II Kings 23

1. Then the king sent a summons, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2. And the king went up into the house of the LORD. And all the men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, from the small even to the great. And he read all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD in their ears.

3. And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant which was written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

4. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels which were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.

5. And he removed the idol-worshiping priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem. He also removed those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of the heavens.

6. And he brought out the Asherah image from the house of the LORD outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it to powder, and threw the powder of it upon the graves of the children of the people.

7. And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, which were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove coverings for the grove.

8. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

9. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

10. And he defiled Topheth, in the valley of the children of Hinnom, so that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

11. And he took away the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the room of Nathan-Melech the officer, which was in the suburbs. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

12. And the altars which were on the top of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king ripped them down from there, and smashed them. And he threw the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

13. And the high places which were before Jerusalem on the right hand of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.

14. And he broke the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

15. Moreover the altar which was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place; he stamped it to powder, and burned the groves.

16. Then as Josiah turned, he observed the tombs which were there in the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them upon the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God had proclaimed, who had foretold these things.

17. And he said, “What monument is that which I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these very things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.”

18. And he said, “Let him alone; let no one move his bones.” And they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.

19. And also all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the works that he had done in Bethel.

20. And upon the altars he killed all the priests of the high places which were there, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

21. And the king commanded all the people saying, “Prepare the Passover to the LORD your God as it is written in the book of the covenant.”

22. Surely there was not held such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah.

23. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was held to the LORD in Jerusalem.

24. And also Josiah put away those who work with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the family gods, and the idols, and all the abominations which were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book which Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

25. And there was no king like him before 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. And after him none rose up like him.

26. Nevertheless the LORD did not turn from the heat of His great wrath, with which His anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.

27. And the LORD said, “I will also remove Judah out of My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ”

28. And 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?

29. In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he saw him.

30. And his servants carried his dead body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place.

31. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign. And he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

32. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

33. And Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem. And he put the land under a tax of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

34. And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz away. And he came to Egypt and died there.

35. And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh. But he taxed the land to give the silver according to Pharaoh’s command. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from each one according to his worth, to give it to Pharaoh Necho.

36. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign. And he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

37. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.