Chronological
22 ¶ Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD and walked in all the way of David, his father, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
3 And in the year eighteen of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying,
4 Go up to Hilkiah, the high priest, that he may sum the silver which has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people;
5 and let them deliver it into the hands of those that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD; and let them give it to those that do the work in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,
6 unto carpenters and builders and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house;
7 and there is to be no accounting required of those unto whom the money is delivered because they deal faithfully.
8 Then Hilkiah, the high priest, said unto Shaphan, the scribe, 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 And Shaphan, the scribe, came to the king and brought the king word again and said, Thy slaves have gathered the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of those that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD.
10 Likewise, Shaphan, the scribe, declared unto the king, saying, Hilkiah, the priest, has delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
11 ¶ And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his clothes.
12 And the king commanded Hilkiah, the priest, and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan, the scribe, and Asahiah, a slave of the king’s, saying,
13 Go and enquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
14 So Hilkiah, the priest, and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asahiah went unto Huldah, the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe, who dwelt in Jerusalem in the house of doctrine; and they spoke with her.
15 And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,
16 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read,
17 because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore, my wrath is kindled against this place and shall not be quenched.
18 But to the king of Judah who sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Because thou didst hear the words of the book,
19 and thy heart became tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD when thou didst hear what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become desolate and cursed, and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.
20 Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.
23 ¶ And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, from the smallest to the greatest; 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 all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in that book. And all the people confirmed the covenant.
4 ¶ And the king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest, and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that had been made for Baal and for the grove and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and caused their dust to be carried unto Bethel.
5 And he put down the religious persons whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem; likewise, those that burned incense unto 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 graven image of the grove from the house of the LORD outside Jerusalem unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and stamped it small to powder and cast the powder of it upon the graves of the sons of the people.
7 He likewise broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were by the house of the LORD where the women wove hangings for the grove.
8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and broke down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at 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, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
10 And he defiled Tophet, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech, the chamberlain who was in charge of the Parbar, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12 And the king cast down the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD and made haste and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
13 Likewise, the king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon, the king of Israel, had built unto Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians, and unto Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and unto Milcom, the abomination of the sons 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 Likewise, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had made: both that altar and the high place he broke down and burned the high place and stamped it small to powder and burned the grove.
16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount and sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres and burned them upon the altar and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who had proclaimed these words.
17 Then he said, What title is this that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.
18 And he said, Let him alone; let no one move his bones. So his bones were saved along with the bones of the prophet that had come out of Samaria.
19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
20 And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars and burned men’s bones upon them and returned to Jerusalem.
21 Then the king commanded all the people, saying, Make the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
22 Such a passover had not been made since the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah.
23 In the year eighteen of King Josiah, this passover was made unto the LORD in Jerusalem.
24 In the same manner Josiah burned the spiritists, the diviners, the teraphim, the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD.
25 ¶ There was no king before him that converted like this to the LORD with all his heart and all his soul and all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither did any like him arise after him.
26 Even with all this the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him to wrath.
27 And the LORD said, I must also remove Judah out of my sight as I have removed Israel, and I must reject this city Jerusalem which I had chosen and the house of which I said, My name shall 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 Pharaohnechoh, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him; but as soon as he saw him, he slew him at Megiddo.
30 And his slaves carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulchre. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and anointed him and made him king in his father’s stead.
31 ¶ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
33 And Pharaohnechoh put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, as he was reigning in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
34 Then Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king in the place of Josiah his father and changed his name to Jehoiakim and took Jehoahaz and carried him to Egypt, and he died there.
35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he caused the land to be valued to give this money according to the commandment of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of each one according to the estimation of his worth, to give it unto Pharaohnechoh.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37 And he did that which was 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 thirty-one years.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD and walked in the ways of David, his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.
3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, 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 graven images and the molten images.
4 And they broke down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and the images of the sun, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves and the graven images and the molten images, he broke in pieces and made dust of them and scattered it upon the graves of those that had sacrificed unto them.
5 And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
6 He did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their swords round about.
7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves and had beaten the graven images into powder and cut down all the idols of the sun throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
8 ¶ Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the writer of chronicles, to repair the house of the LORD his God.
