Concerning Josiah we are here told, 1. That he came to the crown when
he was very young, only eight years old (yet his infancy did not debar
him from his right), and he reigned thirty-one years (v. 1), a
considerable time. I fear, however, that in the beginning of his reign
things went much as they had done in his father's time, because, being
a child, he must have left the management of them to others; so that it
was not till his twelfth year, which goes far in the number of his
years, that the reformation began, v. 3. He could not, as Hezekiah did,
fall about it immediately. 2. That he reigned very well (v. 2),
approved himself to God, trod in the steps of David, and did not
decline either to the right hand of to the left: for there are errors
on both hands. 3. That while he was young, about sixteen years old, he
began to seek after God, v. 3. We have reason to think he had not so
good an education as Manasseh had (it is well if those about him did
not endeavour to corrupt and debauch him); yet he thus sought God when
he was young. It is the duty and interest of young people, and will
particularly be the honour of young gentlemen, as soon as they come to
years of understanding, to begin to seek God; for those that seek him
early shall find him. 4. That in the twelfth year of his reign, when it
is probable he took the administration of the government entirely into
his own hands, he began to purge his kingdom from the remains of
idolatry; he destroyed the high places, groves, images, altars, all the
utensils of idolatry, v. 3, 4. He not only cast them out as Manasseh
did, but broke them to pieces, and made dust of them. This destruction
of idolatry is here said to be in his twelfth year, but it was said (2
Kings xxiii. 23) to be in his eighteenth year. Something was probably
done towards it in his twelfth year; then he began to purge out
idolatry, but that good work met with opposition, so that it was not
thoroughly done till they had found the book of the law six years
afterwards. But here the whole work is laid together briefly which was
much more largely and particularly related in the Kings. His zeal
carried him out to do this, not only in Judah and Jerusalem, but in the
cities of Israel too, as far as he had any influence upon them.