Hilkiah the priest discovered ‘the Book of the Law’ in the temple, 2 Kings 22:8-10 / 2 Chronicles 34:14-15, and informs Josiah that he found it. Josiah now calls the people together to read it out, 2 Kings 23:1-2 / 2 Chronicles 34:29-30. This law was supposed to be read out to the people throughout history, Deuteronomy 31:9-13.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The present passage is strong evidence that the Jewish kings could read. The solemn reading of the Law, a practice commanded in the Law itself once in seven years, Deuteronomy 31:10-13, had been intermitted, at least for the last 75 years, from the date of the accession of Manasseh.’
Because they didn’t have a copy of the Book of the Covenant, 2 Kings 23:2, they were obviously ignorant of God’s law, Hosea 4:6. It is also possible that they didn’t look hard enough in the first place to find a copy of the law.
Because Josiah read out all the words of the Book of the Covenant, he personally stood before the people and read from the Word of God, 2 Chronicles 34:31. He gets everyone else to stand as a demonstration of their agreement with the covenant, Genesis 15:17 / Jeremiah 34:18 / 1 Samuel 8:11-17 / 1 Samuel 10:25 / Joshua 24.
In other words, he assumed the position of spiritual leadership just like Joshua did many years before him, Joshua 24:15.
After the covenant was renewed with the people, Deuteronomy 5:2, everyone ‘pledged’ themselves to the covenant, 2 Kings 23:3-4 / 2 Chronicles 34:32. The K.J.V. uses the word, ‘stood’.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The covenant renewal was expressed as follows.
1. In general. To walk after Jehovah, to have no gods besides him.
2. To take his law for the regulation of their conduct.
3. In particular. To bend their whole heart and soul to the observance of it, so that, they might not only have religion without, but, piety within.
To this all the people stood up, thus giving their consent, and binding themselves to obedience.’
It was very important that everyone pledged to keep the covenant, as this would make it easier for Josiah to get the temple back for God’s use only. It would make it easier to remove all those places of idol worship and to get rid of all the priests of Baal from the land if they didn’t repent.
In the eighth year of his reign, he began to seek the God of his father David, 2 Chronicles 34:3. Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down and he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols, 2 Kings 23:4 / 2 Chronicles 34:3-4. Baal and Asherah worship, was seriously promoted by Ahab and Jezebel and had been a problem in Israel for many years, 2 Kings 11:17-20 / 2 Kings 18:4-5 / 2 Kings 14:23-24 / 2 Kings 16:32. By the time Josiah became king, God’s temple had essentially become a place for Baal worship.
He took the Asherah pole and removed it not just from the temple but from Jerusalem and burned it, 2 Kings 23:4. Male and female prostitution was involved in Baal worship and so, he tore down the male shrine prostitutes, and the place where the women did weaving for Asherah, 2 Kings 23:5-7 / Ezekiel 8:14 / Ezekiel 16:16 / Amos 2:8 / Amos 5:26.
In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel, 2 Chronicles 34:6-7. Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense and he broke down the gateway at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which was on the left of the city gate, 2 Kings 23:8.
Notice that ‘the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the LORD,’ 2 Kings 23:9. The reason they didn’t come was because their income came from those who worshipped in the high places. The Levites who had accepted positions at the high places were brought back to Jerusalem and maintained there, but they were never again accepted as true priests with access to the Lord’s altar, Ezekiel 44:10-14.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘As these priests had offered sacrifices on the high places, though it was to the true God, yet they were not thought proper to be employed immediately about the temple but as they were acknowledged to belong to the priesthood, they had a right to their support; therefore a portion of the tithes, offerings, and unleavened bread, shew-bread, was appointed to them for their support. Thus they were treated as priests who had some infirmity which rendered it improper for them to minister at the altar, Leviticus 21:17 / Leviticus 21:22-23.’
He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek, 2 Kings 23:10.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The word Topheth, or Topher, variously derived from toph, ‘a drum’ or ‘tabour,’ because the cries of the sacrificed children were drowned by the noise of such instruments; or, from a root taph or toph, meaning ‘to burn’, was a spot in the valley of Hinnom. The later Jewish kings, Manasseh and Amon or, perhaps, Ahaz, 2 Chronicles 28:3, had given it over to the Moloch priests for their worship; and here, ever since, the Moloch service had maintained its ground and flourished.’
He removed from the entrance to the temple of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun and we are told that they were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek, 2 Kings 23:11. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun, 2 Kings 23:10.
