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CHAPTER 15 - JOSIAH, (SIXTEENTH) KING OF JUDAH.
Accession of Josiah - His Early Life - Arrangement of the Narrative - Collection for
Repair of the Temple - The Remnant of Israel - Character of those Employed - The
Reformation not the Outcome of a general Religious Revival - Temple Repairs - The
Finding of the Book of the Law - The Prophetess Huldah - The Assembly and Covenant
in the Temple - Destruction of the Emblems of Idolatry in Jerusalem, Judah, and in the
Northern Tribal Possessions - Fulfillment of Ancient Prophecy regarding Bethel -The
Great Passover in Jerusalem. (2 KINGS 22; 23:1-23; 2 CHRONICLES 34; 35:1-19.)
JOSIAH was only eight years old when he succeeded to the royal dignity. As his extreme
youth would withdraw him from the influences and temptations to which Manasseh had
been exposed at his accession, so it must have necessitated the tutorship, or at least
guidance, of men to whom, as generally venerated, a royal child would be entrusted. That
such there were, we infer from the revival of prophecy, as represented by a Huldah, a
Jeremiah, and a Zephaniah;* from the notices we have of some whom we afterwards find
surrounding the king; and, lastly, from the bearing of the priesthood under their chief
Hilkiah.
- Comp. also 2 Kings 23:2: "the prophets."
Nor, indeed, could the lessons of the reign of Hezekiah, and even of that of Manasseh,
have been wholly effaced during the brief rule of Amon. Such men as they, under whose
auspices afterwards the reformation of Josiah was carried out, could have had no
difficulty in showing the youthful king how the brightest memories of the royal house of
Judah were associated with the names of David, Jehoshaphat, and Joash, Uzziah, and
Hezekiah, and that the times of greatest national prosperity had been those of faithful and
earnest allegiance to Jehovah and His service.
These are indeed mainly inferences; but they are grounded on the facts of this history,
and explain them. Nor can we help thinking that even the early birth of an heir to the
crown, implying as it does a royal marriage at the early age of thirteen,* may here be of
significance (comp. 2 Kings 22:1 with 23:36). But the whole history of Josiah's reign is
of such importance, and it raises so many questions, that, for clearness' sake, it seems
better to discuss separately its religious and its political aspect, so far as this is possible.
- Amon became the father of Josiah at the age of 16 (comp. 2 Kings 21:19).
First and foremost in this reign stand the measures of religious reformation inaugurated
by Josiah. These comprise the preliminary abolition of idolatry; the repair of the Temple;
the discovery in it of the Book of the Law; the consequent national reformation by the
king; and, lastly, the solemn national observance of the Passover. We have stated the
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