Josiah was not pussyfooting around. He was using the power of his office as king, and he made them do it.
What we have here is a dictatorship. It was not just a king ruling. He simply took over the nation, lock, stock, and barrel. As in the time of Hezekiah, a crisis was reached. Either their sins had to be purged, or a calamity of going into captivity was going to very shortly occur. We have a national emergency, and in this national emergency Josiah acted as he did.
