References (49)
And he cried out the word of the Lord (Yahweh) against the altar, saying, "Altar, altar, thus says the Lord (Yahweh): Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho) [meaning: 'the one whom the Lord heals'] is his name, and upon you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who sacrifice upon you, and the bones of men shall be burned upon you.
But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho), his son, king in his place.
And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho), his son, reigned in his place.
[Josiah reigned over Judah (the Southern Kingdom) for 31 years (640-609 BC).]
Josiah (Hebr. Yoshiya) was 8 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's [queen mother's] name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaya, from Botskat.
And it came to pass in the 18th year of King Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos) that the king sent Shaphán, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord (Yahweh), saying:
And when Josiah (Hebr. Joshiyahu) turned around, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord (Yahweh) that the man of God had proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.
And all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke, Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho) took away and did to them as he had done in Bethel.
But in the 18th year of King Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), this Passover was celebrated to the Lord (Yahweh) in Jerusalem.
And even those who practiced divination through mediums and spiritists and household gods (figurines – Hebr. teraphim) and household gods and all the abominable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos) removed them, to confirm the words of instruction that were written in the scroll that Hilkiah (Hebr. Chilqijaho), the priest, found in the house of the Lord (Yahweh).
The rest of the acts of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), and what he did, are written in the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
In his [Josiah's] days, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the Euphrates River. Then King Josiah went out against him [Necho], but was killed by him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him. [In 2 Chron. 35:20-27, it is recounted how Josiah disguised himself in battle and was struck by an arrow from an archer in the Pass of Megiddo.]
And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, Josiah's son, and anointed him and made him king in his father's place. [Only three kings are mentioned as being anointed in the Books of Kings: Solomon (), Joash (), and here Jehoahaz.]
And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king in place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim). And he took Jehoahaz away and brought him to Egypt, where he died.
[Eljakim means "God (El) rises up" and Jehoiakim means "The Lord (Yahweh) rises up". There is no significant difference in the meaning of the names. It was not unusual for the power that conquered another country to also give people new names, see ; ; ; ; . Apparently, Necho does the same thing here.]
his son Amon,
his son Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho).
The sons of Josiah were
Jochanan, the firstborn,
Jojakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), the second,
Zedekiah (Hebr. Tsidqijaho), the third,
Shallom, the fourth.
But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho) king after him.
[Josiah reigned over Judah for 31 years (640-609 BC).]
Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho) was 8 years old when he became king, and he reigned for 31 years in Jerusalem.
Josiah removed all the idols from the lands belonging to Israel and commanded all who were in Israel to serve the Lord (Yahweh), their God (Elohim). And as long as he lived, they did not turn away from the Lord (Yahweh), the God (Elohim) of their fathers.
Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho) celebrated the Lord's (Yahweh's) Passover in Jerusalem. The Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.
And Josiah sacrificed sheep and goats for the whole people, 30,000 animals, all for the Passover sacrifice for those who were present, as well as 3,000 bulls. This was taken from the king's private property.
So everything was arranged for the service of the Lord (Yahweh) that day, and they celebrated the Passover and offered burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord (Yahweh), as King Josiah had commanded.
An Easter celebration like this had not been held in Israel since the time of the prophet Samuel. None of Israel's kings had held such an Easter celebration as was now being celebrated by Josiah with the priests and Levites, all of Judah and those of Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
This Passover was held in the 18th year of Josiah's reign.
[The story now moves from the reform of 622 to the death of Josiah in 609 BC. After all this, when Josiah had put the temple in order, the king of Egypt, Necho, went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates. Josiah went out against him.]
But instead of turning back and leaving him alone, Josiah disguised himself and went out to fight him, ignoring Necho's words, which came from the mouth of God. They clashed in the Pass of Megiddo.
The archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his men, "Carry me away, for I am badly wounded."
Then his men carried him away from the chariot and put him in his other chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried where his fathers were buried. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
And Jeremiah lamented (Lam.; sang monotonously and drawn out – Hebr. qinen) a lament (Hebr. qina) over Josiah. All the singers and songstresses spoke of Josiah in their lamentations, and still do so today. These songs became widely sung in Israel, and they are recorded among the "Lamentations."
