And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Nobody must think that anything was detracted to the celerity of death because of one’s merits. Enoch was kidnapped, lest malice might spoil his heart, and Josiah, who celebrated the Passover of the Lord in the eighteenth year of his reign in such a manner that he overcame in piousness all the previous kings, did not survive longer through the merits of his faith. No, rather, because grievous destruction threatened the Jewish people, the just king was taken away beforehand. I fear that you, too, were snatched away from us because of some offense on our part, so that, as a just person, you might escape in the eighteenth year of your reign the bitterness of impending evil. - "Consolation on the Death of Emperor Valentinian 57"
Sepulchre. Paralipomenon xxxv., in the monument (or mausoleum) of his fathers. Such was the end of Josias: he fell gloriously in defence of his country, as he had spent his life in promoting religion. God therefore withdrew him from the sight of the miseries which were shortly to fall on his devoted people, chap. xxii. 20. (Haydock)
He was a prince of most excellent disposition, and receives the highest encomium, ver. 25., and Ecclesiasticus xlix. 1. Jeremias composed his funeral canticle, which was sung on his anniversary for many years, 2 Paralipomenon xxxv. 24. The mourning for this pious king became proverbial, and resembled that which should be made for the Messias, Zacharias xii. 11. The life and death of Josias prefigured those of Jesus Christ; who should be long expected as the restorer of the true religion, the teacher of a more excellent law, and the most innocent victim for the sins of the people. The glorious Phase under Josias, was but a faint representation of the euchar...
