town or village

Megiddo

• Today Tel Megiddo

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Events

1. c. 1457 BCThutmose III defeats the king of Kadesh and his allies at Megiddo

Battles and sieges

1. 609 BCJosiah killed at Megiddo by Pharaoh Necho 2 Kgs 23:29–30
   Josiah of Judah against Pharaoh Necho marching to the Euphrates. Josiah is slain; his servants carry him dead in a chariot to Jerusalem.

Questions

• Where was Megiddo, the Armageddon of Revelation?

History

Megiddo stands on a mound at the western edge of the Jezreel Valley, where the pass of Wadi Ara comes through the Carmel ridge, and it guarded the main road between Egypt and Syria. About 3000 BC a monumental temple already stood here. In the fifteenth century BC Thutmose III of Egypt routed a coalition of Canaanite kings before its walls and took the city after a siege; his annals at Karnak call its capture the capture of a thousand cities. In the Amarna letters of the fourteenth century BC its ruler Biridiya asks Pharaoh for troops, as Labayu means to take Megiddo.

Joshua lists the king of Megiddo among the kings Israel defeated, yet Manasseh did not drive out the Canaanites of the town. The Song of Deborah tells of the kings of Canaan fighting in Taanach "by the waters of Megiddo". Megiddo belonged to one of Solomon's districts, and 1 Kings names it with Hazor and Gezer among the cities he built. Ahaziah, king of Judah, fled from Jehu to Megiddo and died there; Pharaoh Necho slew King Josiah at Megiddo in 609 BC. Zechariah speaks of mourning in the valley of Megiddon, and the Armageddon of Revelation is usually explained as "mount of Megiddo".

Iron Age Megiddo had palaces, a six-chambered gate, long pillared buildings once taken for Solomon's stables, and a shaft and tunnel to its spring. Whether the gate and palaces belong to Solomon's tenth century or to the ninth century of Ahab's dynasty is one of the main disputes of biblical archaeology. A fragment of a victory stela of Pharaoh Shishak was found on the mound. After 732 BC Megiddo was the seat of an Assyrian province; later the town dwindled, and the mound was abandoned about the fourth century BC.

In the second century AD the Roman Sixth Legion, Ferrata, set up its camp south of the mound, at a place called Legio beside the village of Kefar Othnay; Eusebius measures distances in the Great Plain from Legio. In the village a Christian prayer hall with mosaic inscriptions was found, dated by its excavators to the third century AD and by others to the early fourth. In the fourth and fifth centuries a city named Maximianopolis stood nearby; its exact site is debated.

Scripture: Josh 12:21; Judg 1:27; Judg 5:19; 1 Kgs 4:12; 1 Kgs 9:15; 2 Kgs 9:27; 2 Kgs 23:29–30; Zech 12:11; Rev 16:16

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (12)

Josh 12:21

The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

Josh 17:11

And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher Beth-shean and her towns, and Ibleam and her towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, and the inhabitants of Endor and her towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and her towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns, even three countries.

Judg 1:27

Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

Judg 5:19

The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.

1 Kgs 4:12

Baana the son of Ahilud; to him pertained Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokneam:

1 Kgs 9:15

And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

2 Kgs 9:27

But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. And Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot. And they did so at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo, and died there.

2 Kgs 23:29

In his days Pharaoh-nechoh 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.

2 Kgs 23:30

And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.

1 Chr 7:29

And by the borders of the children of Manasseh, Beth-shean and her towns, Taanach and her towns, Megiddo and her towns, Dor and her towns. In these dwelt the children of Joseph the son of Israel.

2 Chr 35:22

Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

Zech 12:11

In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Solomon →
• Jehu →
• Josiah's reform →