ce into the Mediterranean.

The Babylonians and Medes, having destroyed Nineveh, and with it the
empire of the Assyrians, were thereby become so formidable, that they drew
upon themselves the jealousy of all their neighbours.(463) 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
Jordan, belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, and called Magdolus by
Herodotus.) Nechao informed him, by a herald, that his enterprise was not
designed against him; that he had other enemies in view, and that he had
undertaken 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
lest it otherwise 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 from it three months.

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.(464) The unhappy prince was
no sooner arrived there, than 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 placed Eliakim, (called by him Jehoiakim,)
another of Josiah's sons, upon the throne, in the room of his brother: and
imposed an annual tribute on the land, of a hundred talents of silver, and
one talent of gold.(465) This being done, he returned in triu