494 JOSEPH pressive. home, and slay and make ready, for these men, nothing more simple, natural, true, and imshall dine with me at noon' (xliii. 16). But guilt is always the ready parent of fear. Accordingly the brothers expected nothing but being reduced to slavery. When taken to their own brother's house, they imagined they were being entrapped. A colloquy ensued between them and Joseph's steward, whence it appeared that the money put into their sacks, to which they now attributed their peril, was in truth a present from Joseph, designed, after his own brotherly manner, to aid his family in their actual necessities. Noon came, and with it Joseph, whose first question regarded home: 'He asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? is he yet alive? And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son!' And Joseph made haste, for| his bowels did yearn upon his brother, and he sought where to weep, and he entered into his chamber and wept there.' Does this look like harshness? Most natural and impressive is the scene also which ensues, in which Joseph, after informing his brethren who he was, and inquiring, first of all, Is my father alive?' expresses feelings free from the slightest taint of revenge, and even shows how, under Divine Providence, the conduct of his brothers had issued in good-God sent me before you to preserve a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.' Five years had yet to ensue in which there would be neither earing nor harvest,' and therefore the brethren were directed to return home and bring Jacob down to Egypt with all speed. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that is brethren talked with him' (xlv. 14, 15). JOSEPH The news of these striking events was carried to Pharaoh, who being pleased at Joseph's conduct, gave directions that Jacob and his family should come forthwith into Egypt. The brethren The connection brings into view an Egyptian departed, being well provided for- And to his custom, which is of more than ordinary import-father Joseph sent ten asses laden with the good ance, in consequence of its being adopted in the things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with Jewish polity; And they set on (food) for him corn and bread and meat for his father by the by himself (Joseph), and for them by themselves way.' (the brethren), and for the Egyptians which did The intelligence which they bore to their eat with them, by themselves, because the Egyp-father was of such a nature that Jacob's heart tians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for fainted, for he believed them not.' When, howthat is an abomination with the Egyptians' (ver. ever, he had recovered from the thus naturally 32). This passage is also interesting, as proving told effects of his surprise, the venerable patrithat Joseph had not, in his princely grandeur, arch said, Enough; Joseph my son is yet become ashamed of his origin, nor consented to alive: I will go and see him before I die' (xlv. receive adoption into a strange nation: he was 26, 28). still a Hebrew, waiting, like Moses after him, for the proper season to use his power for the good of his own people. • Accordingly Jacob and his family, to the number of threescore and ten souls, went down to Egypt, and by the express efforts of Joseph, were allowed to settle in the district of Goshen, where Joseph met his father: And he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.' There Joseph 'nourished his father and his brethren, and all his father's household, with Ac-bread, according to their families' (xlvii. 12). Meanwhile the predicted famine was pauper ་ Joseph, apparently with a view to ascertain how far his brethren were faithful to their father, hit upon a plan which would in its issue serve to show whether they would make any, and what, sacrifice, in order to fulfil their solemn promise of restoring Benjamin in safety to Jacob. cordingly he ordered not only that every man's money (as before) should be put in his sack'sizing Egypt. The inhabitants found their money mouth, but also that his silver cup in which my exhausted, and their cattle and substance all gone. lord drinketh, and whereby he divineth,' should being parted with in order to purchase food from be put in the sack's mouth of the youngest. The the public granaries, until at length they had brethren departed, but were soon overtaken by nothing to give in return for sustenance but themJoseph's steward, who charged them with having selves. Buy us'-they then imploringly said surreptitiously carried off this costly and highly- to Joseph-and our land for bread, and we and valued vessel. They on their part vehemently our land will be slaves unto Pharaoh.' And repelled the accusation, adding, with whomso- Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, ever of thy servants it be found, both let him so the land became Pharaoh's.' The people too, die, and we also will be my lord's bondmen.' A Joseph removed to cities from one end of the search was made, and the cup was found in Ben- borders of the land to the other end.' Religion, jamin's sack. Accordingly they returned to the however, was too strong to submit to these politicity. And now came the hour of trial: Would