He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the LORD and he removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley, 2 Kings 23:12. There’s no doubt that Ahab was more than likely the first person to introduce human sacrifice to the false god Molek, 2 Kings 16:3 / 2 Kings 19:1-9.
Josiah also desecrated the high places, 2 Kings 23:13 / 1 Kings 11:7. Remember God told Israel during the days of Joshua that these high places were to be totally destroyed, Numbers 33:52 / Leviticus 26:27-30. These structures which were originally built by Solomon were still in existence, this is some four hundred years later. Israel had obviously become entrapped in the worship of false gods and took pleasure in satisfying the sensual lusts through them.
No one knows where the ‘Hill of Corruption’, 2 Kings 23:13, is located but some have suggested it’s a reference to the Mount of Olives which was located east of Jerusalem. Josiah totally destroys everything that had anything to do with Molek throughout the land, 2 Kings 23:13-14.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the human bones, 2 Kings 23:14.
‘The Law attached uncleanness to the ‘bones of men,’ no less than to actual corpses, Numbers 19:16. We may gather from this and other passages, 2 Kings 23:20 / 1 Kings 13:2, that the Jews who rejected the Law were as firm believers in the defilement as those who adhered to the Law.’
Josiah continued in his restoration of the land by going beyond the borders of Judah to Bethel, 2 Kings 23:15. It appears that he has now taken charge of the Northern Kingdom of Israel since they have now been taken into captivity, 2 Kings 17:5-6. The altar, which was destroyed here, 2 Kings 23:15, was the altar that Jeroboam had originally built to encourage the northern tribes to stay away from Jerusalem.
The destroying of the altar was the fulfilment of God’s prophecy to Jeroboam, 2 Kings 23:16. God’s prophet actually names Josiah as the one who would destroy it, 1 Kings 13:1-3 / 1 Kings 13:30-31. Josiah was totally unaware of the fulfilment of the prophecy, but the citizens of the place, who remembered it well, told him about it, 2 Kings 23:17.
We read of the same kind of prophecy concerning the name of Cyrus, Isaiah 44:28-45:1. Although there were many false prophets around before and during this time and many unrighteous kings before Josiah came to the throne, many of the priests remained faithful to God and His Word.
He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 34:5.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following concerning the purging.
‘Jeremiah’s first prophecies, Jeremiah 2-3, appear to have been coincident with Josiah’s earlier efforts to uproot idolatry, and must have greatly strengthened his hands.’
After enquiring about the tomb, Josiah tells them to leave it alone, and don’t let anyone disturb his bones and so, they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria, 2 Kings 23:17-18 / 1 Kings 13:32.
Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the LORD’s anger, 2 Kings 23:19. He then slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them and then goes back to Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 34:7 / 2 Kings 23:20.
Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the God and as long as he lived, they did not fail to follow God, 2 Chronicles 34:33.
Although Josiah had religiously cleaned up Judah by the standards of God’s Word, sadly, after his death, his descendants went back to idolatry and undone everything he had achieved.
Josiah now tells the people it’s time to celebrate the Passover according to how it was written in the Book of the Covenant, 2 Kings 23:21, which implies they hadn’t celebrated the Passover correctly up until this point, 2 Chronicles 35:1 / 2 Chronicles 35:18-19 / Deuteronomy 16:1-8.
Josiah appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the LORD’s temple, 2 Chronicles 35:2. Josiah tells the Levites to put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built but the ark, ‘is not to be carried about on your shoulders’, 2 Chronicles 35:3. The KJV, says ‘it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Josiah means shall not henceforth be your duty. The ark shall remain undisturbed in the holy of holies. You shall return to your old employments, to the service of God and the instruction of the people.’
Josiah tells the Levites to prepare themselves by families in their divisions, according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon, 2 Chronicles 35:4. He tells them to stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each subdivision of the families of their fellow Israelites, the lay people, 2 Chronicles 35:5.
They are to slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate themselves and prepare the lambs for their fellow Israelites, doing what the LORD commanded through Moses, 2 Chronicles 35:6.
Notice Josiah himself provided thirty thousand lambs and goats for the Passover sacrifice, as well as three thousand cattle, 2 Chronicles 35:7. His officials also contributed voluntarily to the people and the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the officials in charge of God’s temple, gave the priests twenty-six hundred Passover offerings and three hundred cattle, 2 Chronicles 35:8.
