﻿2 Kings.
Chapter 23.
The king sent word, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him. 
The king went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant found in the house of the LORD. 
The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and keep his commandments, testimonies, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, fulfilling the words of this covenant written in this book. All the people pledged themselves to the covenant. 
The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second rank, and the threshold guards to bring out of the LORD’s temple all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 
He removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of heaven. 
He brought the Asherah pole out of the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley. He burned it in the Kidron Valley, ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. 
He tore down the quarters of the male cult prostitutes in the house of the LORD, where the women wove shelters for Asherah. 
He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He tore down the high places at the gates, at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the city governor, on the left as one enters the city gate. 
Yet the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, though they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 
He defiled Topheth in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech. 
He removed the horses the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance of the house of the LORD, near the room of Nathan-melech the official in the outer precincts. He burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 
The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had made on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room and the altars Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He hurried away from there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. 
The king defiled the high places opposite Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. 
He smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their sites with human bones. 
He also tore down the altar at Bethel and the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. He tore down that altar and high place, burned the high place, ground it to dust, and burned the Asherah pole. 
When Josiah turned and saw the tombs there on the hill, he sent men to take the bones from the tombs. He burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had announced these things. 
He asked, “What is that monument I see?” The men of the city said to him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things you have done against the altar at Bethel.” 
He said, “Leave him alone. Let no one disturb his bones.” So they spared his bones, along with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria. 
Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria that the kings of Israel had made to provoke anger. He did to them everything he had done at Bethel. 
He slaughtered all the priests of the high places on the altars there and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem. 
The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” 
No Passover like this had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 
But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem. 
Josiah also removed the mediums, spiritists, household gods, idols, and all the detestable things seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, to fulfill the words of the law written in the book Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD. 
Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might, according to all the Law of Moses. Nor did one like him arise after him. 
Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great anger that burned against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. 
The LORD said, “I will also remove Judah from my presence, as I removed Israel. I will reject this city I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name will be there.’” 
As for the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 
In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to meet him, and Neco put him to death at Megiddo when he saw him. 
His servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place. 
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 
He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his ancestors had done. 
Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, preventing him from reigning in Jerusalem. He imposed on the land a fine of about 7,500 pounds of silver and about 75 pounds of gold. 
Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz away, and he went to Egypt and died there. 
Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to pay the money Pharaoh demanded. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from each man according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebudah, daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah. 
He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his ancestors had done. 
