2 Chronicles 34

Revised Geneva Translation

34 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. And he reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years.

² And he did uprightly in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and bowed neither to the right nor to the left.

³ And in the eighth year of his reign (when he was still a child) he began to seek after the God of David, his father. And in the twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved images and molten images.

⁴ And they broke down the altars of Baal in his sight. And he had the images that were high upon them cut down. He also broke the groves and the carved images and the molten images and stamped them to powder and scattered it upon the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

⁵ Also, he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem

⁶ and the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, up to Naphtali, with their axes, all around.

⁷ And when he had destroyed the altars and the groves and had broken and stamped the images into powder and had cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

⁸ Then in the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purged the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz the Recorder, to repair the House of the LORD his God.

⁹ And when they came to Hilkiah, the High Priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the House of God, which the Levites who kept the door had gathered at the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and of all the rest of Israel and of all Judah and Benjamin and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰ And they put it in the hands of those who would do the work and had the oversight in the House of the LORD. And they gave it to the workmen who labored in the House of the LORD to repair and restore the House.

¹¹ They even gave it to the workmen and to the builders to buy hewn stone and timber for couplings and for beams of the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.

¹² And the men did the work faithfully. And their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah (Levites, of the children of Merari) and Zechariah and Meshullam (of the children of the Kohathites) to set it forward. And other Levites, all of whom were skilled with instruments of music,

¹³ were over the bearers of burdens, and those who set forward all the workmen in every work. And of the Levites were scribes and officers and gatekeepers.

¹⁴ And when they brought out the money that was brought into the House of the LORD, Hilkiah the Priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD by the hand of Moses.

¹⁵ Therefore, Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan, the chancellor, “I have found the Book of the Law in the House of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the Book to Shaphan.

¹⁶ And Shaphan carried the Book to the king and brought the king word back, saying, “All that is committed to the hand of your servants they are doing.

¹⁷ “For they have gathered the money that was found in the House of the LORD and have delivered it into the hands of the overseers and to the hands of the workmen.”

¹⁸ Also, Shaphan the chancellor declared to the king, saying, “Hilkiah the Priest has given me a Book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹⁹ And when the king heard the Words of the Law, he tore his clothes.

²⁰ And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan the chancellor, and Asaiah, the king’s servant, saying,

²¹ “Go! Inquire of the LORD for me and for the rest in Israel and Judah concerning the Words of this Book that is found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that has fallen upon us because our fathers have not kept the Word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this Book.”

²² Then Hilkiah, and those whom the king had appointed, went to Huldah the Prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (she dwelt in Jerusalem within the college) and they spoke of this with her.

²³ And she answered them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me,

²⁴ “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring misery upon this place, and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the Book which they have read before the king of Judah.

²⁵ ‘Because they have forsaken Me and burnt incense to other gods, to anger Me with all the works of their hands, therefore shall My wrath fall upon this place and shall not be quenched.’”’

²⁶ “But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, so shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel regarding the Words which you have heard:

²⁷ “Because your heart melted, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His Words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and humbled yourself before Me, and tore your clothes, and wept before Me, I have also heard it,” says the LORD.’

²⁸ “Behold, I will gather you to your fathers. And you shall be put in your grave in peace. And your eyes shall not see all the misery which I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants of the same.”’” Thus, they brought back Word to the king.

²⁹ Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰ And the king went up into the House of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites, and all the people from the greatest to the smallest. And he read in their ears all the Words of the Book of the Covenant that were found in the House of the LORD.

³¹ And the king stood by his 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 with all his soul, so that he would accomplish the Words of the Covenant written in the same Book.

³² And he made all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand firm in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the Covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³ So, Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that belonged to the children of Israel, and compelled all who were found in Israel to serve the LORD their God. So in all his days, they did not turn back from the LORD God of their fathers.