Konaniah along with Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, provided five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred head of cattle for the Levites, 2 Chronicles 35:9. This was more than double than the previous Passover celebrations during the reign of Hezekiah, 2 Chronicles 30:24.
The service was arranged and the priests stood in their places with the Levites in their divisions as Josiah had ordered, 2 Chronicles 35:10. The Passover lambs were slaughtered, and the priests splashed against the altar the blood handed to them, while the Levites skinned the animals, 2 Chronicles 35:11.
They set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the subdivisions of the families of the people to offer to God and they did the same with the cattle, 2 Chronicles 35:12. They roasted the Passover animals over the fire as prescribed, and boiled the holy offerings in pots, caldrons and pans and served them quickly to all the people, 2 Chronicles 35:13.
They made preparations for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fat portions until nightfall, 2 Chronicles 35:14. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the Aaronic priests, 2 Chronicles 35:14.
In other words, the people were served first and then the priests and finally the Levite leaders. He also put singers in their places, 2 Chronicles 35:15, however, God didn’t command any kind of singing during the Passover celebrations.
So at that time the entire service was carried out for the celebration of the Passover and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, as Josiah had ordered, 2 Chronicles 35:16. The Israelites who were present celebrated the Passover at that time and observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, 2 Chronicles 35:17.
The Passover hadn’t been observed like this in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel and none of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated such a Passover as did Josiah, with the priests, the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were there with the people of Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 35:18. This Passover was celebrated in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, 2 Chronicles 35:19.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This Passover was utterly unlike the one kept in the reign of Hezekiah, in several important particulars.
1. It was kept at the prescribed time, Numbers 9:1-5 / 2 Chronicles 30:1-3.
2. The ceremonial cleanness of participants was observed.
3. And all the particulars of the Mosaic instructions were strictly observed.
4. Although the singers were mentioned, the instruments of music were not mentioned, and apparently not used.
These important distinctions fully justify the statement in 2 Chronicles 35:18, that, ‘from the days of Samuel the prophet, none of the kings of Israel keeps such a Passover as Josiah kept’.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning 2 Kings 23:22-23 / 2 Chronicles 35:18.
It’s superiority to other Passovers seems to have consisted of the following.
1. In the multitudes that attended it.
2. In the completeness with which all the directions of the Law were observed in the celebration, Nehemiah 8:17.
Josiah is really making every effort to rid the land of anything sinful and idolatrous, especially those who teach falsehood, 2 Kings 23:24. He takes this as serious as Elijah did when he opposed Ahab and Jezebel, 1 Kings 18:16-19. He has the false prophets executed, 2 Kings 23:20, which was the punishment for those who practised these things, Leviticus 20:27.
They were paramount in leading Israel away from God and leading them deep into idolatry. Notice that Josiah was doing all of those reforms according to the commandments of God in the Books of Moses, 2 Kings 23:25.
Despite this great restoration effort by Josiah, it appears that the damage was already done, everything which Manasseh did couldn’t be undone by Josiah. God was still angry with His people, 2 Kings 23:26 / 2 Chronicles 34:33, and promises that Judah will also be taken into captivity, 2 Kings 23:27.
This may seem like a drastic reaction by God, especially in light of everything Josiah has done and is doing. However, God knows that the only way His people will be totally restored from their sinful behaviour is to be taken into captivity. History tells us that when God’s people returned from captivity, they learned their lesson and never committed idolatry again.
The other events of Josiah’s reign, and all he did, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah, 2 Kings 23:28 / 2 Chronicles 35:26-27. Here we read of a conflict which took place near the end of Josiah’s reign, which involved him being killed, 2 Kings 23:29 / 2 Chronicles 35:24 / 2 Kings 22:20.
Pharaoh Necho of Egypt wanted to come to the rescue of the Assyrians at Carchemish, 2 Kings 23:29 / 2 Chronicles 35:20. Necho sends messengers to Josiah asking what quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry, so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you, 2 Chronicles 35:21.
Josiah stubbornly refused to hear this warning, which was actually from God. For some reason, possibly pride, he went into battle with Necho when he didn’t need to.
Josiah wouldn’t turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle and so, Josiah engaged him in battle at Megiddo, 2 Kings 23:29 / 2 Chronicles 35:22. It was during this period we find a world power struggle taking place between the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
That king of Assyria was Nabopolassar the father of Nebuchadnezzar and this pharaoh was Pharaoh-Necho II. The history of this event is very complex. That king of Assyria was Nabopolassar the father of Nebuchadnezzar and this pharaoh was Pharaoh-Necho II.
