Chronological
22 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. Also, his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.
2 And he did uprightly in the sight of the LORD and walked in all the ways of David, his father, and bowed neither to the right hand nor to the left.
3 And in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the chancellor, to the House of the LORD, saying,
4 “Go up to Hilkiah, the High Priest, so that he may count all the silver which has been brought into the House of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered from the people.
5 “And let them deliver it into the hands of those who do the work and have the oversight of the House of the LORD. Let them give it to those who work in the House of the LORD, to repair the decayed places of the House:
6 “to the builders and carpenters and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone, to repair the House.
7 However, let no accounting be made with them of the money that is delivered into their hand; for they deal faithfully.”
8 And Hilkiah the High Priest said to Shaphan the chancellor, “I have found the Book of the Law in the House of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the Book to Shaphan. And he read it.
9 So Shaphan the chancellor came to the king, and brought him word back, and said, “Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the House and have delivered it into the hands of those who do the work and have the oversight of the House of the LORD.”
10 Also, Shaphan the chancellor told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the Priest has delivered a Book to me.” And Shaphan read it before the king.
11 And when the king had heard the Words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.
12 Therefore, the king commanded Hilkiah the Priest, and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the chancellor, and Asahiah, the king’s servant, saying,
13 “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the Words of this Book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us because our fathers have not obeyed the Words of this Book, to do according to all that which is written in it for us.”
14 So Hilkiah the Priest and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asahiah went to Huldah the Prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem, in the college). And they communed with her.
15 And she answered them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me,
16 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring misery upon this place, and on its inhabitants—all the Words of the Book which the king of Judah has read—
17 ‘because they have forsaken Me and have burnt incense to other gods, to anger Me with all the works of their hands. Also, My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.’”’
18 “But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, so shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Concerning the Words that you have heard:
19 “because your heart melted, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against the inhabitants of the same—that it would be destroyed and accursed—and have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have also heard that,” says the LORD,
20 “Behold, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers. And you shall be put in your grave in peace. And your eyes shall not see all the misery which I will bring upon this place.”’” Thus, they brought word back to the king.
23 Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem to him.
2 And the king went up into the House of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and Prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their ears all the Words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the House of the LORD.
3 And the king stood by the pillar and made a Covenant before the LORD, that they would walk after the LORD, and keep His Commandments, and His Testimonies, and His Statutes, with all their heart and with all their soul, so that they might carry out the Words of this Covenant written in this Book. And all the people established the Covenant.
4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the High Priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the Door, to bring all the vessels that were made for Baal (and for the grove and for all the host of heaven) out of the Temple of the LORD. And he burnt them outside Jerusalem, in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes into Bethel.
5 And he took down the Chemarim, whom the kings of Judah had made to burn incense in the high places, in the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, and also those that burnt incense to Baal (to the Sun and to the Moon and to the planets and to all the host of heaven).
6 And he brought out the grove from the Temple of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the valley of Kidron, and burnt it in the valley Kidron and stamped it to powder and cast its dust upon the graves of the children of the people.
7 And he broke down the houses of the Sodomites who were in the House of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
8 Also, he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burnt incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and destroyed the high places of the gates that were in the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which was on the left side of the gate of the city.
9 Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not come up to the Altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, except only when they ate of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
10 He also defiled Topheth, which was in the valley of the children of Hinnom, so that no man would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.
11 He also took down the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the Sun at the entrance of the House of the LORD, by the chamber of Nethan-Melech the eunuch (who was ruler of the suburbs) and burnt the chariots of the Sun with fire,
12 and the altars that were on the top of the chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made. And the king broke down the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the House of the LORD and quickly went from there and cast the dust of them in the brook Kidron.
13 Moreover, the king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, and on the right hand of the Mount of Corruption (which Solomon, the king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth, the idol of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh, the idol of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the abomination of the children of Ammon).
14 And he broke the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
15 Furthermore, the altar that was at Bethel (the high place made by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin), both this altar and also the high place, he broke down and burnt (the high place). He stamped them to powder and burnt the grove.
16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were on the mountain, and sent and took the bones out of the graves and burnt them upon the altar and polluted it, according to the Word of the LORD that the man of God had proclaimed, who cried the same words.