cal and social changes, and so the priests still they purchase their own liberation by surrender- retained their land, being supplied with proviing Benjamin? After a most touching interview, sions out of the common store gratuitously. The in which they proved themselves worthy and land, which was previously the people's own, was faithful, Joseph declared himself unable any now let to them on a tenancy, at the rent of onelonger to withstand the appeal of natural affec-fifth of the produce: the land of the priests being tion. On this occasion Judah, who was the exempted. spokesman, showed the deepest regard to his Joseph had now to pass through the mournful aged father's feelings, and entreated for the libe-scenes which attend on the death and burial of a ration of Benjamin even at the price of his own father. Having had Jacob embalmed, and seen liberty. In the whole of literature we know of the rites of mourning fully observed, the faithful • JOSEPH and affectionate son proceeded into the land of Canaan, in order, agreeably to a promise which the patriarch had exacted, to lay the old man's bones with those of his fathers, in the field of Ephron the Hittite.' Having performed with long and bitter mourning Jacob's funeral rites, Joseph returned into Egypt. The last recorded act of his life forms a most becoming close. After the death of their father, his brethren, unable, like all guilty people, to forget their criminality, and characteristically finding it difficult to think that Joseph had really forgiven them, grew afraid, now they were in his power, that he would take an opportunity of inflicting some punishment on them. They accordingly go into his presence, and, in imploring terms and an abject manner, entreat his forgiveness. Fear not-this is his noble reply I will nourish you and your little ones.' Joseph lived an hundred and ten years, kind and gentle in his affections to the last; for we are told, The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knees' (1. 23). And so having obtained a promise from his brethren, that when the time came, as he assured them it would come, that God should visit them, and bring them unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, they would carry up his bones out of Egypt, Joseph at length died, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin' (1. 26). This promise was religiously fulfilled. His descendants, after carrying the corpse about with them in their wanderings, at length put it in its final restingplace in Shechem, in a parcel of ground that Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, which became the inheritance of the children of Joseph (Josh. xxiv. 32). By his Egyptian wife, Asenath, daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis, Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Gen. xli. 50, sq.), whom Jacob adopted (Gen. xlviii. 5), and who accordingly took their place among the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. JOSEPH, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ (Matt. i. 16). By Matthew he is said to have been the son of Jacob, whose lineage is traced by the same writer through David up to Abraham. Luke represents him as being the son of Heli, and traces his origin up to Adam. How these accounts are to be reconciled, is shown under GENEALOGY. The statements of Holy Writ in regard to Joseph are few and simple. According to a custom among the Jews, traces of which are still found, Joseph had pledged his faith to Mary; but before the marriage was consummated she proved to be with child. Grieved at this, Joseph was disposed to break off the connection; but, not wishing to make a public example of one whom he loved, he contemplated a private disruption of their bond. From this step, however, he is deterred by a heavenly messenger, who assures him that Mary has conceived under a divine influence. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins' (Matt. i. 18, sq.; Luke i. 27). To this account various objections have been taken; but most of them are drawn from the ground of a narrow, shortsighted, and half-informed rationalism, which JOSEPH judges everything by its own small standard, and either denies miracles altogether, or admits only such miracles as find favour in its sight. Joseph was by trade a carpenter, in which business he probably educated Jesus (Matt. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 3). The word rendered carpenter' | is of a general character, and may be fitly rendered by the English word 'artificer' or 'artizan.' Schleusner asserts that the universal testimony of the ancient church represents our Lord as being a carpenter's son. Hilarius, on Matthew, asserts, in terms which cannot be mistaken, that Jesus was a smith. Of the same opinion was the venerable Bede; while others have held that our Lord was a mason, and Cardinal Cajetan, that he was a goldsmith. The last notion probably had its origin in those false associations of more modern times which disparage handlabour. Among the ancient Jews all handicrafts were held in so much honour, that they were learned and pursued by the first men of the nation. 