And the kingwent up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalemwith him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, bothsmall and great: and he read in theirears all the words of the book of the covenantwhich was found in the house of the LORD.
And the kingstood by a pillar, and made a covenantbefore the LORD, to walkafter the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statuteswith all theirheart and all theirsoul, to perform the words of thiscovenantthatwerewritten in thisbook. And all the peoplestood to the covenant.
And the kingcommandedHilkiah the highpriest, and the priests of the secondorder, and the keepers of the door, to bringforth out of the temple of the LORD all the vesselsthatweremade for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burnedthemwithoutJerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of themuntoBethel.
And he put down the idolatrouspriests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burnincense in the highplaces in the cities of Judah, and in the placesroundaboutJerusalem; themalsothatburnedincenseuntoBaal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
And he brought out the grovefrom the house of the LORD, withoutJerusalem, unto the brookKidron, and burned it at the brookKidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powderthereofupon the graves of the children of the people.
And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the highplaceswhere the priests had burnedincense, fromGeba to Beersheba, and brakedown the highplaces of the gatesthatwere in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, whichwere on a man’slefthand at the gate of the city.
Nevertheless the priests of the highplacescame not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavenedbreadamongtheirbrethren.
And he defiledTopheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man mightmake his son or his daughter to passthrough the fire to Molech.
And he tookaway the horsesthat the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun withfire.
And the altarsthatwere on the top of the upperchamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altarswhichManasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the kingbeatdown, and brakethemdownfromthence, and cast the dust of theminto the brookKidron.
And the highplacesthatwerebeforeJerusalem, whichwere on the righthand of the mount of corruption, whichSolomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the kingdefile.
Moreover the altarthat was at Bethel, and the highplacewhichJeroboam the son of Nebat, who madeIsrael to sin, had made, boththataltar and the highplace he brakedown, and burned the highplace, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
And as Josiahturnedhimself, he spied the sepulchresthatwerethere in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burnedthemupon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORDwhich the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimedthesewords.
Then he said, Whattitle is thatthat I see? And the men of the citytold him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, whichcamefromJudah, and proclaimedthesethingsthatthouhastdoneagainst the altar of Bethel.
And all the housesalso of the highplacesthatwere in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiahtookaway, and did to themaccording to all the actsthat he had done in Bethel.
Surelythere was not holdensuch a passoverfrom the days of the judgesthatjudgedIsrael, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;
Moreover the workerswithfamiliarspirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominationsthatwerespied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he mightperform the words of the law whichwerewritten in the bookthatHilkiah the priestfound in the house of the LORD.
And likeunto him was there no kingbefore him, thatturned to the LORDwith all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neitherafter him arosethere any like him.
Notwithstanding the LORDturned not from the fierceness of his greatwrath, wherewith his anger was kindledagainstJudah, because of all the provocationsthatManasseh had provoked him withal.
And the LORDsaid, I willremoveJudahalso out of my sight, as I haveremovedIsrael, and willcast off thiscityJerusalemwhich I havechosen, and the house of which I said, My nameshall be there.
In his daysPharaohnechohking of Egyptwent up against the king of Assyria to the riverEuphrates: and kingJosiahwentagainst him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
And his servantscarried him in a chariotdeadfromMegiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the landtookJehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’sstead.
Jehoahaz was twenty and threeyears old when he began to reign; and he reignedthreemonths in Jerusalem. And his mother’sname was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundredtalents of silver, and a talent of gold.
And PharaohnechohmadeEliakim the son of Josiahking in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and tookJehoahazaway: and he came to Egypt, and diedthere.
And Jehoiakimgave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the moneyaccording to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it untoPharaohnechoh.
Jehoiakim was twenty and fiveyears old when he began to reign; and he reignedelevenyears in Jerusalem. And his mother’sname was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.