1
The memory of Josiah is like a blending of incense prepared by the art of the perfumer; it is sweet as honey to every mouth, and like music at a banquet of wine.
2
He was led aright in converting the people, and took away the abominations of iniquity.
3
He set his heart upon the Lord; in the days of wicked men he strengthened godliness.
4
Except David and Hezekiah and Josiah they all sinned greatly, for they forsook the law of the Most High; the kings of Judah came to an end;
5
for they gave their power to others, and their glory to a foreign nation,
6
who set fire to the chosen city of the sanctuary, and made her streets desolate, according to the word of Jeremiah.
7
For they had afflicted him; yet he had been consecrated in the womb as prophet, to pluck up and afflict and destroy, and likewise to build and to plant.
8
It was Ezekiel who saw the vision of glory which God showed him above the chariot of the cherubim.
9
For God remembered his enemies with storm, and did good to those who directed their ways aright.