2 Kings 23:29

23:29 During Josiah’s reign Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt marched toward ¹  the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to fight him, but Necho ²  killed him at Megiddo ³  when he saw him.

2 Kings 24:1

24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, ⁴  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. ⁵  Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 46:2

The Prophecy about Egypt’s Defeat at Carchemish

46:2 He spoke about Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt which was encamped along the Euphrates River at Carchemish. Now this was the army that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling ⁷  over Judah. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 46:13

The Lord Predicts that Nebuchadnezzar Will Attack and Plunder Egypt

46:13 The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about Nebuchadnezzar coming to attack the land of Egypt. ⁹ 

Daniel 11:6-7

11:6 After some years have passed, they ¹⁰  will form an alliance. Then the daughter ¹¹  of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to make an agreement, but she will not retain her power, ¹²  nor will he continue ¹³  in his strength. ¹⁴  She, together with the one who brought her, her child, ¹⁵  and her benefactor will all be delivered over at that time. ¹⁶ 

11:7 “There will arise in his ¹⁷  place one from her family line ¹⁸  who will come against their army and will enter the stronghold of the king of the north and will move against them successfully. ¹⁹ 

Daniel 11:10-16

11:10 His sons ²⁰  will wage war, mustering a large army which will advance like an overflowing river and carrying the battle all the way to the enemy’s ²¹  fortress. ²² 

11:11 “Then the king of the south ²³  will be enraged and will march out to fight against the king of the north, who will also muster a large army, but that army will be delivered into his hand. 11:12 When the army is taken away, the king of the south will become arrogant. ²⁴  He will be responsible for the death ²⁵  of thousands and thousands of people, ²⁶  but he will not continue to prevail. 11:13 For the king of the north will again muster an army, one larger than before. At the end of some years he will advance with a huge army and enormous supplies.

11:14 “In those times many will oppose ²⁷  the king of the south. ²⁸  Those who are violent ²⁹  among your own people will rise up in confirmation of ³⁰  the vision, but they will falter. 11:15 Then the king of the north will advance and will build siege mounds and capture a well-fortified city. ³¹  The forces of the south will not prevail, not even his finest contingents. ³²  They will have no strength to prevail. 11:16 The one advancing against him will do as he pleases, and no one will be able to stand before him. He will prevail in the beautiful land, and its annihilation will be within his power. ³³ 

Daniel 11:27-29

11:27 These two kings, their minds ³⁴  filled with evil intentions, will trade ³⁵  lies with one another at the same table. But it will not succeed, for there is still an end at the appointed time. 11:28 Then the king of the north ³⁶  will return to his own land with much property. His mind will be set against the holy covenant. He will take action, and then return to his own land. 11:29 At an appointed time he will again invade the south, but this latter visit will not turn out the way the former one did.

Daniel 11:40-45

11:40 “At the time of the end the king of the south will attack ³⁷  him. Then the king of the north will storm against him ³⁸  with chariots, horsemen, and a large armada of ships. ³⁹  He ⁴⁰  will invade lands, passing through them like an overflowing river. ⁴¹  11:41 Then he will enter the beautiful land. ⁴²  Many ⁴³  will fall, but these will escape: ⁴⁴  Edom, Moab, and the Ammonite leadership. 11:42 He will extend his power ⁴⁵  against other lands; the land of Egypt will not escape. 11:43 He will have control over the hidden stores of gold and silver, as well as all the treasures of Egypt. Libyans and Ethiopians ⁴⁶  will submit to him. ⁴⁷  11:44 But reports will trouble him from the east and north, and he will set out in a tremendous rage to destroy and wipe out many. 11:45 He will pitch his royal tents between the seas ⁴⁸  toward the beautiful holy mountain. But he will come to his end, with no one to help him.

[23:29]  ¹ tn Heb “went up to.” The idiom עַל…עָלָה (’alah …’al) can sometimes mean “go up against,” but here it refers to Necho’s attempt to aid the Assyrians in their struggle with the Babylonians.

[23:29]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Necho) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:29]  ³ map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.

[24:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “In his days.”

[24:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “came up.” Perhaps an object (“against him”) has been accidentally omitted from the text. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 306.

[24:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has “and he turned and rebelled against him.”

