Nahum | 2 Kings 23:29-37 | 2 Chronicles 35:20-36:5 | Jeremiah 22:10-17

Please note, this entry was originally scheduled for August 5.

The prophet Nahum speaks the word of the Lord against Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, as God plans to bring them down from their position of rulership in the middle east. During the days of king Josiah, the Lord sends Pharaoh Necho to execute war on Assyria, which is when Josiah is killed because of presumptuously challenging Necho to fight.

After Josiah is killed, his son Jehoahaz becomes king in Judah for 3 months, however Pharaoh Necho takes him as captive to Egypt, where he will die. Necho sets up the brother of Jehoahaz, Eliakim to be his vassal king in Judah, and renames him Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim is an evil king, and will reign for 11 years in Jerusalem.

On a side note, king Nebuchadnezzar will conquer Pharaoh Necho at the famous battle of Carchemish in 605 BC, and he laid siege to Jerusalem about 20 years later, when the city and temple were destroyed, and the survivors taken captive to Babylon.