⁶ And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with ^[a]axes.

The Reforms of Hezekiah^(A)

31 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and ^(B)broke the sacred pillars in pieces, cut down the wooden images, and threw down the ^[a]high places and the altars—from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh—until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned to their own cities, every man to his possession.

¹⁰ So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun; but ^(A)they laughed at them and mocked them. ¹¹ Nevertheless ^(B)some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

Hezekiah Keeps the Passover

30 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel.

¹⁵ Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the ^[a]high place ^(A)which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image. ¹⁶ As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the ^(B)word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. ¹⁷ Then he said, “What gravestone is this that I see?”

So the men of the city told him, “It is ^(C)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 And he said, “Let him alone; let no one move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of ^(D)the prophet who came from Samaria.

¹⁹ Now Josiah also took away all the ^[b]shrines of the ^[c]high places that were ^(E)in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke ^[d]the Lord to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. ^20 (F)He ^(G)executed all the priests of the ^[e]high places who were there, on the altars, and ^(H)burned men’s bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

²⁰ But all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen each man’s plowshare, his mattock, his ax, and his sickle; ²¹ and the charge for a sharpening was a ^[a]pim for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to set the points of the goads.