Josiah or Yoshiyahu was the 16th King of Judah. According to the Hebrew Bible, he instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah’s reforms were usually considered to be more or less accurate, but that is now heavily debated. According to the Bible, Josiah became king of the Kingdom of Judah at the age of eight, after the assassination of his father, King Amon and reigned for 31 years, from 641/640 to 610/609 BCE.
View of the inner court and House of the Temple of Solomon as depicted in a 3-D computer model
View of the Temple of Solomon with ceiling removed as depicted in a 3-D computer model
Josiah Hearing the Book of the Law (1873)
Death of king Josiah as illustrated by Francesco Conti
The Kings of Judah were the monarchs who ruled over the ancient Kingdom of Judah, which was formed in about 930 BCE, according to the Hebrew Bible, when the United Kingdom of Israel split, with the people of the northern Kingdom of Israel rejecting Rehoboam as their monarch, leaving him as solely the King of Judah.
The breakup of the united Kingdom of Solomon