Carchemish

Biblical Text

Carchemish is mentioned three times in the New Korean Revised Version of the Bible.

• 2 Chronicles 35:20: Necho king of Egypt "came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates." Josiah, king of Judah, went out to oppose him and was eventually struck by arrows and killed at Megiddo. The parallel account of the same event in 2 Kings 23:29 does not mention Carchemish by name; it states only that Necho went up to the king of Assyria at the river Euphrates.
• Isaiah 10:9: The king of Assyria boasts of the cities he has conquered, saying, "Is not Calno as Carchemish?" Carchemish is mentioned as a city that had already fallen to Assyria.
• Jeremiah 46:2: This verse introduces the prophecy against Egypt. It concerns the army of Necho, which was defeated "by the river Euphrates in Carchemish" by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim.

Background

Carchemish was situated at a crossing point on the Euphrates River and served as a strategic hub linking Mesopotamia with Syria and Asia Minor. From early times it was an important stronghold of Hittite power, and it later became the center of a Neo-Hittite kingdom. Sargon II of Assyria is known to have conquered the city in the late eighth century BC, and the reference in Isaiah 10:9 reflects the situation of that period.

After the collapse of Assyria, Egypt sought to support the remaining Assyrian forces in order to hold back Babylon. Necho's campaign of 609 BC was part of this effort. Around 605 BC the Babylonian and Egyptian armies clashed at Carchemish, and Nebuchadnezzar was victorious. This battle is also known from extrabiblical sources, namely the Babylonian Chronicles. Several etymologies have been proposed for the place name, but none has been established.

Significance in the Bible as a Whole

After the Battle of Carchemish, dominance in the Near East passed from Egypt to Babylon. Second Kings 24:7 records that as a result the king of Egypt "came not again any more out of his land." Judah subsequently came under Babylonian rule, a course of events that led to the Babylonian exile. Jeremiah 46 treats this event within a prophetic framework in which even the rise and fall of great powers lies under the sovereignty of God. Carchemish does not appear in the New Testament.

Interpretive Issues

• Distinguishing two dates: Necho's campaign of 609 BC, during which Josiah died, and the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC are separate events. It is generally held that 2 Chronicles 35:20 refers to the former and Jeremiah 46:2 to the latter.
• The death of Josiah: Second Chronicles 35:21–22 records that Necho's words came from God but that Josiah did not listen. Interpreters differ over how this passage evaluates Josiah's judgment and how a warning delivered through the mouth of a foreign king should be understood.
• Differences in dating: Jeremiah 46:2 dates this battle to "the fourth year of Jehoiakim," while Daniel 1:1 places Nebuchadnezzar's attack on Jerusalem in "the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim." A widely known view explains this as a difference between the Judean and Babylonian methods of reckoning regnal years, though scholars interpret it in various ways.