1
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.
2
And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left.
3
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, and the Asherah poles, and the carved images, and the molten images.
4
And they broke down the altars of the Baalim in his presence, and the sun images that were on high above them he cut down; and the Asherah poles and the carved images and the molten images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and strewed it upon the graves of those who had sacrificed unto them.
5
And he burned the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
6
And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about.
7
And when he had broken down the altars and the Asherah poles, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
8
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.
9
And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.