Chapter Twenty-Three

1–3. The reading of the discovered book of the law before the people and the conclusion of a covenant between the king, the people, and God. 4–14. The destruction of the objects of pagan cults and also of the “high places of Jehovah” in the temple, in Jerusalem, in its environs, and in other cities of the Judean kingdom. 15–20. The destruction of the Bethel altar and the remnants of paganism in the territory of the former Israelite kingdom. 21–25. The celebration of Passover according to the book of the law and a general note on Josiah’s absolute faithfulness to the law. 26–30. The inevitability of God’s wrath upon the kingdom of Judah and the death of Josiah. 31–37. Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim—the 17th and 18th kings of Judah.

2 Kings 23:1. And the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. 2 Kings 23:2. And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. 2 Kings 23:3. Then the king stood on the platform and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant. The first act of the king upon the return of the delegation from Huldah was to gather in the temple, as much as possible, all classes of the people (“prophets” in verse 2 might be—perhaps—Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Baruch, but more likely—in general sense: “teachers of the people”; according to 2 Chr 34:30—the Levites) to hear all passages of the discovered “Book of the Covenant” that had attracted the king’s attention. Then, imitating former theocratic leaders of the people of God, such as Joshua (Josh 24:25), the prophet Samuel (1 Sam 6:3-4), and his pious grandfather Hezekiah (2 Chr 29:10), Josiah solemnly renewed, to be exact, the theocratic covenant of the Judean people with God, with Josiah himself personally, standing in a special royal place in the temple (gahammud, cf. 2 Kgs 12:14, see Prof. Gulyaev, p. 374), pronouncing all the essential requirements and obligations of the covenant, while the people affirmed them by an act of consent and acceptance (cf. 2 Chr 34:31-32).

2 Kings 23:4. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal and for Asherah and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. As once upon the conclusion of the covenant at the time of Joash there immediately followed the eradication of pagan worship (2 Kgs 11:17-18), so now the same occurred: according to Jesus the Son of Sirach (Sir 49:3), Josiah “acted successfully in turning the people and destroyed the abominations of wickedness,” although, of course, the reform, carried out through violent and purely external measures, without means of persuasion and spiritual re-education of the masses, could not be either deep or lasting. The cleansing begins with the temple and is entrusted to Hilkiah—the high priest ([ha] kohen—[ha] gadol in 2 Kgs 25:18; Jer 52:24; the high priest in Hebrew kohen—[ha] rosh—“the chief priest”), “the priests of the second order” (kohanim—[ha] mishne, cf. 2 Kgs 25:18), that is, subordinate to the high priest, and “those who kept the threshold” (cf. 2 Kgs 22:4; 1 Chr 23:5)—from the Levites. All the vessels dedicated to Baal, to all the host of heaven (see 2 Kgs 21:3 and commentary), and to Asherah-Astarte (cf. 1 Kgs 14:23) were brought out of the temple, and, according to the commandment (Deut 7:25), all this was burned, as unclean, outside Jerusalem in the fields (Hebrew shadmot—“fields,” LXX and Slav. leave without translation: ἐν σαδημωθ, “in sadimofe”) of the Kidron, where objects of idolatry had been destroyed under Asa (1 Kgs 15:13) and Hezekiah (2 Chr 29:16). But the ash of the burned idols was not to remain in the Kidron valley, near Jerusalem: it was carried to Bethel—to express decided contempt and loathing for this center of unlawful worship of the calves (1 Kgs 12:29-33), which served as the beginning and source of all the subsequent apostasies of Israel into paganism.

