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2 Kings 23
Lexham English Bible

Josiah’s Covenantal Reforms

23 So the king sent word, and all of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him. 2 Then the king went up to the temple of Yahweh, and all of the men of Judah and all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem were with him, including the priests, the prophets, and all of the people from smallest to greatest; and in their hearing[a] he read all of the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the temple of Yahweh. 3 Then the king stood by the pillar, and he made[b] a covenant before Yahweh, to go after Yahweh and to keep his commands and his warnings and his statutes, with all of his heart and with his all of his soul, to keep the words of this covenant written on this scroll. Then all of the people joined[c] in the covenant.

4 Then the king[d] commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the second priests, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all of the objects made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and then he carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 He removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem and who offered incense to, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 6 He brought out the Asherah image from the temple of Yahweh outside of Jerusalem to the Wadi of the Kidron and burnt it there;[e] then he pulverized it to dust and threw its dust upon the tombs of the children of the people. 7 He tore down the shrines of the male shrine prostitutes which were in the temple of Yahweh, where the women were weaving shrines for the Asherah. 8 Then he brought all of the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests from Geba up to Beersheba burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on the left of each gate of the city. 9 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread in the midst of their relatives. 10 He defiled the Topheth which is in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to prevent[f] anyone causing his sons or his daughters to pass through the fire for Molech. 11 He kept the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun from coming to the temple of Yawheh at the side room of Nathan-Melech the eunuch, which was in the court; and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire. 12 The altars which were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh, the king tore down and ran from there and threw their ashes into the Wadi Kidron. 13 The high places which were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mountain of Destruction which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the detestable thing of the Ammonites,[g] the king defiled. 14 He also broke into pieces the stone pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and covered their sites with human bones.

15 Moreover, the altar which was in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin, had built, even that altar and the high place, Josiah tore down. Then he burned down the high place and crushed the pole of Asherah worship to dust and burned it with fire. 16 When Josiah turned and saw the tombs which were there on the hill, he sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned them on the altar. Thus he defiled them according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God had proclaimed who had proclaimed these things. 17 Then he said, “What is this gravestone that I am seeing?” The men of the city said to him, “This is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” 18 So Josiah said, “Let him rest and let no man move his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria. 19 Moreover, all of the shrines of the high places which were in the towns of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh, Josiah removed, and he did to them like all of the deeds he had done in Bethel. 20 Then he slaughtered all of the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and he burned the bones of the humans on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Passover Renewed

21 Then the king commanded all of the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as has been written on the scroll of this covenant.” 22 For they had not kept this Passover from the days of the judges who had judged over Israel or[h] during the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept for Yahweh in Jerusalem.

24 Moreover, the mediums and the spiritists, the household gods and the idols, and all of the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah removed in order to establish the words of the law written on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the temple of Yahweh. 25 There was not a king like him before him, who turned to Yahweh with all of his heart and with all of his soul and with all of his might according to the law[i] of Moses, nor did one arise like him afterwards.

26 However, Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of his great anger which was kindled against Judah because of all of the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. 27 Yahweh had said, “Even Judah I will remove from my face, as I have removed Israel; I will reject this city that I have chosen, even Jerusalem and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there’!”

28 The remainder of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to meet him, and he[j] killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him. 30 So his servants drove him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, and they brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

Jehoahaz Reigns in Judah

31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 32 He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh according to all his ancestors[k] had done. 33 Then Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, from reigning in Jerusalem, and imposed a levy on the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

Jehoiakim Replaces Jehoahaz

34 Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father, and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then he took Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. 35 The silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh; however, he taxed the land to give the silver to meet the demands of Pharaoh.[l] Each according to assessment, he exacted payment of the silver and the gold from the people of the land to give to Pharaoh Neco.

