2 Kings 22:1-23:20

English Standard Version

Josiah Reigns in Judah

22 ^(A)Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of ^(B)Bozkath. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, ^(C)and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

Josiah Repairs the Temple

³ In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, ⁴ “Go up to ^(D)Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money ^(E)that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which ^(F)the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. ^5 (G)And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house ⁶ (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. ⁷ But ^(H)no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.”

Hilkiah Finds the Book of the Law

⁸ And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found ^(I)the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, ^(J)he tore his clothes. ¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and ^(K)Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and ^(L)Achbor the son of ^(M)Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is ^(N)the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^(O)Tikvah, son of ^(P)Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in ^(Q)the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. ¹⁵ And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. ^17 (R)Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore ^(S)my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. ¹⁸ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, ^19 (T)because your heart was penitent, and you ^(U)humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become ^(V)a desolation and ^(W)a curse, and you ^(X)have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and ^(Y)you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

Josiah's Reforms

23 ^(Z)Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. ² And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And ^(AA)he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant ^(AB)that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³ And the king stood ^(AC)by the pillar and ^(AD)made a covenant before the Lord, ^(AE)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 perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

⁴ And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests ^(AF)of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for ^(AG)Baal, for ^(AH)Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. ^(AI)He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations ^(AJ)and all the host of the heavens. ⁶ And he brought out ^(AK)the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, ^(AL)and burned it at the brook Kidron ^(AM)and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves ^(AN)of the common people. ⁷ And he broke down the houses of ^(AO)the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, ^(AP)where the women wove hangings for ^(AQ)the Asherah. ⁸ And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from ^(AR)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 one's left at the gate of the city. ^9 (AS)However, 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 And he defiled ^(AT)Topheth, which is ^(AU)in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(AV)that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to ^(AW)Molech.^{[a] 11} And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts.^[b] And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² And the altars ^(AX)on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars ^(AY)that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces^[c] and cast the dust of them ^(AZ)into the brook Kidron. ¹³ And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of ^(BA)the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for ^(BB)Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for ^(BC)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for ^(BD)Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ And he broke in pieces the ^(BE)pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected ^(BF)by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^(BG)who made Israel to sin, ^(BH)that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned,^[d] reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, ^(BI)according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. ¹⁷ Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, ^(BJ)“It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted^[e] these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones ^(BK)of the prophet who came out of Samaria. ¹⁹ And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were ^(BL)in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. ²⁰ And ^(BM)he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, ^(BN)and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.