The Battle of Megiddo and the Death of Josiah
The last righteous king of Judah went out to block an Egyptian army and was mortally wounded by arrows. With his death the last reprieve collapsed.
Pharaoh Necho marched north toward Carchemish on the Euphrates, at war with Babylon, not with Judah. He sent word to Josiah: my quarrel is not with you, stand aside. Josiah went out to meet him at Megiddo anyway.
He was counting on the Torah's promise, "and no sword shall pass through your land" — if the nation is faithful, no army crosses it even in transit. After his reform, the found scroll, the national covenant and the great Passover, he was sure his generation had earned that guarantee. He was wrong.
The archers hit him. "Take me away, I am badly wounded," he told his servants. They moved him to his second chariot, brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned him; Jeremiah composed a lament, and singers recalled Josiah in their dirges "to this day."
After him everything moved fast. The people made his son Jehoahaz king; three months later Pharaoh deposed him, took him to Egypt and installed his brother Jehoiakim under tribute. Within a few years Babylon stood over Judah. From Josiah's death to the burning of the Temple was twenty-two years.