Behold therefore, I will gather you unto your fathers, and you shall be gathered into your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.
And they brought the king word again.
Read Chapter 22
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
How do we say that they have been advised who have died before the coming of the evils that followed their death, if after death they perceive whatever misfortunes befall the human life? Or is it that we are mistaken when we imagine that they are at rest when the restless life of the living concerns them? What is this, then, that God promised to the most devout king, Josiah, for a great reward, telling him that he would soon die in order that he might not see the evils that he was threatening to send on that place and that people? The words of God are these: “Thus says the Lord the God of Israel: My words, which you have heard and which you feared from my mouth when you heard what I said about this place and those who dwell in it, that it be forsaken and become a curse, and you rent your garments and wept in my sight, shall not come to pass, says the Lord of hosts. Behold I shall bring you to your fathers, and you shall be brought with peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evils t...
Peace, before these horrors overtake the city. Josias was interred with all the usual honours, have fallen in battle, chap. xxiii. 29. (Calmet)
Instead of peace, the Alexandrian Septuagint reads, "in Jerusalem "to which city Josias was brought from Mageddo, where he had perhaps rashly attacked the king of Egypt, with whom he had not been engaged in war. (Haydock)
This last good king was given to Juda, that he people might not pretend that they were forced to embrace idolatry by the royal power. (St. Jerome) (Du Hamel)
