which the prophets had spoken as the irresistible emissary of
the Most High--had not only failed to recover from the injuries she had
received at the hands, first of the Medes, and then of the Scythians,
but had with each advancing year seen more severe wounds inflicted upon
her, and hastening her irretrievably to her ruin. And besides this,
Egypt and Chaldaea, the ancient kingdoms which had for a short time bent
beneath her yoke, had now once more arisen, and were astonishing the
world by their renewed vigour. Psammetichus, it is true, after having
stretched his arm across the desert and laid hands upon the citadel
which secured to him an outlet into Syria for his armies, had proceeded
no further, and thus showed that he was not inclined to reassert
the ancient rights of Egypt over the countries of the Jordan and the
Orontes; but he had died in 611, and his son, Necho II., who succeeded
him, did not manifest the same peaceful intentions.*

* The last dated stele of Psammetichus I. is the official
epitaph of the Apis which died in his fifty-second year. On
the other hand, an Apis, born in the fifty-third year of
Psammetichus, died in the sixteenth year of Necho, after
having lived 16 years, 7 months, 17 days. A very simple
calculation shows that Psammetichus I. reigned fifty-four
years, as stated by Herodotus and Manetho, according to
Julius Africanus.

If he decided to try his fortune in Syria, supported by his Greek and
Egyptian battalions, what would be the attitude that Judah would assume
between moribund Assyria and the kingdom of the Pharaohs in its renewed
vigour? It was in the spring of 608 that the crisis occurred. Nineveh,
besieged by the Medes, was on the point of capitulating, and it was easy
to foresee that the question as to who should rule there would shortly
be an open one: should Egypt hesitate longer in seizing what she
believed to be her rightful heritage, she would run the risk of finding
the question settled and another in possession. Necho quitted Memphis
and made his way towards the Asiatic frontier with the army which his
father had left to him. It was no longer composed of the ill-organised
bands of the Ethiopian kings or the princes of the Delta, temporarily
united under the rule of a single leader, but all the while divided by
reciprocal hatreds and suspicions which doomed it to failure. All the
troops which constituted it--Egyptians, Libyans, and Greek