2 Kings 23
1WHEN they brought back this answer to the king, the king sent and assembled before him all the elders of Juda and Jerusalem.
2And the king went up to the house of the Lord, accompanied by all the chiefs of Juda and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with the priests and the prophets and all the people small and great. And when he had read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord,
3the king stood before the pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord—to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and with all his soul—to conform to the terms of the covenant, the things written in the book. And all the people joined in the covenant.
4Then the king ordered Chelkias the high priest and the priests of the second order and them who had the charge of the weights, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the utensils which were made for Baal and for the bower and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them without Jerusalem at Sademoth Kedron, and sent the ashes thereof to Baithel.
5He burned also the Chomarims, whom the kings of Juda had appointed. These were they who burned incense on the high places and in the cities of Juda and in the places around Jerusalem. He burned them also, who offered incense to Baal and to the sun and the moon and the signs in the zodiac and to all the host of heaven.
6And he brought out the bower out of the house of the Lord without Jerusalem to the brook Kedron, and having burned it by the brook Kedron, he ground it to powder, and strewed the powder over the graves of the children of the people.
7He pulled down also the house of Kadesim in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the bower.
8Then he brought up all the priests out of the cities of Juda, and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense from Gaibal to Bersabee. He demolished also the house of the gates which was at the door of the gate of Jesus, the governor of the city, on the left of a man entering at the gate of the city.
9But the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord at Jerusalem; for they only eat unleavened bread among their brethren.
10He defiled also Tapheth which was set apart in the valley of the son of Ennom, for a man to cause his son or his daughter to pass through fire to Moloch.
11And he burned the houses which the kings of Juda had dedicated to the sun at the entrance of the house of the Lord, at the treasury office of Nathan, the king’s chamberlain, at Pharurim. He burned also with fire the chariot of the sun,
12and the altars which were on the roof of Achaz’s chamber, which the kings of Juda had erected, and he pulled down the altars which Manasses had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and having dragged them out thence piecemeal, he threw the rubbish of them into the brook Kedron.
13The king defiled also the house which was in front of Jerusalem—that which was on the right of mount Mosthath, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Astarte, the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chamos, the abomination of Moab, and for Moloch the abomination of the Ammonites.
14And when he had broken in pieces the pillars, and utterly destroyed the bowers, and filled their places with human bones, he then tore down
15also the altar which was at Baithel, that high altar which was erected by Jeroboam, son of Nabat, who had caused Israel to sin. Even that high altar he tore down and broke the stones thereof to pieces and pounded them to dust, and burned the bower.
16Now when Josias turned and saw the graves which were there in the city, he sent and took the bones out of the graves and burned them on the altar, and polluted it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God spoke when Jeroboam was standing on the altar at the festival. Then turning he cast his eyes on the tomb of the man of God who spoke these words,
17and he said, What monument is that which I see? And when the men of the city said, It is the man of God who came from Juda to denounce, and who denounced these very things against this altar at Baithel;
18he said, Let him alone, Let no man move his bones. So his bones escaped with the bones of the prophet, who came from Samaria.
19All the houses also of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria—which the kings of Israel had built to provoke the Lord, Josias removed, and did to them all that he had done at Baithel.
20And when he had sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there over the altars, and burned the bones of men upon them, he returned to Jerusalem.
21Then the king issued orders to all the people, saying, Celebrate the passover to the Lord our God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. For from the days of the Judges who judged Israel, there had not been during all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Juda,
22such a passover as this which was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem
23in the eighteenth year of Josias.
24For Josias removed all the devotees and the diviners and the theraphins and the idols and all the abominations which were in the land of Juda and in Jerusalem, that he might conform to the words of the law which were written in the book which Chelkias the priest had found in the house of the Lord.
25Like him there was no king 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; nor did there arise after him anyone like him.
26Nevertheless the Lord turned not from the fervency of His great wrath with which He was incensed against Juda at the provocations with which Manasses had provoked Him.
27So the Lord said, I will remove Juda also from My presence as I have removed Israel; and I will cast off this city of Jerusalem which I chose, and this house of which I said, My name shall be there.
28Now the rest of the acts of Josias and all that he did, are they not written in the journal of the kings of Juda?
29In those days when Pharao Nechao king of Egypt was going up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates, Josias went out to meet him. And Nechao slew him at Mageddo when he saw him.
30And his servants took him up mortally wounded at Mageddo and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Joachaz son of Josias and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.
31Joachaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Amital. She was a daughter of Jeremias of Lobna.
32He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his forefathers had done.
33So when Pharao Nechao was at Rablaam in the land of Emath, he removed him from reigning in Jerusalem, and imposed as a fine on the land a hundred talents of silver and a hundred talents of gold; and having made Eliakim son of Josias, king of Juda, king over them in the room of his father Josias,
34Pharao Nechao changed his name to Joakim; and he took Joachaz and carried him to Egypt, and he died there.
35And Joakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharao: moreover he assessed the land to give the money at the command of Pharao. Every man of rank according to his assessment gave with the people of the land silver and gold to be given to Pharao Nechao.
36Joakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jeldath. She was a daughter of Phadail of Ruma.
37And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his forefathers had done.