The Covenant is Renewed^(A)

²⁹ The king sent word to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ Then the king went up to the Lord’s Temple, accompanied by the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and descendants of Levi, and everyone else from the most important to the least important, and he read out loud^[a] all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s Temple. ³¹ While standing in his appointed place, the king made a public covenant with the Lord to follow the Lord, to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes, and to do so with all of his heart and soul, and to carry out what was written in the covenant contained in the book. ³² He also made everyone who was present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand in agreement with him. As a result, the inhabitants of Jerusalem reconfirmed the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors. ³³ Josiah also removed all the detestable things from the territories that belonged to the people of Israel, and made everyone who lived in Israel to serve the Lord their God. For the rest of his life, they didn’t abandon their quest to follow the Lord God of their ancestors.