Josiah

Josiah is the reforming king of Judah whose thirty-one-year reign ends the long arc of Davidic apostasy with one last covenant renewal before exile. Born to Amon and grandson of Manasseh, he comes to the throne as a child after his father's assassination, and grows into the king who tears down the high places, finds the Book of the Law in the temple, leads a Passover unmatched since the days of Samuel, and dies on the field at Megiddo. The biblical witness frames him as the prophesied counterweight to Jeroboam — named at Bethel three centuries before he was born — and Sirach later canonizes his memory as "sweet incense" alongside David and Hezekiah.

A second Josiah, son of Zephaniah, appears briefly as a returnee from Babylon in whose house Zechariah crowns the high priest Joshua.

Prophesied Three Centuries Before His Birth

Josiah is named in scripture before any of his ancestors knew the name. At Bethel, while Jeroboam stands by the rival altar to burn incense, an anonymous man of God cries out a word from Yahweh against the altar itself: "Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense on you, and man's bones they will burn on you" (1Ki 13:2). The prophecy fixes both the name and the act, and waits.

Accession After Amon

When Amon is assassinated by his own slaves, "the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead" (2Ki 21:24). The genealogical line is preserved at 1Ch 3:14: "Amon his son, Josiah his son." He is eight years old at his accession and reigns thirty-one years in Jerusalem (2Ch 34:1). The Chronicler's verdict is unqualified: "he did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the ways of David his father, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left" (2Ch 34:2).

Seeking God as a Young King

The Chronicler dates Josiah's spiritual movement to two ages. "In the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images" (2Ch 34:3). At sixteen he sought; at twenty he acted.

The Purge of Idolatry

Before the temple is repaired, Josiah dismantles the apparatus of Judah's idolatry. The Baalim altars are broken in his presence, the sun-images hewed down, the Asherim and graven and molten images pulverized and the dust strewn on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them (2Ch 34:4). He burns the bones of the idolatrous priests on their altars (2Ch 34:5) and extends the purge into the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and Naphtali (2Ch 34:6-7), beating the Asherim and graven images "into powder."

The longer 2 Kings account fills in the temple-precinct details. Josiah brings out of the temple of Yahweh "all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven," burns them outside Jerusalem, and carries the ashes to Beth-el (2Ki 23:4). He puts down the kings' idolatrous priests, removes the Asherah from the house of Yahweh and beats it to dust (2Ki 23:5-6), tears down "the houses of the pagan whores, who were in the house of Yahweh, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah" (2Ki 23:7), defiles the high places "from Geba to Beer-sheba" (2Ki 23:8), and defiles Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom "that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech" (2Ki 23:10). He removes the horses dedicated to the sun and burns the chariots of the sun (2Ki 23:11), breaks down the rooftop altars of Ahaz and Manasseh and casts their dust into the Kidron (2Ki 23:12), and defiles the high places Solomon had built for Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom (2Ki 23:13).

The Bethel Altar Fulfilled

The 1 Kings 13 prophecy comes due in 2Ki 23:15-20. Josiah breaks down the altar Jeroboam had made at Beth-el, burns its high place, beats it to dust, and turns to the tombs in the mount: "he sent, and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Yahweh proclaimed by the man of God when Jeroboam stood at the feast on the altar" (2Ki 23:16). Spotting one inscribed monument, the king is told it is "the tomb of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Beth-el" (2Ki 23:17), and he orders it left undisturbed: "Leave him alone; let no man move his bones" (2Ki 23:18). The reform sweeps north into the cities of Samaria, where Josiah does "according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el" and slays the priests of the high places on their altars (2Ki 23:19-20).

The Book of the Law

In the eighteenth year of his reign Josiah orders the temple repaired. He sends Shaphan the scribe to Hilkiah the high priest with instructions on the silver gathered by the keepers of the threshold, money to be delivered "into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of Yahweh" — to carpenters, builders, masons, for timber and cut stone (2Ki 22:3-6). The accounting is omitted because the workmen "dealt faithfully" (2Ki 22:7).

In the course of bringing out the silver, Hilkiah makes the discovery: "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 22:8; 2Ch 34:14-15). Shaphan reads it before the king, "and it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he rent his clothes" (2Ki 22:11). Josiah commissions Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah: "Go⁺, inquire of Yahweh for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that was found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us, because our fathers haven't listened to the words of this book" (2Ki 22:13).

Huldah's Oracle

The delegation goes to "Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah" (2Ki 22:14). Her oracle has two halves. To the nation: "Look, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods ... my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched" (2Ki 22:16-17). To Josiah personally: "because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh ... I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, neither will your eyes see all the evil which I will bring on this place" (2Ki 22:19-20). The Chronicler reproduces the same oracle in 2Ch 34:23-28.