495 Christian tradition makes Joseph an old man when first espoused to Mary, being no less than eighty years of age, and father of four sons and two daughters. The painters of Christian antiquity conspire with the writers in representing Joseph as an old man at the period of the birth of our Lord-an evidence which is not to be lightly rejected, though the precise age mentioned may be but an approximation to fact. It is not easy to determine when Joseph died, but it has been alleged, with great probability, that he must have been dead before the crucifixion of Jesus. There being no notice of Joseph in the public life of Christ, nor any reference to him in the discourses and history, while Mary' and 'His brethren' not unfrequently appear, these circumstances afford evidence not only of Joseph's death, but of the inferior part which, as legal father only of our Lord, Joseph might have been expected to sustain. So far as our scanty materials enable us to form an opinion, Joseph appears to have been a good, kind, simple-minded man, who, while he afforded aid in protecting and sustaining the family, would leave Mary unrestrained to use all the impressive and formative influence of her gentle, affectionate, pious, and thoughtful soul. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. The name Arimathea denotes probably the place where Joseph was born, not that where he resided. [ARIMATHEA.] 4 Joseph was a secret disciple of Jesus--an honourable counsellor, who waited for the kingdom of God' (Mark xv. 43), and who, on learning the death of our Lord, came and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.' Pilate having learned from the centurion, who commanded at the execution, that Jesus was actually dead,' gave the body to Joseph, who took it down and wrapped his deceased Lord in fine linen which he had purchased for the purpose; after which he laid the corpse in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre (Mark xv. 43, sq.). From the parallel passages in Matthew (xxvii. 58, sq.), Luke (xxiii. 50, seq.) and John (xix. 38, seq.), . it appears that the body was previously embalmed at the cost of another secret disciple, Nicodemus, and that the sepulchre was 496 JOSHUA new, wherein never man before was laid; also that it lay in a garden, and was the property of Joseph himself. This garden was in the place where Jesus was crucified.' Luke describes the character of Joseph as a good man and a just,' adding, that he had not consented to the counsel and deed of them,' i. e. of the Jewish authorities. From this remark it is clear that Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrim: a conclusion which is corroborated by the epithet counsellor,' applied to him by both Luke and Mark. Tradition represents Joseph as having been one of the Seventy, and as having first preached the Gospel in our own country. JOSEPH CALLED BARSABAS was one of the two persons whom the primitive church, immediately after the resurrection of Christ, nominated, praying that the Holy Spirit would show which of them should enter the apostolic band in place of the wretched Judas. On the lots being cast, it proved that not Joseph, but Matthias, was chosen. Joseph bore the honourable surname of Justus, which was not improbably given him on account of his well-known probity. He was one of those who had companied with the Apostles all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst them, beginning from the baptism of John,' until the ascension (Acts i. 15, sq.). Tradition also accounted him one of the Seventy. 1. JO'SES, son of Mary and Cleopas, and brother of James the Less, of Simon and of Jude, and, consequently, one of those who are called the 'brethren of our Lord (Matt. xiii. 55; xxvii. 56; Mark vi. 3; xv. 40, 47). [JAMES; JUDE.] He was the only one of these brethren who was not an apostle-a circumstance which has given occasion to some unsatisfactory conjecture. It is perhaps more remarkable that three of them were apostles than that the fourth was not. 2. JOSES [BARNABAS]. JOSHUA | In the seventh year after entering the land, it was distributed among the various tribes, which then commenced individually to complete the conquest by separate warfare (xv. 13, sq.; xvi. 10; xvii. 12, sq.). Joshua died 110 years old (B.C. 1427), and was buried at Timnath-serah (Josh. xxiv.), on Mount Ephraim. JOSH'UA. This is the name of four persons in the Old Testament, and means whose salvation is Jehovah. The most distinguished of the four persons so called, who occur in the Old Testament, is Joshua the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, the assistant and successor of Moses. His name was originally Oshea, salvation (Num. xiii. 8); and it seems that the subsequent alteration of it by Moses (Num. xiii. 16) was significant, and proceeded on the same principle as that of Abram into Abraham (Gen. xvii. 5), and of Sarai into Sarah (Gen. xvii. 15). In the Bible Joshua is first mentioned as being the victorious commander of the Israelites in their battle against the Amalekites at Rephidim (Exod. xvii. 8-16). He distinguished himself by his courage and intelligence during and after the exploration of the land of Canaan, on which occasion he represented his tribe, which was that of Ephraim (Num. xiii, xiv.). Moses, with the divine sanction, appointed him to command the Israelites, even during his own lifetime (Num. xxvii. 