2 Chronicles 35:24 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Put him in the second chariot— It was the custom of war, in former times, for great officers to have their led horses, that if one failed they might mount another. The kings of Persia, Quintus Curtius informs us, had horses attending their chariots, to which, in case of any accident, they might fly; and, in like manner, we may presume, that when it became a fashion to fight in chariots, all great commanders had an empty one following them, to which they might betake themselves if any mischief befel the other. See Bochart Hieroz. Pars i. c. 2. Bishop Sherlock observes, that Josiah has so good a character in scripture, that both Jews and Christians have been at a loss to account for his unfortunate end. The learned Dr. Prideaux has justified his conduct in opposing the passage of the king of Egypt, because it was a service due to the king of Assyria, to whom Josiah was a vassal. Be it so; yet his duty to the king of Israel could not dissolve his dependance on a higher master. He went to war, as the vassal of the king of Assyria, but did he ask counsel of God as king of Judah? Or was he attended to the war by such forces only as the king of Judah might lawfully use? That he had chariots and horsemen appears plainly from this account of his death; for he was wounded in one chariot, and removed into another to be carried off; and it is very probable, that there were many chariots and horsemen in his army, since there appears no scruple in him upon this head. That this was the true or only cause of his misfortune, I dare not affirm, for I have no express authority to support me in affirming it; but this I see, that he was found in the day of battle, not with the equipage of a king of Judah, but surrounded with forces which the law of his God had forbidden him to trust to, and which had often proved a strength fatal to his ancestors.