 1 The king gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 The king went into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem were with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people from the small to the great. Then he read to them all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. 3 The king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul. To perform the words of this covenant as written in the book. Then all the people agreed+ to the covenant. 4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried the ashes of them to Bethel. 5 He put down the idol worshiping priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places around Jerusalem. He also put down those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the planets, and to all the host of the heavens. 6 He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the river Kidron and burned it at the river Kidron and stamped it to powder and threw the powder on the graves of the children of the people. 7 He broke down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord where the women wove coverings 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. He broke down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city that were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. 9 But the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate of the unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 He defiled Topheth in the valley of the children of Hinnom so 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 entering in of the house of the Lord by the room of Nathanmelech the eunuch who was in the suburbs. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 The king beat down the altars that were on the top of the upper room of Ahaz that the kings of Judah had made and the altars that Manasseh had made and the two courts of the house of the Lord. He broke them down from there and threw the dust of them into the river Kidron. 13 The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem on the right hand of the mount of corruption that King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the abomination of the children of Ammon. 14 He broke the images in pieces, cut down the Asherahs, and filled their places with the bones of men. 15 Also the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place that Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place. He stamped it to powder, and burned the Asherah. 16 As Josiah turned, 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 the Lord that the man of God had proclaimed, who spoke these words. 17 He said, What monument is what I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the grave 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 alone. Let no one move his bones. So they left his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. 19 Josiah took away all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria that the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, He did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 20 He killed all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars and burned men's bones on them and returned to Jerusalem. 21 The king commanded all the people saying, Prepare the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in the book of the covenant. 22 Surely there was not held 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, this Passover was held to the Lord in Jerusalem. 24 Josiah put away the mediums+ and wizards and carved images and idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem so that he might perform the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 25 There was no king like him before him, who 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 after him none rose like him. 26 But the Lord did not turn from the heat of His great wrath, with which His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 The Lord said, I will also remove Judah out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem that I have chosen, and the house about which I said, my name will be there. 28 The rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did are written in the book of the kings of Judah. 29 In his days, Pharaohnecho king of Egypt went against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went against him and killed him at Megiddo when he saw him. 30 His servants made him ride dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And 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 23 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 He did the evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 Pharaohnecho put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he might not reign in Jerusalem. And he put the land to a tax of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 Pharaohnecho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father. And he changed his name to Jehoiakim, and 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 silver according to Pharaoh's command. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from each one according to his worth, to give it to Pharaohnecho. 36 Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he began to reign. And he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 He did the evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.
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