The Daily Audio Bible

³ In the eighteenth year of King Yoshiyahu, the king sent Shafan the son of Atzalyahu, the son of Meshulam, the secretary, to the house of Adonai after instructing him, ⁴ “Go up to Hilkiyahu the cohen hagadol, and have him total the money that has been brought into the house of Adonai, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. ⁵ Then have them give it to the supervisors of the work being done in the house of Adonai; they in turn are to use it to pay the laborers in the house of Adonai to repair damaged places in the building — ⁶ the carpenters, construction-workers and stonemasons — and to purchase timber and worked stone for doing the repairs on the building.” ⁷ However, they did not require an accounting from the supervisors given the money to spend, because they dealt honestly.

⁸ Hilkiyahu the cohen hagadol said to Shafan the secretary, “I have found the scroll of the Torah in the house of Adonai.” Hilkiyah gave the scroll to Shafan, who read it. ⁹ Then Shafan the secretary went back to the king and gave the king this report: “Your servants have poured out the money found in the house and handed it over to the people supervising the work in the house of Adonai.” ¹⁰ Shafan the secretary also told the king, “Hilkiyah the cohen hagadol gave me a scroll.” Then Shafan read it aloud before the king. ¹¹ After the king had heard what was written in the scroll of the Torah, he tore his clothes. ¹² Then the king issued this order to Hilkiyah the cohen, Achikam the son of Shafan, ‘Akhbor the son of Mikhayah, Shafan the secretary and ‘Asayah the king’s servant: ¹³ “Go; and consult Adonai for me, for the people and for all Y’hudah in regard to what is written in this scroll which has been found. For Adonai must be furious at us, since our ancestors did not listen to the words written in this scroll and didn’t do everything written there that concerns us.” ¹⁴ So Hilkiyahu the cohen, Achikam, Akhbor, Shafan and ‘Asayah went to Huldah the prophet, the wife of Shalum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harchas, keeper of the wardrobe — she lived in the Second Quarter of Yerushalayim — and spoke with her. ¹⁵ She told them, “Adonai the God of Isra’el says to tell the man who sent you to me ¹⁶ that Adonai says this: ‘I am going to bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants, every word in the scroll the king of Y’hudah has read; ¹⁷ because they have abandoned me and offered to other gods, in order to provoke me with everything they do. Therefore my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.’ ¹⁸ But you are to tell the king of Y’hudah, who sent you to consult Adonai, that Adonai the God of Isra’el also says this: ‘In regard to the words you have heard, ¹⁹ because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Adonai when you heard what I said against this place and its inhabitants — that they would become an object of astonishment and cursing — and have torn your clothes and cried before me, I have also heard you, says Adonai. ²⁰ Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, you will go to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the calamity I am going to bring on this place.’” So they brought word back to the king.

23 Then the king summoned all the leaders of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim, and they assembled with him. ² The king went up to the house of Adonai with all the men of Y’hudah, all those living in Yerushalayim, the cohanim, the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing everything written in the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the house of Adonai. ³ The king stood on the platform and made a covenant in the presence of Adonai to live following Adonai, observing his mitzvot, instructions and regulations wholeheartedly and with all his being, so as to confirm the words of the covenant written in this scroll. All the people stood, pledging themselves to keep the covenant.

⁴ Then the king ordered Hilkiyahu the cohen hagadol, the cohanim of the second rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the sanctuary of Adonai all the articles that had been made for Ba‘al, for the asherah and for the entire army of heaven; and he burned them up outside Yerushalayim in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Beit-El.

⁵ He deposed the idolatrous priests the kings of Y’hudah had ordained to offer on the high places by the cities of Y’hudah and in the places surrounding Yerushalayim; he also deposed those who offered to Ba‘al, the sun, the moon, the constellations and the whole army of heaven.

⁶ He took the asherah from the house of Adonai to Vadi Kidron outside Yerushalayim and burned it in Vadi Kidron, stamped the ashes to powder and threw the powder onto the burial-ground for the common people.

⁷ He smashed the houses of the cult prostitutes that were in the house of Adonai, where the women also wove garments for the asherah.

⁸ He removed the cohanim from the cities of Y’hudah; then, from Geva to Be’er-Sheva, he desecrated the high places where the cohanim had been making offerings. He also smashed the High Places of the Gates that were at the entrance of the Gate of Y’hoshua the governor of the city, on the left as one enters the city. ⁹ But although the cohanim who had been at the high places did not come up to the altar of Adonai in Yerushalayim, nevertheless they did share matzah with their kinsmen.

¹⁰ He desecrated the Tofet fire pit in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, so that no one could cause his son or daughter to pass through fire [as a sacrifice] to Molekh.

¹¹ He confiscated the horses which the kings of Y’hudah had given to the sun, at the entrance to the house of Adonai near the room of the officer N’tan-Melekh, in the side-courtyard; and he burned up the chariots of the sun.

¹² The king smashed the altars on the roof of the upper room of Achaz, which the kings of Y’hudah had made, and the altars which M’nasheh had made in the two courtyards of the house of Adonai. He broke them into pieces and threw the rubble into Vadi Kidron.

