Josiah: Judgment has been announced. It is now simply a matter of timing. At this juncture in Judean history, strangely enough, Judah finds herself with yet another righteous king—a second Moses to match her second David (Hezekiah). Josiah is a king long-awaited (1 Kgs. 13:2). He is the best of all kings, but he is a king come too late.

22:1–2 The verses that introduce Josiah alert us to the kind of king he is going to be. There is reference to David—as we would expect. More significantly, however, there is an unmistakable allusion to Deuteronomy 17:20, where the ideal king is one who does not “turn” (Hb. swr, as in 2 Kgs. 22:2) from the law to the right or to the left. This is only the first of many references in 2 Kings 22–23 that link Josiah with the law of Moses in general and the figur…