The Reign of Josiah
1 Josiah [was] eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2
And he did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and he walked in the ways of David his ancestor and did not deviate [to] the right or [to] the left.
3
In the eighth year of his reign, while he [was] still a boy, he began to seek the God of David his ancestor. And in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherahs, the idols, and the images.
4
And he destroyed before him the altars for the Baals, and he cut down the incense stands above them. And the Asherahs, the idols, and the images he smashed. And he ground [them] to powder and sprinkled [the dust] over the burial sites of those who sacrificed to them.
5
And he burned the bones of the priests on the altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
6
And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around,
7
he broke down the altars and the Asherahs and crushed the idols, grinding [them] to dust, and he cut down all the incense stands in all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
The Scroll of the Law Discovered
8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign [after] he purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the commander of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of Yahweh his God.
9
And they came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave the money that was brought for the house of God, which the Levites, the guardians of the threshold, had gathered from the hand of Manasseh, Ephraim, and from the whole remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10
And they delivered [it] into the hand of the workmen who were appointed in the house of Yahweh, and they [in turn] gave it to those doing the work who [were] at work in the house of Yahweh, to repair [and] restore the house.
11
And they dispensed [it] to the skilled craftsmen and the builders to buy stone [for] hewing and timber for the seams and for binding the houses that the kings of Judah had destroyed.