2 Kings 23:2-20

NHEB^{(i) 2} The king went up to 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, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the scroll of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. ³ The king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this scroll; and all the people stood to the covenant. ⁴ The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring forth out of the LORD's temple all the vessels that were 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 carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people. ⁷ He broke down the living quarters of the temple prostitutes, that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah. ⁸ 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 he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance 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 ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ¹⁰ He defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Moloch. ¹¹ He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the room of Nathan Melech the officer, who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² The king broke down the altars that 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 courts of the house of the LORD, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron. ¹³ The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon. ¹⁴ He broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men. ¹⁵ Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ And as Josiah turned himself, he saw the tombs that were there in the mountain. And he 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 proclaimed, when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast. And he turned and raised his eyes to the tomb of the man of God who proclaimed these things. ¹⁷ Then he said, "What monument is that which I see?" The men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel." ¹⁸ He said, "Let him be. Let no man move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. ¹⁹ 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 He killed all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.