2 Kings 23:29; Another issue with and a Question; Why Didn't the NKJV Translators Catch that?

[Alan Dale Gross]

"2 Kings 23:29; Another issue with the Question;​

Why Didn't the NKJV Translators Catch that?"​

• "In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. (KJV)
• "In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him. (NKJV)

"Clearly the NKJV is false by its own admission here via the parallel account in 2 Chronicles in the NKJV itself:

"2 Chronicles 35:20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

"The KJV is nearly identical to it:

"2 Chronicles 35:20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.

"Pharaoh Necho of Egypt fought against Assyria during the days of Josiah. King Josiah was killed in a battle at Megiddo, when he went against Pharaoh unadvisedly.

"But the NKJV changes the entire history to make Pharaoh Necho an ally of Assyria in one place to deny the Inspired History and to contradict itself in another place.

"If the account in Kings is true in the NKJV, then what of Chronicles in the NKJV?

"Why didn't any of the 130 translators notice this?"

I think that's a fair question.

Ahhhh, Slavin Perfunctory

 

[Deacon]

To answer your question, here's what I came up with.

The Hebrew phrase rendered went up to is used in 1 Kgs 20:22 to mean “to go against” or “to attack.” Various translations apply that meaning here in verse 29 by saying Neco “went up against the king of Assyria” (KJV, RVR; similarly SEM). Mft [Moffatt] similarly says that Neco “marched to fight the king of Assyria,” and NRSV uses the ambiguous wording “went up toward the king of Assyria.”

However, ancient Akkadian sources indicate that Neco was going “to help” (so GNT, NIV, NLT, BRCL, FRCL, SPCL) the Assyrian king Ashur-Uballit II and his army; and the writings of the first-century Jewish historian Josephus agree with this. ...

It is possible that the Hebrew phrase for went up to means “went on behalf of” here rather than “went against,” which is the usual meaning. Grammatical considerations favor the translation “went against” but historical sources favor the rendering “went on behalf of.” Translators must simply choose between the two possible translations. One other solution is to use a general expression such as “went up to see the king of Assyria” (so Peregrino) and to leave ambiguous the reason why he went.
Slager, Donald. 2008. “Preface.” In A Handbook on 1 & 2 Kings, edited by Paul Clarke, Schuyler Brown, Louis Dorn, and Donald Slager, 1–2:1310–11. United Bible Societies’ Handbooks. New York: United Bible Societies.
~~~~~~~~

Robert Alter footnotes:
against the king of Assyria. Something is awry here in regard to historical facts. We know from Babylonian annals that it was against Babylonia that Pharaoh Neco led his expeditionary force in 600 B.C.E., and Babylonia was aligned against Assyria, then in serious decline. Some scholars suggest reading "to," 'el, instead of "against," 'al.
The Hebrew Bible. Vol 2. Prophets, Nevi'im. Robert Alter. 2019. (2 Kings 23:29; p. 606).
~~~~~~~~~

