2 Kings 21:21-23:30

CAB(i) 21 And he walked in all the way in which his father walked, and served the idols which his father served, and worshipped them. 22 And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord. 23 And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in his house. 24 And the people of the land killed all that had conspired against King Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah king in his place. 25 And the rest of the acts of Amon, even all that he did, behold, are not these written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 26 And they buried him in his tomb in the garden of Uzza; and Josiah his son reigned in his place. 22 1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father; he turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. 3 And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, in the eighth month, that 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, and take account of the money that is brought into the house of the Lord, which they that keep the door have collected of the people. 5 And let them give it into the hand of the workmen that are appointed in the house of the Lord. And he gave it to the workmen in the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches of the house, 6 even to the carpenters, builders, and masons, and also to purchase timber and hewn stones, to repair the breaches of the house. 7 Only they did not call them to account for the money that was given to them, because they dealt faithfully. 8 And Hilkiah the high priest said to 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 he went from the house of the Lord to the king, and reported the matter to the king, and said, Your servants have collected the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have given it into the hand of the workmen that are appointed in the house of the Lord. 10 And Shaphan the scribe spoke to the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. 11 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. 12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achobor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, 13 Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for all the people, and for all Judah, and concerning the words of this book that has been found; for the wrath of the Lord that has been kindled against us is great, because our fathers hearkened not to the words of this book, to do according to all the things written concerning us. 14 So Hilkiah the priest went, and Ahikam, Achobor, Shaphan, and Asaiah, to Huldah the prophetess, the mother of Shallum, son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; and she dwelt in Jerusalem in Masena; and they spoke to her. 15 And she said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Say to the man that sent you to Me, 16 Thus says the Lord: Behold, I bring evil upon this place, and upon them that dwell in it, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read: 17 because they have forsaken Me, and burnt incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me with the works of their hands; therefore My wrath shall burn forth against this place, and shall not be quenched. 18 And to the king of Judah that sent you to inquire of the Lord-thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: As for the words which you have heard; 19 because your heart was softened, and you were humbled before Me, when you heard all that I spoke against this place, and against the inhabitants of it, that it should be utterly destroyed and accursed, and you tore your clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard, says the Lord. 20 It shall not be so. Therefore, behold, I will add you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your tomb in peace, and your eyes shall not see any among all the evils which I bring upon this place. 23 1 So they reported the word to the king. and the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to himself. 2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and every man of Judah, and all who dwelt in Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people small and great; and he read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. 3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His ordinances with all his heart and with all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant; even all the things written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. 4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and those that kept the door, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and took the ashes of them to Bethel. 5 And he burned the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed (and they burned incense in the high places and in the cities of Judah, and the places around about Jerusalem); and those that burned incense to Baal, and to the sun, and to the moon, and to Mazuroth, and to the whole host of heaven. 6 And he carried out the grove from the house of the Lord to the Brook Kidron, and burned it at the Brook Kidron, and reduced it to powder, and cast its powder on the tombs of the sons of the people. 7 And he pulled down the house of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove tents for the grove. 8 And he brought up all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense, from Geba even to Beersheba; and he pulled down the house of the gates that was by the door of the gate of Joshua the ruler of the city, on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. 9 Only the priests of the high places went not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, for they only ate leavened bread in the midst of their brethren. 10 And he defiled Topheth which is in the valley of the Son of Hinnom, constructed for a man to cause his son or his daughter to pass through fire to Molech. 11 And he burned the horses which the king of Judah had given to the sun in the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the treasury of Nathan the king's eunuch, in the suburbs; and he burned the chariot of the sun with fire. 12 And the altars that were on the roof 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, did the king pull down and forcibly remove from there, and cast their dust into the Brook of Kidron. 13 And the king defiled the house that was before Jerusalem, on the right hand of the Mount of Mosthath, which Solomon king of Israel built to Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and to Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. 14 And he broke in pieces the pillars, and utterly destroyed the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. 15 Also the high altar in Bethel, which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that high altar he tore down, and broke in pieces the stones of it, and reduced it to powder, and burnt the grove. 16 And Josiah turned aside, and saw the tombs that were there in the city, and sent, and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God spoke, when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast; and he turned and raised his eyes to the tomb of the man of God that spoke these words. 17 And he said, What is that mound which I see? And the men of the city said to him, It is the grave of the man of God that came out of Judah, and uttered these things which you have done upon the altar of Bethel. 18 And he said, Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones. So his bones were spared, together with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. 19 Moreover Josiah removed all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel made to provoke the Lord, and did to them all that he did in Bethel. 20 And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places that were there on the altars, and burned the bones of men upon them, and returned to Jerusalem. 21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in the Book of the Covenant. 22 Such a Passover as this had not been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel, even all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, was the Passover kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. 24 Moreover Josiah removed the sorcerers and the wizards and the spiritists and the idols, and all the abominations that had been set up in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might keep the words of the law that were written in the book, which Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the Lord. 25 There was no king like him before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses; and after him there rose none like him. 26 Nevertheless the Lord turned not from the fierceness of His great anger, wherewith He was wroth in His anger against Judah, because of the provocations, with which Manasseh provoked Him. 27 And the Lord said, I will also remove Judah from My presence, as I removed Israel, and I will reject this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. 28 And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are not these things written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29 And in his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians, to the River Euphrates; and Josiah went out to meet him. And Necho killed him in Megiddo when he saw him. 30 And his servants carried him dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in the place of his father.