2 Chronicles 34:1-8

English Standard Version

Josiah Reigns in Judah

34 ^(A)Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. ³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ^(B)Asherim, and the carved and the metal images. ⁴ And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the ^(C)incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the ^(D)Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and ^(E)scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ^5 (F)He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ And in the ^(G)cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins^[a] all around, ⁷ he broke down the altars and beat the ^(H)Asherim and the images ^(I)into powder and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The Book of the Law Found

^8 (J)Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the ^(K)governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, ^(L)the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.