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3 It happened in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent word to Shaphan the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the secretary of the temple of Yahweh, saying, 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and let them count the money being brought to the temple of Yahweh which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people, 5 and let them give it into the hand of those appointed doers of the work at the temple of Yahweh. Let them give it to the doers of the work who are at the temple of Yahweh to repair the breach of the temple: 6 to the skilled craftsmen, to the builders, to the masons, and to buy timber and hewing stones to repair the temple. 7 Only the money being given to them is not to be accounted for by them, for they are dealing with honesty.”
A Scroll of the Torah Discovered in the Temple
8 Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the scroll of the Torah in the temple of Yahweh,” and Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it. 9 Shaphan the secretary came to the king and returned the king a word, and he said, “Your servant poured out the money found in the temple, and they have given it into the hand of the doers of the work appointed over the temple of Yahweh.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” Then Shaphan read before the king.
11 When the king heard the words of the scroll of the Torah, he tore his clothes. 12 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Acbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the servant of the king, saying, 13 “Go, inquire of Yahweh for me and for the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this scroll that was found. For the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us is great because our ancestors[a] did not listen to the words of this scroll to do according to all that is written concerning us!”
The Prophetess Huldah Predicts Doom for Judah
14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah the son of Harhas, the keeper of the robes. Now she was living in Jerusalem in the second district. Then they spoke to her, 15 and she said to them, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘Say to the man who sent you to me, 16 “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Look I am bringing evil to this place and upon its inhabitants, according to all of the words of that scroll that the king of Judah has read 17 because they have abandoned me and they have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all of the works of their hands. My wrath shall be kindled against this place and not be quenched.’” 18 And to the king of Judah who sent all of you to inquire of Yahweh, thus you shall say to him, “Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, ‘Concerning the words that you have heard, 19 because you have a responsive heart, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants to become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before my face, I have also heard, declares Yahweh. 20 Therefore look, I am gathering you to your ancestors,[b] and you shall be gathered to your tombs in peace. Your eyes will not see all of the disaster that I am bringing onto this place.’”’” Then they reported the word[c] to the king.
Josiah’s Covenantal Reforms
23 So the king sent word, and all of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him. 2 Then the king went up to the temple of Yahweh, and all of the men of Judah and all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem were with him, including the priests, the prophets, and all of the people from smallest to greatest; and in their hearing[d] he read all of the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the temple of Yahweh. 3 Then the king stood by the pillar, and he made[e] a covenant before Yahweh, to go after Yahweh and to keep his commands and his warnings and his statutes, with all of his heart and with his all of his soul, to keep the words of this covenant written on this scroll. Then all of the people joined[f] in the covenant.
4 Then the king[g] commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the second priests, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all of the objects made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and then he carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 He removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem and who offered incense to, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 6 He brought out the Asherah image from the temple of Yahweh outside of Jerusalem to the Wadi of the Kidron and burnt it there;[h] then he pulverized it to dust and threw its dust upon the tombs of the children of the people. 7 He tore down the shrines of the male shrine prostitutes which were in the temple of Yahweh, where the women were weaving shrines for the Asherah. 8 Then he brought all of the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests from Geba up to Beersheba burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on the left of each gate of the city. 9 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread in the midst of their relatives. 10 He defiled the Topheth which is in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to prevent[i] anyone causing his sons or his daughters to pass through the fire for Molech. 11 He kept the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun from coming to the temple of Yawheh at the side room of Nathan-Melech the eunuch, which was in the court; and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire. 12 The altars which were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh, the king tore down and ran from there and threw their ashes into the Wadi Kidron. 13 The high places which were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mountain of Destruction which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the detestable thing of the Ammonites,[j] the king defiled. 14 He also broke into pieces the stone pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and covered their sites with human bones.
15 Moreover, the altar which was in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin, had built, even that altar and the high place, Josiah tore down. Then he burned down the high place and crushed the pole of Asherah worship to dust and burned it with fire. 16 When Josiah turned and saw the tombs which were there on the hill, he sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned them on the altar. Thus he defiled them according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God had proclaimed who had proclaimed these things. 17 Then he said, “What is this gravestone that I am seeing?” The men of the city said to him, “This is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” 18 So Josiah said, “Let him rest and let no man move his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria. 19 Moreover, all of the shrines of the high places which were in the towns of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh, Josiah removed, and he did to them like all of the deeds he had done in Bethel. 20 Then he slaughtered all of the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and he burned the bones of the humans on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
Passover Renewed
21 Then the king commanded all of the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as has been written on the scroll of this covenant.” 22 For they had not kept this Passover from the days of the judges who had judged over Israel or[k] during the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept for Yahweh in Jerusalem.
24 Moreover, the mediums and the spiritists, the household gods and the idols, and all of the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah removed in order to establish the words of the law written on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the temple of Yahweh. 25 There was not a king like him before him, who turned to Yahweh with all of his heart and with all of his soul and with all of his might according to the law[l] of Moses, nor did one arise like him afterwards.
26 However, Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of his great anger which was kindled against Judah because of all of the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. 27 Yahweh had said, “Even Judah I will remove from my face, as I have removed Israel; I will reject this city that I have chosen, even Jerusalem and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there’!”
28 The remainder of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to meet him, and he[m] killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him. 30 So his servants drove him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, and they brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.
Paul Permitted to Address the Crowd
37 And as he[a] was about to be brought into the barracks,[b] Paul said to the military tribune, “Is it permitted for me to say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? 38 Then you are not the Egyptian who before these days raised a revolt and led out into the wilderness the four thousand men of the Assassins?”[c] 39 But Paul said, “I am a Jewish man from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no unimportant city. Now I ask you, allow me to speak to the people.” 40 So when[d] he permitted him,[e] Paul, standing there on the steps, motioned with his[f] hand to the people. And when there[g] was a great silence, he addressed them[h] in the Aramaic language, saying,
22 “Men—brothers and fathers—listen to my defense to you now!” 2 And when they[i] heard that he was addressing them in the Aramaic language, they became even more silent.[j] And he said, 3 “I am a Jewish man born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to the exactness of the law received from our fathers, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. 4 I[k] persecuted this Way to the death, tying up and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as indeed the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me, from whom also I received letters to the brothers in Damascus, and[l] was traveling there[m] to lead away those who were there also tied up to Jerusalem so that they could be punished.
Paul Tells of His Conversion on the Damascus Road
6 “And it happened that as[n] I was traveling and approaching Damascus around noon, suddenly a very bright light from heaven flashed around me, 7 and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene whom you are persecuting.’ 9 (Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.) 10 So I said, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and[o] proceed to Damascus, and there it will be told to you about all the things that have been appointed for you to do.’ 11 And as I could not see as a result of the brightness of that light, I arrived in Damascus led by the hand of those who were with me. 12 And a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who live there, 13 came to me and stood by me[p] and[q] said to me, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight!’ And at that same time I looked up at him and saw him.[r] 14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth, 15 because you will be a witness for him[s] to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why are you delaying? Get up, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name!’
The Ways of the Righteous and the Wicked
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the advice of the wicked;
nor does he stand in the way of sinners;
nor does he sit in the assembly of mockers.
2 Instead, in the law of Yahweh is his delight,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 And so, he is like a tree planted by streams of water
that gives its fruit in its season;
its leaf also does not wither.
Therefore all that he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked.
Instead, they are like the chaff that the wind scatters.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,[a]
but the way of the wicked will perish.
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