King Josiah ben Amon, the 16th king of Judah, ascended to the throne when he was only eight years old. His mother was Jedidah bat Adaiah of Bozkath. Josiah was a god-fearing king. He reigned 31 years from the city of Jerusalem.
King Josiah brought about a great reset of the Kingdom of Judah. He removed deep-rooted idolatry and pagan worship throughout the kingdom, idolatry and wicked practices that had become entrenched among the people under 55 years of the reign of the evil King Manasseh ben Hezekiah followed by another 2 years under his son King Amon ben Manasseh.
The following passage from 2 Kings chapter 23 tells of the Great Reset that King Josiah brought about in the Kingdom of Judah:
4Then Josiah ordered the High Priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the guards on duty at the entrance to the Temple to bring out of the Temple all the objects used in the worship of Baal, of the goddess Asherah, and of the stars.
The king burnt all these objects outside the city near the valley of the Kidron, and then had the ashes taken to Bethel.
5He removed from office the priests that the kings of Judah had ordained to offer sacrifices on the pagan altars in the cities of Judah and in places near Jerusalem — all the priests who offered sacrifices to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars.
6He removed from the Temple the symbol of the goddess Asherah, took it out of the city to the valley of the Kidron, burnt it, pounded its ashes to dust, and scattered it over the public burial ground.
7He destroyed the living quarters in the Temple occupied by the temple prostitutes. (It was there that women wove robes used in the worship of Asherah.)
8He brought to Jerusalem the priests who were in the cities of Judah, and throughout the whole country he desecrated the altars where they had offered sacrifices. He also tore down the altars dedicated to the goat-demons near the gate built by Joshua, the city governor, which was to the left of the main gate as one enters the city. 9Those priests were not allowed to serve in the Temple, but they could eat the unleavened bread provided for their fellow-priests.
10King Josiah also desecrated Topheth, the pagan place of worship in the Valley of Hinnom, so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter as a burnt offering to the god Molech.
11He also removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the worship of the sun, and he burnt the chariots used in this worship. (These were kept in the temple courtyard, near the gate and not far from the living quarters of Nathan Melech, a high official.)
12The altars which the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above King Ahaz' quarters, King Josiah tore down, along with the altars put up by King Manasseh in the two courtyards of the Temple; he smashed the altars to bits and threw them into the valley of the Kidron.
13Josiah desecrated the altars that King Solomon had built east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Olives, for the worship of disgusting idols — Astarte the goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Molech the god of Ammon.
14King Josiah broke the stone pillars to pieces, cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and the ground where they had stood he covered with human bones.
15Josiah also tore down the place of worship in Bethel which had been built by King Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin. Josiah pulled down the altar, broke its stones into pieces, and pounded them to dust; he also burnt the image of Asherah.
2 Kings 23:4 - 15 Good News Bible
