head of his troops; Necho, warned of his projects,
hastened to meet him with all the forces at his disposal, and, owing
probably to the resistance offered by the garrisons which he possessed
in the Hittite fortresses, he had time to continue his march as far as
the Euphrates. The two armies encountered each other at Carchemish; the
Egyptians were completely defeated in spite of their bravery and the
skilful tactics of their Greek auxiliaries, and the Asiatic nations, who
had once more begun to rely on Egypt, were obliged to acknowledge that
they were as unequal to the task of overcoming Chaldaea as they had been
of sustaining a struggle with Assyria.*

* Jer. xlvi. 2; cf. 2 Kings xxiv. 7, where the editor,
without mentioning the battle of Carchemish, recalls in
passing that "the King of Babylon had taken, from the brook
of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the
King of Egypt."

The religious party in Judah, whose hopes had been disappointed by the
victory of Pharaoh at Megiddo, now rejoiced at his defeat, and when the
remains of his legions made their way back across the Philistine plain,
closely pressed by the enemy, Jeremiah hailed them as they passed with
cutting irony. Two or three brief, vivid sentences depicting the spirit
that had fired them a few months before, and then the picture of their
disorderly flight: "Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to
battle. Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth
with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail.
Wherefore have I seen it? They are dismayed and turn backward; and their
mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back;
terror is on every side, saith the Lord. Let not the swift flee away,
nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have
they stumbled and fallen.... Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin
daughter of Egypt; in vain dost thou use many medicines; there is no
healing for thee. The nations have heard of thy shame, and the earth is
full of thy cry: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty,
they are fallen both of them together."* Nebuchadrezzar received by the
way the submission of Jehoiakim, and of the princes of Ammon, Moab, and
the Philistines;** he was nearing Pelusium on his way into Egypt, when a
messenger brought him the news of his father's death.

* Jer. xlvi. 3-6, 11, 12.

** The submission of