The king in his alarm sent to Huldah 'the prophetess,' for her counsel in this emergency (see HuLimn) ; her answer assured him that, although the dread penalties threatened by the law had been incurred and would be inflicted, he should be gathered in peace to his fathers before the da3.s of punishment and sorrow came.
(6) Renewal of the Covenant. It was per haps not without some hope of averting this doom that the king immediately called the people to gether at Jerusalem, and engaged them in a solemn renewal of the ancient covenant with God. When this had been done, the Passover was celebrated with careful attention to the directions given in the law, and on a scale of unexampled magnifi cence. But all was too late; the hour of mercy had passed•, for 'the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah' (2 Kings xxii:3-2o; xxiii :21-27 ; 2 CIU-011. XXXII; :8-33 ; XXXV :I-19).
(7) Death. That removal from the world which had been promised to Josiah as a blessing, was not long delayed and was brought about in a way which lie had probably not expected. His kingdom was tributary to the Chalchcan empire; and when Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, sought a passage through his territories, on an expedition against the Chalcheans, Josiah, with a very high sense of the obligations which his vassalage im posed, refused to allow the march of the Egyptian army through his dominions, and prepared to re sist the attempt by force of arms. Necho was very
unwilling to engage in hostilities with Josiah; the appearance of the Hebrew army at Megiddo, how ever, brought on a battle, in which the king of Judah was so desperately wounded by arrows that his attendants removed him from the war-chariot, and placed him in another, in which he was taken to Jerusalem, where lie died (B. C. about 68o).
(8) Character. Josiah possessed many esti mable qualities. No king that reigned in Israel was ever more deeply lamented by all his subjects than lie; and we arc told that the prophet, Jere miah, composed on the occasion an elegiac ode, which was long preserved among the people,. but which is not now in existence (2 Kings xxin :21) 37: 2 Chron. xxxv:20-27).
2. Son of Zephaniah, whose house Zechariah was commanded to make the assembling place of the chief men of the captivity when Joshua, the high-priest, was crowned (Zech. vi:to), B. C. 519.
j0S1AS (jo-si'as), (Gr. 'huelas, ee-oh-se'os), the Grecized form of Josiah, king of Judah, found Matt. iao, t