4
And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the
1incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the
2Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and
3scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
5
4He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
6
And in the
5cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around,
7
he broke down the altars and beat the
6Asherim and the images
7into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
The Book of the Law Found
8 8Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the
9governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz,
10the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.
9
They came to
11Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from
12Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10
And they gave it to the workmen who were working in the house of the LORD. And the workmen who were working in the house of the LORD gave it for repairing and restoring the house.
11
They gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy quarried stone, and timber for binders and
13beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had let go to ruin.
12
And the men did the work faithfully. Over them were set Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to have oversight.
14The Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music,
13
were over
15the burden-bearers and directed all who did work in every kind of service, and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.
14
While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the LORD,
16Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD given through Moses.