[657] The name Amon is unusual. Some identify it with the name of the Egyptian sun-god (Nah. iii. 8). If so, we see yet another element of Manasseh's syncretism, and (as some fancy) an attempt to open relations with Psammetichus of Egypt. But perhaps the name may be Hebrew for "Architect" (1 Kings xxii. 26; Neh. vii. 59).
[658] 2 Kings xxi. 19. The LXX. reads "twelve years," but not so Josephus (Antt., X. iv. 1), or 2 Chron. xxxiii. 21.
[659] Zeph. iii. 1-11. Comp. i. 4.
[660] Chemarim, 2 Kings xxiii. 5; Hos. x. 5. The root in Syriac means "to be sad," but Kimchi derives it from a root "to be black." The Vulgate renders it æditui and aruspices.
[661] We are told in the titles of their books that both these prophets prophesied in the days of Josiah; but such pictures can only apply to the earliest years of his reign.
[662] See Jer. v., vi., vii., passim.
[663] Jer. vi. 13-15.
[664] Jer. v. 30, 31.
[665] Kamphausen (Die Chronologie der hebräischer Könige) makes Josiah succeed to the throne in 638.
[666] Otherwise his genealogy would not be mentioned for four generations (Hitzig).