¹⁵ Even the altar which was in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam son of Nebat had made, which caused Israel to sin—he pulled down even that altar and its high place. Then he burned the high place. He ground the Asherah pole to powder and burned it.

¹⁶ Then Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there on the hill. He sent men and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar. So he defiled it in fulfillment of the word of the Lord, which the man of God ⎣proclaimed, when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast.

Then he turned and raised his eyes to the tomb of the man of God⎦ who proclaimed these things,^{[a] 17} and he asked, “What is that gravestone which I see over there?”

The men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you are doing against the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸ Then he said, “Leave him alone. Let no one disturb his bones.” So they spared his bones along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. ¹⁹ Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places which the kings of Israel had made in the cities of Samaria, which provoked the Lord^[b] to anger. He did to them just as he did in Bethel. ²⁰ On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were present there, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he went back to Jerusalem.