JOSIAH jō sī’ ə (יֹאשִׁיָּ֣הוּ; LXX ̓Ιωσίας, G2739, may the Lord support or heal). Name of a king of Judah, son of Amon and Jedidah (below), and the name of a contemporary of the prophet Zechariah (Zech 6:10).
1. Chronology. Josiah’s reign of thirty-one years (2 Kings 22:1) ended with his death in battle at Megiddo, now firmly dated in 609 b.c. (June/July). The date 608 b.c. has been argued from the synchronism (Jer 25:1) of Jehoiakim’s fourth year with Nebuchadnezzar’s “first”; but Carchemish in 605 was also in Jehoiakim’s fourth (46:1), and it can be shown that Jewish sources reckoned an extra year to Nebuchadnezzar as compared with Babylonian sources (cf. 2 Kings 24:12; 25:8; Jer 52:12, 28-30); see Freedman, BA, xix. Alternatively, Finegan refers in Jeremiah 25:1 to Nebuchadnezzar’s accession year (to spring 604). The Babylonian Chronicle has no major Egyp. expedition in 608 b.c. If Josiah died in 610/9 (fall reckoning), his reign began in 640/39 b.c.
2. Early years. After Manasseh’s reign of terror, Amon (at twenty-two) showed similar tendencies. His assassins may have wanted a dynastic change or rebellion against Assyria (so Malamat); but the country party rejected them (2 Kings 21:24), installing Josiah at the age of eight (there is slight textual support for “eighteen,” but Amon’s youth precludes this). There must have been a regency, controlled by supporters of the dynasty who welcomed relief from its misgovernment. As Myers suggests, Zephaniah may well have had some influence. Josiah’s active pursuit of a godly policy is dated from 631 b.c. (2 Chron 34:3); Montgomery, ICC, finds his “conversion” (sic) on coming of age “artificial,” but without reason.
3. Contemporary events and foreign policy. Early in Josiah’s reign, the Assyrian grip on Pal. was already relaxing, and Psamtik I was gradually reestablishing Egyp. authority on the coast of Philistia. Nabopolassar’s enthronement in Babylon (Nov. 626 b.c.) heralded the extinction of the Assyrian empire; by 616, the situation was serious enough for Egypt to align herself with Assyria. Nineveh fell in 612; Assyrian forces kept the field in upper Mesopotamia, with Egyp. support, until their final defeat at Carchemish.
Josiah, starting as Assyria’s vassal at least in name, found increasing scope for acting independently. The covenant (622 b.c.), amounting to formal defiance of the Assyrian deity, brought no political repercussions; and it is possible, though perhaps irrelevant, that his assumption of authority in the provinces of Samaria (2 Kings 23:19f.) and Megiddo could have been represented as in the Assyrian interest. Josiah may have hoped to restore the kingdom of David; it should be noted, however, that the description of the land (23:8) is still “from Geba to Beersheba”; whereas, so far, none of the stamped jar handles associated with this reign has been found N of Tell-en-Nasbeh. It is going beyond the evidence to ascribe Josiah’s Passover feast to an expansionist policy (Segal, 216ff.).
Westward expansion may be attested by traces of settlement at Mesad Hassabyahu (Naveh et al., IEJ, pp. 10, 14; for the theory that the boundary lists in Joshua relate to Josiah’s kingdom, see Bibliography). Josiah married Hamutal of Libnah, perhaps for diplomatic reasons (2 Kings 23:31; cf. 8:22), and Zebidah of Rumah (23:36; Aharoni accepts this but Ginsberg emends to Dumah).
4. Josiah’s reformation
a. The Biblical account. In 2 Kings 22:3-7, it is related that Josiah gave orders for major repairs to the Temple in 622/1 b.c., during which the high priest found “a book of the law” (v. 8). The king was greatly shocked by what he read; when the prophetess Huldah confirmed its message of doom, he held a national assembly to renew the covenant that it contained. This was followed by a purge of idolatry, extended to Bethel and the Samaritan cities (23:4-20), and the Passover celebration in 622/1 b.c. (23:21-23). The narrative includes an appreciation of Josiah’s work (23:25), and records his death (23:28-30).
The Chronicler (2 Chron 34; 35) traces Josiah’s devotion from boyhood, through his first reforms in 628/7 b.c. Having mentioned his activity in Israel, he describes how the book was found and the covenant made after “he had purged the land and the house” (34:8). The effect in Israel is again noted (v. 33). The Passover is described, and characterized as surpassing all previous celebrations under the monarchy (2 Chron 35:18). In Kings, Josiah’s recall to the covenant is the most important event of the reign; Huldah’s prophecy holds the key—the curse must be fulfilled, but Josiah’s faith was accepted. To this, all else is incidental. The Chronicler is concerned mainly with the record of Israel’s last God-fearing king, and with the witness to God’s ordinances even in the shadow of disaster. The presentation in Kings is not incompatible with the earlier reforms recorded in Chronicles, which are implied in 2 Kings 22:2 and indeed by the Temple repair fund.
b. The Covenant and the Passover. The Covenant was in the terms of the book, which Josiah read at the ceremony. Many scholars (esp. those who reject the Chronicler’s account) have concluded that the reforms followed more or less specifically the directions of the book. This may be debated (see next section); moreover, the book was found during the restoration of the Temple, which would hardly have been undertaken without religious reform. Recognizing this, some scholars see Josiah as following Hezekiah’s lead toward making the Temple the one and only sanctuary of the Lord, where the Passover would be kept. On this view, the book supported but did not inspire Josiah’s moves (see Keil on 2 Chron 35:19); and the Passover was not new in principle but in the number of participants and the ordering of the service; both 2 Kings 23:22 and 2 Chronicles 35:18 can be understood thus. Some authorities, however (e.g., Gray, Alt) see this Passover as instituting a “pilgrimage” in place of a family festival.
