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Nec

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

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NEC(H)O. 2 Kings 23:29; 2 Kings 23:33 , 2 Chronicles 35:20 to 2 Chronicles 36:4 , Jeremiah 46:2 , Egyp. Neko or Nekoou , son of Psammetichus i. and second king of the 26th Dyn. (b.c. 610 594). Continuing the development of Egypt that had gone on in his father’s long reign, Necho commenced a canal joining the Nile and the Red Sea, but abandoned it unfinished. Early in his reign he also endeavoured to revive the dominion of Egypt in Syria, seizing the opportunity afforded by the collapse of Assyria; his army reached the Euphrates, having brushed aside the force with which Josiah endeavoured to oppose him at Megiddo , and slain that king. Returning, he deposed Jehoahaz, the son and successor of Josiah, at Riblah, substituted for him his elder brother Eliakim, whose name he changed to Jehoiakim, and exacted tribute from the new king at the expense of the people. But Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, was now secure enough in the east to send his son Nebuchadrezzar to dispute the prize with the Egyptian king. Nebuchadrezzar routed Necho’s forces at Carchemish (in b.c. 605), and took from him all his Syrian possessions, from ‘the brook of Egypt unto the river Euphrates.’

F. Ll. Griffith.