36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Zebudah,[m] the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah. 37 He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that his ancestors[n] had done.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 23:2 Literally “ears”
  2. 2 Kings 23:3 Literally “cut”
  3. 2 Kings 23:3 Literally “stood”
  4. 2 Kings 23:4 That is, Josiah
  5. 2 Kings 23:6 Literally “at the wadi of the Kidron”
  6. 2 Kings 23:10 Literally “so that not”
  7. 2 Kings 23:13 Literally “sons/children of Ammon”
  8. 2 Kings 23:22 Or “and”
  9. 2 Kings 23:25 Or “Torah”
  10. 2 Kings 23:29 That is, Neco
  11. 2 Kings 23:32 Or “fathers”
  12. 2 Kings 23:35 Literally “on the hunger of Pharaoh”
  13. 2 Kings 23:36 According to the reading tradition (Qere); Kethib reads “Zebidah”
  14. 2 Kings 23:37 Or “fathers”
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Melachim Bais 23
Orthodox Jewish Bible

23 And HaMelech sent, and they gathered unto him kol Ziknei Yehudah and of Yerushalayim.

2 And HaMelech went up into the Beis Hashem, and kol ish Yehudah and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim with him, and the Kohanim, and the Nevi’im, and kol HaAm, both katon and gadol; and he read in their ears all the Divrei Sefer HaBrit which was found in the Beis Hashem.

3 And HaMelech stood by HaAmmud, and cut HaBrit before Hashem, to walk after Hashem, and to be shomer mitzvot over His commandments and His edot and His chukkot with all their lev and all their nefesh, to carry out these Divrei HaBrit that were written in this Sefer. And kol HaAm stood [under oath] to HaBrit.

4 And HaMelech commanded Chilkiyahu HaKohen HaGadol, and the Kohanei HaMishneh, and the Shomrei HaSaf, to bring forth out of the Heikhal Hashem all the kelim that were made for Ba’al, and for Asherah, and for all the Tzeva HaShomayim; and he burned them outside Yerushalayim in the fields of the Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beit-El.

5 And he did away with hakemarim (the idol priests), whom the Melachim of Yehudah had ordained to burn ketoret in the high places in the towns of Yehudah, and in the places around Yerushalayim; them also that burned ketoret unto Ba’al, to the shemesh, and to the yarei’ach, and to the mazalot (constellations) and to all the Tzeva HaShomayim.

6 And he took out the Asherah from the Beis Hashem, outside Yerushalayim, unto the Kidron Valley, and burned it in the Kidron Valley, and ground it to powder, and cast its aphar upon the keverim of the Bnei HaAm [i.e., them that sacrificed unto them].

7 And he tore down the batim (houses) of hakedeshim (the male and female cult prostitutes) that were in the Beis Hashem, where the nashim were weaving hangings for Asherah.

8 And he brought all the Kohanim out of the towns of Yehudah, and made tameh the high places where the kohanim had burned ketoret, from Geva to Beer Sheva, and broke down the high places at the she’arim (gates) that were at the entrance of the Sha’ar Yehoshua sar Ir, which were on one’s left at the Sha’ar HaIr.

9 Nevertheless the kohanim of the high places came not up to the Mizbe’ach Hashem in Yerushalayim, only they did eat of the matzot among their achim.

10 And he made tameh Tophet, which is in the Gey of the ben Hinnom, that no ish might make his ben or his bat to pass through the eish to Molech.

11 And he took away the susim that the Melachim of Yehudah had dedicated to the shemesh, at the entrance of the Beis Hashem, by the chamber of Natan-Melech the saris, which was in the colonnades, and set eish to merkevot hashemesh.

12 And the mizbechot that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Achaz, which the Melachim of Yehudah had made, and the mizbechot which Menasheh had made in the two khatzerot of the Beis Hashem, did HaMelech pull down, and remove them from there, and cast the aphar of them into the Kidron Valley.

13 And the high places that were before Yerushalayim, which were on the right of the Har HaMashchit, which Sh’lomo Melech Yisroel had built for Ashtoret shikkutz Tzidonim, and for Kemosh shikkutz Mo’av, and for Milcom to’avat Bnei Ammon, did HaMelech make tameh.

14 And he broke in pieces the matzevot, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their makom with the atzmot adam.