18-23; Deut. iii. 28; xxxi. 23). After the death of Moses he led the Israelites over the Jordan, fortified a camp at Gilgal (Josh. ix. 6; x. 6-43), conquered the southern and middle portions of Canaan (vi.-x.), and also some of the northern districts (ix.). But the hostile nations, although subdued, were not entirely driven out and destroyed (xiii.; xxiii. 13; Judg. i. 27-35). | • There occur some vestiges of the deeds of Joshua in other historians besides those of the Bible. Procopius mentions a Phoenician inscription near the city of Tingis in Mauritania, the sense of which was:- We are those who fled be fore the face of Joshua the robber, the son of Nun.' The book of Joshua is so called from the personage who occupies the principal place in the narration of events contained therein, and may be considered as a continuation of the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch, and especially Deuteronomy, are repeatedly referred to in the book of Joshua, the narration of which begins with the death of Moses and extends to the death of Joshua, embracing a chronological period of somewhat less than thirty years. The subject of the book is thus briefly stated in ch. i. 5, 6: There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage; for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I sware unto their fathers to give them.' In these two verses is also indicated the division of the book into two principal portions, with reference to the conquest and the distribution of the land of Canaan. The conquest is narrated in the first twelve, and the distribution in the following ten chapters. In the last two chapters are subjoined the events subsequent to the distribution up to the death of Joshua. The history of the conquest of Canaan is a series of miracles, than which none more remarkable are recorded in any part of sacred history. The passage into the Promised Land, as well as that out of Egypt, was through water. Jericho was taken not by might, but by the falling of the walls on the blast of the trumpets of seven priests; and in the war against Gibeon the day was prolonged to afford time for the completion of the victory. It is generally granted that the first twelve chapters form a continuous whole: although the author, in ch. x. 13, refers to another work, he not merely transcribes but intimately combines the quotation with the tenor of his narration. It is certain that there sometimes occur episodes which seem to interrupt the chronological connection, as for instance the portion intervening between chs. i., ii., and iii. 1. But it belongs to the nature of detailed historical works to contain such episodes. The whole tenor of the first twelve chapters bespeaks an eye-witness who bore some part in the transactions-a fact proved not merely by such expressions as we passed over,' in ch. v. 1, but especially by the circumstantial vividness of the narrative, which clearly indicates that the writer was an eye-witness. The statement that the monuments which he erected were extant to this day, indicates that Joshua did not promulgate the book immediately after the events narrated (comp. iv. 9; vii. 26; viii. 28, 29; x. 27). The book, however, could not have been written very long after the time of JOSHUA JOSIAH 497 | consider it highly probable that the whole book of Joshua was composed by himself up to the twenty-eighth verse of the last chapter; to which a friendly hand subjoined some brief notices, contained in verses 29-33, concerning the death, age, and burial of Joshua; the continuance of his influence upon the people; the interment, in Shechem, of the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought from Egypt; and the death and burial of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, whom his son Phinehas interred in his allotment on Mount Ephraim. Joshua, because we find that Rahab was still alive when it was composed (vi. 29). The section from chapter xiii. to xxii. inclusive, which contains an account of the distribution of the land, seems to be based upon written documents, in which the property was accurately described. That this was the case is likely not merely on account of the peculiar nature of the diplomatic contents by which this Doomsday Book' is distinguished from the preceding part of Joshua, but also on account of the statement in chapter xviii. 4, where Joshua says to the children of Israel, 'Give out from among you three men from each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me.' Compare ver. 6, 'Ye therefore shall describe the land into seven parts.' Compare also verses 8 and 9, And the men arose and went away; and Joshua charged them that went to describe the land, saying, Go, and walk through the land, and describe it, and come again to me, that I may here cast lots for you before the Lord in Shiloh. And the men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven parts in a book, and came again to Joshua to the host at Shiloh.' The authority of the book of Joshua mainly rests upon the manner in which it is treated in other parts of the Bible. " 6 Besides the allusions in the book of Judges, we find Joshua referred to in 1 Kings xvi. 34. (Comp. Josh. vi. 26). The second and third verses of Psalm xliv. contain a brief summary of the whole book of Joshua:-Thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them." (Compare Psalm lxviii. 