And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. ] Josiah sent messengers throughout the land, and convened all the principal men in it at Jerusalem.
1
the king sent a message, and all of Judah's and Jerusalem's elders gathered before him.
2
Then the king went up to the LORD's temple, together with all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets, and all the people, young and old alike. There the king read out loud all the words of the covenant scroll that had been found in the LORD's temple.
3
The king stood beside the pillar and made a covenant with the LORD that he would follow the LORD by keeping his commandments, his laws, and his regulations with all his heart and all his being in order to fulfill the words of this covenant that were written in this scroll. All of the people accepted the covenant.
4
The king then commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the second-order priests, and the doorkeepers to remove from the LORD's temple all the religious objects made for Baal, Asherah, and all the heavenly bodies. The king burned them outside Jerusalem in the Kidron fields and took the ashes to Bethel
5
He got rid of the pagan priests that the Judean kings had appointed to burn incense at the shrines in Judah's cities and the areas around Jerusalem. He did the same to those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the heavenly bodies.