The story skips from Josiah’s eighteenth year in 622 BC to the year he died in 609 BC. As the Assyrian Empire weakened, Egypt and Babylon, once under Assyrian control, clashed. King Neco of Egypt, who had allied with Assyria to resist Babylon's growth, asked Josiah to let his army pass freely. Josiah's decision to block them might have been due to an alliance with Babylon or his own effort to gain independence from Egypt. Josiah died because he ignored a divine message given by a non-Jewish king.