12-14; lxxviii. 54, 55; cxiv. 3 and 5, which refer to the book of Joshua.) Also, Hab. iii. 11: The sun and moon stood still in their habitation,' &c. Heb. xiii. 5: For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.' (Compare Josh. i. 5.) Heb. xi. 31: By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace;' and James ii. 25: Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?' (Compare Josh. ii. and vi. 22-25.) Acts vii. 45: Which (the tabernacle) also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers.' (Compare Josh. iii. 14.) Ib. xi. 30: By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.' (Compare Josh. vi. 17-23.) Heb. iv. 8: For if Jesus [JOSHUA] had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day.' The other persons of this name in the Bible are: The author of the book of Joshua frequently repeats the statements of the Pentateuch in a more detailed form, and mentions the changes which had taken place since the Pentateuch was written. Compare Num. xxxiv. 13 and 14, with Josh. xiii. 7, sq.; Num. xxxii. 37, with Josh. xiii. 17, sq.; Num. xxxv. with Josh. xxi. There is also considerable similarity between the following passages in the books of Joshua and Judges:-Josh. xiii. 4, Judg. iii. 3; Josh. xv. 13, sq., Judg. i. 10, 20; Josh. xv. 15-19, Judg. i. 11-15; Josh. xv. 62, Judg. i. 21; Josh. xvi. 10, Judg. i. 29; Josh. xvii. 12, Judg. i. 27; Josh. xix. 47, Judg. xviii. It seems to have been the intention of the author of chapters xiii.-xxii. to furnish authentic records concerning the arrangements made by Joshua after the conquest of Canaan. Since we do not find in the subsequent history that the tribes, after the death of Joshua, disagreed among themselves about the ownership of the land, it would appear that the object of the book of Joshua, as a 'Doomsday Book,' was fully attained. The circumstance that the book of Joshua contains many Canaanitish names of places to which the Hebrew names are added, seems also to indicate that the second part originated in an early age, when neither the Canaanitish name was entirely forgotten, nor the Hebrew name fully introduced; so that it was expedient to mention both. In the last two chapters occur two orations of Joshua, in which he bids farewell to the people whom he had commanded. In chapter xxiv. 26. we read, And Joshua WROTE these words in the book of the law of God.' The expression, these words, seems to refer only to his last address, and the subsequent resolution of the people to follow his example. We are here, however, expressly informed that Joshua did WRITE this much; and consequently we deem it the more likely that he also committed to writing the other memorable events connected with his career, such as the conquest and the distribution of the land. Viewing all the circumstances together, we JOSHUA, a Beth-shemite (1 Sam. vi. 14, 18), an Israelite, the owner of the field into which the cart came which bore the ark on its return from the land of the Philistines. JOSHUA (2 Kings xxiii. 8), the governor of the city of Jerusalem at the commencement of the reign of Josiah. JOSHUA, the son of Josedec (Hagg. i. 1, 12, 14; Zech. iii. 1, 3, 9; vi. 11), a high-priest in the time of Haggai and Zechariah [JESHUA]. JOSIAH (God-healed), seventeenth king of Judah, and son of Amon, whom he succeeded on the throne in B.C. 698, at the early age of eight years, and reigned thirty-one years. As Josiah thus early ascended the throne, we may the more admire the good qualities which he manifested. Avoiding the example of his immediate predecessors, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not 6 498 JOSIAH JOTHAM | aside to the right hand or to the left' (2 Kings Some suppose that all the copies of the law had xxii. 1, 2; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 1, 2). So early as perished, and that the king had never seen one. the sixteenth year of his age he began to mani- But this is very unlikely; for however scarce fest that enmity to idolatry in all its forms which complete copies may have been, the pious king distinguished his character and reign; and he was likely to have been the possessor of one. was not quite twenty years old when he pro- The probability seems to be that the passages claimed open war against it, although more or read were those awful denunciations against disless favoured by many men of rank and influence obedience with which the book of Deuteronomy in the court and kingdom. He then commenced concludes, and which from some cause or other a thorough purification of the land from all taint the king had never before read, or which had of idolatry, by going about and superintending never before produced on his mind the same in person the operations of the men who were strong conviction of the imminent dangers under employed in breaking down idolatrous altars which the nation lay, as now when read to him and images, and cutting down the groves which from a volume invested with a character so venehad been consecrated to idol-worship. His detes-rable, and