Megiddo
An ancient city on the edge of the Jezreel valley in northern Israel. Kings lists it among the cities Solomon built, and King Josiah of Judah met Pharaoh Necho there in 609 BC and was killed.
Megiddo is the mound of Tel Megiddo (Tell el-Mutesellim) in northern Israel, about thirty kilometres south-east of Haifa. Joshua counts its king among those defeated by Israel, and Judges says that the tribe of Manasseh did not drive out its people (Joshua 12:7, 21) (Judges 1:27). The Song of Deborah sets the battle with the kings of Canaan “by the waters of Megiddo” (Judges 5:19). Kings names it with Hazor and Gezer among the places for which Solomon raised forced labour (1 Kings 9:15). A fragment of a monument of Pharaoh Shoshenq I was found on the site (Megiddo stela fragment of Shoshenq I Fisher, pp. 12–13 and 60–61).
Kings says that Ahaziah of Judah, struck down on the orders of Jehu, fled to Megiddo and died there (2 Kings 9:27), and that Pharaoh Necho II killed Josiah there (2 Kings 23:29–30). Chronicles has Josiah wounded by archers in the plain of Megiddo and brought to Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 35:22–24); see Josiah falls at Megiddo. Zechariah compares a mourning to come in Jerusalem with a mourning in the plain of Megiddo (Zechariah 12:11).
What happened here
- 609 BC, firm dateJosiah Falls at Megiddo
Pharaoh Necho marches north to the Euphrates in support of Assyria. King Josiah of Judah goes out against him at Megiddo and is killed. Three months later Necho deposes Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and makes Jehoiakim king as Egypt’s vassal.