Necho II (Egypt)

Necho II, pharaoh of Egypt's 26th Dynasty, ruled from Sais in the Nile Delta. In −609, as the Assyrian empire collapsed, he marched north to help the last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II, retake Harran from the Babylonians. King Josiah of Judah blocked him at Megiddo and was killed (2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chronicles 35:20–24, where Necho warns him, "What have I to do with you, king of Judah?"). Returning south, Necho deposed Josiah's son Jehoahaz after three months and took him to Egypt, where he died, imposed a tribute of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold, and installed his brother Eliakim, renamed Jehoiakim.

Egypt's hold on the Levant ended in −605, when Nebuchadnezzar routed Necho's army at Carchemish; 2 Kings 24:7 notes that "the king of Egypt did not come out of his land again." Herodotus (Histories 2.158–159) remembers Necho for beginning a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea and for a victory at "Magdolos" that may echo Megiddo, and (4.42) for sending a Phoenician fleet that sailed around Africa.