Armageddon in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

("Mount of Megiddo": from a root gadad, "to cut off," i.e. "slaughter" (Revelation 16:16)). The plain of Esdraelon, the great Old Testament battle field between Israel and the various enemies of Jehovah's people: the scene of Barak's victory over Canaan, and Gideon's over Midian (Judges 4; 5; 7), the scene also of Saul's death and Israel's defeat before the Philistines (1 Samuel 31), and of Josiah's death in battle with Pharaoh Necho (2 Kings 23:29-30). Both this and "the valley of Jehoshaphat" (the scene of his great victory, 2 Chronicles 20:26, compare Zechariah 14:2-4) may be figurative phrases for the scene of the final conflict of Christ and Antichrist. But they may also be literal. The mourning at Josiah's death in the valley of Megiddo became proverbial for the most poignant grief. As he and his army represent the professing church, so Pharaoh Necho and the Egyptians the God-opposed world. The triumph of Pharaoh then shall be utterly reversed in the last conflict of the ten confederate kings under Antichrist against the Lamb and His hosts (not merely professors, but "called, chosen, and faithful") (Revelation 17:12-14; Revelation 19:11-21). The last Antichrist is developed after executing judgment on the whore, the apostate church; he then, with his ten confederate kings and the false prophet, opposes Christ Himself, and perishes.