thirteenth year of Josiah (1:6), i.e., 627 B.C. when he was a mere lad of 16 to 18 years of age, his birth may be set toward the end of the reign of the notorious Manasseh (687–642 B.C.). He would have known nothing at first hand about Manasseh, of whom the writer of 2 Kings said that “he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel” (2 K. 21:2). In many ways Manasseh, the grandfather of Josiah,