2 Kings 24:7

And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) And the king of Egypt came not again any more . . .—The verse indicates the posture of political affairs at the time when Jehoiachin succeeded his father. Necho had been deprived by Nebuchadnezzar of all his conquests, and so crippled that he durst not venture again beyond his own borders. Thus Judah was left, denuded of all external help, to face the consequences of its revolt from Babylon, which speedily overtook it (2Kings 24:10).

From the river (torrent) of Egypt—i.e., the Wady-el-Arish. The details of this campaign of Nebuchadnezzar are not recorded. It is clear, from the statement before us, that before the battle of Carchemish Necho had made himself master of the whole of Syria and the country east of the Jordan.

Benson Commentary

2 Kings 24:7. The king of Egypt came not again out of his own land — In this king’s days. He could not now come to protect the king of Judah, being scarce able to defend his own kingdom.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:1-7 If Jehoiakim had served the Lord, he had not been servant to Nebuchadnezzar. If he had been content with his servitude, and true to his word, his condition had been no worse; but, rebelling against Babylon, he plunged himself into more trouble. See what need nations have to lament the sins of their fathers, lest they smart for them. Threatenings will be fulfilled as certainly as promises, if the sinner's repentance prevent not.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Neco, from the year of the battle of Carchemish, confined himself to his own country and made no efforts to recover Syria or Judaea.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. the king of Egypt—that is, Pharaoh-nechoh.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The king of Egypt came not again, to wit, in this king’s days; nor until Zedekiah’s time, Jeremiah 37:6,7; nor to any purpose. He could not now come out to protect the king of Judah, being scarce able to defend his own kingdom.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the king of Egypt came not any more out of his land,.... To receive the tribute he imposed on the land of Judah, or to help the kings there of, Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin; not till the times of Zedekiah, and then was obliged to retire, without giving any assistance, Jeremiah 37:7 the reason follows:

for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt; all that lay between the river Nile, or the Rhinocolura, and the river Euphrates so that he could not stir out of his dominions, which lay beyond.

2 Kings 24:7,and thine hands upon thine head; plucking and dishevelling the hair, as women in distress; so Tamar, when abused by her brother, laid her hand on her head, and went out crying, 2 Samuel 13:19,

for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences; those in whom they trusted, as the Egyptians; so that they should be of no service to them; or them, because of their trust and confidence in men, when it ought to have been placed above in himself:

shalt not prosper in them; or because of them, as Kimchi; but shalt go into captivity.

continued...

Geneva Study Bible

And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. the king of Egypt came not again any more] The whole Asiatic possessions of Egypt had been conquered by the Babylonians, who now become the prominent heathen people in the Scripture story.

from the river [R.V. brook] of Egypt] This is not the Nile, but the modern Wadi El Arish, a desert stream toward the border of Egypt. See note on 1 Kings 8:65 for its identification.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - And the King of Egypt earns not again any mere out of his land. Nechoh's two expeditions were enough for him. In the first he was completely successful, defeated Josiah (2 Kings 23:29), overran Syria as far as Carchemish, and made Phoenicia, Judaea, and probably the adjacent countries tributary to him. In the second (Jeremiah 46:2-12) he suffered a calamitous reverse, was himself defeated with great slaughter, forced to fly hastily, and to relinquish all his conquests. After this, he "came not any more out of his land." Whatever hopes he held out to Judaea or to Tyre, he was not bold enough to challenge the Babylonians to a third trial of strength, but remained - peaceably within his own borders. For the King of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt. The נַחַל מִצְרַיִם is not the Nile, but the Wady el Arish, the generally dry watercourse, which was the ordinarily accepted boundary between Egypt and Syria (see 1 Kings 8:65; Isaiah 27:12). The Nile is the נָהַר מִצְרַיִם. Unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the King of Egypt; i.e. all that he had conquered and made his own in his first expedition in the year B.C. 608. 2 Kings 24:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"Jehoiakim lay down to (fell asleep with) his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his stead." That this statement is not in contradiction to the prophecies of Jeremiah 22:19 : "Jehoiakim shall be buried like an ass, carried away and cast out far away from the gates of Jerusalem," and Jeremiah 36:30 : "no son of his shall sit upon the throne of David, and his body shall lie exposed to the heat by day and to the cold by night," is now generally admitted, as it has already been by J. D. Michaelis and Winer. But the solution proposed by Michaelis, Winer, and M. v. Niebuhr (Gesch. p. 376) is not sufficient, namely, that at the conquest of Jerusalem, which took place three months after the death of Jehoiakim, his bones were taken out of the grave, either by the victors out of revenge for his rebellion, or by the fury of the people, and cast out before the city gate; for Jeremiah expressly predicts that he shall have no funeral and no burial whatever. We must therefore assume that he was slain in a battle fought with the troops sent against him, and was not buried at all; an assumption which is not at variance with the words, "he laid himself down to his fathers,"' since this formula does not necessarily indicate a peaceful death by sickness, but is also applied to king Ahab, who was slain in battle (1 Kings 22:40, cf. 2 Kings 22:20).

(Note: The supposition of Ewald (Gesch. iii. p. 733), that Jehoiakim was enticed out of the capital by a stratagem of the enemy, and taken prisoner, and because he made a furious resistance was hurried off in a scuffle and mercilessly slaughtered, is at variance with the fact that, according to v. 10, it was not till after his death that the army of the enemy advanced to the front of Jerusalem and commenced the siege.)

- And even though his son Jehoiachin ascended the throne after his father's death and maintained his position for three months against the Chaldaeans, until at length he fell into their hands and was carried away alive to Babylon, the prophet might very truly describe this short reign as not sitting upon the throne of David (cf. Graf on Jeremiah 22:19). - To the death of Jehoiakim there is appended the notice in 2 Kings 24:7, that the king of Egypt did not go out of his own land any more, because the king of Babylon had taken away everything that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates. The purpose of this notice is to indicate, on the one hand, what attitude Necho, whose march to the Euphrates was previously mentioned, had assumed on the conquest of Judah by the Chaldaeans, and on the other hand, that under these circumstances a successful resistance to the Chaldaeans on the part of Judah was not for a moment to be thought of.