It is not clear whether the Passover was unique, or a pattern for the rest of the reign. Widengren connects Passover and Covenant with the New Year (similarly Mowinckel, Psalmstudien II, pp. 204-206), as an annual ceremony. This means a fall Passover and a celebration at the beginning of Josiah’s eighteenth year, both very improbable; so much had already happened in that (regnal) year. The restoration of the Temple may well have started in October (2 Kings 22:3 LXX, though Keil, ad loc. 2 Chron 35:19, reckons it “a worthless gloss”).
c. The reform and the book. As with the Passover, the reformation does not seem to have originated with the book, though the covenant terms clearly denounced pagan worship to the point of allowing only one national place of sacrifice. It was the severity of the penalties in the covenant that alarmed Josiah. These penalties, the directions for the Passover, and the prohibition of idolatry, are all that we know directly of the book. On the reasonable assumption that it formed part of the Pentateuch, it was most prob. Deuteronomy; of the principal alternatives, the Exodus covenant does not specify penalties, whereas the “Holiness Code” barely mentions the Passover (Lev 23:5).
The explicit command in Deuteronomy 12 to “centralize” worship has received so much attention that many scholars have inferred a direct connection and correspondence between the book and the reforms. H. H. Rowley (Growth of the O.T., p. 30) claims that only as regards country priests “did the reform not implement the provisions of Deuteronomy.” This is an exaggeration (Gray, p. 651, n.). Most of Deuteronomy relates to other things; A. Alt (Kleine Schriften II, 252ff.) finds wide variations from the reform.
5. Death of Josiah. In the summer of 609 b.c., Josiah opposed the Egyp. army as it approached the Megiddo pass en route to support the Assyrian attempt to recapture Haran. Despite assurance by Necho that he had no aggressive designs on Judah, Josiah persisted, and was defeated and mortally wounded. The account in 2 Kings 23:29 is brief, and various reconstructions have been proposed. Welch (ZAW [1925], 255ff.) and H. W. Robinson (History p. 424) think that Necho summoned Josiah; but the details given in 2 Chronicles 35:20ff. tell against this. RSV v. 21 conceals a change of preposition; ’el bet milhamti prob. means “to my (forward) base” (Malamat, Alfrink). Necho had no time to exploit his victory until the fall (see Jehoahaz).
It is difficult to understand Josiah’s rash initiative. He may just have been opposing Egypt and Assyria on principle, or deliberately working with the Babylonians (Freedman, BA, XIX, 52 n. 10; but this is highly inferential). Nevertheless, these events fulfilled the promised of 2 Kings 22:20.
Bibliography Keil, Chronicles, n. d.; T. Alfrink, Biblica, XV (1934); E. Junge, Wiederaufbau des Heerwesens, BWANT, 4/23 (1937); W. F. Albright, JBL, LVII (1938); D. Diringer, BA, XII (1949), 74-86; H. Ginsberg, Alex. Marx Jub. Vol. (Eng. sec., 1950); A. Malamat, JNES, IX (1950), 218ff.; J. Montgomery, Kings (ICC) (1951); F. Cross and D. Freedman, JNES, XII (1953), 56-58; A. Alt, Kleine Schriften, II (1953), 250ff., 276-288; M. Noth, Joshua (Eng., 1953); G. von Rad, Deuteronomy (Eng., 1953), 60ff.; F. Cross and G. Wright, JBL, LXXV (1956), 203-219; D. Freedman, BA XIX (1956), 50-60; D. Wiseman, Chronology of the Chaldaean Kings (1956); E. Thiele, BASOR, XLIII (1956), 25ff.; W. F. Albright, ibid., 28-33; van Maag, Vet Test, VI (1956), 10-18; G. Widengren, JSS, II (1957), 1-19; J. B. Pritchard, Hebrew Inscriptions from Gibeon (1959), 18ff.; G. Fohrer, ZATW, LXXI (1959), 13f.; W. Hallo, BA, XXIII (1960), 60f.; J. Naveh, IEJ, X (1960), 129-139; XII (1962), 97-99; F. Coss, BASOR, CLXV (1962), 42; Y. Yadin, Art of Warfare (1963), 311f.; J. Segal, The Hebrew Passover (1963), 216ff.; H. H. Rowley, Men of God (1963), 159-167; J. Amusin, M. Heltzer, J. Naveh, IEJ, XIV (1964), 148-159; S. Talmon, BASOR, CLXXVI (1964), 36ff.; J. Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (1964), ss. 309-315; J. Myers, Chronicles, (1965); E. Thiele, Mysterious Numbers2 (1965), 161ff.; R. Frankena, OT Studien XIV (1965), 152; Y. Aharoni, Land of the Bible (1966), 349-351; H. Cazelles, RB, LXIV (1967), 24-44.