17 Then he said, “What monument is that which I see?” And the men of the city said to him, “It is the sepulcher of the man of God, who came from Judah and told these things that you have done to the altar of Bethel.”
18 Then he said, “Let him alone. Let no one remove his bones.” So his bones were saved with the bones of the Prophet who came from Samaria.
19 Josiah also took away all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to anger the LORD. And he did to them just as he had done in Bethel.
20 And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there upon the altars, and burnt men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
21 Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in the Book of this Covenant.”
22 And there was no Passover like that held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah.
23 And in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem.
24 Josiah also took away the mediums and the soothsayers and the images and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, to perform the Words of the Law which were written in the Book that Hilkiah the Priest found in the House of the LORD.
25 There was no king like him before, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses. Nor did there ever arise any like him after.
26 Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which He was angry against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
27 Therefore the LORD said, “I will also put Judah out of My sight, as I have put away Israel, and will cast off this city, Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the House of which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’”
28 Concerning 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 Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria, to the river Perath. And King Josiah went against him. And when Pharaoh saw him, he killed him at Megiddo.
30 Then his servants carried his body from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and anointed him and made him king in his father’s place.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. Also, his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
33 And Pharaoh Necho put him in bonds at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, while he reigned in Jerusalem, and put the land under a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34 And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king instead of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away, who when he came to Egypt, died there.
35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh and taxed the land to give the money, according to the commandment of Pharaoh. He levied silver and gold to give to Pharaoh Necho, from every man of the people of the land, according to his value.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign. And he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. Also, his mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
34 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years.
2 And he did uprightly in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and bowed neither to the right nor to the left.
3 And in the eighth year of his reign (when he was still a child) he began to seek after the God of David, his father. And in the twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved images and molten images.
4 And they broke down the altars of Baal in his sight. And he had the images that were high upon them cut down. He also broke the groves and the carved images and the molten images and stamped them to powder and scattered it upon the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
5 Also, he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem
6 and the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, up to Naphtali, with their axes, all around.
7 And when he had destroyed the altars and the groves and had broken and stamped the images into powder and had cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
8 Then in the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purged the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz the Recorder, to repair the House of the LORD his God.
9 And when they came to Hilkiah, the High Priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the House of God, which the Levites who kept the door had gathered at the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and of all the rest of Israel and of all Judah and Benjamin and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10 And they put it in the hands of those who would do the work and had the oversight in the House of the LORD. And they gave it to the workmen who labored in the House of the LORD to repair and restore the House.
11 They even gave it to the workmen and to the builders to buy hewn stone and timber for couplings and for beams of the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
12 And the men did the work faithfully. And their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah (Levites, of the children of Merari) and Zechariah and Meshullam (of the children of the Kohathites) to set it forward. And other Levites, all of whom were skilled with instruments of music,
13 were over the bearers of burdens, and those who set forward all the workmen in every work. And of the Levites were scribes and officers and gatekeepers.
14 And when they brought out the money that was brought into the House of the LORD, Hilkiah the Priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD by the hand of Moses.
15 Therefore, Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan, the chancellor, “I have found the Book of the Law in the House of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the Book to Shaphan.
16 And Shaphan carried the Book to the king and brought the king word back, saying, “All that is committed to the hand of your servants they are doing.
17 “For they have gathered the money that was found in the House of the LORD and have delivered it into the hands of the overseers and to the hands of the workmen.”
18 Also, Shaphan the chancellor declared to the king, saying, “Hilkiah the Priest has given me a Book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.
19 And when the king heard the Words of the Law, he tore his clothes.
20 And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan the chancellor, and Asaiah, the king’s servant, saying,
21 “Go! Inquire of the LORD for me and for the rest in Israel and Judah concerning the Words of this Book that is found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that has fallen upon us because our fathers have not kept the Word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this Book.”
22 Then Hilkiah, and those whom the king had appointed, went to Huldah the Prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (she dwelt in Jerusalem within the college) and they spoke of this with her.
23 And she answered them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me,
24 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring misery upon this place, and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the Book which they have read before the king of Judah.
