The Greatest Mitzvot

³⁴ But the Pharisees, when they heard that Yeshua had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together in one place. ³⁵ And testing Him, one of them, a lawyer, asked, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?”

³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ^{[a] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ^{[b] 40} The entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love Ends the Argument

²⁸ One of the Torah scholars came and heard them debating. Seeing that Yeshua had answered them well, he asked Him, “Which commandment is first of all?”

²⁹ Yeshua answered, “The first is, ‘Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. ³⁰ And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ^{[a] 31} The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b] There is no other commandment greater than these.”

³² “Well said, Teacher,” the Torah scholar said to Him. “You have spoken the truth, that He is echad, and besides Him there is no other! ^{[c] 33} And ‘to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’^[d] and ‘to love the neighbor as oneself,’^[e] is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ When Yeshua saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared any longer to question Him.

¹² “So now, O Israel, what does Adonai your God require of you, but to fear Adonai your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

⁶ Also Adonai your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants—to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.

⁵ Only be very careful to observe the mitzvah and the Torah which Moses the servant of Adonai commanded you, to love Adonai your God and walk in all His ways, and to keep His mitzvot, cling to Him and worship Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Josiah and a Discovered Torah Scroll

22 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. ² Now he did what was right in the eyes of Adonai and walked in all the ways of his father David, and turned not aside to the right or to the left.

³ It came to pass in the eighteenth year of King Josiah that the king sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam the scribe, to the House of Adonai, saying. ⁴ “Go up to Hilkiah the kohen gadol and let him weigh the silver that has been brought to the House of Adonai, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. ⁵ Then let them give it into the hand of the workmen appointed to oversee the work on the House of Adonai and let them in turn give it to the workmen that are in the House of Adonai to repair the damages to the House: ⁶ to the carpenters, builders and masons, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the House.” ⁷ However, there was no accounting made with them for the silver given into their hand, for they dealt faithfully.

⁸ Hilkiah the kohen gadol said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found a scroll of the Torah in the House of Adonai.” So Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan who read it.

⁹ Then Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, “Your servants have emptied out the silver that was found in the House and have given it into the hand of the workmen appointed to oversee the work on the House of Adonai.” ¹⁰ Shaphan the scribe also told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the kohen has given me a scroll.” Then Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ After the king heard the words of the Torah scroll, he tore his clothes. ¹² Then the king commanded Hilkiah the kohen, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah the king’s servant saying: ¹³ “Go, inquire of Adonai for me, for the people and for all Judah, about the words of this scroll that was found. For great is the wrath of Adonai that is kindled against us, since our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do everything written here that concerns us.”

Consulting Huldah the Prophetess

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the kohen, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe—she was living in the Second Quarter of Jerusalem—and spoke with her. ¹⁵ She said to them, “Thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: Tell the man that sent you to me: ¹⁶ ‘Thus says Adonai, behold, I am bringing disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, as in all the words of the scroll that the king of Judah read. ¹⁷ For they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, in order to provoke Me with all the work of their hands. Therefore My wrath has been kindled against this place and it will not be quenched.’

¹⁸ “But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Adonai, thus will you say to him: ‘Thus says Adonai, God of Israel. As for the words that you have heard, ¹⁹ because your heart was softened and you humbled yourself before Adonai when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants—that they should become a desolation and a curse—and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,’ declares Adonai. ²⁰ ‘Therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers and you will be gathered to your grave in shalom. So your eyes will not see all the disaster I am bringing on this place.’” Then they brought back word to the king.

Josiah Renews the Covenant

23 Then the king sent for and they gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. ² The king went up to the House of Adonai and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him—the kohanim and the prophets, all the people, young and old—and he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the House of Adonai. ³ Then the king stood by the pillar and cut a covenant before Adonai, to follow Adonai, keep His mitzvot, His laws and His decrees with all their heart and soul, in order to fulfill the words of this covenant that were written in this scroll. So all the people stood for the covenant.

⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the kohen gadol, the kohanim of the second order and the doorkeepers to bring out of the Temple of Adonai all the vessels made for Baal and Asherah, and all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and took their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He stopped the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained from burning incense on the high places in the towns of Judah and around Jerusalem, as well those burning incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ Then he brought out the Asherah pole from the House of Adonai to Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, burned it in the Kidron Valley, ground it to dust and threw its dust over the graves of the common people. ⁷ Then he tore down the quarters of the male cult prostitutes that had been in the House of Adonai, where the women had been weaving coverings for the Asherah.

⁸ Then he brought all the priests from the towns of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He also broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city governor, which were on one’s left as one entered the city gate. ⁹ Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of Adonai in Jerusalem, but they did eat matzot with their kinsmen.

¹⁰ Next he defiled Topheth, which is in the Ben-hinnom Valley, so that no one might make his son or daughter pass through the fire for Molech. ¹¹ Then he did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of the House of Adonai, in the colonnades by the chamber of the officer Nethan-melech, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

¹² The king also tore down the altars made by the kings of Judah on the roof—the upper chamber of Ahaz and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the House of Adonai. He smashed them suddenly there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The king also desecrated the shrines facing Jerusalem—to the south of the Mount of Destruction—which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ He smashed the pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and filled their places with human bones.

Prophecy Fulfilled at Bethel

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the shrine built by Jeroboam son of Nebat—who caused Israel to sin—that altar and the shrine he demolished, too. He burned the shrine and ground it to dust, and burned up the Asherah. ¹⁶ Then, as Josiah looked around, he saw the burial caves there on the mountain, so he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, thus desecrating it—as was the word of Adonai which the man of God had proclaimed, who foretold it.

¹⁷ Then he asked, “What is this monument I see?”

So the men of the town told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God, who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have just done to the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸ “Let him rest,” he said. “Let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

¹⁹ Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria to provoke. He did to them just as he had done in Bethel. ²⁰ All the priests of the high places there he slaughtered on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ Then the king commanded all the people saying, “Celebrate the Passover to Adonai your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²² For no Passover like this had been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel or in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed for Adonai in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, Josiah got rid of the necromancers and the mediums, the teraphim and the idols, and all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem—in order to confirm the words of the Torah that were written in the scroll that Hilkiah the kohen found in the House of Adonai.

²⁵ Before him there had never been a king like him, who turned to Adonai with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Torah of Moses, nor has any king like him risen since him.

Josiah’s Death

²⁶ Nevertheless, Adonai did not turn from the fury of His great wrath which burned against Judah, because of all that Manasseh had provoked Him. ²⁷ Adonai said, “I will banish Judah also from My presence as I banished Israel, and I have spurned this city, Jerusalem, which I chose, and the House about which I had said: ‘My Name will 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 Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the Euphrates River. King Josiah marched against him, but Neco killed him at Megiddo when he saw him. ³⁰ So his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.

Judah’s Decline

Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him and made him king in his father’s place. ³¹ Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, as in all that his ancestors had done. ³³ Then Pharaoh Necoh imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so he would not reign in Jerusalem. He also imposed on the land a fine of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold.

³⁴ Then Pharaoh Necoh installed Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. ³⁵ Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money in keeping with Pharaoh’s command. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, each according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necoh. ³⁶ Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, just as in all that his ancestors had done.