4
And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests
1of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for
2Baal, for
3Asherah, and for all the host of heaven.
4He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5
And he deposed the 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 burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations
5and all the host of the heavens.
6
And he brought out
6the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron,
7and burned it at the brook Kidron
8and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves
9of the common people.
7
And he broke down the houses of
10the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord,
11where the women wove hangings for
12the Asherah.
8
And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from
13Geba to Beersheba. And 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 one’s left at the gate of the city.
9
14However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
10
And he defiled
15Topheth, which is
16in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom,
17that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to
18Molech.
11
And he 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 Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12
And the altars
19on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars
20that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them
21into the brook Kidron.
13
And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of
22the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for
23Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for
24Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for
25Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
14
And he broke in pieces the
26pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.
15
Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected
27by Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
28who made Israel to sin,
29that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah.
16
And as 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,
30according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things.
17
Then he said, “What is that monument that I see? ” And the men of the city told him,
31“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. ”
18
And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones. ” So they let his bones alone, with the bones
32of the prophet who came out of Samaria.
19
And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were
33in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel.
20
And
34he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars,
35and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
Josiah Restores the Passover
21 And the king commanded all the people,
36“Keep the Passover to the Lord your God,
37as it is written in this Book of the Covenant. ”
22
38For no 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.
23
But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24
Moreover, Josiah put away
39the mediums and the necromancers and
40the household gods and
41the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish
42the words of the law that were written in the book
43that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.
25
44Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.
26
Still the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah,
45because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.
27
And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight,
46as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem,
47and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. ”
Josiah’s Death in Battle
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?