23Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem should be gathered to him.H4428H7971H622H2205H3063H3389

2The king went up to the house of the LORD, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.H4428H5927H1004H3068H376H3063H3427H3389H3548H5030H5971H6996H1419H7121H241H1697H5612H1285H4672H1004H3068

3The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant.H4428H5975H5982H3772H1285H6440H3068H3212H310H3068H8104H4687H5715H2708H3820H5315H6965H1697H1285H3789H5612H5971H5975H1285

4The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.H4428H6680H2518H1419H3548H3548H4932H8104H5592H3318H1964H3068H3627H6213H1168H842H6635H8064H8313H2351H3389H7709H6939H5375H6083H1008

5He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens.H7673H3649H4428H3063H5414H6999H1116H5892H3063H4524H3389H6999H1168H8121H3394H4208H6635H8064

6He brought out the image of Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust and threw the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.H3318H842H1004H3068H2351H3389H5158H6939H8313H5158H6939H1854H6083H7993H6083H6913H1121H5971

7He broke down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women did weaving for Asherah.H5422H1004H6945H1004H3068H802H707H1004H842

8He brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; 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 the left at the gate of the city.H935H3548H5892H3063H2930H1116H3548H6999H1387H884H5422H1116H8179H6607H8179H3091H8269H5892H376H8040H8179H5892

9The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their kindred.H3548H1116H5927H4196H3068H3389H398H4682H8432H251

10He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech.H2930H8612H1516H1121H1121H2011H376H1121H1323H5674H784H4432

11He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of the eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts; then he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.H7673H5483H4428H3063H5414H8121H935H1004H3068H3957H5419H5631H6503H8313H4818H8121H784

12The altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, he pulled down from there and broke in pieces, and threw the rubble into the Wadi Kidron.H4196H1406H5944H271H4428H3063H6213H4196H4519H6213H8147H2691H1004H3068H4428H5422H7323H7993H6083H5158H6939

13The king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.H1116H6440H3389H3225H2022H4889H8010H4428H3478H1129H6253H8251H6722H3645H8251H4124H4445H8441H1121H5983H4428H2930

14He broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the sacred poles, and covered the sites with human bones.H7665H4676H3772H842H4390H4725H6106H120

15Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin—he pulled down that altar along with the high place. He burned the high place, crushing it to dust; he also burned the sacred pole.H4196H1008H1116H3379H1121H5028H3478H2398H6213H4196H1116H5422H8313H1116H1854H6083H8313H842

16As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount; 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 proclaimed, when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival; he turned and looked up at the tomb of the man of God who had predicted these things.H2977H6437H7200H6913H2022H7971H3947H6106H6913H8313H4196H2930H1697H3068H376H430H7121H7121H1697

17Then he said, "What is that monument that I see?" The people of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel."H559H6725H1975H7200H582H5892H559H6913H376H430H935H3063H7121H1697H6213H4196H1008

18He said, "Let him rest; let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.H559H3240H376H5128H6106H6106H4422H6106H5030H935H8111

19Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the towns of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the LORD to anger; he did to them just as he had done at Bethel.H1004H1116H5892H8111H4428H3478H6213H3707H2977H5493H6213H4639H6213H1008

20He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.H2076H3548H1116H4196H8313H120H6106H7725H3389

21The king commanded all the people, "Keep the passover to the LORD your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant."H4428H6680H5971H559H6213H6453H3068H430H3789H5612H1285

22No such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah;H6213H6453H3117H8199H8199H3478H3117H4428H3478H4428H3063

23but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.H8083H6240H8141H4428H2977H6453H6213H3068H3389

24Moreover Josiah put away the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah had found in the house of the LORD.H178H3049H8655H1544H8251H7200H776H3063H3389H2977H1197H6965H1697H8451H3789H5612H2518H3548H4672H1004H3068

25Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.H4428H6440H7725H3068H3824H5315H3966H8451H4872H310H6965

26Still the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.H3068H7725H2740H1419H639H639H2734H3063H3708H4519H3707

27The LORD said, "I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there."H3068H559H5493H3063H6440H5493H3478H3988H5892H3389H977H1004H559H8034

28Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?H3499H1697H2977H6213H3789H5612H1697H3117H4428H3063

29In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him; but when Pharaoh Neco met him at Megiddo, he killed him.H3117H6549H4428H4714H5927H4428H804H5104H6578H4428H2977H3212H7125H4191H4023H7200

30His servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.H5650H7392H4191H4023H935H3389H6912H6900H5971H776H3947H3059H1121H2977H4886H4427H1

31Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.H3059H6242H7969H8141H1121H4427H4427H7969H2320H3389H517H8034H2537H1323H3414H3841

32He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his ancestors had done.H6213H7451H5869H3068H1H6213

33Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and imposed tribute on the land of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.H6549H631H7247H776H2574H4427H3389H5414H776H6066H3967H3603H3701H3603H2091

34Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away; he came to Egypt, and died there.H6549H471H1121H2977H4427H2977H1H5437H8034H3079H3947H3059H3947H935H4714H4191

35Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to meet Pharaoh's demand for money. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from all according to their assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.H3079H5414H3701H2091H6547H6186H776H5414H3701H6310H6547H5065H3701H2091H5971H776H376H6187H5414H6549

36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.H3079H6242H2568H8141H1121H4427H4427H259H6240H8141H3389H517H8034H2080H1323H6305H7316

37He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as all his ancestors had done.H6213H7451H5869H3068H1H6213