The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, because I am seriously wounded!”
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, because I am seriously wounded!”
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Huldah's oracle in 2 Kings 22:20 and 2 Chronicles 34:28 promises that Josiah will be "gathered into thy grave in peace" — a peaceful death. 2 Kings 23:29-30 and 2 Chronicles 35:23-24 then narrate his violent battlefield death at Megiddo against Pharaoh Necho, shot by archers and carried back to Jerusalem to die.
Critical scholarship: Widely regarded as a genuine contradiction.
Historical detail
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
2 Kings 23:29-30 says Pharaoh Necho slew king Josiah at Megiddo, and his servants "carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo" and brought the body to Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 35:23-24 instead says Josiah was wounded by archers at Megiddo, was brought back alive to Jerusalem, and "died" there.
Critical scholarship: Leans toward a genuine contradiction.
Geography
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"2 Chronicles 35:23 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/2-chronicles/35/23?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).