The Book of Deuteronomy consists mainly of an historical introduction, probably added later (i. 1-5); Moses' _first_ discourse (i. 6-iv. 40); Moses' _second_ discourse (iv. 44-xxvi.); a section marked specially by blessings and curses (xxvii.-xxix.); a _third_ discourse of Moses (xxix. 2-xxx. 20); his farewell (xxxi. 1-13); his song (xxxi. 14-xxxii. 47); conclusion, narrating his blessing and death (xxxii. 48-xxxiv. 12).
I have no space here to enter fully into the arguments which seem decisive as to the date of the main part of Deuteronomy. Those who desire to see them must study Colenso, _The Pentateuch_, pt. iii.; Reuss, _Hist. Sainte et la Loi_, i. 154-211; W. Robertson Smith, _Old Test. in the Jewish Church_, lect. xvi.; Kuenen, _The Hexateuch_, E. T., 1886; Kittel, _Gesch. d. Hebräer_, pp. 43-59; Cheyne, _Jeremiah_, pp. 48-86; S. R. Driver, _s.v._ "Deuteronomy" (Smith's _Dict. of the Bible_, new ed.); W. Aldis Wright, _The Documents of the Hexateuch_, pp. lvii.-lxxix. The name "Deuteronomy" (or "second law") arises from the mistaken rendering of the LXX. and Vulgate in Deut. xvii. 18.
2 KINGS xxiii. 29, 30
"Howl, O fir tree; for the cedar is fallen."--ZECH. xi. 2.
Josiah survived by thirteen years the reformation and covenant which are the chief events of his reign. He lived in prosperity and peace. He did justice and judgment; the poor and needy flourished under his royal protection; and it was well with him. It seemed as if the Deuteronomic blessings on faithfulness to its law were about to be abundantly fulfilled, when "the azure calm of heaven" was suddenly shattered, and "down came the thunderbolt." The great and victorious Assurbanipal of Assyria had died, and left his power to weaker successors. Meanwhile, Egypt was growing in power and splendour under Pharaoh Necho II. (B.C. 612-596), the sixth king of the twenty-fifth or Saitic dynasty. He nearly anticipated M. de Lesseps in making the Suez Canal,[728] and perhaps actually anticipated Vasco de Gama in rounding the Cabo Tormentoso, or Cape of Good Hope, in a three years' voyage. He was fired by the ambitious dream of succeeding the Assyrians as the chief power in the world, or at any rate of seizing part of the dominions which they had conquered.[729] Accordingly, in B.C. 608, he went up against the King of Assyria to the river Euphrates. The Chronicler says that his destination was Carchemish, on the Euphrates, and some have conjectured that the vague phrase "against the King of Assyria" is incorrect, and that, as Josephus states, he was really marching against the Medes and Babylonians after the fall of Nineveh.[730]
With this expedition Josiah was not greatly concerned. He may have begun his reign as the vassal of Assurbanipal; but if so, it is probable that he had long since ceased to pay tribute to a power which was tottering to its fall under the attacks of Scythians and Babylonians. He had availed himself of the disorganisation of the Assyrian power to re-establish some, at least, of the old authority of the House of David over the Northern Kingdom, and perhaps he only undertook the desperate expedient of withstanding the northward march of the Egyptian host under the notion that either on the march or on his return the Pharaoh intended to subjugate Palestine to Egypt.
Pharaoh Necho II., among his other achievements, had created a powerful fleet,[731] and it is nearly certain that he did not advance along the coast of Palestine, but made his way by sea to Acco or Dor.[732] Here he received the news that Josiah meant to block his path at Megiddo, on the plain of Jezreel. That plain has been the great and only possible battle-field of Palestine, from the revolt in which Barak destroyed the host of Jabin,[733] to that in which Tryphon met Jonathan the Maccabee,[734] and Kleber in 1799 defeated twenty-five thousand Turks with three thousand French.