Josiah Reigns in Judah^(A)

34 Josiah ^(B)was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ² And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; 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 still ^(C)young, he began to ^(D)seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began ^(E)to purge Judah and Jerusalem ^(F)of the ^[a]high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. ^4 (G)They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them ^(H)and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵ He also ^(I)burned the bones of the priests on their ^(J)altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with ^[b]axes. ⁷ When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had ^(K)beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

Hilkiah Finds the Book of the Law^(L)

^8 (M)In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the ^[c]temple, he sent ^(N)Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the ^(O)governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. ⁹ When they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered ^(P)the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the ^(Q)remnant of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin, and which they had brought back to Jerusalem.