25 ‘Because they have forsaken Me and burnt incense to other gods, to anger Me with all the works of their hands, therefore shall My wrath fall upon this place and shall not be quenched.’”’
26 “But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, so shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel regarding the Words which you have heard:
27 “Because your heart melted, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His Words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and humbled yourself before Me, and tore your clothes, and wept before Me, I have also heard it,” says the LORD.’
28 “Behold, I will gather you to your fathers. And you shall be put in your grave in peace. And your eyes shall not see all the misery which I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same.”’” Thus, they brought back Word to the king.
29 Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
30 And the king went up into the House of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites, and all the people from the greatest to the smallest. And he read in their ears all the Words of the Book of the Covenant that were found in the House of the LORD.
31 And the king stood by his pillar and made a Covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep His Commandments, and His Testimonies, and His Statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, so that he would accomplish the Words of the Covenant written in the same Book.
32 And he made all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand firm in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the Covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
33 So, Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that belonged to the children of Israel, and compelled all who were found in Israel to serve the LORD their God. So in all his days, they did not turn back from the LORD God of their fathers.
35 Moreover, Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. And they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 And he appointed the priests to their charges and encouraged them to the service of the House of the LORD.
3 And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel and were sanctified to the LORD, “Put the Holy Ark in the House which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, built. It shall no longer be a burden upon your shoulders. Serve the LORD your God, now, and His people Israel,
4 “and prepare yourselves by the Houses of your fathers, according to your divisions, as David the king of Israel has written, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.
5 “And stand in the Sanctuary according to the division of the families of your brethren, the children of the people, and the division of the family of the Levites.
6 “So kill the Passover and sanctify yourselves and prepare your brethren, so that they may do according to the Word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.”
7 Josiah also gave sheep, lambs and kids to the people, all for the Passover, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls. These were from the king’s possessions.
8 And his princes offered willingly to the people, to the priests and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the House of God, gave two thousand six hundred sheep and three hundred bulls to the priests for the Passover.
9 Also, Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethanel (his brethren), Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave five thousand sheep and five hundred bulls to the Levites for the Passover.
10 Thus the service was prepared. And the Priests stood in their places, and the Levites in their orders, according to the king’s commandment.
11 And they killed the Passover. And the priests sprinkled the blood with their hands. And the Levites skinned them.
12 And they took away the Burnt Offering, to give it according to the divisions of the families of the children of the people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the Book of Moses, and the same for the bulls.
13 And they roasted the Passover with fire, according to the custom. But they boiled the sanctified things in pots, pans and cauldrons, and distributed them quickly to all the people.
14 And afterward, they prepared for themselves and for the priests. For the priests, the sons of Aaron, were occupied in the offering of Burnt Offerings and the fat until night. Therefore, the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests (the sons of Aaron).
15 And the singers (the sons of Asaph) stood in their places according to the commandment of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king’s Seer. And the gatekeepers were at every gate, who may not depart from their service. Therefore, their brethren, the Levites, prepared for them.
16 So, all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover and to offer Burnt Offerings upon the Altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of King Josiah.
17 And the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, for seven days.
18 And there was no Passover kept like that in Israel from the days of Samuel the Prophet. Nor did any of the kings of Israel ever keep such a Passover as Josiah kept with the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.
20 After all this, after Josiah had prepared the Temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Perath. And Josiah went out against him.
21 But he sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I do not come against you this day, but against the House of my enemy. And God Commanded me to hurry. Cease your coming against God, Who is with me, lest He destroy you.”
22 But Josiah would not turn his face from him. But he changed his apparel to fight with him and did not listen to the words of Necho, which were from the Mouth of God. But he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo.
23 And the archers shot at King Josiah. Then the king said to his servants, “Carry me away; for I am very sick.”
24 So his servants took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot which he had. And when they had brought him to Jerusalem, he died and was buried in the sepulchers of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 And Jeremiah lamented Josiah. And all singing men and singing women mourn for Josiah in their Lamentations to this day. They made the same an ordinance in Israel. And behold, they are written in the Lamentations.
26 Concerning the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, as it was written in the Law of the LORD,
27 and his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
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