After two years, Amon was murdered, and his eight-year-old son Josiah came to the throne in 659 B.C.E.

⁶ During Josiah’s 31-year reign, Babylon began to gain the upper hand over Assyria. Josiah saw in this situation an opening to regain Judah’s independence from foreign domination. Unlike his father and grandfather, Josiah served Jehovah faithfully and instituted major religious reforms. (2 Ki. 21:19–22:2) In his 12th year as king, Josiah destroyed the high places, the sacred poles, and the false religious images throughout his kingdom and thereafter ordered that Jehovah’s temple be repaired. (Read 2 Chronicles 34:1-8.) Interestingly, it was in the 13th year of Josiah’s reign (647 B.C.E.) that Jeremiah was commissioned as God’s prophet.

7, 8. (a) How did King Josiah’s reign differ from those of his predecessors, Manasseh and Amon? (b) What kind of person was Josiah? (See the box on page 20.)

⁷ While the temple was being restored, in the 18th year of good King Josiah’s reign, the high priest found “the very book of the law.” The king had his secretary read it to him. Josiah recognized the errors of his people, sought Jehovah’s guidance through the prophetess Huldah, and urged his subjects to keep God’s commandments. Huldah informed Josiah that Jehovah would bring “calamity” on the Judeans on account of their unfaithfulness. However, because of Josiah’s good attitude toward pure worship, that calamity would not come during his lifetime.​—2 Ki. 22:8, 14-20.

⁸ King Josiah renewed his efforts to eliminate all the trappings of idolatry. This drive even took him into territory once occupied by the northern kingdom of Israel, to pull down the high place and the altar at Bethel. He also arranged for an outstanding celebration of the Passover. (2 Ki. 23:4-25) Think how this must have pleased Jeremiah! It proved difficult, though, to move the people to change their ways. Manasseh and Amon had introduced the people to degraded idol worship, so spirituality was at a low ebb. Despite Josiah’s reforms, God moved Jeremiah to point out that the Judeans’ gods were as many as their cities. The prophet’s fellow countrymen were like an unfaithful wife​—they had left Jehovah and prostituted themselves to foreign gods. Jeremiah declared: “As many altars as the streets of Jerusalem you people have placed for the shameful thing, altars to make sacrificial smoke to Baal.”​—Read Jeremiah 11:1-3, 13.

9. The last years of Josiah’s reign were marked by what international events?

⁹ Just as Jeremiah’s delivering of such messages did not change the Jews, so it did not alter the fact that surrounding nations were jostling to gain ascendancy. In 632 B.C.E., the combined forces of the Babylonians and the Medes conquered Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. Three years later, Pharaoh Necho of Egypt led his army north to assist the beleaguered Assyrians. For reasons not stated in the Bible, Josiah tried to turn the Egyptian forces back at Megiddo, but he was mortally wounded. (2 Chron. 35:20-24) What political and religious changes would this sad event bring to Judah? And what new challenges would Jeremiah face?

A CHANGE OF RELIGIOUS CLIMATE

10. (a) In what sense were the times following Josiah’s death similar to our times? (b) How can you benefit from examining Jeremiah’s conduct?

¹⁰ Imagine how Jeremiah must have felt on learning of Josiah’s death! Moved with grief, he chanted dirges over the king. (2 Chron. 35:25) This was already a time of worry, and international instability brought pressure on Judah. The rival powers​—Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon—​were jockeying for control of the region. And the religious climate within Judah had changed with Josiah’s death. That was the end of a regime essentially favorable toward Jeremiah’s activity and the beginning of a hostile one.