2 Kings 23:5. And he deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings on the high places in the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of heaven; 2 Kings 23:6. And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust, and scattered the dust on the graves of the common people; 2 Kings 23:7. He also broke down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove robes for the Asherah. The religious service personnel of unlawful cults is removed. The king “deposed” (Hebrew hisshbit, “removed”—not “burned,” as in the LXX and Slavonic: κατέκυασε, “burned”; in the Alexandrian codex: κατέπαυσε, Vulgate not precisely: delevit) the idolatrous priests (Hebrew kemarim; in LXX: Χωμοριμ; codices 19, 82, 93, 108 in Holmes: τοὺς ιερεῖς; Vulg.: amspices, Slav.: “homarimy” (priests, sorcerers))—appointees of the kings of Judah and Israel, (cf. Ps 10:5; Zeph 1:4), that is, non-Levitical priests, such as, for instance, the priests of the cult of the calves (1 Kgs 12:31; 2 Chr 11:15), and which are distinguished from the priests of idols, or priests of Baal, sun, moon, constellations, and all the host of heaven (2 Kgs 23:5), on the one hand—from the priests of the high places, who, although performing service on the high places, were nevertheless from the tribe of Levi (2 Kgs 23:8) (see Prof. Brodovich, “The Book of the Prophet Hosea,” p. 350). The constellations (Hebrew mazzalot; μαζουρώθ; Slav.: “planets,” blessed Theodoret (question 54): “stars”) according to the interpretation of the rabbis (Levy, Neuhebraisches und chaldaisches Worterbuch Bd. III, p. 65), “mazzalot,” like the Assyrian “manzaltu,” means the 12 signs of the Zodiac; Vulgate: duodecim signa. Asherah (v. 6; Hebrew asherah, in LXX: ἄλσος, Slav.: “idol”), here in verse 6 means properly the idol, not the goddess herself (v. 4). The ash of the burned statue of this goddess is also cast into the Kidron valley, but precisely “on the common burial ground” (kever-bene-ha-am, cf. Jer 26:23), most open to trampling by all (the tombs of the rich were built separately, in gardens or caves, and these graves were not as accessible to wild beasts as common graves, cf. Prof. Gulyaev, p. 375, and such are still preserved in the Kidron or Jehoshaphat valley, from the Mount of Olives side, an ancient Jewish cemetery). The brothels and appurtenances of the cult of “qadeshim”—the hierodules, male (Deut 23:18) and female (cf. 1 Kgs 14:24 and commentary), in LXX: καδησίμ, Slav. “kadisimov,” Vulgate: ef feminatorum; according to blessed Theodoret, question 55), “holy ones (because the word “qadesh” means “holy”) in a direct sense the writer called demons here.” In verse 7 it is told that the servants of Asherah performed weaving and embroidery in honor of her (for arranging the tents of her servants) in the premises of the temple itself; here also the abominable worship of the goddess was conducted.

2 Kings 23:8. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and desecrated the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, and those on the left side of the city gate. 2 Kings 23:9. However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their fellow priests. Following the example of his pious grandfather Hezekiah (2 Kgs 18:4), “Josiah abolished and from ancient times the “high places” honored by the true God, tolerated by many pious kings—throughout the Judean kingdom “from Geba (a city, probably the same as Geba, which Asa fortified with stones from Ramah, 1 Kgs 15:22), in the tribe of Benjamin, cf. Onomast. 293; Orthodox Palestinian Collection issue 37, p. 204) to Beer-sheba” (concerning its location see commentary on (1 Kgs 19:3)), including certain known high places in Jerusalem—at the house of the governor and at the city gates (perhaps mentioned in (Neh 2:13) the “Gate of the Valley” on the western (main entry) side of Jerusalem, approximately at the site of the present Jaffa Gate). The fate of the priests of these high places—priests descended from the tribe of Levi—was different from that of the idolatrous priests (v. 5): Josiah forced these Levitic priests to leave their places of former service and to settle in Jerusalem, but in the temple there was already a fixed body of priests, and for the newcomers there might be neither priestly duties nor priestly support, and thus naturally they were reduced to the status of Levites (v. 9; cf. Ezek 44:10-14): like the latter, they could not independently offer sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple, but the eating of unleavened bread and, probably, other offerings to the altar was permitted them equally with members of the priestly class excluded from actual priestly service due to various physical defects (Lev 21:21-23).