15 Moreover the mizbe’ach that was at Beit-El, and the high place which Yarov‘am ben Nevat, who caused Yisroel to sin, had made, both that mizbe’ach and the high place did he break down, burn the high place, did grind it to powder, did burn the Asherah.

16 And as Yoshiyah turned, he saw the keverim that were there in the har, and sent, and took the atzmot out of the keverim, and burned them upon the mizbe’ach, and made it tameh, according to the Devar Hashem which the Ish HaElohim preached, who proclaimed these words [See 1Kgs 13:1-2].

17 Then he said, What tziyyun (monument, tombtone) is that that I see? And the anshei HaIr told him, It is the kever of the Ish HaElohim, which came from Yehudah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the mizbe’ach of Beit-El [see 1Kgs 13:1-3].

18 And he said, Let him alone; let no ish disturb his atzmot. So they left his atzmot undisturbed, with the atzmot of the navi that came out of Shomron [see 1Kgs 13:11,31].

19 And all the batim (houses, shrines) also of the high places that were in the towns of Shomron, which the Melachim of Yisroel had made to provoke Hashem to anger, Yoshiyah removed, and did to them according to all the ma’asim that he had done in Beit-El.

20 And he slaughtered all the kohanim of the high places that were there upon the mizbechot, and burned atzmot adam upon them, and returned to Yerushalayim.

21 And HaMelech commanded kol HaAm, saying, Make Pesach unto Hashem Eloheichem, as it is written in the Sefer HaBrit HaZeh.

22 Surely there was not kept such a Pesach from the days of the Shofetim that judged Yisroel, nor in all the days of the Melachim of Yisroel, nor of the Melachim of Yehudah;

23 But in the eighteenth year of Melech Yoshiyah, wherein this Pesach was kept to Hashem in Yerushalayim.

24 Moreover the mediums with familiar spirits, and the yidonim (spiritists), and the terafim, and the gillulim (idols), and all the shikkutzim that were seen in Eretz Yehudah and in Yerushalayim, did Yoshiyah put away, that he might confirm the Divrei HaTorah which were written in the Sefer that Chilkiyah HaKohen found in the Beis Hashem.

25 And like him was there no Melech before him, that turned to Hashem with all his lev, and with all his nefesh, and with all his me’od (strength), according to all the Torat Moshe; neither after him arose there any like him.

26 Notwithstanding Hashem turned not from the fierceness of His af hagadol (great wrath), wherewith His anger was kindled against Yehudah, because of all the provocations with which Menasheh had provoked him.

27 And Hashem said, I will remove Yehudah also out of My presence, as I have removed Yisroel, and will cast off this ir Yerushalayim which I have chosen, and the Beis of which I said, Shmi sham.

28 Now the rest of the acts of Yoshiyah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Sefer Divrei HaYamim of the Melachim of Yehudah?

29 In his days Pharaoh Nekhoh Melech Mitzrayim went up against Melech Ashur to the river Euphrates; and Melech Yoshiyah went out against him; and he slaughtered him at Megiddo, when he saw him.

30 And his avadim carried him in a merkavah dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Yerushalayim, and buried him in his own kever. And the Am HaAretz took Yehoachaz Ben Yoshiyah, and anointed him, and made him Melech in place of Aviv.

31 Yehoachaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned shloshah chodashim in Yerushalayim. And shem immo was Chamutal Bat Yirmeyahu of Livnah.

32 And he did that which was rah in the eyes of Hashem, according to all that his Avot had done.

33 And Pharaoh Nekhoh put him in chains at Rivlah in Eretz Chamat, that he might not reign in Yerushalayim; and put HaAretz to an ogesh (tribute, fine) of 100 talents of kesef, and a talent of zahav.

34 And Pharaoh Nekhoh made Elyakim Ben Yoshiyah Melech in the place of Yoshiyah Aviv, and changed shmo to Y’hoyakim, and took Yehoachaz away; and he went to Mitzrayim, and died there.