¹³ The king desecrated the high places facing Yerushalayim south of the Mount of Destruction, which Shlomo the king of Isra’el had built for ‘Ashtoret the abomination of the Tzidonim, K’mosh the abomination of Mo’av and Milkom the abomination of the people of ‘Amon. ¹⁴ He smashed the standing-stones, chopped down the sacred poles and covered their remains with human bones.

¹⁵ He smashed the altar that was at Beit-El and the high place made by Yarov‘am the son of N’vat, who caused Isra’el to sin. Yes, he smashed that altar and the high place; he burned the high place, stamped the ashes to powder, and burned up the asherah. ¹⁶ Then, as Yoshiyahu was turning around, he noticed the burial caves that were there on the mountain; so he sent and had the bones taken out of the burial caves and burned them on the altar, thus desecrating it, in keeping with the word of Adonai which the man of God had proclaimed, foretelling that these things would happen. ¹⁷ Then he asked, “This monument here that I’m looking at, what is it?” The men of the city told him, “It marks the burial cave of the man of God who came from Y’hudah and foretold the very things you have done to the altar of Beit-El.” ¹⁸ He replied, “Let him be; no one is to move his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet who had come from Shomron.

¹⁹ Yoshiyahu also removed all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Shomron, which the kings of Isra’el had made in order to provoke [Adonai] to anger, and treated them the same as in Beit-El. ²⁰ He put to death all the priests of those high places on the altars there, then burned human bones on them. Finally he returned to Yerushalayim.

²¹ The king issued this order to all the people: “Observe Pesach to Adonai your God, as written in this scroll of the covenant.” ²² For Pesach had not been so observed since the days when the judges ruled Isra’el — not during the times of any of the kings of Isra’el or of the kings of Y’hudah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Yoshiyahu this Pesach was observed to Adonai in Yerushalayim.

²⁴ Yoshiyahu got rid of the mediums and the people using spirit guides, as well as the household gods, the idols and all the disgusting things spotted anywhere in Y’hudah and Yerushalayim. He did this in order to establish the words of the Torah written in the scroll Hilkiyahu the cohen had found in the house of Adonai.

²⁵ No previous king was like him; because he turned to Adonai with all his heart, with all his being and with all his power, in accordance with all the Torah of Moshe; nor did any king like him arise afterwards. ²⁶ Nevertheless, Adonai did not turn away from his fiercely raging, furious anger that burned against Y’hudah because of all the things M’nasheh had done to provoke him. ²⁷ Adonai said, “Just as I removed Isra’el, I will also remove Y’hudah out of my sight; and I will reject this city, which I chose, Yerushalayim, and the house concerning which I said, ‘My name will be there.’”

²⁸ Other activities of Yoshiyahu and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah.

²⁹ During his time Pharaoh N’khoh king of Egypt went up toward the Euphrates River to attack the king of Ashur. King Yoshiyahu went out to oppose him; but at Megiddo, Pharaoh spotted Yoshiyahu and killed him. ³⁰ His servants carried his dead body from Megiddo to Yerushalayim in a chariot and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Y’ho’achaz the son of Yoshiyahu, anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place.

³⁷ As Sha’ul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “Is it all right if I say something to you?” The commander said, “You know Greek! ³⁸ Say, aren’t you that Egyptian who tried to start a revolution a while back, and led four thousand armed terrorists out into the desert?” ³⁹ Sha’ul said, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city; and I ask your permission to let me speak to the people.”

⁴⁰ Having received permission, Sha’ul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people. When they finally became still, he addressed them in Hebrew:

22 “Brothers and fathers! Listen to me as I make my defense before you now!” ² When they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew, they settled down more; so he continued: ³ “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city and trained at the feet of Gamli’el in every detail of the Torah of our forefathers. I was a zealot for God, as all of you are today. ⁴ I persecuted to death the followers of this Way, arresting both men and women and throwing them in prison. ⁵ The cohen hagadol and the whole Sanhedrin can also testify to this. Indeed, after receiving letters from them to their colleagues in Dammesek, I was on my way there in order to arrest the ones in that city too and bring them back to Yerushalayim for punishment.

⁶ “As I was traveling and approaching Dammesek, around noon, suddenly a brilliant light from heaven flashed all around me! ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Sha’ul! Sha’ul! Why do you keep persecuting me?’ ⁸ I answered, ‘Sir, who are you?’ ‘I am Yeshua from Natzeret,’ he said to me, ‘and you are persecuting me!’ ⁹ Those who were with me did see the light, but they didn’t hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. ¹⁰ I said ‘What should I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up, and go into Dammesek, and there you will be told about everything that has been laid out for you to do.’ ¹¹ I had been blinded by the brightness of the light, so my companions led me by the hand into Dammesek.

¹² “A man named Hananyah, an observant follower of the Torah who was highly regarded by the entire Jewish community there, ¹³ came to me, stood by me and said, ‘Brother Sha’ul, see again!’ And at that very moment, I recovered my sight and saw him. ¹⁴ He said, ‘The God of our fathers^[a] determined in advance that you should know his will, see the Tzaddik and hear his voice; ¹⁵ because you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ So now, what are you waiting for? Get up, immerse yourself and have your sins washed away as you call on his name.’

Book I: Psalms 1–41