Josiah

Josiah

Joh-si´uh; Heb., “Yah[weh] gives,” “cures,” or “brings forth”

1 The son of King Amon by Jedidah, whom the people of the land made king of Judah at the age of eight after his father’s assassination (639 BCE). Josiah’s reign during the last half of the seventh century BCE lasted thirty-one years and is remembered as a time of religious reform. According to (2Kgs 23), the reform (ca. 620) was motivated by discovery of the “book of the law,” generally considered some form of Deuteronomy. Josiah was killed in 609 BCE at Megiddo (2Kgs 23:29; but cf. 2Chr 35:20-24). 2 The son of Zephaniah, a Jerusalemite homeowner who lived immediately after the exile (Zech 6:10).