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Bible Dictionaries
Josiah
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Josiah (jo-sî'ah), whom Jehovah heals. One of the pious kings of Judah. He reigned 31 years, b.c. 640-610. He ascended the throne at the early age of eight years, and before his eighteenth year he had cut off and destroyed all the idols of the land, with their temples, groves, and monuments; and had ransacked the sepulchres of the idolatrous priests, and burned their bones upon the altars, in accordance with the prophecy of the man of God, announced in the presence of Jeroboam 326 years before Josiah was born. 1 Kings 13:2; 2 Kings 22:1-2; 2 Chronicles 34:1-2. In the prosecution of the thorough repair and purification of the temple, Hilkiah "found the book of the Law of the Lord by Moses." Josiah immediately convoked the whole realm, and in person read the book of the Law to them, and exacted from them a promise to obey it. 2 Kings 22:8-20; 2 Chronicles 34:14-33. The Scythians are supposed to have invaded Palestine between the thirteenth and the eighteenth year of his reign. Josiah was mortally wounded at Megiddo, and died at Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was greatly affected by it, and composed an elegy on the occasion, 2 Chronicles 35:25, and all those accustomed to celebrate in song the worth and achievements of men of great eminence, both men and women, mourned for Josiah for ages after his death. Indeed, the mourning was such as to become proverbial. Zechariah 12:11. He was only 39 years of age when he died.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Josiah'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/j/josiah.html. 1893.
