Nehemiæ 35:21

Clementine Latin Vulgate

At ille, missis ad eum nuntiis, ait : Quid mihi et tibi est, rex Juda ? non adversum te hodie venio, sed contra aliam pugno domum, ad quam me Deus festinato ire præcepit : desine adversum Deum facere, qui mecum est, ne interficiat te.

Parallel Translations

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
At ille, missis ad eum nuntiis, ait: Quid mihi et tibi est, rex Juda? non adversum te hodie venio, sed contra aliam pugno domum, ad quam me Deus festinato ire pr�cepit: desine adversum Deum facere, qui mecum est, ne interficiat te.

Nova Vulgata (1979)
At ille, missis ad eum nuntiis, ait: "Quid mihi et tibi est, rex Iudae? Non adversum te hodie venio, sed contra aliam pugno domum, ad quam me Deus festinato ire praecepit. Desine adversum Deum facere, qui mecum est, ne interficiat te".

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

What: 2 Samuel 16:10, Matthew 8:29, John 2:4

house wherewith I have war: Heb. house of my war

God: 2 Kings 18:25, Isaiah 36:10

forbear thee: 2 Chronicles 25:19

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 17:18 - What have I 2 Kings 14:10 - why shouldest 2 Chronicles 35:22 - the mouth Jeremiah 46:2 - Pharaohnecho

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But he sent ambassadors to him,.... That is, Necho sent to Josiah:

saying, what have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? signifying he had no quarrel with him, he did not come to fight with him, and he had no business to intermeddle between him and another prince:

I come not against thee this day; in an hostile manner:

but against the house wherewith I have war; the king of Assyria:

for God commanded me to make haste; and oppose his enemy: according to the Targum, it was his idol; and which is the sense of other Jewish writers y; but the true God might have appeared to him in a dream, or sent a prophet to him; or at least he might pretend this, that it might have the greater effect on Josiah; and indeed it seems to be real from the following verse:

forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not; he concluded God was with him, and would succeed him, because he had put him upon this enterprise, and hastened him to it; therefore Josiah, in opposing him, might expect to be resisted by him, and fall.

y T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 22. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The house wherewith I have war - Necho viewed Babylon as the successor and representative of Assyria - the hereditary enemy of Egypt - and he means that he is merely continuing an old hostility with which Josiah has nothing to do. No doubt the Assyrian and Egyptian armies had often passed up and down Syria by the coast route, without approaching Jerusalem, or even touching the soil of Judaea.

God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God - These are remarkable words in the mouth of a pagan; but ancient inscriptions show that the Egyptian kings, in a certain sense, acknowledged a single supreme god, and considered their actions to be inspired by him. (e. g. The god Tum (compare) the name of his city, Pithom, Exodus 1:11 note) was worshipped as ankh, “the living One” (compare “Yahweh”)). Hence, Necho merely expressed himself as Egyptian kings were in the habit of doing.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 2 Chronicles 35:21. God commanded me to make haste — The Targum gives a curious turn to this and the following verse: "My idol commanded me to make haste; refrain therefore from me and my idol which is with me, that he betray thee not. When he heard him mention his idol, he would not go back; and he hearkened not unto the words of Necho, which he spake concerning his idol." Here is the rabbinical excuse for the conduct of Josiah.