brought with such interesting circumtation of idolatry could not have been more stances under his notice. strongly expressed than by ransacking the sepulchres of the idolatrous priests of former days, and consuming their bones upon the idol-altars before they were overturned. Yet this operation, although unexampled in Jewish history, was foretold 326 years before Josiah was born, by the prophet who was commissioned to denounce to Jeroboam the future punishment of his sin. He even named Josiah as the person by whom this act was to be performed; and said that it should be performed in Beth-el, which was then a part of the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings xiii. 2). All this seemed much beyond the range of human probabilities. But it was performed to the letter; for Josiah did not confine his proceedings to his own kingdom, but went over a considerable part of the neighbouring kingdom of Israel, which then lay comparatively desolate, with the same object in view; and at Beth-el in particular, executed all that the prophet had foretold (2 Kings xxiii. 1-19; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3-7, 32). In these proceedings Josiah seems to have been acnated by an absolute hatred of idolatry, such as no other king since David had manifested, and which David had scarcely occasion to manifest in the same degree. In the eighteenth year of his reign and the twenty-sixth of his age, when the land had been thoroughly purified from idolatry and all that belonged to it, Josiah proceeded to repair and beautify the temple of the Lord. In the course of this pious labour, the high-priest Hilkiah discovered in the sanctuary a volume, which proved to contain the books of Moses, and which, from the terms employed, seems to have been considered the original of the law as written by Moses. On this point there has been much anxious discussion and some rash assertion. Some writers of the German school allege that there is no external evidence--that is, evidence beside the law itself that the book of the law existed till it was thus produced by Hilkiah. This assertion it is the less necessary to answer here, as it is duly noticed in the art, PENTATEUCH. But it may be observed that it is founded very much on the fact that the king was greatly astonished when some parts of the law were read to him. It is indeed perfectly manifest that he had previously been entirely ignorant of much that he then heard; and he rent his clothes in consternation when he found that, with the best intentions to serve the Lord, he and all his people bad been living in the neglect of duties which the law declared to be of vital importance. It is certainly difficult to account for this ignorance. The king in his alarm sent to Huldah the prophetess,' for her counsel in this emergency [HULDAH]: her answer assured him that, although the dread penalties threatened by the law had been incurred and would be inflicted, he should be gathered in peace to his fathers before the days of punishment and sorrow came. It was perhaps not without some hope of averting this doom that the king immediately called the people together at Jerusalem, and engaged them in a solemn renewal of the ancient covenant with God. When this had been done, the Passover was celebrated with careful attention to the directions given in the law, and on a scale of unexampled magnificence. But all was too late; the hour of mercy had passed; for the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah' (2 Kings xxii. 3-20; xxiii. 21-27; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8-33; xxxv. 1-19). That removal from the world which had been promised to Josiah as a blessing, was not long delayed, and was brought about in a way which he had probably not expected. His kingdom was tributary to the Chaldæan empire; and when Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, sought a passage through his territories, on an expedition against the Chaldeans, Josiah, with a very high sense of the obligations which his vassalage imposed, refused to allow the march of the Egyptian army through his dominions, and prepared to resist the attempt by force of arms. Necho was very unwilling to engage in hostilities with Josiah; the appearance of the Hebrew army at Megiddo, however, brought on a battle, in which the king of Judah was so desperately wounded by arrows that his attendants removed him from the warchariot, and placed him in another, in which he was taken to Jerusalem, where he died. No king that reigned in Israel was ever more deeply lamented by all his subjects than Josiah: and we are told that the prophet composed on the occasion an elegiac ode, which was long preserved among the people, but which is not now in existence (2 Kings xxiii. 29-37; 2 Chron. xxxv. 20-27). JOT, properly IOTA, designates the smallest letter of the Greek alphabet (1); derived from the Hebrew jod (*) and employed metaphorically to express the minutest trifle. It is, in fact, one of several metaphors derived from the alphabetas when alpha, the first letter, and omega, the last, are employed to express the beginning and the end. 1. JOTHAM (God is upright), the youngest of |
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