Map – Egyptians III (609 – 605 BCE)

TIME PERIOD: 609 – 605 BCE

“In 609 B.C. Pharaoh Necho tried to march through Palestine, to help the survivors of the Assyrian empire to defend themselves, in their last stronghold on the Euphrates, against the newly rising empire of Babylon under Nabopolassar. Necho hoped to prevent the emergence of a Babylonian power in Mesopotamia and at the same time to achieve suzerainty over Syria and Palestine… All that lay west of the Euphrates was now ruled by Egypt.”

Hanoch Reviv, “The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332 B.C.)” The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 101, The Continuum Publishing Group Inc., 2001

“The picture quickly changed, however…Nebuchadrezzar, was given command over the Babylonian forces in the west. Necho and his forces were completely defeated at Carchemish, and those who managed to escape were pursued and killed in the territory of Hamath…

The battle at Carchemish, like the fall of Nineveh, changed the political picture of the Near East. A new imperial ruler had emerged: Babylonia.”

Gosta W. Ahlstrom, The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 760, Sheffield Academic Press, 1993

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