NECHO (ne'ko), (Heb..0%, nek-o' ), an Egyptian king, son and successor (according to Herodotus, ii:t5.8) of Psammetichus, and contemporary of the Jewish king, Josiah (B. C. 61o).
(1) Army and Fleet. The wars and success of Necho, in Syria, are recorded by sacred as well as profane writers. Studious of military re nown, and the furtherance of commerce, Necho, on ascending the throne of Egypt, applied him self to reorganize the army, and to equip a power ful fleet. In order to promote his purposes, he courted the Greeks, to whose troops he gave a post next to his Egyptians. He fitted out a fleet in the Mediterranean, and another in the Red Sea. Having engaged some expert Phcenician sailors, he sent them on a voyage of discovery along the coast of Africa. The honor, therefore, of being the first to equip an expedition for the purpose of circumnavigating Africa belongs to Pharaoh necho, who thereby ascertained the peninsular form of that continent, twenty-one centuries be fore the Cape of Good Hope was seen by Diaz, or doubled by Vasco da Gama.
Before entering on this voyage of discovery, Necho had commenced reopening the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, which had been cut many years before by Sesostris or Rameses the Great. The work. however, if we may believe Herodotus, was abandoned, an oracle warning the Egyptian monarch that he was laboring for the barbarian (Herod. ii:t58).
(2) Enters Palestine. Necho also turned his attention to the Egyptian conquests already made in Asia ; and, fearing lest the growing power of the Babylonians should endanger the territories acquired by the arms of his victorious predeces sors, he determined to check their progress, and to attack the enemy on his own frontier. With this view he collected a powerful artny, and enter ing Palestine, followed the route along the sea coast of Judxa, intending to besiege the town of Carchemish on the Euphrates. But Josiah, king of Judah, offended at the passage of the Egyptian army through his territories, resolved to impede, if unable to prevent, their march. Necho sent messengers to induce him to desist, assuring him that he had no hostile intentions against Judma, 'but against the house wherewith I have war; for God commanded me to make haste.' This con ciliatory messag,e was of no avail. Josiah posted himself in the valley of Megiddo, and prepared jo oppose the Egyptians. Megiddo was a city in the
tribe of Manasseh, between forty and fifty miles to the north of Jerusalem, and within three hours of the coast. It is called Magdolus by Herodotus. In this valley the feeble forces of the Jewish king, having attacked Necho, were routed with great slaughter.
(3) Death of josiah. Josiah being wounded in the neck with an arrow, ordered his attendants to take him from the field. Escaping from the heavy shower of arrows with which their broken ranks were overwhelmed, they removed him from the chariot in which he had been wounded, and placing him in a 'second one that he had,' they conveyed him to Jerusalem, where he died (2 Kings xxiii :29, sq.; 2 Chron. xxxv :20, sq.). (See Jostan.) Intent upon his original project Necho did not stop to revenge himself upon the Jews, but con tinued his march to the Euphrates.
(4) Overthrow of His Successor. Three months had scarcely elapsed, when, returning from the capture of Carchemish and the defeat of the Chalckeans, he learned that, though Josiah had left an elder son, Jehoahaz had caused himself to be proclaimed king on the death of his father, without soliciting Necho to sanction his taking the crown. Incensed at this, he ordered Jehoahaz to meet him 'at Riblah, in the land of Hamath'; and having deposed him, and condemned the land to pay a heavy tribute, he carried him a prisoner to Jerusalem. On arriving there, Necho made Eliakim, the eldest son, king. changing his name to Jehoiakim; and taking the silver and gold which had been levied upon the Jewish nation, he returned to Egypt with the captive Jehoahaz, who there terminated his short and unfortunate career. Herodotus says that Necho, after having routed the Syrians (the Jews) at Magdolus, took Ca dytis, a large city of Syria, in Palestine, which, he adds, is very little less than Sardis (ii :15o; iii :5). By Cadytis there is scarcely a doubt he meant Jerusalem; the word is only a Greek form of the ancient, as well as the modern, name of that city. (See PHARAOH.) It is, however, to be regretted that the mural sculptures of Egypt pre sent no commemoration of these triumphs on the part of Necho; the sole record of hitn which they give being the name of Necho, found among the hieroglyphics in the great hall of Karnak. His oval also occurs on vases, and some small objects of Egyptian art.