1 The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah
and of Jerusalem. 2 The king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the
men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests,
and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in
their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the
house of Yahweh. 3 The king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant
before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his
testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all
his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in
this book: and all the people stood to the covenant. 4 The king commanded
Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers
of the threshold, to bring forth out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels
that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of the
sky, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and
carried the ashes of them to Bethel. 5 He put down the idolatrous priests,
whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in
the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; those also who
burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and
to all the host of the sky. 6 He brought out the Asherah from the house of
Yahweh, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook
Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast the dust of it on the graves of the
common people. 7 He broke down the houses of the sodomites, that were in
the house of Yahweh, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. 8 He
brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high
places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he
broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate
of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the
gate of the city. 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places didn't
come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread
among their brothers. 10 He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the
children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire to Molech. 11 He took away the horses that the kings of
Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of Yahweh, by the
chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts; and he
burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 The altars that were on the
roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the
altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh, did
the king break down, and beat them down from there, and cast the dust
of them into the brook Kidron. 13 The high places that were before
Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which
Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the
Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the
abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. 14 He broke in
pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with
the bones of men. 15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high
place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even
that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and
beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah. 16 As Josiah turned himself, he
spied the tombs that were there in the mountain; and he sent, and took the
bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it,
according to the word of Yahweh which the man of God proclaimed, who
proclaimed these things. 17 Then he said, What monument is that which I
see? The men of the city told him, It is the tomb of the man of God, who came
from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar
of Bethel. 18 He said, Let him be; let no man move his bones. So they let
his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.
19 All the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of
Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh to
anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he
had done in Bethel. 20 He killed all the priests of the high places that
were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to
Jerusalem. 21 The king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover
to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.
22 Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges
who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the
kings of Judah; 23 but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this
Passover kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem. 24 Moreover those who had familiar
spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the
abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah
put away, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in
the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh. 25 Like him
was there no king before him, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart, and
with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses;
neither after him arose there any like him. 26 Notwithstanding, Yahweh
didn't turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was
kindled against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had
provoked him. 27 Yahweh said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as
I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen,
even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, aren't they
written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29 In his
days Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the
river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and Pharaoh Necoh
killed him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. 30 His servants carried him
in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him
in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and
anointed him, and made him king in his father's place. 31 Jehoahaz was
twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in
Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of
Libnah. 32 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to
all that his fathers had done. 33 Pharaoh Necoh put him in bonds at Riblah
in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land
to a tribute of one hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
34 Pharaoh Necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah
his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim: but he took Jehoahaz away; and
he came to Egypt, and died there. 35 Jehoiakim gave the silver and the
gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the
commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of
the land, of everyone according to his taxation, to give it to Pharaoh Necoh.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zebidah the
daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 He did that which was evil in the sight
of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done.
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