Why did Josiah try to turn his people to God?

Josiah was the son of Amon, a king of Judah, who was only 16 years old when Josiah was born. Amon was very bad, as his father, King Manasseh, had been. In fact, Manasseh had been a very wicked ruler for many years. But then he was captured by the Assyrians and taken prisoner to faraway Babylon. While in prison, Manasseh begged Jehovah to forgive him, and Jehovah did. Josiah was influenced by the prophet Zephaniah. He was a relative of Josiah’s, for he was possibly a descendant of Manasseh’s father, the good King Hezekiah. During the early part of Josiah’s rule as king, Zephaniah wrote the Bible book that bears his name. Zephaniah warned of the bad things that would happen to those who did not choose to do what was right, and Josiah obviously paid attention to those warnings.