Commentaria in IV Regum
AND BURNT MEN’S BONES UPON THEM.—The bones both of the priests slain by himself and of earlier ones, which he drew out of the sepulchres and burned on the altar, and so defiled and polluted the altar. For this had been foretold by that prophet who was slain by a lion, 3 Kings chapter 13, v. 2: “He cried out,” it says, “against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said: Altar, altar, thus saith the Lord: Behold a child shall be born to the house of David, Josias by name, and he shall sacrifice upon thee the priests of the high places, who now burn incense upon thee, and he shall burn men’s bones upon thee.” Hence it is plain that the dead can be punished for their crimes by the burning of their corpses, by public infamy and ignominy. Hence, when in the Fifth General Synod it was asked whether it was formerly lawful to strike the dead with anathema, Eutychius, from the answers of the bishop of Amasea, said that the matter needed neither a council nor any deliberation: because king Josias not only had killed the living priests of demons, but had also dug up the sepulchres of those who had been buried long before. So Nicephorus, Historia, book 17, ch. 27.
21. KEEP THE PHASE,—that is, sacrifice the paschal lamb and the other paschal victims, which during the seven days of the unleavened bread are commanded in the law to be offered, Numbers 28:16 ff.
Allegorically, Josias instituting the most solemn “Phase” was a type of Jesus Christ, who instituted the Eucharist, indeed made himself the “Phase,” that is, the paschal lamb, according to that of Paul, 1 Corinthians 5: “Christ our pasch is sacrificed. Therefore let us feast, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
25. THERE WAS NO KING BEFORE HIM LIKE UNTO HIM,—namely as to the entire cutting off of idolatry both in Israel and in Juda, and the reformation of religion, in which matter Josias surpassed all his predecessors, even Ezechias; for otherwise, absolutely, David seems to have been better and holier than Josias, says Abulensis.
29. IN HIS DAYS PHARAO NECHAO (that is, lame) KING OF EGYPT WENT UP AGAINST THE KING OF THE ASSYRIANS,—to avenge the injuries done to Egypt by Sennacherib, and to demand back the spoils taken by him, especially because he saw that, after the slaughter inflicted on Sennacherib’s camp by an Angel in Judea, the affairs of the Assyrians were going from bad to worse, and that the Medes and Babylonians had rebelled against them. Pharao therefore went with his army to the Euphrates and Ninive, in hope of getting possession of it; but because he had to pass through Judea, Josias met him, fearing lest he should invade and plunder Judea; and although Pharao asserted that he was plotting nothing against Josias and Judea, yet Josias, not believing him, drew up a line against him, in which, fighting too boldly and incautiously, he was pierced by the archers and fell. Further, Abulensis wholly excuses Josias from fault, because he feared that Pharao, if he entered Judea, would plot something against it, indeed would occupy it so that he could not be expelled. Scripture, however, 2 Paralipomenon 35:22, intimates that he sinned by some rashness: for although he was not bound to believe Pharao saying what was true, namely that he was sent by another God, yet he ought first to have consulted God before he undertook so doubtful and dangerous a war; so Cajetan, and therefore God permitted him to succumb and be slain.
AND WAS SLAIN AT MAGEDDO.—For although Mageddo was in the lot of Manasses and Israel, not of Juda, over which Josias ruled, yet Josias had that land also subject to him, for the reason I gave at v. 15. To which Abulensis adds another, namely that the Israelites left over from the captivity of Salmanasar had joined themselves to the kingdom of Juda, and accepted Josias as their king, that joined to the Jews they might be stronger, and more easily resist the Syrians, Egyptians and other enemies round about.
WHEN HE HAD SEEN HIM,—namely in battle; that is, when he had encountered him in fighting. So “to see” by catachresis is taken for to fight, chapter 14, v. 8: “Come, let us see one another,” that is, come and let us fight.
Further, wonderful was the judgment of God in permitting so pious a king to be slain in the just and pious defence of Israel: for with Josias slain all the hope of Israel perished, and the kingdom of David and of Juda was cut off. Truly “the judgments of God are a great deep.” God willed to take Josias away, that he might not see the evils of his nation, namely the destruction of the kingdom and temple decreed by God on account of the sins of the Jews. Another cause is given by St. Justin, Question 79 to the Orthodox, namely that Josias “did not obey the command of the prophet,” who had said to him by God’s command that he should not go forth to meet the king of Egypt in war, as Jeremias says. “Wherefore, that the Lord God might take him from this life free from sins, he permitted him to pay the penalty of his disobedience by Egyptian iron: for the instruction of later men, that they should not be disobedient to the prophets, and also that they might learn this: If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” So far Justin.
But this prophecy of Jeremias is nowhere extant, so far as I know. Allegorically, Josias, fighting for his people in the flower of his age, was a type of Jesus Christ, slain by the Jews for the salvation of men in the 34th year of his age. More of the piety and zeal of Josias we shall hear in 2 Paralipomenon 34 ff. The praise of Josias is in Ecclesiasticus chapter 49, v. 1 ff. In like manner God permitted St. Louis, endeavouring to wrest the Holy Land from the Saracens, to be taken by them, and on a second return to die of plague, that we may learn to make little of the kingdoms of the earth and to seek the heavenly kingdom, glorious and eternal, as St. Louis said in all his misfortune, praising God and giving him thanks; whence, dying, looking up to heaven, he sang that of Psalm 5: “I will come into thy house, O Lord, I will worship towards thy holy temple, and I will confess to thy name.” So his Life in Surius, on 25 August.
30. AND THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND TOOK JOACHAZ THE SON OF JOSIAS: AND ANOINTED HIM.—Joachaz, though younger in age, for he was 23 years old, and reigned only three months, when his elder brother Joakim, who was 25 years old, soon succeeded him, was preferred in the kingdom to the elder Joakim, either because he was more spirited and warlike, whence Pharao, fearing him, deposed him and substituted Joakim; or because Joakim feared Pharao and declined the kingdom. For Pharao, Josias having been defeated and slain, arrogated to himself the right of appointing kings in Juda, as is plain from what follows.
33. AND PHARAO BOUND HIM,—Pharao, Josias being slain, marched against the Assyrians, and, returning victorious after success, subdued the rest of Judea, and therefore, having removed Joachaz, whom the people had made king, he appointed Joakim, and imposed a fine of a hundred talents of silver on Juda, as though subdued by himself; for this war was bloody, since Joachaz and the Jews wounded and killed many Egyptians, as Ezechiel indicates, chapter 19, v. 4; see what was said there, and Jeremias, chapter 22, v. 10 ff., and Pharao feared Joachaz, lest he should rebel again. See what was said there.
34. AND CHANGED HIS NAME TO JOAKIM,—It was the custom for kings and princes subdued in war to change their name, and give them a new one in sign of subjection, as is plain from Daniel 1. Add that Joakim is the same as Eliakim, for both in Hebrew signify God will establish: for the name of God is both El, that is, strong, and Ia, which is an abbreviation of Jehova.
37. AND HE DID EVIL BEFORE THE LORD, that is, he worshipped idols, moreover avariciously plundered his subjects, and was proud and ambitious, and therefore, slain by the Chaldeans, “was buried with the burial of an ass”; that is, he was left unburied, cast on a dunghill like an ass, as Jeremias teaches, chapter 22, v. 19 ff.