2 Kings 23:26
Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.
Josiah turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, and like him was there no king before him nor any after him. His wholehearted obedience and work of reform were devoted fully to God. Notwithstanding that response, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath against Judah. That intense anger had been kindled by all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
His zeal was acceptable to God, yet it could not atone for the sins of past generations. Nor could the piety of those who followed him in faithfulness change the heart of the many who stubbornly refused to turn from idolatry to the worship of the true God. He continued to reign more than a decade after the Passover celebration. At thirty-nine he died in battle with the forces of Egypt and was buried with his fathers, while all Judah and Jerusalem mourned him, and Jeremiah and the singing men and singing women lamented for him in lamentations that were made an ordinance in Israel.
The time was rapidly approaching when Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed and its inhabitants carried captive to Babylon. That destruction and captivity came not long afterward. There in Babylon the people would learn the lessons they had refused to learn under more favorable circumstances.