2 Kings 23:10. And he desecrated Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, so that no one would make his son or his daughter pass through fire to Molech; 2 Kings 23:11. And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of the eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. “In the valley of the son of Hinnom,” LXX: λάραγξ ᾿Εννόμ, Vulgate: convailis filii Ennom, Slav.: “the ravine of the sons of Ennom” (cf. Josh 15:8)—a valley, which began on the west of Jerusalem, near the Jaffa Gate, and going first southward, then eastward until its junction with the Kidron valley—now Wadi-er-Rababi (Onomast. 313). From the bloody and fiery sacrifices to Molech performed here under Ahaz (2 Kgs 16:3) and Manasseh (2 Kgs 21:6) (cf. Jer 7:31), the valley of Hinnom afterwards became the image of eternal torment under the name γεὲννα τοῦ πυρός, “Gehenna of fire.” Topheth, in the LXX: Ταφέθ, Vulg.: Topheth, Slav.: “Tafef”—the specific name for the place of those sacrifices to Molech in the valley of Hinnom (Onomast. 508). Earlier commentators derived the word “Topheth” from Hebrew toph—“drum” (a musical instrument like a tambourine), with reference to that characteristic, according to rabbinic accounts, feature of Molech worship, that the screams of the burned victims were drowned out by the priests’ playing of drums (Philaret, p. 271; the name Topheth, according to the common explanation, means “drum place”). In modern times Topheth is derived either from the Assyrian-Persian root meaning “to bury” (related to Greek θάπτειν), in particular through cremation, or from the Hebrew verb “tuf”—meaning “to spit,” so that Topheth means an object of disgust (Gesenii, Thesaur. p. 1497), or meaning “to burn” (Furst), hence Topheth—place of burning. In favor of the latter speaks (Isa 30:31), where “Tiphtah” means a place of burning (cf. Prof. Gulyaev, p. 376). The horses, which in their running as it were depicted the apparent movement of the sun, were among many pagan peoples considered dedicated to the sun. In many places before temples there were sculpted horses, but before the Jerusalem temple (v. 11) in the times of pagan-inclined kings, living horses were kept, which is why Josiah only “removed” them, while the chariots of the sun he burned (cf. Prof. Gulyaev, p. 376). The eunuch Nathan-melech was probably an overseer of those sacred horses. Parvarim (Hebrew Parvarim) the rabbis and some earlier commentators (see Prof. Gulyaev, p. 377) considered the name of an urban suburb, but given the apparent identity of this name with “parbar” (1 Chr 26:16)—the name of the portico on the western wall of the temple—one should rather see in “parvarim” certain annexes—small rooms for officials (Jer 41:12) on the rear, western side of Solomon’s temple.

2 Kings 23:12. And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces there, and cast the dust of them into the Wadi Kidron. 2 Kings 23:13. And the king desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Astarte, the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; 2 Kings 23:14. and he broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherot, and filled their places with human bones. Verses 12–14 continue the account (of verses 4, 6) of the cleansing of the Jerusalem temple and also the Mount of Olives from the abominations of idolatry. The altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz—not the palace of the king, but the temple, in its upper story of the annexes (cf. Jer 35:4); the altars of these chambers were dedicated to the host of heaven (Jer 19:13; Zeph 1:5). Josiah also destroyed the ancient high places, erected as far back as Solomon on the Mount of Olives or Mount of Oil (1 Kgs 11:7), here called (cf. 13) Hebrew mashit (a word that plays on mishat—“anointed”)—“the Mount of Corruption,” probably in view of the idolatrous shrines erected here; Vulg. mons Offensionis; in the LXX without translation: Μοσθάθ, Slav. “Mosphath.” The name “corruption,” mons offensionis was subsequently applied properly to the southern spur of the Mount of Olives (the northern is known as virgalilaei); the present name of the Mount of Olives is Jebel-Ettur (Onomast. 716). The idolatrous high places of Solomon and others destroyed by Hezekiah (2 Chr 31:1) could have been restored by Manasseh and Amon. Josiah defiles them with dead bones: (v. 14, cf. 6, 8, 20).