Covenant Renewal at the Pillar

Josiah convenes "all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem" and goes up to the temple with priests, prophets, and "all the people, both small and great" (2Ki 23:1-2). He reads to them "all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 23:2). Then, standing by the pillar, he "made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all [his] heart, and all [his] soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant" (2Ki 23:3). The Chronicler adds that Josiah "caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand" to it (2Ch 34:32) and "made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they did not depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers" (2Ch 34:33).

The Passover

The reform climaxes in a Passover unprecedented in scale. Josiah sets the priests in their offices, has the holy ark put in Solomon's house — "there will no more be a burden on your⁺ shoulders" (2Ch 35:3) — and gives from his own substance "thirty thousand" lambs and young goats and three thousand bullocks for the offerings (2Ch 35:7). The princes and the chiefs of the Levites add tens of thousands more (2Ch 35:8-9). Singers in their place, porters at every gate, the sons of Asaph following the commandment of David (2Ch 35:15) — the whole liturgical machinery functions in unison.

The Chronicler's verdict: "there was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept", "and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept" (2Ch 35:18-19). The Kings parallel says the same: "Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah" (2Ki 23:22).

"No King Like Him"

The Kings narrator's final assessment of Josiah's purge — spiritists, wizards, talismans, idols, "all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem" put away (2Ki 23:24) — issues in an unmatched commendation: "And like him there was no king before him, that turned to Yahweh with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him did there arise any like him" (2Ki 23:25).

The judgment is paired with a sober qualifier. "Notwithstanding, Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. And Yahweh said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel" (2Ki 23:26-27). Huldah's promise to Josiah is that he himself will not see this evil; the exile is delayed but not averted.

Megiddo

Josiah's death is the one place the narrative records him not listening. "After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him" (2Ch 35:20). Neco sends ambassadors with an unusual claim: "What have I to do with you, king of Judah? [I come] not against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; and God has commanded me to hurry: forbear yourself from [meddling with] God, who is with me, that he does not destroy you" (2Ch 35:21). The Chronicler's verdict on what follows is sharp: Josiah "would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and didn't listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo" (2Ch 35:22).

The archers find him: "And the archers shot at King Josiah; and the king said to his slaves, Take me away; for I am critically wounded" (2Ch 35:23). His slaves move him from his battle chariot to a second chariot, bring him to Jerusalem, and bury him in the tombs of his fathers (2Ch 35:24). The Kings account compresses the same event: "King Josiah went against him; and [Pharaoh-necoh] slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him" (2Ki 23:29). His slaves carry him dead from Megiddo and bury him in his own tomb, and the people of the land make Jehoahaz his son king in his stead (2Ki 23:30).

Lamentations for Josiah

"And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, look, they are written in the lamentations" (2Ch 35:24-25). The mourning becomes liturgy.

Josiah and Jeremiah

Jeremiah's prophetic ministry is dated to Josiah's reign. "The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: to whom the word of Yahweh came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month" (Je 1:1-3). Three of Josiah's sons rule in succession over the unraveling of the kingdom: 1Ch 3:15 lists "the sons of Josiah: the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum."

Sirach's Memorial

The praise of the fathers in Sir 49 places Josiah among the elect three. "The name of Josiah is as sweet incense, That is well mixed, the work of the perfumer. The memorial of him is sweet in the palate like honey, And as music at a banquet of wine. For he was grieved at their backslidings, And caused the vain abominations to cease; And he gave his heart wholly to God, And in days of violence he showed kindness" (Sir 49:1-3). The summary verdict is stark: "Except David, Hezekiah, And Josiah, they all dealt corruptly, And forsook the law of the Most High,-- The kings of Judah, until their end" (Sir 49:4).

In the Genealogy of Jesus

Matthew's genealogy keeps the line: "and Hezekiah begot Manasseh; and Manasseh begot Amos; and Amos begot Josiah; and Josiah begot Jehoiachin and his brothers at the Babylonian Exile" (Mt 1:10-11). Josiah stands at the hinge of the third group of fourteen generations, the last named king before the deportation.

Josiah Son of Zephaniah

A second figure of the same name appears in the post-exilic period. Zechariah receives a word commanding him to take silver and gold from the returnees Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and to "go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have come from Babylon" (Zec 6:10) to make crowns for the high priest Joshua. Josiah's house functions as the staging point for the symbolic crowning that announces the Branch who "will build the temple of Yahweh" (Zec 6:12-13). The crowns themselves are to remain "in the temple of Yahweh" as a memorial, including "for the kindness of the son of Zephaniah" (Zec 6:14).