Josiah 641/40--609 B.C.
Josiah, son of Amon, became king on the death of his father when Josiah was eight years old. Nothing is said of his first eight years, although it seems that someone else must have been acting as regent. And no doubt they followed the practices of Manasseh and Amon.
But there must have been some godly influence in his life, for at age 16 he began to seek the God of David, and within four years he was getting rid of the high places, the altars of Baal, and all other idols.
In the 18th year of his reign, as the temple was being repaired, the book of the Law of Moses was found. When the king heard it read he began to rend his clothes, an action that signified grief and repentance in those days. And he sent to the prophetess Huldah for a word from the Lord. The word was that God was going to send on Judah the curses in the book of the Law, but that because of Josiah's penitence, it would not happen in his days.
Josiah called all the people together to hear the Law and made a covenant to follow the Lord. He continued to get rid of the various abominations and idolatrous altars, etc. The altar at Bethel set up by Jeroboam son of Nebat was destroyed and defiled by him as the man of God had prophesied.
Great Passover kept - "no passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet..." "Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the laws of Moses..."
Josiah's death came because he set out to fight the king of Egypt when the latter was on his way to Carchemish to aid the Assyrians against the Babylonians and Medes. The Pharaoh tried to dissuade him from fighting, but he would not be turned aside and was killed by an arrow at Megiddo. (Four years later in 605 Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish and later at Hamath on the Orontes, gaining control of Syria and Palestine to the border of Egypt.)
Jehoahaz Son of Josiah. The people of Judah made him king on death of Josiah. He was 23. But in three months the Pharaoh deposed him and carried him away to Egypt and made his brother Jehoiakim king in his place. (Perhaps Jehoiakim was more willing to give Pharaoh the tribute he wanted.)
Jehoiakim Son of Josiah - 25 years old, reigned 11 years. During his reign Nebuchadnezzar ended Egypt's domination of Palestine, and Jehoiakim was under the rule of Babylon. After three years he rebelled, and Nebuchadnezzar came and carried him away to Babylon. According to the book of Daniel, in the third year of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. At that time he took away some of the vessels of the temple and some of the nobility and royalty, apparently including Daniel, who was a young man at the time. This carrying away does not seem to be mentioned in Kings and Chronicles and occurred about 606-5 B.C.--at the time when Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt and gained control of Palestine.
Jehoiachin at age 18, son of Jehoiakim, became king and reigned three months. Then Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiachin gave himself up. Nebuchadnezzar took away all but the poor of the land and the vessels of gold from the temple.
Zedekiah Another son of Josiah. 21 years of age, reigned 11 years. He was apptd. by Nebuchadnezzar when he removed Jehoiachin. But he rebelled against Babylon, and in the 9th year of his reign Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. In 586 B.C. Jerusalem was captured; Zedekiah's sons were killed and his eyes put out, and he was taken to Babylon. The city was completely destroyed, as was the temple. The rest of the people were carried off captive, except for the poorest in the land.
Gedaliah was appointed governor at Mizpah. But Ishmael of the royal family and ten other men attacked and killed him and the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him. The people were then afraid of reprisal by the Babylonians, so they went to Egypt to escape Nebuchadnezzar.
In the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin (about 560 B.C.), Nebuchadnezzar's son Evil-Merodach reigned briefly, and during that time he freed Jehoiachin from prison.
Cyrus, king of Persia, after conquering Babylon proclaimed that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.