2 Kings 23

MSTC^{(i) 1} And then the king sent and 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 inhabiters of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the Prophets and all the people both small and great. And he read in the ears of them all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the LORD. ³ And the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the LORD that they should walk after the LORD, and keep his commandments and his witnesses and his ordinances with all their hearts and all their souls, and make good the words of the said covenant that were written in the foresaid book. And all the people consented to the covenant. ⁴ And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the inferior priests and the keepers of the door, to bring out of the temple of the LORD, all the vessels that were made for Baal and for the grove and for all the host of heaven. And he burnt them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried the ashes of them into Bethel. ⁵ And he put down the Chemarims which the kings of Judah had set to burn offerings in the hill altars in the cities of Judah round about Jerusalem and also them that burnt sacrifices 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 grove from the temple of the LORD without Jerusalem unto the brook Kidron, and stamped it to powder, and cast the dust thereof upon the graves of people of the country. ⁷ And he brake down the cells of the male whores that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove little houses for the grove. ⁸ And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the hill altars where the priests did burn sacrifice, even from Geba to Beersheba. And he brake down the hill altars of the Gates, that were in the entering of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left hand of the gate of the city. ⁹ Nevertheless, the priests of the hill altars came not up at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, save only they did eat of the sweet bread among their brethren. ¹⁰ And he defiled Tophet also, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, because no man should offer his son or his daughter in fire to Moloch. ¹¹ He put down the horses that the kings of Israel had given to the son at the entering of the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain which was the ruler of the suburbs, and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² And the altars that were on the top of the parlour of Ahaz which the king of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king brake down, and ran thence and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. ¹³ And the hill altars that were before Jerusalem on the righthand of the mount Nashith, which Solomon king of Israel built to Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians and to Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and to Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled: ¹⁴ and brake the images and cut down the groves and filled the places with the bones of men. ¹⁵ Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, the hill altar made by Jeroboam the son of Nebat which made Israel sin — both the altar and also the hill — he brake down and burnt the hill and stamped it to powder, and burnt the grove. ¹⁶ And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the graves that were in the mount and sent and fetched 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, which openly had denounced the same things. ¹⁷ Then the king said, "What meaneth yonder grave stone that I see?" And the men of the city told him, "It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah and openly denounced the selfsame things that thou hast done to the altar of Bethel." ¹⁸ And he said, "Let him be: see that no man move his bones." And so his bones escaped with the bones of a Prophet that came out of Samaria. ¹⁹ And thereto all the houses of the hill altars of the cities of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made, to anger withal, Josiah put out of the way and did to them in all points as he did in Bethel. ²⁰ And he sacrificed all the priests of the hill altars that were there, even upon the altars, and burnt men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem. ²¹ And the king commanded all the people, saying, "Keep the feast of passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant." ²² For there was no passover held like that from the days of the judges that judged Israel, and throughout all the days of the kings of Israel and of Judah. ²³ And in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this passover holden to the LORD in Jerusalem. ²⁴ And thereto workers with spirits, soothsayers, Images of witchcraft, idols and all other abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah put out of the way to make good the words of the law, which were written in the book that Helkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. ²⁵ Like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any such. ²⁶ Notwithstanding, the LORD turned not from his fierce and great wrath wherewith he was angry against Judah upon all the provocations that Manasseh provoked him. ²⁷ But the LORD said, "I will put Judah, too, out of my sight, as I have done Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I have said, 'My name shall be there.'" ²⁸ The rest of the deeds of Josiah and all he did are written in the book of the Stories of the Kings of Judah. ²⁹ In his days, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went against the king of Assyria to the river of Euphrates. And king Josiah went against him, and was slain of him at Megiddo when he had seen him. ³⁰ And his servants carried him dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in his father's room. ³¹ And Jehoahaz was twenty three years old when he began to reign and reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² And he did that displeased the LORD, in all things as his fathers had done. ³³ And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath in the time of his reign in Jerusalem, and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away — which, when he came to Egypt, died there. ³⁵ And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh: howbeit, he taxed the land, to give the money at the commandment of Pharaoh and as every man was set at, so he required the silver and the gold of the people of the land, to give Pharaoh Neco. ³⁶ Jehoiakim was twenty five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned an eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ And he did that was evil-favored in the sight of the LORD, like in all things as did his fathers.