ved the
king worshipped there with all the princes of Judah, but as soon as he
died they went back to idol worship, and killed the new high priest in
the court of the temple because he told them that the Lord would bring
great trouble upon them. And so it came to pass in less than a year
the Syrians came and killed the princes, and took away the gold and
silver treasures of the temple. Joash himself became very sick, and
his own servants took his life as he lay helpless.

It was quite different with little Josiah. He was only eight years old
when he was crowned King of Judah, and he had no one so good as the
high priest Jehoida, who was the teacher of Joash, to help him to do
right. Even the holy writings that were given to Moses were lost, and
the people did not ask to hear them read. But the Lord had not allowed
His word to be destroyed, and when Josiah was having the temple
repaired the high priest found the rolls of parchment on which the law
was written, and sent it to the king by a servant of the king who was a
writer. Josiah was full of interest in the ancient book, and wished to
know what was in it, and his servant read it to him.

When he found that he and his people were not living as God had
commanded in the law, he sent to inquire of the Lord what He would have
them to do, and they went to Huldah, the prophetess. She told the
king's messengers that a great calamity would fall upon the kingdom
because they had turned away from the true God, but because the king's
heart was tender and full of desire to follow the Lord, it should not
come during his lifetime.

Then the king called all the chief men of Judah, and the people of the
city, both great and small, with the priests and the Levites, to the
Lord's house, and there he read in their hearing the word of the Lord.
It was like a new book to the most of them, but they were ready to
follow the king in making a solemn promise to the Lord to do His
commandments, and bring back the true worship.

So they had a great feast of the passover, to which all the people came
with offerings, and there was no passover in all the history of the
kings of Judah and Israel that was like this one that was held in the
eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.

After he had prepared the temple for worship, and had destroyed the
altars of the idols, he went out to meet the King of Egypt in battle
and was killed, and there was a great mourning for him in all the land,
for