II עַל: sf. עָלַי, עָלָֽי, עָלֶיךָ, עָלָֽיְכִי, עָלָיו, הֶעָלֶיהָ 1 S 9:24, עָלֵינוּ, עֲלֵיהֶם & עֲלֵהֶם, עָלֵימוֹ; עֲלֵי:—1. higher than > on, over: šākab ʿal 2 S 4:7; > in front of (if one person is standing & the other sitting): dibber ʿal Je 6:10, ʿāmad ʿal Gn 18:8; garment on s.one Gn 37:23; metaph. load (bride-price) on s.one Gn 34:12: duty: it is for me to (w. le & inf.) 2 S 18:11; ʿal w. ṣiwwâ, pāqad: order s.one to; w. sensual & emotion impressions: mātôq ʿal sweet to (your taste) Pr 24:13; on = (supported) by: ḥāyâʿal live by Gn 27:40;—2. upon = because of: ʿal-zōʾt, ʿal-kēn therefore; ʿal-rāʿātām because of … Je 1:16;—3. with regard to, concerning: w. regard to redemption Ru 4:7;—4. according to, ʿal-dibrātî according to the manner Ps 110:4; ʿal-pî = according to;—5. over against: ʿal-pānay over against me = in defiance of me Ex 20:3; > in spite of: ʿal-daʿtekā in spite of your knowing Jb 10:7;—6. (w. expr. of motion) onto: ʿal-hammizbēaḥ Lv 1:7; ʿālâ ʿal-lēb comes to mind Je 3:16;—7. upon = in addition to: w. yāsaf Dt 19:9; šeqer ʿal šeqer lie upon lie Je 4:20; lāqaḥ ʿal take (as a wife) in addition to Gn 28:9; therefore ʿal is used w. verbs of preferring, surpassing; gābar ʿal surpass Gn 49:26;—8. above = against, face to face w.: niqrâ ʿālênû meet with us Ex 3:18; implies weight, predominance, but shades into ʾel;—9. keʿal: keʿal-kōl according to all Is 63:7;—10. mēʿal from (upon), down from Gn 24:64, off (from) Jb 19:9; lēk mēʿālay get away from me! Ex 10:28; mēʿal le up over Jon 4:6; ʿad mēʿal to above Ez 41:20;—11. conj.: ʿal-belî in that … not Gn 31:20; ʿal lōʾ because … not Ps 119:136, although … not Is 53:9; ʿal-ʾašer because Ex 32:35; ʿal kî because Dt 31:17.
Holladay, William Lee, and Ludwig Köhler. 2000. In A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 272–73. Leiden: Brill.
~~~~~~~~

For the Chronicler the death of Josiah presented a challenge to his theology of retribution; defeat in battle for him represented divine disfavor, whereas victory was a token of blessing. If Josiah was such a pious king, how is it that he suffered defeat and died in battle? The Chronicler demonstrates the validity of his retribution theology by modifying the Kings account to show that Josiah’s death resulted from his disobedience to a divine oracle. Speech materials are commonly in Chronicles the vehicle of the author’s theological viewpoints; just as other war oracles resulted in weal or woe for the king receiving them (2 Chr 11:1–4; 13:4–12; 18:16–22; 25:17–24; cf. 16:7–9), here the warning is given by a gentile king. The author informs the reader that retribution theology is the focus of his concern by introducing the narrative of Josiah’s death with the additional phrase, “after all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order …”; the Chronicler commonly uses such introductory phrases to signal the focus of his interest (see Comment at 18:1).
Dillard, Raymond B. 1987. 2 Chronicles. Vol. 15. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated.

 

[Deacon]

So oddly enough, I’ve been working my way through 1 Chronicles lately (I haven't even looked at 2 Chronicles til this popped up).
I guess that’s why the thread caught my attention.

The 2 books of Chronicles are something I’ve never really studied… they start out so slow… chapter after chapter of genealogies… and then they repeat much of what was already written in ‘Kings and ‘Samuel.
... all true! …but there’s much more there than a quick read through gives you.

I began with Steven McKenzie’s, Introduction to the Historical Books: Strategies for Reading (2010).

He writes:

“The close similarity of Chronicles to Samuel-Kings has received a great deal of attention from scholars, and rightly so, for it is the only instance in the Bible where we have both an extended literary work and its principal source. We can get a clearer picture than anywhere else of how one biblical writer made use of his sources through supplementation, abbreviation, and adaptation. These changes provide insight into the Chronicler’s ideological interests and motives and how they shaped his literary activity. Studying Chronicles in close comparison with Samuel-Kings yields a clearer sense than anywhere else in the Bible of how its authors worked, how much freedom they could feel to shape their work, and by contrast what limits may have restricted them.”
McKenzie, Steven L. 2010. Introduction to the Historical Books: Strategies for Reading. Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 115.

(1) He mentions that the author would not have expected his less-literate audience to make close comparisons of his material.
(2) The text he used to write his material was not the biblical text we have before us today. His text differed and was closer to some of the material that has been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QSama) and the Septuagint of Samuel.
(3) Whatever the similarities and/or differences, one must look primarily at the literary and theological message and ideas that the author was trying to convey.

“At the same time, the Chronicler does appear to have used sources that he does not explicitly cite. Additional information not found in Kings but historically verifiable could have come from oral tradition or common local knowledge rather than writing. The reference to Hezekiah’s tunnel in 2 Chr 32:30 might be explained this way, as could the correction of 2 Kgs 23:29 in 2 Chr 35:20 to the effect that Pharaoh Neco went to aid Assyria, not oppose it.” (ibid p. 118).

Rob

 

[Logos1560]

Have all the different definitions of "against" been considered?

Concerning the KJV’s use of against with the meaning “opposite, confronting”, Ronald Bridges and Luther Weigle noted: “It is generally understandable as used in the KJV, but occasionally is ambiguous or has an obsolete sense” (p. 10). They noted: “A curious use of ‘against’ in a sense relating to time or preparation occurs in Genesis 43:25, ‘against Joseph came’ (p. 11) “Exodus 7:15, ‘against he come’”, “and 2 Kings 16:11, ‘against king Ahaz came’” (Ibid.). At the entry against, editor Martin Manser observed: “In a few instances in the KJV its sense may not be easily understood” (I Never Knew, p. 11).

How many of the KJV’s 1667 uses of this preposition against may be ambiguous, unclear, or not easily understood?

As Samuel Johnson’s eighth definition for against in his 1755 Dictionary and as Noah Webster’s eighth definition in his 1828 Dictionary, this is stated: “In provision for; in preparation for”. In his dictionary, Noah Webster then gave this example of against used with this definition: “Urijah made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus (2 Kings 16:11). In this sense against is a preposition with the following part of the sentence for an object.”

Is this eighth definition the meaning for how “against” is used in Numbers 11:18 [“Sanctify yourselves against to morrow”]? Does the KJV possibly also use “against” in an ambiguous, archaic, or obsolete sense in 1 Samuel 9:14 [“Samuel came out against them”] and in 2 Kings 23:29 [“went up against the king of Assyria” or “Josiah went against him”]? The 1833 Webster’s Bible has “Samuel came out meeting them” at 1 Samuel 9:14. The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia suggested that “when used of direction,” that the preposition [against] is “equivalent to ‘toward’” (Vol. I, p. 69). At 1 Samuel 9:14, the NKJV has the rendering “Samuel, coming out toward them”.