Interestingly, it was in the 13th year of Josiah’s reign (647 B.C.E.) that Jeremiah was commissioned as God’s prophet.

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.