[46:2]  ⁷ sn The fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign proved very significant in the prophecies of Jeremiah. It was in that same year that he issued the prophecies against the foreign nations recorded in Jer 25 (and probably the prophecies recorded here in Jer 46-51) and that he had Baruch record and read to the people gathered in the temple all the prophecies he had uttered against Judah and Jerusalem up to that point in the hopes that they would repent and the nation would be spared. The fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 b.c.) marked a significant shift in the balance of power in Palestine. With the defeat of Necho at Carchemish in that year the area came under the control of Nebuchadnezzar and Judah and the surrounding nations had two options, submit to Babylon and pay tribute or suffer the consequences of death in war or exile in Babylon for failure to submit.

[46:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “Concerning Egypt: Concerning the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt which was beside the Euphrates River at Carchemish which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah.” The sentence has been broken up, restructured, and introductory words supplied in the translation to make the sentences better conform with contemporary English style. The dating formula is placed in brackets because the passage is prophetic about the battle, but the bracketed words were superscription or introduction and thus were added after the outcome was known.

[46:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “The word which the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt.”

[11:6]  ¹⁰ sn Here they refers to Ptolemy II Philadelphus (ca. 285-246 B.C.) and Antiochus II Theos (ca. 262-246 B.C.).

[11:6]  ¹¹ sn The daughter refers to Berenice, who was given in marriage to Antiochus II Theos.

[11:6]  ¹² tn Heb “the strength of the arm.”

[11:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “stand.” So also in vv. 7, 8, 11, 13.

[11:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and his arm.” Some understand this to refer to the descendants of the king of the north.

[11:6]  ¹⁵ tc The present translation reads יַלְדָּה (yaldah, “her child”) rather than the MT יֹלְדָהּ (yolÿdah, “the one who begot her”). Cf. Theodotion, the Syriac, and the Vulgate.

[11:6]  ¹⁶ sn Antiochus II eventually divorced Berenice and remarried his former wife Laodice, who then poisoned her husband, had Berenice put to death, and installed her own son, Seleucus II Callinicus (ca. 246-227 B.C.), as the Seleucid king.

[11:7]  ¹⁷ sn The reference is to the king of Egypt.

[11:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the stock of her roots.”

[11:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will deal with them and prevail.”

[11:10]  ²⁰ sn The sons of Seleucus II Callinicus were Seleucus III Ceraunus (ca. 227-223 B.C.) and Antiochus III the Great (ca. 223-187 B.C.).

[11:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the enemy of the king of the north) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:10]  ²² tn Heb “and he will certainly come and overflow and cross over and return and be aroused unto a fortress.” The translation has attempted to simplify the syntax of this difficult sequence.

[11:11]  ²³ sn This king of the south refers to Ptolemy IV Philopator (ca. 221-204 B.C.).

[11:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “his heart will be lifted up.” The referent (the king of the south) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “cause to fall.”

[11:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “of myriads.”

[11:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “stand against.”

[11:14]  ²⁸ sn This was Ptolemy V Epiphanes (ca. 203-181 B.C.).

[11:14]  ²⁹ tn Heb “sons of violence.” “Son(s) is sometimes used idiomatically in Hebrew to indicate that someone is characterized by a certain quality. So the expression “sons of violence” means that these individuals will be characterized by violent deeds.

[11:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “to cause to stand.”

[11:15]  ³¹ sn This well-fortified city is apparently Sidon. Its capture from the Ptolemies by Antiochus the Great was a strategic victory for the Seleucid kingdom.

[11:15]  ³² tn Or “choice troops” (BDB 104 s.v. מִבְחָר), or “elite troops” (HALOT 542 s.v. מִבְחָר).

[11:16]  ³³ tn Heb “hand.”

[11:27]  ³⁴ tn Heb “heart.” So also in v. 28.

[11:27]  ³⁵ tn Heb “speak.”

[11:28]  ³⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of the north) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:40]  ³⁷ tn Heb “engage in thrusting.”

[11:40]  ³⁸ tn The referent of the pronoun is most likely the king of the south, in which case the text describes the king of the north countering the attack of the king of the south.

[11:40]  ³⁹ tn Heb “many ships.”

[11:40]  ⁴⁰ tn This most likely refers to the king of the north who, in response to the aggression of the king of the south, launches an invasion of the southern regions.

[11:40]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and will overflow and pass over.”

[11:41]  ⁴² sn The beautiful land is a cryptic reference to the land of Israel.

[11:41]  ⁴³ tn This can be understood as “many people” (cf. NRSV) or “many countries” (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT).

[11:41]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “be delivered from his hand.”

[11:42]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “hand.”

[11:43]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “Nubians” (NIV, NCV); Heb “Cushites.”

[11:43]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “Libyans and Cushites [will be] at his footsteps.”

[11:45]  ⁴⁸ sn Presumably seas refers to the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea.