Josiah Restores the Passover

Josiah commands the people to keep the Passover according to the covenant book, and the observance in his eighteenth year is described as unlike any since the days of the judges.

T²¹he king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²²No such Passover had been observed from the days of the judges who had governed Israel through all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah. ²³But in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed to the LORD in Jerusalem.

Josiah removes mediums, spiritists, and idols to fulfill the law, and he is praised as uniquely devoted. Yet the LORD’s fierce anger against Judah does not turn back, and Jerusalem and the temple remain marked for rejection.

²⁴Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD. ²⁵Neither before nor after Josiah was there any king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses. ²⁶Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the fury of His burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke Him to anger. ²⁷For the LORD had said, “I will remove Judah from My sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the temple of which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’”