JOSIAH (jo-srah), (Heb. ri:re'1"‘, yo-shee-yaw, founded by Jah).
The sixteenth king of Judah, and son of Amon whom he succeeded on the throne (B. C. 639), at the early age of eight years, and reigned thirty-one y ears.
(1) Accession to the Throne. As Josiah thus early ascended the throne, we may the more ad mire the good qualities which he manifested. Avoiding the example of his immediate prede cessors, he 'did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left' (2 Kings xxii:1, 2 ; 2 Chron. xxxiv : 1, 2).
(2) Purification of the Land. As early as the sixteenth year of his age lie began to manifest that enmity to idolatry in all its forms which dis tinguished his character and reign; and lie was not quite twenty ycars old when he proclaimed open war against it, although more or less favored by many men of rank and influence in the court and kingdom. He then commenced a thorough puri fication of the land from all taint of idolatry, by going about and superintending in person the op erations of the men who were employed in break ing down idolatrous altars and images, and cutting down the groves which had been consecrated to idol worship. His detestation of idolatry could not have been more strongly expressed than by ransacking the sepulchers of the idolatrous priests of former days, and consuming their bones upon the idol altars before they were overturned.
(3) His Action Predicted. Yet this operation, although unexampled in Jewish history, was fore told three hundred and twenty-six years before Josiah was born, by the prophet who was commis sioned to denounce to Jeroboam the future pun ishment of his sin. He even named Josiah as the person by whom this act was to be performed; and said that it should be performed in Bethel, which was then a part of the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings xiii:2). All this seemed much beyond the range of human probabilities. But it was performed to the letter; for Josiah did not confine his proceed ings to his own kingdom, but went over a con siderable part of the neighboring kingdom of Is rael, which then lay comparatively desolate, with the same object in view ; and as Bethel, in par ticular, executed all that the prophet had foretold (2 Kings xxiii:1-tg; 2 Chron. xxxiv :3-7, 32). In these proceedings Josiah seems to have been actu ated by an absolute hatred of idolatry, such as no other king since David had manifested, and which David had scarcely occasion to manifest in the same degree.
(4) Temple Repaired. In the eighteenth year of his reign and the twenty-sixth of his age, when the land had been thoroughly purified from idola try and all that belonged to it, Josiah proceeded to repair and beautify the temple of the Lord.
(5) Finding of the Law. In the course of this pious labor, the high-priest Hilkiah discovered in the sanctuary a volume, which proved to contain the books of Moses, and which, from the terms employed, seems to have been considered the or iginal of the law as written by Moses. On this point there has been much anxious discussion and some rash assertion. Some writers of the German school allege that there is no external evidence —that is, evidence beside the law itself—that the book of law existed till it was thus produced by This assertion it is the less necessary to answer here, as it is duly noticed in the article PENTATEUCH. But it may be observed that it is founded very much on the fact that the king was greatly astonished when some parts of the law were read to him. It is indeed perfectly manifest that lie had previously been entirely ii.morant of much that he then heard • and he rent his clothes in consternation when he 'found that, with the best intentions to serve the Lord, lie arid all his people had been living in the neglect of duties which the law declared to be of vital importance. It is cer tainly difficult to account for this ignorance. Some suppose that all the copies of the law had perished, and that the king had never seen one. This is very unlikely, but however scarce com plete copies may have been, the pious king was likely to have been the possessor of one. The probability seems to be that the passages read were those awful denunciations against disobedience with which the book of Deuteronomy concludes, and which from some cause or other the king had never before read, or which had never before pro duced on his mind the same strong conviction of the imminent dangers under which the nation lay, as now when read to him from a volume invested with a character so venerable, and brought with such interesting circumstances under his notice.