Josi′ah, king of Judah from B. C. 638 to 609, entered upon his reign at the age of eight. He grew up an earnest, religious reformer, and purged Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry. Josiah was the last of the “good” kings. He was killed at the battle of Megiddo in the valley of Esdraelon, while trying to check the advance of Pharaoh-Necho against the Assyrians. The prophets of his reign were Jeremiah and Zephaniah.
