2 Kings 23:1-9

New American Standard Bible

Josiah’s Covenant

23 ^(A)Then the king sent messengers, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ² And the king went up to the house of the Lord and every man of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, the prophets, and all the people, from the small to the great; and ^(B)he read in their ^[a]presence all the words of the Book of the Covenant ^(C)which was found in the house of the Lord. ³ And ^(D)the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, ^(E)to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments, His provisions, and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people ^[b]entered into the covenant.

Reforms under Josiah

⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, ^(F)the priests of the second order, and the ^[c]doorkeepers ^(G)to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the utensils that had been made for Baal, for ^[d]Asherah, and for all the heavenly ^[e]lights; and ^(H)he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ Then he did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, as well as those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the remaining ^(I)heavenly ^[f]lights. ⁶ He also brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ^(J)ground it to dust, and ^(K)threw its dust on the graves of the ^[g]common people. ⁷ And he tore down the cubicles of the ^(L)male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord, where ^(M)the women were weaving ^[h]hangings for the Asherah. ⁸ Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from ^(N)Geba to Beersheba; and he tore 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 city gate. ⁹ Nevertheless ^(O)the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.