Now in the seventh year Jehoiada sent orders and brought the captains of hundreds of the Carites and of the guards, and brought them to himself at the house of the Lord. Then he made a covenant with them and put them under oath at the house of the Lord, and showed them the king’s son.

Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people, that they would be the Lord’s people, and between the king and the people.

But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and He was unwilling to eliminate them or cast them away from His presence until now.

They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings which He gave them. And they followed idols and became empty, and followed the nations that surrounded them, about which the Lord had commanded them not to do as they did.

The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them.

The covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods.

This happened because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but violated His covenant, all that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.

Josiah’s Covenant

Then the king sent messengers, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

And the king went up to the house of the Lord and every man of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, the prophets, and all the people, from the small to the great; and he read in their presence all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.

And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments, His provisions, and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

Passover Reinstituted

Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.”