1. Son and successor of Amon king of Judah: he reigned thirty-one years (B.C. 641-610). He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. He began to reign when eight years old, and at the age of sixteen he sought after God. When he was about twenty years old he began to destroy all the high places, and groves, and images, and altars. He burnt the bones of the priests of Baalim upon their altars, as foretold in 1 Kings 13:2. These things he did not only in Judah but also in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali (2 Kings 22:1-2; 2 Chron. 34:1-7).
Having purged the land of idolatry he set his hand to repair the house of the Lord. While this was in progress Hilkiah the priest found a copy of the law, which had evidently been lost sight of. It was read to the king, who was so moved on hearing its precepts, and knowing how they had been violated, that he rent his clothes, and sent to inquire of the Lord. The answer was that the evil and the curses found in the book should fall upon the people; but, because Josiah’s heart was tender, and he had humbled himself, the judgment should not be executed in his days. He then assembled all the people at the temple; made them hear the law, and renew the covenant of obedience to Jehovah their God. And it is added that “all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers” (2 Kings 22:3-20; 2 Kings 23:1-20; 2 Chron. 34:8-33).
In the eighteenth year of Josiah, the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were kept. The ark was restored to its place in the temple, from which apparently it had been removed for some purpose. The testimony is that “there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet.” Thus was Josiah enabled to recall the people to a sense of their responsibility, and to the means of their communion with God in the ordinance of the Passover (2 Kings 23:21-28; 2 Chron. 35:1-19).
In the thirty-first year of his reign, Josiah, perhaps from fidelity to former treaties with Assyria, went out to oppose the king of Egypt when he himself was in no way attacked; and, though warned “from the mouth of God,” he persisted in his purpose. He disguised himself, yet he was wounded and died. Jeremiah lamented for him, and the singers also in their songs (2 Chron. 35:20-26). His reign was like the last shining of God’s lamp in Judah: though he had zealously followed the Lord, the heart of the people was not changed (Jer. 3:6-10: Compare Zephaniah). In Matthew 1:10-11 The name is JOSIAS.
2. Son of Zephaniah, at whose house Zechariah assembled the chief men of the captivity when Joshua the son of Josedech was crowned (Zech. 6:10).