9 And they went to Hilkiah, the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and of all the remnant of Israel and of all Judah and Benjamin, having then returned to Jerusalem.
10 And they put it in the hand of those that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and restore the house.
11 They also gave to the craftsmen and builders, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and for the woodwork of the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.
12 And the men did the work faithfully, and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of Kohath, to set it forward; and others of the Levites, all those with understanding in instruments of music.
13 Also they were over the bearers of burdens and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service; and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.
14 ¶ And when they brought out the money that had been brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah, the priest, found the book of the law of the LORD given by the hand of Moses.
15 And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan, the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
16 And Shaphan carried the book to the king and brought the king word back again, saying, Thy slaves have fulfilled all that was committed unto them to do.
17 And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the LORD and have delivered it into the hand of those who were commissioned and to the hand of the workmen.
18 Then Shaphan, the scribe, told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest, has given me a book. And Shaphan read in it before the king.
19 And when the king heard the words of the law, he rent his clothes.
20 And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan, the scribe, and Asaiah, a slave of the king’s, saying,
21 Go, enquire of the LORD for me and for the remnant of Israel and of Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all the things that are written in this book.
22 Then Hilkiah and those of the king went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the house of doctrine); and they spoke to her to that effect.
23 And she answered them, The LORD God of Israel hath said thus, Tell the man that sent you to me,
24 that thus hath the LORD said, Behold, I will bring evil 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 have sacrificed unto other gods, provoking me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore, my wrath shall be poured out upon this place and shall not be quenched.
26 But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the LORD, so shall ye say unto him, Thus hath the LORD God of Israel said, Because thou hast heard the words of the book,
27 and thy heart became tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, hearing his words against this place and against its inhabitants and didst humble thyself before me and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.
28 Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace; neither shall thy eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again.
29 ¶ Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
30 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and with him all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and all the people, great and small; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.
31 And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and that they would keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and with all their soul to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
32 And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
33 And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the lands that pertained to the sons of Israel and made all that were present in Israel serve the LORD their God only. And all his days they did not depart from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
35 ¶ Moreover, Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 And he set the priests in their charges and confirmed them in the ministry of the house of the LORD
3 and said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, who were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, built, that ye not carry it any longer upon your shoulders; serve now the LORD your God and his people Israel
4 and prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David, king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon, his son.
5 And stand in the sanctuary according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren, the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites.
6 So kill the passover and sanctify yourselves and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.
7 And Josiah gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks; these were of the king’s substance.
8 And his princes gave willingly unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover offerings two thousand six hundred sheep and three hundred oxen.
9 Conaniah, likewise, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, princes of the Levites, gave unto the Levites for the sacrifices of the passover five thousand sheep, and five hundred oxen.
10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites, likewise, in their courses, according to the king’s commandment.
11 And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood taken from the hands of the Levites who flayed them.
12 And they took away part of the animals that they had for the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, for them to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And they did, likewise, with the oxen.
13 And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance, but that which had been sanctified, they cooked in pots and in caldrons and in pans and divided them speedily among all the people.
14 And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were occupied in the sacrifice of the burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore, the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
15 Likewise, the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king’s seer; and the porters waited at every gate; it was not necessary for them to depart from their ministry, for 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 sacrifice the burnt offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of King Josiah.
17 And the sons of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time and the solemn feast of unleavened bread for seven days.
18 And there was no passover like unto that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel, the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel that were present, together with all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 In the year eighteen of the reign of Josiah, this passover was kept.
20 ¶ After all this, when Josiah had prepared the house, Necho, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.
21 But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I do not come against thee this day, but against the house that makes war with me, for God commanded me to make haste. Forbear from meddling with God, who is with me, that he not destroy thee.
22 Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and did not hearken unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight him in the valley of Megiddo.
23 And the archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his slaves, Take me away, for I am sore wounded.
24 His slaves, therefore, took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and the singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day and made them an ordinance in Israel, which are written in the lamentations.
26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his mercy, according to that which 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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