NECHO(H)

(Neʹcho[h]).

A pharaoh of Egypt contemporaneous with Judean King Josiah. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Necho was the son of Psammitichus (Psammetichos, Psamtik I) and succeeded his father as ruler of Egypt. Although beginning construction work on a canal linking the Nile with the Red Sea, he did not complete this project. However, he did send a Phoenician fleet on a voyage around Africa. This journey was successfully completed in three years.—Book II, secs. 158, 159; Book IV, sec. 42.

Toward the close of Josiah’s thirty-one-year reign (659-c. 629 B.C.E.) Pharaoh Necho marched through Canaan to fight the “king of Assyria” (the Babylonian conqueror of Assyria, Nabopolassar). At that time Josiah disregarded a divine warning and was mortally wounded while attempting to turn the Egyptian forces back at Megiddo. About three months later Pharaoh Necho took Jehoahaz, Josiah’s successor to the throne, captive and made twenty-five-year-old Eliakim his vassal, changing the new ruler’s name to Jehoiakim. Necho also imposed a heavy fine on the kingdom of Judah. (2 Ki. 23:29-35; 2 Chron. 35:20–36:4) At Carchemish some four years later (625 B.C.E.) Necho’s forces suffered defeat at the hands of the Babylonians under the command of Nebuchadnezzar.—Jer. 46:2.