergencies of the time, although Jeremiah 22:10 seq. shows that this estimate was fallacious.

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 23:30. His servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo — That is, mortally wounded, as in the former verse; and, as we commonly say of a sick man, past hopes of recovery, that he is a dead man. Instead of dead, Houbigant reads dying. The people took Jehoahaz, and made him king — Who was younger than Jehoiakim, yet preferred by the people before the elder brother; either because Jehoiakim refused the kingdom for fear of Pharaoh, whom he knew he should hereby provoke; or, because Jehoahaz was the more stout and warlike prince: whence he is called a lion, Ezekiel 19:3. And anointed him — Which ceremony was used because this was a troublesome time, and he was not the right heir to the crown, and therefore needed this solemn rite of confirmation, which Solomon had in the same circumstances.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:25-30 Upon reading these verses, we must say, Lord, though thy righteousness be as the great mountains, evident, plainly to be seen, and past dispute; yet thy judgments are a great deep, unfathomable, and past finding out. The reforming king is cut off in the midst of his usefulness, in mercy to him, that he might not see the evil coming upon his kingdom: but in wrath to his people, for his death was an inlet to their desolations.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Dead - It appears from a comparison of this passage with 2 Chronicles marginal reference) that Josiah was not actually killed in the battle.

Jehoahaz - Or Shallum (the marginal note). He may have taken the name of Jehoahaz ("the Lord possesses") on his accession. He was not the eldest son of Josiah (see 2 Kings 23:36 note). The mention of "anointing" here favors the view that there was some irregularity in the succession (see 1 Kings 1:34 note).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29. In his days Pharaoh-nechoh—(See 2Ch 35:20-27).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Dead, i.e. mortally wounded, as in the former verse; and as we commonly say of a sick man past hopes of recovery, that he is a dead man: compare Genesis 20:3.

Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, who was younger than Jehoiakim, by comparing 2 Kings 23:31 with 2 Kings 23:36, yet preferred by the people before the elder brother; either because Jehoiakim refused the kingdom for fear of Pharaoh, whom he knew he should hereby provoke; or because Jehoahaz was the more stout and warlike prince; whence he is called a lion, Ezekiel 19:3, though indeed he showed his courage more against his people than his enemies; but they judged that he was most able and willing to defend them against the conquering army.

Anointed him; as they used to do in such extraordinary cases, because this was a troublesome time, and he was not the right heir to the crown, and therefore needed this solemn rite of confirmation, which Solomon had in the same circumstances.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo,.... They took him out of the chariot in which he was wounded, and put him into another, where he died of his wounds by the way; being mortally wounded, he is said to be dead, or a dead man, see 2 Chronicles 35:24.

and brought him to Jerusalem; which, according to Bunting (b), was forty four miles from Megiddo:

and buried him in his own sepulchre; which either he had provided for himself in his lifetime, or which in common belonged to the kings of Judah, see 2 Chronicles 35:24.

and the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead; though he was not the eldest son, Jehoiakim, who was afterwards placed in his room, being two years older, as appears from 2 Kings 23:31 and this is the reason, as the Jewish commentators in general agree, that he was anointed; which they say was never done to the son of a king, unless there was a competitor, or some objection to, or dispute about, the succession, as in the case of Solomon and others.

(b) Travels, &c. p. 188.

Geneva Study Bible

And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. carried him in 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.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - And his servants carried him in a chariot - his "second chariot," according to the writer of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 35:24), which was probably one kept in reserve in case flight should be necessary, of lighter construction, and drawn by fleeter horses, than his war-chariot - dead from Megiddo. Wounded to death, that is. From Chronicles we gather that his wound, which was from an arrow, was not immediately fatal (2 Chronicles 35:23, 24); but that he died of it on his way to Jerusalem, or directly after his arrival. And brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulcher (comp. 2 Kings 21:18 and 26). The writer of Chronicles says, "in the sepulcher of his fathers," apparently meaning the burial-place in which were interred the bodies of Manasseh and Amen. We learn from Chronicles that a great lamentation was made for Josiah, the only King of Judah slain in battle, the last good king of David's line, the pious prince whose piety had not sufficed to avert the anger of Jehovah. Jeremiah "lamented for him" (2 Chronicles 35:25), perhaps in a set composition (Josephus, ' Ant. Jud.,' 10:5. § 1); though that composition is certainly not either the Book of Lamentations or the fourth chapter of that book. He was further mourned by "all the singing men and the singing women" (2 Chronicles, l.s.c.), who "spake of him in their lamentations, and "made them an ordinance in Israel," and entered these "lamentations," apparently in a book, which was called 'The Book of Lamentations,' or 'of Dirges.' And the people of the laud took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah. Jehoahaz was otherwise named "Shallum" (1 Chronicles 3:15; Jeremiah 22:11). On what grounds the people preferred him to his elder brother, Eliakim, we do not know. Perhaps Eliakim had accompanied his father to Megiddo, and been made prisoner by Nechoh in the battle. And anointed him (see the comment on 1 Kings 1:34, and supra, 2 Kings 11:12), and made him king in his father's stead. 2 Kings 23:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The brief statement, "his servants carried him dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem," is given with more minuteness in the Chronicles: his servants took him, the severely wounded king, by his own command, from his chariot to his second chariot, and drove him to Jerusalem, and he died and was buried, etc. Where he died the Chronicles do not affirm; the occurrence of ויּמת after the words "they brought him to Jerusalem," does not prove that he did not die till he reached Jerusalem. If we compare Zechariah 12:11, where the prophet draws a parallel between the lamentation at the death of the Messiah and the lamentation of Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo, as the deepest lamentation of the people in the olden time, with the account given in 2 Chronicles 35:25 of the lamentation of the whole nation at the death of Josiah, there can hardly be any doubt that Josiah died on the way to Jerusalem at Hadad-Rimmon, the present Rummane, to the south of Lejun (see above), and was taken to Jerusalem dead. - He was followed on the throne by his younger son Jehoahaz, whom the people (הארץ עם, as in 2 Kings 21:24) anointed king, passing over the elder, Eliakim, probably because they regarded him as the more able man.