23:1 And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders
of Judah and of Jerusalem.
23:2 And the king went up into 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
book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.
23:3 And the king stood by a 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 [their] heart
and all [their] soul, to perform the words of this covenant
that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the
covenant.
23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the
priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to
bring forth 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 burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of
Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Beth-el.
23:5 And 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; them also
that burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and
to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
23:6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD,
without Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the
brook Kidron, and stamped [it] small to powder, and cast the
powder of it upon the graves of the children of the people.
23:7 And he broke down the houses of the sodomites that [were]
by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the
grove.
23:8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah,
and defiled the high places where the priests had burnt
incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and broke down the high
places of the gates that [were] in 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.
23:9 Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not up to
the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate of the
unleavened bread among their brethren.
23:10 And he defiled Topheth, which [is] in the valley of the
children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his
daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
23:11 And 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 chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which [was] in
the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
23:12 And the altars that [were] on the top 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 beat down, and broke [them] down from
thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
23:13 And the high places that [were] before Jerusalem, which
[were] on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which
Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the
abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination
of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children
of Ammon, did the king defile.
23:14 And he broke in pieces the images, and cut down the
groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
23:15 Moreover, the altar that [was] at Beth-el, [and] the high
place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,
had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and
burned the high place, [and] stamped [it] small to powder, and
burned the grove.
23:16 And as Josiah turned himself, he espied the sepulchers
that [were] there on the mount, and sent, and took the bones
out of the sepulchers, and burned [them] upon the altar, and
polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of
God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
23:17 Then he said, What title [is] that which I see? And the
men of the city told him, [It is] the sepulcher of the man of
God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou
hast done against the altar of Beth-el.
23:18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So
they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that
came out of Samaria.
23:19 And 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 Beth-el.
23:20 And he slew all the priests of the high places, that
[were] there upon the altars, and burnt men's bones upon them,
and returned to Jerusalem.
23:21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the
passover to the LORD your God, as [it is] written in the book
of this covenant.
23:22 Surely there was not held such a passover from the days of
the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings
of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah.
23:23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, [in which] this
passover was held to the LORD in Jerusalem.
23:24 Moreover the [workers with] familiar spirits, and the
wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the
abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in
Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words
of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the
priest found in the house of the LORD.
23:25 And like him was there no king before him, that turned to
the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with
all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after
him arose there [any] like him.
23:26 Notwithstanding, the LORD turned not from the fierceness
of his great wrath, with which his anger was kindled against
Judah, because of all the provocations by which Manasseh had
provoked him.
23:27 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my
sight, as I have removed Israel, and will reject this city
Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said,
My name shall be there.
23:28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did,
[are] they not written in the book of the chronicles of the
kings of Judah?
23:29 In his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against
the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah
went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen
him.
23:30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from
Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his
own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son
of Josiah and anointed him, and made him king in his father's
stead.
23:31 Jehoahaz [was] twenty and three years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his
mother's name [was] Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of
Libnah.
23:32 And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to all that his fathers had done.
23:33 And Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land
of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and subjected
the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver, and a
talent of gold.
23:34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in
the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to
Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt and
died there.
23:35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but
he taxed the land to give the money according to the
commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold from
the people of the land, from every one according to his
taxation, to give [it] to Pharaoh-nechoh.
23:36 Jehoiakim [was] twenty and five years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his
mother's name [was] Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
23:37 And he did [that which was] evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to all that his fathers had done.
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