Josiah, king of Judah, son of King Amon, succeeded to the throne about 640 B. C, at the age of eight, and died about 609. Unlike his immediate predecessors, he did right in the sight of the Lord, and undertook to free the land from idolatry, though the groves and altars consecrated to idol worship were favored by men of rank and influence in the kingdom. Having accomplished this purpose in the 18th year of his reign, he proceeded to repair and adorn the neglected temple of the Lord. In the sanctuary there was found a volume containing the books of Moses, Which seems to have been regarded as the original copy of the Mosaic law. Soon after this he ordered the celebration of the passover with a care and magnificence unexampled from the time of the judges. Being tributary to the Babylonian empire, he resisted the passage through his territories of the Egyptian king Necho, on an expedition against the Chaldeans, and fell in the battle of Megiddo fought between the Hebrew and Egyptian forces.