Josiah, King of Judah: The Passover, the Chariot, and the Word He Would Not Hear

A King of Judah in the Divided Kingdom

Josiah, son of Amon and of Jedidah (2 Kings 22:1), belongs to the era of the divided kingdom and to the tribe of Judah. Ussher, in *Annals of the World* (1650), places his rule this way: he reigned 641 BC to 610 BC. His accession is recorded at 2 Chronicles 33:25 and 2 Kings 21:24, and the opening of his reign at 2 Chronicles 34:1 and 2 Kings 22:1. The genealogy of Judah's kings sets him in his place plainly: "Amon his son, and Josiah his son" (1 Chronicles 3:14).

Where His Name Appears

Forty-nine verses across seven books carry this name. The first is 1 Kings 13:2, long before the books that narrate his reign. The fullest narratives stand in 2 Kings 22 and 23 and in 2 Chronicles 34 and 35. Sixteen mentions fall in Jeremiah, one in Zephaniah 1:1, and two in Matthew. Jeremiah's own book opens by anchoring its prophecies to this king: "Yahweh's word came to him in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month" (Jeremiah 1:2-3). Many of the remaining references in Jeremiah are of that same kind, naming a year of Josiah or a son of Josiah to date a word from God (Jeremiah 25:1; 25:3; 26:1; 27:1; 35:1; 36:1-2; 36:9; 37:1; 45:1; 46:2; 22:11; 22:18; 3:6).

The Eighteenth Year

The high point of the record is a Passover. "There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah" (2 Chronicles 35:18-19). The same year is named in Kings: "but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, this Passover was kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem" (2 Kings 23:23). Further detail of the feast is recorded at 2 Chronicles 35:1, 35:7 and 35:16.

That same verse in Kings runs straight on into a purge: "Moreover Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in Yahweh's house" (2 Kings 23:24). His reforming acts are recorded also at 2 Kings 22:3; 23:16; 23:19, and his effect on the people at 2 Chronicles 34:33.

The Ride to Megiddo

"After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him" (2 Chronicles 35:20). What follows is told without excuse. "Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and didn't listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, 'Take me away, because I am seriously wounded!' So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers" (2 Chronicles 35:22-24).

The king who acted to confirm the words of the law did not listen to words from the mouth of God, and he disguised himself to fight a battle no one had given him. Kings tells the end more briefly: "Pharaoh Necoh killed him at Megiddo, when he had seen him" (2 Kings 23:29). "All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day" (2 Chronicles 35:24-25).

Sons and Succession

"The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place" (2 Kings 23:30); see also 2 Chronicles 36:1 and 2 Kings 23:34. The genealogy lists them differently: "The sons of Josiah: the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, and the fourth Shallum" (1 Chronicles 3:15). Two wives are named, Hamutal (2 Kings 23:31) and Zebidah (2 Kings 23:36), and one wife is left unnamed in the record behind 1 Chronicles 3:15.

What We Are Not Told

The passages quoted here do not say why Josiah went out against Neco, nor what he thought he was defending. Nothing further is told of Johanan the firstborn beyond his name in the list. Which son belonged to which mother is not set out in the quoted text, and the third wife is left without a name. The summaries close the file rather than open it: "Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?" (2 Kings 23:28), and "Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in Yahweh's law" (2 Chronicles 35:26).

The Line to Christ

Josiah's name is carried into the New Testament in the genealogy of Matthew 1:10-11, where he stands in the line that runs on to the deportation and, through it, to Jesus Christ. The king who died in a second chariot at Megiddo is not the end of the story; his name is one link in the record Matthew keeps.