What more is there to say about Josiah and the pious deeds he did according to what was written in the Lord's (Yahweh's) teaching (Hebr. Torah),
[Jehoahaz reigns for 3 months in 609 BC]
The people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem after his father.
The word of the Lord (Yahweh) came to him [to Jeremiah in a series of messages over a period of more than 40 years] in the days of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), son of Amon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign [627 BC],
and further [also] in the days of Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), son of Josiah, king of Judah [609-598 BC] until the end of the 11th year [586 BC] when Zedekiah (Hebr. Tsidqijaho), son of Josiah, was king of Judah, when Jerusalem was carried away [into exile to Babylon] in the 5th month [the Jewish month called av (July/August) in 586 BC, see ; ].
[The last five kings and their reigns in Judah (the southern kingdom) were:
Josiah (Hebr. Joshijaho) (640-609 BC) – the last good king, see ;
Jehoahaz (3 months 609 BC) –
Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim) (609-598 BC) – ;
Jehoiachin (Hebr. Jehojachin) (3 months 598-597 BC) – ;
Zedekiah (Hebr. Tsidqijaho) (597-586 BC) – ;
The entire period of Jeremiah's ministry is 40 years and 6 months – 18 years under Josiah and two periods of 11 years each for Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. The summary Bible text does not mention the two short periods of three months when Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin reigned.]
And the Lord (Yahweh) said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what apostate Israel is doing? She goes up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and there she engages in prostitution.
Thus says the Lord (Yahweh) to Shallum, son of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father Joshijahos and who went out from this place: He shall not return here again,
Therefore, thus says the Lord (Yahweh) concerning Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), son of Josiah, king of Judah:
They shall not mourn for him:
"Alas, my brother!" Or, 'Woe to my sister!'
They shall not mourn for him:
'Woe to the lord!' Or, 'Woe to his glory!'
[The events in this chapter precede those in chapter 24.]
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the days of Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), king of Judah, in the fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, which was the first year [corresponding to 605 BC],
From the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of the Lord (Yahweh) has come to me, and I have spoken to you, spoken early [again and again, see Jer 7:13, 25; 11:7], but you have not listened.
[The message comes chronologically before chapter 25. Between chapters 26-45, the text is written in the third person. Jeremiah's scribe Baruch is probably the author, see , , ; ]
At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), son of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), king of Judah [609/608 BC], this word came from the Lord (Yahweh), saying:
At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), son of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord (Yahweh), saying:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord (Yahweh) when Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), son of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), was king of Judah [he reigned 609-597 BC], he said:
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), son of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord (Yahweh), saying:
"Take a scroll and write in it all the words that I have spoken against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, to this day.
And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month [Kislev – Nov/Dec], that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord (Yahweh), all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.
And Zedekiah (Hebr. Tsidqijaho), the son of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), reigned as king in place of Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqims), whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made king in the land of Judah.
The word that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at Jeremiah's dictation, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Hebr. Jehojaqim), the son of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), king of Judah, saying:
To Egypt. Concerning Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, whose army is by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos), king of Judah.
The word of the Lord (Yahweh) that came to Zephaniah [meaning: "Yahweh hides and protects"],
son of Cushi,
son of Gedaliah,
son of Amariah,
son of Hezekiah (Hebr. Chizqijah)
– in the days of [King] Josiah (Hebr. Joshijahos) [622-609 BC when he reigned as king], son of Amon, king of Judah.
[Josiah was a good king who reigned from 640-609 BC, but because he was young, he did not come to power until 622 BC, see . Zephaniah's connection to King Hezekiah in the fourth generation is emphasized. Hezekiah was king of the southern kingdom from 715-686 BC and restored temple service and abolished idolatry, see . He is also known for building the Siloam Tunnel and a dam to improve the water supply to Jerusalem.]
Hezekiah begot Manasseh,
Manasseh begot Amon,
Amon begot Josiah,
Josiah begot
Jeconiah and his brothers
[here Jehoiakim is skipped over, see ],
at the time when the people were carried away to
Babylon [; ].
