2 KingsChapter 23

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¹Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ²He went up to the house of the LORD. All the people of Judah and Jerusalem went with him. The priests and the prophets went too. All the people were there, from the least important to the most important. The king read to them all the words of the Book of the Covenant. It had been found in the house of the LORD. ³The king stood by the pillar. He made a covenant in front of the LORD. He promised to follow the LORD and keep his commands, laws, and rules with all his heart and soul. He promised to do what the covenant said, as it was written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant. ⁴Then the king gave orders to Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank, and the doorkeepers. He told them to take out of the LORD's temple all the things made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the stars in the sky. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron. Then he carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵Josiah also got rid of the priests who served idols. The kings of Judah had chosen them to burn incense on the high places in the towns of Judah and all around Jerusalem. These priests had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the groups of stars, and to all the stars in the sky. ⁶He took the Asherah pole out of the house of the LORD. He carried it to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. There he burned it and ground it into powder. Then he threw the dust on the graves of the common people. ⁷He also tore down the rooms of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD. Women wove hangings for Asherah there. ⁸Josiah brought all the priests in from the towns of Judah. He made the high places unclean, from Geba to Beersheba. Those were the places where the priests had burned incense. He tore down the high places at the gates. One was at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, the city governor. It was on the left side of the city gate. ⁹The priests of the high places did not go up to serve at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem. But they did eat bread made without yeast with the other priests. ¹⁰Josiah also made Topheth unclean. It was in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. He did this so that no one could ever burn his son or daughter there in the fire as a sacrifice to Molech. ¹¹The kings of Judah had given horses to honor the sun. Josiah took them away from the entrance to the house of the LORD. They had been kept in the courtyard near the room of an official named Nathan-melech. Josiah also burned the chariots that were given to the sun. ¹²The kings of Judah had set up altars on the roof near the upstairs room of Ahaz. Manasseh had set up altars in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD. King Josiah pulled down all these altars. He smashed them to pieces right there. Then he threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³The king also made the high places east of Jerusalem unclean. They were south of the Mount of Corruption. King Solomon of Israel had built them for three disgusting gods. He built them for Ashtoreth of the Sidonians, Chemosh of the Moabites, and Milcom of the Ammonites. ¹⁴Josiah smashed the sacred stone pillars to pieces. He cut down the Asherah poles. He covered the places where they had stood with human bones. ¹⁵He even pulled down the altar at Bethel. It was the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat had set up. Jeroboam was the one who had led Israel into sin. Josiah burned the high place and ground it into powder. He also burned the Asherah pole. ¹⁶Then Josiah turned and saw the tombs there on the hillside. He sent men to take the bones out of the tombs. He burned the bones on the altar to make it unclean. This happened just as the LORD had said through the man of God. That man had told about these things long before. ¹⁷Then the king asked, "What is this grave marker I see?" The men of the city answered, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah. He told about the very things you have done to the altar at Bethel." ¹⁸"Leave it alone," Josiah said. "Don't let anyone move his bones." So they did not touch his bones. They also left the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria. ¹⁹Josiah did the same thing in the towns of Samaria that he had done at Bethel. He removed all the shrines on the high places there. The kings of Israel had built them, and they had made the LORD angry. ²⁰Josiah killed all the priests of the high places on their own altars. He burned human bones on the altars. Then he went back to Jerusalem. ²¹The king gave an order to all the people. "Celebrate the Passover to honor the LORD your God. Do it as it is written in this Book of the Covenant." ²²No Passover like this one had been celebrated since the days of the judges who led Israel. None like it was held in all the years of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³But in the eighteenth year that Josiah was king, this Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem to honor the LORD. ²⁴Josiah also got rid of the mediums and spiritists. He got rid of the household gods, the idols, and all the disgusting things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. He did this to obey the words of the law. They were written in the book Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD. ²⁵There was never a king like Josiah, before him or after him. He turned to the LORD with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength. He obeyed all the Law of Moses. ²⁶But the LORD still did not turn away from his great, burning anger. His anger burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to make him angry. ²⁷This was because the LORD had said, "I will remove Judah from my sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose. I will reject the temple I spoke about when I said, 'My Name will be there.'" ²⁸The rest of what Josiah did is written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. It tells about all he did. ²⁹While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to the Euphrates River. He went to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah went out to fight him. But Neco met him at Megiddo and killed him. ³⁰Josiah's servants put his body in a chariot and carried it from Megiddo to Jerusalem. They buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Josiah's son Jehoahaz. They poured oil on him and made him king in his father's place. ³¹Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother's name was Hamutal. She was the daughter of Jeremiah, and she came from Libnah. ³²Jehoahaz did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his ancestors had done. ³³Pharaoh Neco put Jehoahaz in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath. That way he could not rule in Jerusalem. Neco made Judah pay 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold.a ³⁴Then Pharaoh Neco made Josiah's son Eliakim king in place of his father Josiah. He changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz away to Egypt, and Jehoahaz died there. ³⁵Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold to Pharaoh Neco. But to pay what Pharaoh asked, he taxed the land. He made the people pay the silver and gold. Each person paid based on how rich he was. ³⁶Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 11 years. His mother's name was Zebidah. She was the daughter of Pedaiah, and she came from Rumah. ³⁷Jehoiakim did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his ancestors had done.