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 from the high places and the groves and the graven images and the molten images.
4
And they broke down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and the images
of the sun, that
were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves and the graven images and the molten images, he broke in pieces and made dust
of them and scattered
it upon the graves of those that had sacrificed unto them.
5
And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
6
He did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their swords round about.
7
And when he had broken down the altars and the groves and had beaten the graven images into powder and cut down all the idols
of the sun 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 writer of chronicles, to repair the house of the LORD his God.
9
And they went to Hilkiah, the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and of all the remnant of Israel and of all Judah and Benjamin, having
then returned to Jerusalem.
10
And they put
it in the hand of those that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and restore the house.
11
They
also gave to the craftsmen and builders, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and for the woodwork of the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
12
And the men did the work faithfully, and the overseers of them
were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of Kohath, to set
it forward; and
others of the Levites, all those with understanding in instruments of music.
13
Also
they were over the bearers of burdens and
were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service; and of the Levites
there were scribes, and officers, and porters.