Coffman, in his commentary, gives the following useful insight.
‘The Assyrian empire was in a state of collapse. Nineveh had fallen in 612 B.C., and Pharaoh-Necho was ambitious to succeed Assyria as the world ruler. It is not exactly clear why Josiah felt it necessary to challenge the king of Egypt, but he did, losing his life as a result. Yes, God had promised through Huldah that Josiah would die in peace, but it is sinful to allege the fact of his being killed in battle as ‘a contradiction’.
1. The ‘in peace’ of God’s promise may have referred to the fact that Jerusalem would not be under attack at the time of his death.
2. All of God’s promises are conditional, Jeremiah 18:7-10, and it is simply astounding how many learned men apparently remain ignorant of this simple truth. In the light of it, Josiah’s engagement of the king of Egypt in battle might have been contrary to God’s will, nullifying the promise altogether.
Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers to take him away because he was badly wounded, 2 Chronicles 35:23. Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and he died, Chronicles 35:24. They buried him in his own tomb, 2 Kings 23:30. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him, 2 Chronicles 35:24.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The fate of Josiah was unprecedented. No king of Judah had, up to this time, fallen in battle. None had left his land at the mercy of a foreign conqueror. Hence, the extraordinary character of the mourning, Zechariah 12:11-14.’
Notice that Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, 2 Chronicles 35:25. He probably was wondering why the righteous died in the way Josiah did. He was so popular that even the entire nation lamented over his death, 2 Chronicles 35:25.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The exact place of the battle seems to have been Hadad-Rimmon, in the valley of Megiddo, for there Zechariah tells us, Zechariah 12:11, was the great mourning for Josiah.’
The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and anointed him and made him king in place of his father, 2 Kings 23:30 / 2 Chronicles 36:1.
Following the death of Josiah, Jehoahaz became king of Judah and reigned for only three months, 2 Kings 23:31, before Pharaoh Necho put him in chains, 2 Chronicles 36:1-4. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah and she was from Libnah, 2 Kings 23:31. Jehoahaz was probably a throne name, for his personal name was Shallum, Jeremiah 22:11 / 1 Chronicles 3:15. His older brother was Eliakim.
The Jeremiah mentioned here, 2 Kings 23:31 / Ezekiel 10:1-9, isn’t the prophet Jeremiah because he was from Anathoth, Jeremiah 1:1. Jehoahaz did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his predecessors had done, 2 Kings 23:32. Jehoahaz became king, before Pharaoh Necho put him in chains, 2 Kings 23:33 / 2 Chronicles 36:1-4 / Jeremiah 22:11-12.
When Pharaoh heard that they had made Jehoahaz king, he immediately sent a detachment of soldiers to Jerusalem and deposed of him and placed Eliakim on the throne, 2 Kings 23:34 / 2 Chronicles 36:3. Judah was now under the control of Egypt and they had to pay a heavy levy to Egypt for as long as they stayed under their control, 2 Kings 23:35.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Pharaoh-Necho, after bringing Phoenicia and Syria under his rule, and penetrating as far as Carchemish, returned to Southern Syria, and learned what had occurred at Jerusalem in his absence. He sent orders to Jehoahaz to attend the court which he was holding at Riblah, and Jehoahaz fell into the trap, Ezekiel 19:4.’
Jehoiakim now becomes king of Judah at the age of twenty-five and he reigned for eleven years, 608 B.C. to 597 B.C. 2 Kings 23:36-37 / 2 Chronicles 36:5-8 / Ezekiel 19:5-7 / Jeremiah 22:13-17 / Jeremiah 26:20-23. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah and she was from Rumah, 2 Kings 23:36. Although Judah was under Egypt’s control in the early part of his reign, later Judah would come under the control of the Babylonians, 2 Kings 23:34 / 2 Chronicles 36:3 / 2 Kings 24:1.
Jehoiakim did evil in the eyes of the LORD, 2 Chronicles 36:5 / Jeremiah 22:13-19, just as his predecessors had done, 2 Kings 23:37. There’s no doubt that Jehoiakim was a very greedy king who oppressed God’s people.
He was an idolater, he killed innocent people, introduced forced labour and was far from being a just king, Jeremiah 22:13-17. He even killed Uriah, God’s prophet for prophesying that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, Jeremiah 26:20-23.