Josiah Becomes King

2 Kings 22:1 - 24:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned
thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

² And he did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, and walked in all the ways of his father David;
he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

³ Now it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe,
 the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of Yahweh, saying:

 ⁴ "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house
of Yahweh, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people.

⁵ "And let them deliver it into the hand of those doing the work, who are the overseers in the house of
Yahweh; let them give it to those who are in the house of Yahweh doing the work, to repair the damages
of the house --

⁶ "to carpenters and builders and masons -- and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.

⁷ "However there need be no accounting made with them of the money delivered into their hand,
because they deal faithfully."

 ⁸ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the Book of the Law in
the house of Yahweh." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

⁹ So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, "Your servants have gathered
 the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work,
 who oversee the house of Yahweh."

¹⁰ Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And
Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes.

¹² Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of
Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying,

¹³ "Go, inquire of Yahweh for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book
 that has been found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is aroused 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, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife
of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the
Second Quarter.) And they spoke with her.

¹⁵ Then she said to them, "Thus says Yahweh Elohim of Israel, 'Tell the man who sent you to Me,

¹⁶ "Thus says Yahweh: 'Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants --
all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read --

¹⁷ 'because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other elohims, that they might provoke
Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this
place and shall not be quenched.' " '

¹⁸ "But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, in this manner you shall speak to him,
'Thus says Yahweh Elohim of Israel: "Concerning the words which you have heard --

¹⁹ "because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh when you heard what I spoke
 against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore
your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you," says Yahweh.

²⁰ "Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place." ' " So they brought back word to the king.

^NKR 2 Kings 23:1 Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him.

 ² The king went up to the house of Yahweh 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 read in their
 hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of Yahweh.

³ Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before Yahweh, to follow Yahweh 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.

⁴ And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers,
 to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the
 host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

⁵ Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high
places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the
 sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

⁶ And he brought out the wooden image from the house of Yahweh, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem,
 burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people.

⁷ Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of Yahweh, where the
women wove hangings for the wooden image.

 ⁸ And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had
burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the
entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate.

 ⁹ Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate
unleavened bread among their brethren.

¹⁰ And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom,that no man might make his son or
 his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.

¹¹ Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house
of Yahweh, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots
of the sun with fire.

¹² The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and
 the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh, the king broke down
and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron.

¹³ Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount
 of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for
 Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon.

¹⁴ And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with
 the bones of men.

¹⁵ Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made
 Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and
crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image.

¹⁶ As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out
 of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of Yahweh which the man
 of Elohim proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

¹⁷ Then he said, "What gravestone is this that I see?" So the men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the
 man of Elohim who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel."

¹⁸ And he said, "Let him alone; let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of
the prophet who came from Samaria.

¹⁹ Now Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the
kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had
done in Bethel.

²⁰ He executed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on
them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ Then the king commanded all the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to Yahweh your Elohim, as it is
written in this Book of the Covenant."

²² Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the
 days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held before Yahweh in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household elohims and idols,
 all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of
the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh.

²⁵ Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart, with all his soul,
 and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.

²⁶ Nevertheless Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused
 against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.

²⁷ And Yahweh said, "I will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this
city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, 'My name shall be there.' "

²⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the
kings of Judah?

²⁹ In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates;
and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him.

³⁰ Then his servants moved his body in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him
 in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him
king in his father's place.

³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
 His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

³² And he did evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done.

³³ Now Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem;
and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

³⁴ Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name
to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there.

³⁵ So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give money according to the command
of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment,
to give it to Pharaoh Necho.

³⁶ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's
 name was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

³⁷ And he did evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done.