Melakhim II Chapters 23–24 | Yoshiyahu's Revolution and the Last Kings of Yehuda

King Yoshiyahu enacted the most significant and impressive religious reform in the history of Israel. After years of severe idol worship during Menashe’s reign, Yoshiyahu made a covenant between the nation and God, and zealously pursued the eradication of idolatry. The impression from the verses is that this was a swift and thorough revolution. Many types of idolatry from various periods and places were sought out and burned. Not only did the revolution address all forms of idolatry, but the high places were also dismantled, and the status of the Temple was strengthened. Yoshiyahu even ventured into the void left by the disappearance of the Kingdom of Israel, extending his efforts to areas that had belonged to that kingdom and eradicating idolatry and high places there as well. In summary, this revolution represented the hope of uniting the kingdom around Jerusalem, the Temple, and the service of God under a righteous and successful king with extraordinary religious and political achievements. The verse praising Yoshiyahu underscores this hope: “There was none like him before him – a king who returned to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and with all his might, following all the teaching of Moshe, and none like him ever arose after him” (23:25).

This hope is shattered in the following verse: “Yet the Lord did not turn back from His great fury, the fury that raged against Yehuda because of all of Menashe's provocations that angered Him” (23:26). Yoshiyahu returned to the Lord with all his heart, but even so, the Lord did not turn back from His wrath. This collapse is deeply frustrating and seems to contradict everything we believe about repentance and divine retribution. Yoshiyahu repented thoroughly and did everything required, but it was not enough for God, and the people of Yehuda were punished regardless for the sins of Menashe.

Chazal interpreted a verse from Eikha as a lament for Yoshiyahu’s death: “our life's breath, the Lord’s anointed, was caught up in our slaughter, the one whose shade we said we should live in among nations’” (Eikha 4:20). They explained that Yoshiyahu fell due to the people’s sins. He did a remarkable revolution, but it did not penetrate the hearts of the people. Although this is a valid explanation, we must ask ourselves whether the narrative as presented in the book of Melakhim itself provides any hints about the reasons for this divine response. What is the message of Melakhim?

One might suggest that the message is that once Israel sinned so greatly and the decree was sealed, there was no way to undo it. Everything may have been perfect, but the Lord still did not forgive. While this is a possible interpretation, it seems inconsistent with the Jewish concept of repentance. Furthermore, the verses themselves offer a deeper explanation.

Throughout the narrative, Yoshiyahu is active and vigorous, but the people are passive. Even when he makes the covenant with them, they do not respond nor react, unlike the covenants of Moshe (Shemot 19), Yehoshua (Yehoshua 24), or Eliyahu (Melakhim I 18). The result is a very thorough revolution, but one that does not penetrate deeply enough. The people indeed stopped worshiping idols but did not change their habits.

Moreover, Yoshiyahu’s reform was too short and too late. After fifty-seven years of Menashe and Amon, followed by eighteen years of Yoshiyahu’s reign before he initiated his religious revolution, we are looking at seventy-five years of entrenched idolatry. Yoshiyahu reigned for only thirty-one years, most of which passed without dramatic changes, leaving only thirteen years for his revolution. These years were insufficient to create a buffer between the era of Menashe and the reigns of the kings who followed him. Yoshiyahu implemented an extraordinary revolution, but after his death, during the reigns of his sons, the people and their kings quickly reverted to sin as if he had never been there. The description of Yehoachaz’s brief reign states: “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his ancestors had done” (23:32), and during Yehoyakim’s reign, the text directly references Menashe: “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, all that his ancestors had done... He sent them forth against Yehuda to destroy it, to fulfill the word of the Lord that He had pronounced through His servants the prophets. This was the Lord's will – to remove Yehuda from His presence because of all the sins of Menashe committed, and because of all the innocent blood he spilled; he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive” (23:37-24:4).

As in many places in the Tanakh, one prophetic message in this story is that God knows all. When we read of His reaction, we feel indignation at the perceived injustice, but as we continue the narrative, we realize that what seemed unjust was due to our limited human perspective. We read the story at the human pace, unable to know the future or what lies in people’s hearts. Yoshiyahu’s impressive revolution did not turn away God’s wrath because, despite its thoroughness, it ultimately changed nothing. Repairing is far harder than ruining, and even Yoshiyahu, the most righteous king, recognized too late and with too few years remaining to his life, could not steer the kingdom of Yehuda in a positive direction.

The other kings, too, were given their opportunities to repent. In the book of Yirmeyahu, he pleads and demands that the people repent to be saved. However, the book of Melakhim tells us what ultimately happened, knowing the end in advance: the Kingdom of Yehuda was not prepared to repent and sealed its own fate. Thus, “the Lord’s fury against Jerusalem and Yehuda, He cast them away from His presence” (Yirmeyahu  53:3).