144. JOSIAH (642—611).

[2 KINGS XXII. 1—XXIII. 30; 2 CHRON. XXXIV. XXXV.]

When Josiah came to the throne he was only eight years old. It was fortunate for him and his country that his inexperience was guided by a number of pious and God-fearing men who, counterbalancing the corrupt influences of his earliest education, imbued his susceptible mind with principles of righteousness, and taught him to understand the truths of the pure religion of Israel. Thus he grew up under the care of the wise and zealous High-priest Hilkiah and his son; he was watched over by Shaphan, a learned scribe, and his son Ahikam, by Shallum, the faithful keeper of the royal wardrobe, and his wife Hulda, the inspired prophetess. Not much later, he must have felt the power of the youthful Jeremiah, who soon became the leading spirit of the age. These devoted men, and others like them, were left as the germs of a new and better race to grow up after the general destruction which was impending over Judah.

For a time it might have seemed as if that doom could still be averted: so strong were the hopes which the piety of Josiah raised in the hearts of all patriots; and an event soon happened which awoke even the enthusiasm of the people. In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah resolved to carry out, with greater energy than had been done of late, the necessary repairs of the Temple. The work was forthwith commenced. During its progress, and when a heap of long accumulated rubbish was being cleared away, a written scroll was discovered. It was examined by Hilkiah the High-priest, who exclaimed, 'The Book of the Law have I found in the House of the Lord!' It was most probably the Book of Deuteronomy. The High-priest gave it to Shaphan the scribe, who took it to

the king, and read to him its contents. It was the first time that Josiah heard the words of the Law, which had before been completely unknown to him. Feeling that he had till then violated the Divine precepts, he was terrified and grieved, and in his agony rent his clothes. He could not rest until he had sought counsel of the Lord. So he commanded his most faithful servants: 'Go, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this Book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened to the words of this Book to do according to all that is written therein.' The High-priest, who seemed as much perplexed as the king himself, went with the others to the prophetess Hulda. She was ready with an answer. 'Tell the man that sent you to me: Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the Book which the king of Judah has read; because they have forsaken Me, and have burnt incense to other gods. But as touching the words which thou hast heard, because thy heart was moved, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou didst hear what I spoke against this place and against the inhabitants thereof: I also have heard thee, says the Lord; behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thy eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.'

These words were faithfully reported to king Josiah, who determined that the Law should no longer remain unknown among his people, but that it should be spread through the length and breadth of the land.

The Temple, newly restored from its state of ruin, was open to receive the vast crowd that poured in at the command of the king: the priesthood, now one of the

greatest powers in Judah, the prophets, nobly struggling to sustain their exalted mission, the princes, the chiefs, and the people, men, women, and children, all thronged into the wide Court of the Holy Place to hear the recovered word of God. Leaning on the royal stand, was the king Josiah, with the sacred scroll in his hand; beside him most probably stood the little group of his friends and counsellors-the High-priest Hilkiah, Shaphan the scribe, Shallum, and the prophet Jeremiah. Every word of the scroll was recited by the king and eagerly listened to by the multitude; and when the reading was ended, the king made a covenant before the Lord to keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all their heart and with all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this Book.' The people readily consented, and pledged themselves to faithful obedience.

As the first and most necessary act of reform, the king ordered the complete removal of every kind of idolatry. He carried out this object with unflinching energy. The Temple was thoroughly cleansed of the polluting idols; the vessels used for the service of 'Baal, Ashtarte, and all the host of heaven,' were burnt in the fields of Kidron, and their ashes scattered in Beth-el, the northern town. defiled by the worship of Apis; the altars on the high places were cut down, the groves destroyed, the idols shattered; the horses of the sun were taken from the Courts of the Temple, and the chariots burnt; the altars which Ahaz had built on the roof of his palace, and those by which Manasseh had disgraced the streets of Jerusalem, were beaten into dust, which was thrown into the brook of Kidron. The furnace of Moloch was taken from the valley of Hinnom, and this place was so contaminated that it was accursed for ever. The soothsayers and sorcerers were banished, and the false priests destroyed by the sword. That ancient seat of idolatry, Beth-el, was not

spared; the altar of Jeroboam was broken in pieces, the high place demolished, and the image of Ashtarte crushed to dust; even the bones of the dead idolaters were dug from their graves and burnt upon the heathen altars; only the bones of the prophet of Judah who had come to warn Jeroboam, and those of the prophet who had received him in his house, were left undisturbed (see p. 440). Pursuing his stern retribution, Josiah travelled through Samaria, and finding the priests sacrificing to idols, slew them and burnt their bodies upon their altars. Like a breath of fire was this sudden visitation: the land seemed thoroughly purged from idolatry.

And now the king began to consider how he might worthily commemorate Judah's return to God. The season of the year was favourable; for the festival of Passover was approaching; and surely nothing could be more appropriate for the occasion than to celebrate with more than usual solemnity the anniversary of Israel's release from bondage and superstition. Josiah's call was eagerly responded to by the whole nation. Indeed there was not held such a Passover from the days of the Judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel nor of the kings of Judah.' And well might the sacred historian add, Like Josiah was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul.'

In his manifold efforts the king was supported and encouraged by those wise and earnest men, whose writings have immortalised his name and age.

Foremost among all was Jeremiah, who is completely identified with the last sad throes of the history of Judah there was Zephaniah, the severe and terrible prophet of evil; and Habakkuk, who, standing on his lonely watch-tower, gazed from his lofty vantage-ground upon the approaching Chaldees. These and other highsouled men wrote in tears and in blood the last sad tale of their country's ruin.

In Josiah's time, the wild hordes of Scythians, breaking for the first time from their northern home, overran the blooming and fertile lands of the south. They passed through Palestine on their way to Egypt, and perhaps left a record of their presence in the city of Scythopolis, as the ancient town of Beth-shean in Manasseh was later re-named. It is not impossible that Zephaniah, and perhaps also Jeremiah (ch. IV.-VI.), allude to their dreaded invasion; but it appears that they inflicted no serious injury upon the land, but seem to have quietly passed along the coast of the Mediterranean, and hence their expedition is neither mentioned in the Books of Kings nor by Josephus.

The Assyrian empire, collapsing by its own vastness, succumbed to the warlike and impetuous Chaldee tribes coming from the mountain districts of Kurdistan. Nineveh fell; a new empire was founded under the rule of the conqueror Nabopolassar, with Babylon as its chief city. Josiah was fully aware of the difficulties of his position. He knew well that a struggle for superiority could not fail to break out before long between the two rival kingdoms of Babylon and Egypt, and that the possession of Palestine was most important for both as the great military high-road between the Euphrates and the Nile. He saw the necessity for the utmost prudence, and he made every effort to maintain relations of friendship with the new eastern dynasty. But no wisdom or moderation could avert the impending danger. Pharaoh Necho, the king of Egypt, alarmed at the constant growth of the Babylonian power, determined at once to check its progress, and to humble the upstart empire. He marched north-eastward with a vast army; Josiah, true to his Babylonian alliance, opposed his advance. In the plains of Megiddo, which more than once before had resounded to the war-cry, the two armies met. Necho, desirous to spare the brave king of Judah, requested him to desist