Josiah
King of Judah from the age of eight. In his eighteenth year a book of the law was found in the temple, and he purged the land of other worship and centred it on Jerusalem. Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo in 609 BC.
Josiah became king at eight, after his father Amon was murdered, and reigned thirty-one years (2 Kings 21:23–24) (2 Kings 22:1). Kings says that no king before or after him turned to the Lord as he did (2 Kings 23:25). For the finding of the book of the law and what followed see Josiah’s Reform and the Book of the Law. Jeremiah began to prophesy in his thirteenth year (Jeremiah 1:2) and later held him up to his son as a king who did justice and judged the cause of the poor (Jeremiah 22:15–16).
He went out against Pharaoh Necho II, who was marching to the Euphrates, and met him at Megiddo. Kings says that Necho killed him there; Chronicles says that he was shot by archers and died after being brought back to Jerusalem (2 Kings 23:29–30) (2 Chronicles 35:20–24). The Babylonian chronicle records an Egyptian army crossing the Euphrates in 609 BC (Babylonian Chronicle 3 year 17), which gives the year. Kings tells of a man of God who foretold him by name in the days of Jeroboam I (1 Kings 13:2), and Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus includes him (Matthew 1:10–11).
In the timeline
- 627 BC, estimated dateThe Call of Jeremiah
In the thirteenth year of King Josiah, Jeremiah, of a priestly family at Anathoth, is called to be a prophet to the nations. For some forty years he warns Judah of disaster from the north, and he promises a new covenant written on the heart.
- 622 BC, estimated dateJosiah’s Reform and the Book of the Law
During repairs to the temple in Josiah’s eighteenth year the high priest Hilkiah finds a book of the law. The king consults the prophetess Huldah, renews the covenant, destroys the shrines of other gods throughout the land and keeps a great Passover.
- 609 BC, firm dateJosiah Falls at Megiddo
Pharaoh Necho marches north to the Euphrates in support of Assyria. King Josiah of Judah goes out against him at Megiddo and is killed. Three months later Necho deposes Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and makes Jehoiakim king as Egypt’s vassal.