22 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. ² And he did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

³ And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Jehovah, saying, ⁴ Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house of Jehovah, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people: ⁵ and let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen that have the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and let them give it to the workmen that are in the house of Jehovah, to repair the breaches of the house, ⁶ unto the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house. ⁷ Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully.

⁸ And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have ^[a]emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen that have the oversight of the house of Jehovah. ¹⁰ And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. ¹¹ And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. ¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, ¹³ Go ye, inquire of Jehovah for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is ^[b]written concerning us.

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the ^[c]second quarter); and they communed with her. ¹⁵ And she said unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Tell ye the man that sent you unto me, ¹⁶ Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read. ¹⁷ Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched. ¹⁸ But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard, ¹⁹ because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before Jehovah, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become ^[d]a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith Jehovah. ²⁰ Therefore, behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.

23 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. ² And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Jehovah. ³ And the king stood ^[e]by the pillar, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to ^[f]confirm the words of this covenant that were 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 keepers of the threshold, to bring forth out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el. ⁵ And he put down the ^[g]idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the ^[h]planets, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ And he brought out the Asherah from the house of Jehovah, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast the dust thereof upon the graves of the ^[i]common people. ⁷ And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of Jehovah, where the women wove ^[j]hangings for the Asherah. 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 Beer-sheba; and he brake 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 a man’s left hand at the gate of the city. ⁹ Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened bread among their brethren. ¹⁰ And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the ^[k]children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. ¹¹ And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of Jehovah, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² And the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Jehovah, did the king break down, and ^[l]beat them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. ¹³ And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of ^[m]corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. ¹⁴ And he brake in pieces the ^[n]pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵ Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he brake down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount; and he sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Jehovah which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. ¹⁷ Then he said, What monument is that which I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el. ¹⁸ And he said, Let him be; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. ¹⁹ And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Jehovah to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el. ²⁰ And he ^[o]slew all the priests of the high places that were there, upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto Jehovah your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant. ²² Surely there was not kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, ^[p]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 was this passover kept to Jehovah in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover them that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might ^[q]confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Jehovah. ²⁵ And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to Jehovah with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

²⁶ Notwithstanding, Jehovah turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations wherewith Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷ And Jehovah said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.

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 In his days Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and Pharaoh-necoh slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. ³⁰ And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.

³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty and 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 Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done. ³³ And Pharaoh-necoh put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, ^[r]that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a ^[s]tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. ³⁴ And Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim: but he 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 money according 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 unto Pharaoh-necoh.

³⁶ Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done.

34 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. ² And he did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. ³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images. ⁴ And they brake down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and the sun-images that were on high above them he hewed down; and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. ⁵ And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, ^[a]in their ruins round about. ⁷ And he brake down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the graven images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

⁸ Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the ^[b]recorder, to repair the house of Jehovah his God. ⁹ And they came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, ^[c]and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ And they delivered it into the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and ^[d]the workmen that wrought in the house of Jehovah gave it to mend and repair the house: ¹¹ even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. ¹² And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, ^[e]to set it forward; and others of the Levites, all that were skilful with instruments of music. ¹³ Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all that did the work in every manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.

¹⁴ And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of Jehovah ^[f]given by Moses. ¹⁵ And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. ¹⁶ And Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they are doing. ¹⁷ And they have ^[g]emptied out the money that was found in the house of Jehovah, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen. ¹⁸ And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read therein before the king. ¹⁹ And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. ²⁰ And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and ^[h]Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, ²¹ Go ye, inquire of Jehovah for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of Jehovah, to do according unto all that is written in this book.

²² So Hilkiah, and they whom the king had commanded, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^[i]Tokhath, the son of ^[j]Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the ^[k]second quarter); and they spake to her to that effect. ²³ And she said unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Tell ye the man that sent you unto me, ²⁴ Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah. ²⁵ Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place, and it shall not be quenched. ²⁶ But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard, ²⁷ because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before me, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith Jehovah. ²⁸ Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof. And they brought back word to the king.

²⁹ Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of Jehovah. ³¹ And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³² And he caused all that were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. ³³ And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Jehovah their God. All his days they departed not from following Jehovah, the God of their fathers.

35 And Josiah kept a passover unto Jehovah in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. ² And he set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Jehovah. ³ And he said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, that were holy unto Jehovah, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; there shall no more be a burden upon your shoulders. Now serve Jehovah your God, and his people Israel; ⁴ and prepare yourselves after your fathers’ houses by your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. ⁵ And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brethren the children of the people, ^[l]and let there be for each a portion of a father’s house of the Levites. ⁶ And kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brethren, to do according to the word of Jehovah by Moses.

⁷ And Josiah ^[m]gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all of them for the passover-offerings, unto all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king’s substance. ⁸ And his princes gave ^[n]for a freewill-offering unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover-offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen. ⁹ Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for the passover-offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.

¹⁰ So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their courses, according to the king’s commandment. ¹¹ And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received of their hand, and the Levites flayed them. ¹² And they removed the burnt-offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of the children of the people, to offer unto Jehovah, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen. ¹³ And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people. ¹⁴ And afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering the burnt-offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron. ¹⁵ And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the porters were at every gate: they needed not to depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.

¹⁶ So all the service of Jehovah was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt-offerings upon the altar of Jehovah, according to the commandment of king Josiah. ¹⁷ And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. ¹⁸ And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.

²⁰ After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. ²¹ But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; and God ^[o]hath commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. ²² Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. ²³ And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. ²⁴ So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. ²⁵ And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations unto this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations. ²⁶ Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Jehovah, ²⁷ and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.