2 Chronicles 34:22-33

New Catholic Bible

²² Therefore, Hilkiah and those others whom the king had designated went to the prophetess Huldah, the wife of Shallum, son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, the guardian of the wardrobe, and consulted her at her home in the Second Quarter of Jerusalem, as they had been instructed. After they spoke to her, ²³ she replied: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the one who sent you to me: ²⁴ The Lord says: I am going to bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants—all the curses written in the book that was read in the presence of the king of Judah. ²⁵ Because they have abandoned me and have burned incense to other gods, thereby provoking my anger with all the works of their hands, my wrath will be poured out on this place and it will not be quenched.’

²⁶ “As for the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, give this response: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: In regard to the words that you have heard, ²⁷ since your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words spoken against this place and its inhabitants and tore your garments and wept before me, I in turn have listened, declares the Lord. ²⁸ I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be taken to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not live to behold all the disaster that I will inflict upon this place and its inhabitants.’ ” Then the representatives of the king brought back this answer to him.

²⁹ Renewal of the Covenant.^[a] Thereupon, after the king convened all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, ³⁰ he went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small. In their hearing he read the entire contents of the book of the covenant that was discovered in the house of the Lord.

³¹ Then the king stood by his pillar and entered into a covenant before the Lord to obey him and keep his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes with all his heart and soul, and thus carry out the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³² After that, he had all those in Jerusalem and in Benjamin pledge their conformity to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³ Josiah removed all the abominable idols from the entire territory that belonged to the people of Israel, and he made it a requirement that all those who lived in Israel must worship their God. Throughout his lifetime they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their ancestors.