Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 22:1-10
Concerning Josiah we are here told,
I. That he was very young when he began to reign (Kg2 22:1), only eight years old. Solomon says, Woe unto thee, O land! when thy king is a child; but happy art thou, O land! when thy king is such a child. Our English Israel had once a king that was such a child, Edward VI. Josiah, being young, had not received any bad impressions from the example of his father and grandfather, but soon saw their errors, and God gave his grace to take warning by them. See Eze 18:14, etc.
II. That he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, Kg2 22:2. See the sovereignty of divine grace - the father passed by and left to perish in his sin, the son a chosen vessel. S…
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Josiah was eight years old - He was one of the best, if not the best, of all the Jewish kings since the time of David. He began well, continued well, and ended well.
John Gill on 2 Kings 22:2
And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,.... In the affair of religious worship especially, as well as in other things:
and walked in all the ways of David his father; in his religious ways, in which he never departed from his God:
and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; but kept an even, constant, path of worship and duty, according to the law of God.
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Kings 22:1-2
Length and spirit of Josiah's reign. - Josiah (for the name, see at Kg1 13:2), like Hezekiah, trode once more in the footsteps of his pious forefather David, adhering with the greatest constancy to the law of the Lord. He reigned thirty-one years. As a child he had probably received a pious training from his mother; and when he had ascended the throne, after the early death of his godless father, he was under the guidance of pious men who were faithfully devoted to the law of the Lord, and who turned his heart to the God of their fathers, as was the case with Joash in Kg2 12:3, although there is no allusion to guardianship. His mother Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah, was of Boscath, a city i…
