who carried his fanatical attachment to lower forms of religion to the point of persecuting th« pure faith. The refonners could only work for the future, and wait till their opportunity came. It is not unlikely that the Scj'thian invasion gav« it them. Hordes of Scythians burst into Western Asia about B.C. 630. The prophets (Jer 6', Zeph J14-18) gj^^y in them the instruments of God's judg- ment on sinful Judah. They invaded Palestine, and came down the sea-coast towards Egj-pt. Contrary to e.\pectation, they did not attack Judah. In the relief at so great a deliverance, the reformers found themselves once more in favour. The first sign of this was a movement for the repair of the temple (2 K 22"-). Money waa collected from the people, and the work was begun in the eighteenthyear of Josiah's reign. Very soon the high priest flilkiah announced to Shaphan the scribe that he had found the Book of the Law in tlie temple. Shaphan read it, and informed the king of its discovery. On hearing it read, J. was so alarmed at the threats made against dis- obedience to its commands, and the knowledge that they had been so often transgressed, that he sent an influential deputation to the prophetess Huldah. As her prophecy is given in 2 K 22"'*, she predicted that the threats against Jems, should be fuHilled, but that the king should not live to see it, but be gathered to his grave in peace.
The next step was to bring the religious practice into conformity with the law. This could be accomplished only through a drastic reformation. The elders and people of Judah and Jerusalem were summoned to a meeting in the temple, and the Law was read to them (2 K 23'"-). The king made a covenant to obey the law, and all the people assented to it. The reform consisted in the cleansing of the temple from idolatry, in the suppression of idolatry throughout the kingdom, and, most important of all, in the aiiolition of the high places or local sanctuaries. After it had been carried through, a great passover was celebrated. It is difficult to overrate the importance of this reformation. The abolition of the local sanctuaries centralized the worship. This in itself was a death blow to idolatry. Even where J" alone was nomi- nally worshipped at the local shrines, heathenish elements both in belief and practice inevitably crept in. One temple implied one God. Then, as a corollary of centralization, radical changes took place throughout the cultus, whUe the priests of the local sanctuaries were degraded into inferior ministers, without the rights of priests. Nor waa this all. The acceptance of a written code aa binding law was the first step in the formation of a Canon of Scripture, which was to have such immense developments later. Then for the first time Judah became a people of the law.
Critics are agreed that the law on which the reformation was based was the Deuteronomic Code, but how much of our present Book of Deut. was discovered by HUkiah is a question on which they are divided (see DEUTERONOMY). In one respect it was found impracticable to carry out the Deuteronomic law. The priests of the high places were not admitted to the same privileges as the priests of the temple (2 K 23', contrast Dt IS*-*). It is probable that J. found it impos- sible to carry through this reform on account of the opposition of the Jems, priesthood. It haa been inferred from this that Hilkiah the priest can have had no share in the composition of the work.
We know scarcely anything of the thirteen years that followed the reformation. But it seems to have been a period of peace and pro- sperity. One very significant fact that comes ont in the narrative of J.'s measures to enforce tha new law is that they were extended to Samaria,
JOSIAS
JOUKKEYIXGS OF ISRAELITES 789
which was not strictly part of his kin;,'>l(mi. Tlie explanation is that tlie Assjt. empire, thuu''h not yet overthrown, was so much weakened that J. was not only practically independent himself, but could interfere in an Assyr. province. And we must probably start from this in solving the riddle why he opposed the advance of the king of Egypt against Assyria. In 608 C^axares and Nabopolassar joined in an attack on As-syria. This gave Eprj-pt the opportunity of seizing Syria. J. saw in this a menace of subjection to the Egyp. yoke, and naturally was unwilling to lose liis independence. He was no doubt ill-advised in taking the initiative, but he probably expected that Judah would be victorious, now that it had become a people of the law. This ill-grounded confidence cost him his life and Judah her freedom. He fell in the battle at Mepiddo (2 K 23-'»).
J.'s character is very highly estimated by the editor of the Book of Kings, on account of iris earnestness in the work of reform ; and the ferocity with which it was carried through (2 K 23**) need not, in that age, be urged against him. Jeremiah contrasts his equity in the administration <jf justice with Jehoiakim's oppression of the weak and shedding of innocent blood (Jer 22"'").
The account in Chronicles (2 Ch 34. 35) varies in some respects from that of Kings. It places Josiah's religious reforms almost entirely before the discovery of the law, no doubt because it seemed strange that so good a king should have waited till the eighteentii year of his reign before rooting out idolatry. It also states that the Egyp. king warned J. not to opjiose him, since God had Bent him against Carcheinish (2 Ch 35-'). This was perhaps intended toaccouiit fortheileathof sori^lit- eous a king : he luul refused to obey God's warning.