2 Kings 23:15. Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin—he pulled down that altar as well as the high place; he burned the high place, crushing it to dust, and burned the sacred pole. 2 Kings 23:16. As Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs there on the mountainside; and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and desecrated it, according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. [When Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival, he turned and looked up at the tomb of the man of God who had predicted these things.] 2 Kings 23:17. Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” The people of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel. 2 Kings 23:18. He said, “Let him rest; let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. 2 Kings 23:19. Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger; he did to them just as he had done to the altar at Bethel. 2 Kings 23:20. He sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem. After completing the cleansing of the Judean kingdom from all remnants of unlawful worship and pure idolatry, Josiah performs a similar cleansing in the territory of the former Israelite kingdom, above all and mainly in the center of the calf cult—in Bethel (cf. 1 Kgs 12:29 and further), and in all exactness and even in the details, the prediction of a well-known Judean prophet concerning the fate of the Bethel cult and its priests came true (1 Kgs 13:1 and further), a prediction pronounced over three centuries before. The words of verse 16, placed in brackets in the Russian translation—a later gloss from the LXX; the execution of the priests of Bethel (in accordance with the law: Deut 13:5), like all of Josiah’s reformatory activity in the territory of the former Israelite kingdom, presupposes that the Assyrian authority over this land at that time almost did not exist, and this gave the Judean kings (Hezekiah: 2 Chr 30:1 and Josiah: 2 Chr 34:6) the ability to act in the Israelite territory, even though inhabited, alongside Israelites, by many foreign tribes (2 Kgs 17:24 and further), as over a part of their own state. According to the Talmud, the prophet Jeremiah contributed to the return to God of many from the population of the ten-tribe kingdom (Megilla, 146).

2 Kings 23:21. And the king commanded all the people, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant. 2 Kings 23:22. For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, during all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah; 2 Kings 23:23. but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. Having fulfilled with such merciless rigor all the prohibitions and penalties of the book of the law, Josiah insisted with equal strictness on the most precise celebration of the chief festival prescribed in the law, the festival of Passover (cf. 2 Chr 35:1-18), and previously the Ark of the Covenant was placed in its former place (2 Chr 35:3), perhaps removed from the Holy of Holies into one of the buildings at the temple during the persecutions of the religion of Jehovah by Manasseh or Amon. According to (2 Chr 35:1), the Passover was celebrated on the fourteenth of Nisan.

2 Kings 23:24. Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the wizards, the teraphim and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 2 Kings 23:25. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. A summary of the entire account of Josiah’s reform, indicating its complete correspondence with the requirements of the Law of Moses. Concerning mediums and wizards, see in A. Glagolev’s book, “Old Testament Biblical Teaching on Angels,” pp. 600–610. Concerning teraphim—Commentary Bible, vol. I, p. 180 (cf. Prof. Gulyaev, p. 378). By idols—Hebrew gillulim (from the verb galal—“to roll”), perhaps are meant various shaped pebbles, which from ancient times, before artificial images of various supposed gods were made, were among peoples at a low level of development symbols of divinity, as is encountered even now among savage inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific Ocean (Prof. Gulyaev, p. 379).

2 Kings 23:26. Still, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. 2 Kings 23:27. The Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, “My name shall be there. “The turning to God here was less internal and constant than external and temporary, for which reason He did not turn aside His wrath toward them” (Metropolitan Philaret): judgment was drawing near upon Judah, judgment that had already more than a century before struck the kingdom of Israel (2 Kgs 17)—in accordance with the repeated warnings of the prophets of God (e.g., chapters 1–10; Zeph 1:2-6), which repeated the ancient threats of the law (Lev 26; Deut 28 and other passages) to the people of God.

