Josiah's reign (2 Kings 23; 2 Chronicles 35)

2 Kings 23 covers the details of Josiah's religious reforms in Judah.  It explains in detail how he went around destroying pagan altars, high places, shrines, and idols.  The details of these indicates what the people believed and the religious state of the country.

He also removed several things from the Lord's temple in Jerusalem.  In particular, he removed the quarters for the male and female shrine prostitutes and a chariot that was dedicated to the sun.

Numerous times, he would sprinkle human bones on pagan altars to defile them.  He also went to Bethel and smashed the shrine that Jeroboam I had set up.  This fulfilled the words of the prophet that had come from the south to warn Jeroboam, but then the prophet was later killed by a lion because another prophet tricked him into eating.  It was a strange story.

2 Chronicles 35 covers in detail the Passover that Josiah celebrates.  The Passover is large in scope and Josiah provides animals from his own private herds for the people to sacrifice.

Josiah's death provides an interesting question about whether the Bible contradicts itself.  Most of the details are consistent in both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.  The Pharaoh of Egypt comes north with an army.  Josiah confronts him at Meggido, but the Pharaoh sends emissaries to tell Josiah to stand down for the Pharaoh just wants through to right another army.  Josiah's army attacks anyway and Josiah is struck by the arrow of an archer.

2 Kings and 2 Chronicles differ in what happens next.  2 Kings says that Josiah died at Meggido and his body was then transported to Jerusalem, where he was buried.  2 Chronicles 35 says that he was mortally wounded at Meggido and asked to be taken off in a chariot.  He was then transported in two separate chariots to Jerusalem, where he died.

In essence, the stories are the same.  He was struck at Meggido, dies at some point, and is buried in Jerusalem.  But where did he die?  Meggido or Jerusalem?  

I checked an apologetics explanation of this and in a nutshell, it says that 2 Chronicles provides the details while 2 Kings provides a summary.  Likewise, in common English today, we might say someone was killed in the back alley, but the person may have just been mortally wounded in the back alley and clinically died in the hospital.  It is a confusing set of details.  

Going back to the story, Meggido is 50 miles from Jerusalem.  So, if someone is mortally wounded at one, the likelihood of making it back to Jerusalem by chariot alive is low.