1 A2 Chr 34:29-32Then 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 the Loʀᴅ 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 ADeut 31:10-13he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant B2 Kin 22:8which was found in the house of the Loʀᴅ. 3 A2 Kin 11:14, 17The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Loʀᴅ, BDeut 13:4to walk after the Loʀᴅ, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people 1Lit took a stand inentered into the covenant.

4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and A2 Kin 25:18; Jer 52:24the priests of the second order and the 1Lit keepers of the thresholddoorkeepers, B2 Kin 21:3, 7; 2 Chr 33:3to bring out of the temple of the Loʀᴅ all the vessels that were made for Baal, for 2I.e. a wooden symbol of a female deity, and so throughout the chAsherah, and for all the host of heaven; and C2 Kin 23:15he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the A2 Kin 21:3host of heaven. 6 He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Loʀᴅ outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and A2 Kin 23:15ground it to dust, and B2 Chr 34:4threw its dust on the graves of the 1Lit sons of the peoplecommon people. 7 He also broke down the houses of the A1 Kin 14:24; 15:12male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Loʀᴅ, where BEx 35:25, 26; Ezek 16:16the women were weaving 1Or tents; lit houseshangings for the Asherah. 8 Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from AJosh 21:17; 1 Kin 15:22Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate. 9 Nevertheless AEzek 44:10-14the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Loʀᴅ in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 AIs 30:33; Jer 7:31, 32; 19:4-6He also defiled 1I.e. place of burningTopheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, BLev 18:21that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for C1 Kin 11:7Molech. 11 He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the ADeut 4:19; Job 31:26; Ezek 8:16sun, at the entrance of the house of the Loʀᴅ, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 AJer 19:13; Zeph 1:5The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and B2 Kin 21:5; 2 Chr 33:5the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Loʀᴅ, the king broke down; and he 1Or ran from theresmashed them there and C2 Kin 23:4, 6threw their dust into the brook Kidron. 13 The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of A1 Kin 11:7the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for B1 Kin 11:5Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for CNum 21:29Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled. 14 ADeut 7:5, 25He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and B2 Kin 23:16filled their places with human bones.

15 Furthermore, A1 Kin 13:1the altar that was at Bethel and the B1 Kin 12:28-33high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down. Then he 1So the Gr; Heb burned the high placeC2 Kin 23:6demolished its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah. 16 Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it A1 Kin 13:2according to the word of the Loʀᴅ which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. 17 Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “A1 Kin 13:1, 30, 31It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” 18 He said, “Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they 1Lit let his bones escape withleft his bones undisturbed A1 Kin 13:11, 31with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. 19 Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were A2 Chr 34:6, 7in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking 1So with ancient versionsthe Loʀᴅ; and he did to them 2Lit according to all the actsjust as he had done in Bethel. 20 All the priests of the high places who were there A2 Kin 10:25; 11:18he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

21 Then the king commanded all the people saying, “A2 Chr 35:1-17Celebrate the Passover to the Loʀᴅ your God BNum 9:2-4; Deut 16:2-8as it is written in this book of the covenant.” 22 A2 Chr 35:18, 19Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the Loʀᴅ in Jerusalem.

24 Moreover, Josiah 1Lit consumedremoved ALev 19:31; 2 Kin 21:6the mediums and the spiritists and the BGen 31:19 mgteraphim and C2 Kin 21:11, 21the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, DDeut 18:10-22that he might 2Or performconfirm the words of the law which were written E2 Kin 22:8in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Loʀᴅ. 25 Before him there was no king A2 Kin 18:5like him who turned to the Loʀᴅ with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.

26 However, the Loʀᴅ did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, A2 Kin 21:11-13; Jer 15:4because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 The Loʀᴅ said, “I will remove Judah also from My sight, A2 Kin 18:11as I have removed Israel. And B2 Kin 21:13, 14I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the 1Lit housetemple of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ”

28 Now 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? 29 A2 Chr 35:20-24In his days BJer 46:2Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he killed him at CJudg 5:19Megiddo. 30 A2 Kin 9:28His servants drove 1Lit him, deadhis body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. B2 Chr 36:1-4Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

31 A1 Chr 3:15; Jer 22:11Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was B2 Kin 24:18Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 He did evil in the sight of the Loʀᴅ, A2 Kin 21:2-7according to all that his fathers had done. 33 A2 Kin 23:29Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at B2 Kin 25:6Riblah in the land of C1 Kin 8:65Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

34 Pharaoh Neco made A1 Chr 3:15Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and B2 Kin 24:17; 2 Chr 36:4changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and 1So with Gr; Heb he cameCJer 22:11, 12; Ezek 19:3, 4brought him to Egypt, and he died there. 35 So Jehoiakim A2 Kin 23:33gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the 1Lit mouthcommand of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, each according to his valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

36 A2 Chr 36:5; Jer 22:18, 19; 26:1Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 He did evil in the sight of the Loʀᴅ, A2 Kin 23:32according to all that his fathers had done.