²⁹ In his days, the Egyptian king Pharaoh Neco marched against the Assyrian king at the Euphrates River. King Josiah marched out to intercept him. But when Neco encountered Josiah in Megiddo, he killed the king. ³⁰ Josiah’s servants took his body from Megiddo in a chariot. They brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz, Josiah’s son, anointed him, and made him king after his father.

Josiah’s death

²⁰ After all of these things, when Josiah had finished restoring the temple, Egypt’s King Neco marched against Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out against him. ²¹ But Neco sent messengers to Josiah. “What do you want with me, king of Judah?” he asked. “I haven’t come to attack you today. I’m after the dynasty that wars with me. God told me to hurry, and he is on my side. Get out of God’s way, or he will destroy you.”

²² But Josiah wouldn’t turn back. Instead, he camouflaged himself in preparation for battle, refusing to listen to Neco’s words from God’s own mouth, and went to fight Neco on the plain of Megiddo. ²³ When archers shot King Josiah, he said to his servants, “Take me away; I’m badly wounded!” ²⁴ So his servants took him out of his chariot, placed him in another one, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. ²⁵ Jeremiah composed a funeral song^[a] for Josiah, and to this day every singer, man or woman, continues to remember Josiah in their funeral songs. They are now traditional in Israel and are written down among the funeral songs.

²⁶ The rest of Josiah’s deeds, including his faithfulness in acting according to what is written in the Lord’s Instruction, ²⁷ and everything else he did, from beginning to end, are written in the official records of Israel’s and Judah’s kings.