The Daily Audio Bible

Josiah Repairs the Temple

³ In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, ⁴ “Go up to ^(A)Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money ^(B)that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which ^(C)the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. ^5 (D)And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house ⁶ (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. ⁷ But ^(E)no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.”

Hilkiah Finds the Book of the Law

⁸ And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found ^(F)the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, ^(G)he tore his clothes. ¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and ^(H)Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and ^(I)Achbor the son of ^(J)Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is ^(K)the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^(L)Tikvah, son of ^(M)Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in ^(N)the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. ¹⁵ And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. ^17 (O)Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore ^(P)my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. ¹⁸ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, ^19 (Q)because your heart was penitent, and you ^(R)humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become ^(S)a desolation and ^(T)a curse, and you ^(U)have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and ^(V)you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

Josiah's Reforms

23 ^(W)Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. ² And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And ^(X)he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant ^(Y)that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³ And the king stood ^(Z)by the pillar and ^(AA)made a covenant before the Lord, ^(AB)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 that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

⁴ And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests ^(AC)of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for ^(AD)Baal, for ^(AE)Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. ^(AF)He 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 ^(AG)and all the host of the heavens. ⁶ And he brought out ^(AH)the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, ^(AI)and burned it at the brook Kidron ^(AJ)and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves ^(AK)of the common people. ⁷ And he broke down the houses of ^(AL)the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, ^(AM)where the women wove hangings for ^(AN)the 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 ^(AO)Geba 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 (AP)However, 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 ^(AQ)Topheth, which is ^(AR)in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(AS)that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to ^(AT)Molech.^{[a] 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.^[b] And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² And the altars ^(AU)on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars ^(AV)that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces^[c] and cast the dust of them ^(AW)into the brook Kidron. ¹³ And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of ^(AX)the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for ^(AY)Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for ^(AZ)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for ^(BA)Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ And he broke in pieces the ^(BB)pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected ^(BC)by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^(BD)who made Israel to sin, ^(BE)that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned,^[d] 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, ^(BF)according 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, ^(BG)“It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted^[e] 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 ^(BH)of the prophet who came out of Samaria. ¹⁹ And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were ^(BI)in 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 ^(BJ)he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, ^(BK)and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah Restores the Passover

²¹ And the king commanded all the people, ^(BL)“Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, ^(BM)as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ^22 (BN)For 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 ^(BO)the mediums and the necromancers and ^(BP)the household gods and ^(BQ)the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish ^(BR)the words of the law that were written in the book ^(BS)that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. ^25 (BT)Before 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, ^(BU)because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷ And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, ^(BV)as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, ^(BW)and 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? ^29 (BX)In his days ^(BY)Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at ^(BZ)Megiddo, as soon as he saw him. ^30 (CA)And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from ^(CB)Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. ^(CC)And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place.

Paul Speaks to the People

³⁷ As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? ³⁸ Are you not ^(A)the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out ^(B)into the wilderness?” ³⁹ Paul replied, ^(C)“I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.” ⁴⁰ And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, ^(D)motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in ^(E)the Hebrew language,^[a] saying:

22 ^(F)“Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.”

² And when they heard that he was addressing them in ^(G)the Hebrew language,^[b] they became even more quiet. And he said:

^3 (H)“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated ^(I)at the feet of ^(J)Gamaliel^{[c] (K)}according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, ^(L)being zealous for God ^(M)as all of you are this day. ^4 (N)I persecuted ^(O)this Way ^(P)to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, ⁵ as ^(Q)the high priest and ^(R)the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to ^(S)the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

^6 (T)“As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. ⁷ And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ ⁸ And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am ^(U)Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ ^9 (V)Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand^[d] the voice of the one who was speaking to me. ¹⁰ And I said, ^(W)‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ ¹¹ And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

¹² “And ^(X)one Ananias, a devout man ^(Y)according to the law, ^(Z)well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, ^13 (AA)came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And ^(AB)at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. ¹⁴ And he said, ^(AC)‘The God of our fathers ^(AD)appointed you to know his will, ^(AE)to see ^(AF)the Righteous One and ^(AG)to hear a voice from his mouth; ¹⁵ for ^(AH)you will be a witness for him to everyone of what ^(AI)you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ And now why do you wait? ^(AJ)Rise and be baptized and ^(AK)wash away your sins, ^(AL)calling on his name.’

Book One

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked