16 Facts About Josiah

Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah's reforms were usually considered to be more or less accurate, but that is heavily debated.

Josiah is known only from biblical texts; no reference to him exists in other surviving texts of the period from Egypt or Babylon, and no clear archaeological evidence, such as inscriptions bearing his name, has ever been found.

However, a seal bearing the name "Nathan-melech," the name of an administrative official under King Josiah according to 2 Kings 23:11, dating to the 7th century BCE, was found in situ in an archeological site in Jerusalem.

Josiah had four sons: Johanan, and Eliakim was born on c 634 BCE), whose mother was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah; and Shallum and Mattanyahu (c.

The Second Book of Chronicles records that Josiah was eight years old when he became king.

Josiah ordered the High Priest Hilkiah to use the tax money which had been collected over the years to renovate the temple.

Josiah consulted the prophetess Huldah, who assured him that the evil foretold in the document for non-observance of its instructions, would come, but not in his day; "because", she said, "thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thyself before the Lord".

An assembly of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem and of all the people was called, and Josiah then encouraged the exclusive worship of Yahweh, forbidding all other forms of worship.

Josiah had pagan priests executed and even had the bones of the dead priests of Bethel exhumed from their graves and burned on their altars.

Josiah ordered the double grave of the "man of God" and of the Bethel prophet to be left alone as these prophecies had come true.

Josiah wiped out all of the pagan cults that had formed within his land.

The prophetic activity of Jeremiah began in the reign of Josiah; he was a contemporary of his relative the prophetess Hulda and of his teacher Zephaniah.

When Josiah restored the true worship, Jeremiah went to the exiled ten tribes, whom he brought to Israel under the rule of the pious king.

Josiah attempted to block the advance at Megiddo, where a fierce battle was fought and Josiah was killed.

Some researchers have concluded from the account in Kings that Josiah did not meet Necho in battle but was summoned by Necho as a vassal, investigated, and beheaded for failing to pay the correct tribute or tax to Egypt.

On that basis, Josiah was killed in the month of Tammuz 609 BCE, when the Egyptians were on their way to Harran.