2 Kings 23:28. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 2 Kings 23:29. In his days, Pharaoh Neco of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the River Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him; and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, when he saw him. 2 Kings 23:30. His servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father. What is said here is repeated more fully and in greater detail in (2 Chr 35:20-25). Neco (Hebrew Neho, in the LXX and Josephus: Νεκαώ), according to Herodotus (II, 158), who calls him Νεχώς (according to Egyptian monuments—“Neku”), son of Psamtik I, the 6th king of the XXVI Sais dynasty in Egypt (ruled 609–594 BC), known for building a large fleet both on the Mediterranean and Black seas. The Assyrian monarchy was at that time on the eve of its fall (in 606 BC Nabopolassar the Chaldean and Cyaxares the Mede united their forces and destroyed Nineveh, thus ending Assyria’s existence), and Neco probably wished to take advantage of the weakness of the once-formidable neighboring kingdom and to annex to Egypt some part of Assyria, such as Syria, which is why he undertakes a campaign beyond the Euphrates, to the city of Carchemish (2 Chr 35:20), in the LXX: χερμείς, in Josephus: καρχαμησά, Vulg.: Charcamis, on the cuneiform inscriptions: Gargamis—at the mouth of the Habor into the Euphrates, now Kirkessia Jerabulus or Djerba (Onomast. 954); here Neco suffered defeat from Nebuchadnezzar (Jer 46:2). When Neco arrived by fleet to the shores of Palestine and landed at the seaside city of Akko (according to the account of Herodotus II, 16)—Ptolemais (Onomast. 64). Josiah either as a vassal of the Assyrian king or from fear for the integrity of his territories felt obliged, despite the reassuring explanations of Neco (2 Chr 35:21), to go out with his army to meet him and do battle, and in the battle at Megiddo (cf. 1 Kgs 4:12 and commentary; in Herodotus Μάγδωλος), on the field or at the place called Gad-ad-rimmon (Zech 12:11), Egyptian archers mortally wounded Josiah, and he died in Jerusalem, mourned by all Judah and Jerusalem. The king’s piety and repentance were mourned by the prophet Jeremiah in his elegy, as well as by other singers and singers in sorrowful songs—kinot (2 Chr 35:24-25). This lamentation expressed that the days of Judah’s political existence were now numbered: after Josiah’s death the kingdom of Judah existed for two more decades, but this was a miserable existence as a tributary to Babylon. Josiah’s successor was chosen by the people, strangely, not the eldest son (cf. v. 36) but the younger—Jehoahaz or, according to (Jer 22:11 and further)—Shallum (cf. 1 Chr 3:31), perhaps considering him more worthy, but he did not at all justify these hopes (Jer 22:11 and further).

2 Kings 23:31. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 Kings 23:32. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his ancestors had done. 2 Kings 23:33. Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 2 Kings 23:34. Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away; and he came to Egypt and died there. 2 Kings 23:35. Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he had to tax the land in order to meet Pharaoh’s demand for the money. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from all according to their assessment, to give to Pharaoh Neco. Concerning Libnah, see note on (2 Kgs 19:8). Riblah (in the LXX: Βῆλα, ᾿Ρεβάαμι, Vulg.: Rebla, Slav.: “Revlaham,” “Vila”—Onomasticon, 274)—a city on the northeastern border of the promised land (Num 34:11), on the Orontes, now Riblah, between Homs (Emesa) and Baalbek. Here Neco brings the deposed Jehoahaz (after his three-month reign) (v. 33); here also after Nebuchadnezzar blinded Zedekiah (2 Kgs 25:6), then killed the nobles of Judah (2 Kgs 25:21). Apparently Riblah was the main headquarters of Neco, and afterwards of Nebuchadnezzar. In place of Jehoahaz, Neco places as king of Judah the elder son of Josiah, Eliakim, changing his name to Jehoiakim as a sign (cf. Gen 41:45; Dan 1:7) of his vassalage to himself (so Nebuchadnezzar did later with Mattaniah-Zedekiah, 2 Kgs 24:17). The tribute imposed by the Egyptian pharaoh on Judah was distributed (as once in the Israelite kingdom under Menahem, 2 Kgs 15:19) among the owners of land parcels, even the poor (Hebrew am-ha-aretz).

2 Kings 23:36. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. Rumah (in the LXX: ῾Αρημὰ, Vulg.: Ruma), probably the same as Arumah, near Shechem (Judg 9:41; Josephus, Jew. War 3:7, 21), now Khirbat Ruma south of the plain of Asochis (Onomast. 793). Jehoiakim reigned eleven years, from 609 to 593 BC (v. 36; 2 Chr 35:5). His impious reign, full of infidelity to true religion and abounding in every kind of unrighteousness (Jer 7:9 and further; Jer 17:2 and further; Jer 22:13-17; Ezek 8:9-17; Hab 2:9-14), was a true disaster for Judah, fatefully drawing it toward ruin.

2 Kings 23:37. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, just as his ancestors had done. * * * Notes Josephus considers this fall of Assyria already an accomplished fact at this time; according to him, Neco marched to the Euphrates with the intention of “waging war with the Medes and Babylonians, who had destroyed the Assyrian kingdom” (Josephus, “Jewish Antiquities,” Book 10, Chapter 5, Section 1), compare in Bishop Platon, “The Ancient East in the Light of Divine Revelation,” pp. 274–275