35 And Y’hoyakim gave the kesef and the zahav to Pharaoh; but he taxed HaAretz to give the kesef according to the order of Pharaoh; he exacted the kesef and the zahav of the Am HaAretz of every one according to his tax assessment, to give it unto Pharaoh Nekhoh.

36 Y’hoyakim was 25 years old when he began to reign; and he reigned 11 shanah in Yerushalayim. And shem immo was Zevudah Bat Pedayah of Rumah.

37 And he did that which was rah in the eyes of Hashem, according to all that his Avot had done.

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2 Kings 23
New International Version

Josiah Renews the Covenant(A)(B)(C)(D)

23 Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read(E) in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant,(F) which had been found in the temple of the Lord. 3 The king stood by the pillar(G) and renewed the covenant(H) in the presence of the Lord—to follow(I) the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.

4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers(J) to remove(K) from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. 5 He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem—those who burned incense(L) to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts.(M) 6 He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley(N) outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder(O) and scattered the dust over the graves(P) of the common people.(Q) 7 He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes(R) that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.

8 Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba(S) to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the gateway at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which was on the left of the city gate. 9 Although the priests of the high places did not serve(T) at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

10 He desecrated Topheth,(U) which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom,(V) so no one could use it to sacrifice their son(W) or daughter in the fire to Molek. 11 He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah(X) had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court[a] near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.(Y)

12 He pulled down(Z) the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof(AA) near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts(AB) of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley.(AC) 13 The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon(AD) king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable(AE) god of the people of Ammon.(AF) 14 Josiah smashed(AG) the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.(AH)

15 Even the altar(AI) at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam(AJ) son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. 16 Then Josiah(AK) looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance(AL) with the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

17 The king asked, “What is that tombstone I see?”

The people of the city said, “It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it.”

18 “Leave it alone,” he said. “Don’t let anyone disturb his bones(AM).” So they spared his bones and those of the prophet(AN) who had come from Samaria.

19 Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the Lord’s anger. 20 Josiah slaughtered(AO) all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones(AP) on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

21 The king gave this order to all the people: “Celebrate the Passover(AQ) to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”(AR) 22 Neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.(AS)

24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists,(AT) the household gods,(AU) the idols and all the other detestable(AV) things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord. 25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned(AW) to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.(AX)

26 Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger,(AY) which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh(AZ) had done to arouse his anger. 27 So the Lord said, “I will remove(BA) Judah also from my presence(BB) as I removed Israel, and I will reject(BC) Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’[b]”

28 As for the other events of Josiah’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

29 While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho(BD) king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo.(BE) 30 Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot(BF) from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

Jehoahaz King of Judah(BG)

31 Jehoahaz(BH) was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal(BI) daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 32 He did evil(BJ) in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done. 33 Pharaoh Necho put him in chains at Riblah(BK) in the land of Hamath(BL) so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents[c] of silver and a talent[d] of gold. 34 Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim(BM) son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died.(BN) 35 Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Necho the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to their assessments.(BO)

Jehoiakim King of Judah(BP)

36 Jehoiakim(BQ) was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah. 37 And he did evil(BR) in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.

Footnotes

  1. 2 Kings 23:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  2. 2 Kings 23:27 1 Kings 8:29
  3. 2 Kings 23:33 That is, about 3 3/4 tons or about 3.4 metric tons
  4. 2 Kings 23:33 That is, about 75 pounds or about 34 kilograms
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2 Kings 23
King James Version

23 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2 And the king went up into the house of the Lord, 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 the Lord.

3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform 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 door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.

5 And he put down the 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 planets, and to all the host of heaven.

6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.

7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove.

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 Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in 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 the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the 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 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 with fire.

12 And the altars that were on the top 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 the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake 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 corruption, which Solomon 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 king defile.

14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.

16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.

18 And he said, Let him alone; 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 the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.

20 And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.

22 Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, 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, wherein this passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem.

24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.

25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that 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; neither after him arose there any like him.

26 Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.

27 And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, 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 Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he 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 the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

33 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 hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

34 And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and 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 Pharaohnechoh.

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 Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

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