- verses
- 10
- first named
- 2 Kings 23:29
- last named
- Jeremiah 46:25
- period
- Divided Monarchy
- tribe
- Egypt
Description
Who was Neco?
Pharaoh Neco II (also known as Necho II) was an Egyptian ruler of the 26th Dynasty who reigned from approximately 610 to 595 BC. He is mentioned in several passages in the Old Testament, primarily in relation to his interactions with the kingdom of Judah and his military campaigns against the Babylonians.
According to 2Ch.35.20-24 and 2Ki.23.29-30, Pharaoh Neco led his army to the Euphrates River to aid the Assyrians in their battle against the Babylonians. King Josiah of Judah, however, opposed Neco's advance and confronted him at Megiddo. Despite Neco's warning that he had no quarrel with Josiah, the Judean king persisted, and in the ensuing battle, Josiah was mortally wounded by the Egyptian archers. Josiah's death marked the end of his righteous reign and the beginning of a period of decline for Judah.
Following Josiah's death, Pharaoh Neco asserted his control over Judah. He deposed Josiah's son Jehoahaz, who had been made king by the people, and installed Jehoiakim, another of Josiah's sons, as a vassal king (2Ki.23.31-35; 2Ch.36.1-4). Neco imposed heavy tribute on Judah, which Jehoiakim exacted from the people of the land.
However, Pharaoh Neco's power was soon challenged by the rising Babylonian Empire. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon defeated Neco's army at the Battle of Carchemish, as recorded in Jer.46.2. This decisive victory marked the end of Egyptian dominance in the region and paved the way for Babylonian control over Judah.
The prophet Jeremiah also mentions Pharaoh Neco in his prophecies against Egypt (Jer.46.17, 25). These passages foretell the defeat and humiliation of Egypt at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, highlighting the shifting power dynamics in the ancient Near East.
Pharaoh Neco's interactions with Judah and his military campaigns against Babylon had significant consequences for the region. His defeat of Josiah and installation of Jehoiakim as a vassal king brought Judah under Egyptian influence, while his subsequent defeat at Carchemish marked the beginning of Babylonian dominance. These events set the stage for the eventual fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile, which had profound impacts on the history and religious development of the Jewish people.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The 10 best-attested of 12 are drawn. All 12 are listed below.
Places
Where this happens
The places the claims about this person reach, drawn where the gazetteer locates them. A point is where a row puts them and never where tradition does; no line joins two points, because the rows state where and not in what order.
The pattern
Where Neco is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
10 verses across 3 of 66 books; 63 write the name nowhere. Named in 2 Kings (4), 2 Chronicles (3) and Jeremiah (3).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 10, across 3 books. The name is written 19 times in them.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- 2 Chronicles 35Neco marched to Carchemish, sent Josiah a warning said to come from God, and fought on toward his appointed battle.
- 2 Chronicles 36Neco dethroned Jehoahaz, made Eliakim king, changed his name to Jehoiakim, and carried Jehoahaz to Egypt.
- Jeremiah 46Neco is named as king of Egypt while his army is defeated at Carchemish.
Sources