Skip to content
Wellsprings
King of Judah

King of Judah

c. 648 BCE–609 BCE · Biblical era · Jerusalem

See the world in their lifetime (625 BCE) →

Yoshiyahu son of Amon became king of Judah at eight, after his father was assassinated, and reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem (2 Kings 21:23-22:1). Chronicles says he began to seek God in his eighth year and to purge idolatry in his twelfth (2 Chronicles 34:3). In his eighteenth year, during repairs to the Temple, the high priest Chilkiyahu found 'a scroll of the Teaching' (2 Kings 22:8). Shaken by its words, the king sent to the prophetess Chuldah. She foretold disaster for Jerusalem but promised that he would not live to see it (22:14-20). He then led the people in a public covenant and cleared idolatrous objects from the Temple and from Judah. He tore down the altar Yeravam had built at Beit El, fulfilling an old prophecy that had named him (1 Kings 13:2; 2 Kings 23:15-16). And he held a Passover unlike any since the days of the Judges (23:21-23). Kings says that no king before or after him turned to God so wholeheartedly (23:25). He died confronting Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo in 609 BCE (23:29-30), and Yirmiyahu composed laments for him (2 Chronicles 35:25). Many scholars connect the scroll with a form of the book of Deuteronomy.

See King of Judah’s journey on the map →

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →

Stop 1 of 3640 BCE–609 BCERoyal seat; finding of the Torah scroll

JerusalemירושליםJudea

What they did here

He reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem (2 Kings 22:1). In his eighteenth year (c. 622) the Torah scroll was found in the Temple (22:3-8), and he held his great Passover there (23:21-23).

Jerusalem in this era

In the Hebrew Bible, David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and makes it his capital, Solomon builds the First Temple there, and Nehemiah rebuilds its walls after the return from Babylon; in 164 BCE Judah Maccabee rededicated the Temple, the origin of Hanukkah. Archaeologists debate how large the city was in the 10th century BCE; it is well attested as the capital of Judah by the 8th century BCE, and Babylon destroyed it in 586 BCE.

About Jerusalem

Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.

In Jerusalem at the same time

Nachum HaNavi, Chuldah HaNeviah, Tzefaniah HaNavi, Chavakuk HaNavi, Gedaliah ben Achikam

See other sages who lived in Jerusalem→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with King of Judah’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with King of Judah’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.