Josiah Restores True Worship^(A)

^29 (B)Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

Josiah Restores True Worship^(A)

23 Now ^(B)the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. ² The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he ^(C)read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant ^(D)which had been found in the house of the Lord.

³ Then the king ^(E)stood by a pillar and made a ^(F)covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant.

⁸ She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial.

² For the king and his leaders and all the assembly in Jerusalem had agreed to keep the Passover in the second ^(A)month.

² Now for the house of my God I have prepared with all my might: gold for things to be made of gold, silver for things of silver, bronze for things of bronze, iron for things of iron, wood for things of wood, ^(A)onyx stones, stones to be set, glistening stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones, and marble slabs in abundance. ³ Moreover, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, my own special treasure of gold and silver: ⁴ three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of ^(B)Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses; ⁵ the gold for things of gold and the silver for things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be done by the hands of craftsmen. Who then is ^(C)willing to ^[a]consecrate himself this day to the Lord?”

⁶ Then ^(D)the leaders of the fathers’ houses, leaders of the tribes of Israel, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with ^(E)the officers over the king’s work, ^(F)offered willingly. ⁷ They gave for the work of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. ⁸ And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, into the hand of ^(G)Jehiel^[b] the Gershonite. ⁹ Then the people rejoiced, for they had offered willingly, because with a loyal heart they had ^(H)offered willingly to the Lord; and King David also rejoiced greatly.

²³ Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord ^(A)in ceasing to pray for you; but ^(B)I will teach you the ^(C)good and the right way.