2 Kings 23

1The king sent, and they gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him.

2The king went up to the house of Yahweh with all the men of Judah and all who dwelt in Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people from least to greatest, and he read aloud in their hearing all the words of the covenant book that had been found in the house of Yahweh.

3The king stood by the pillar and cut a covenant before Yahweh to follow after Yahweh and guard his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all the heart and all the soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book, and all the people stood by the covenant.

4The king commanded Hilkiah the chief priest, the secondary priests, and the threshold keepers to carry out of Yahweh's temple all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for the entire host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the Kidron fields and bore their ashes to Bethel.

5He removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed, who burned incense on the high places in Judah's cities and around Jerusalem, along with those offering incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

6He removed the Asherah from Yahweh's house outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Brook, burned it there by the brook, ground it to dust, and scattered the dust over the graves of the people's children.

7He broke down the houses of the temple prostitutes that were in the house of Yahweh, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.

8He brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense there, from Geba to Beersheba, and broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the ruler of the city, which were on a man's left at the city gate.

9However, the priests of the high places did not ascend to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

10He desecrated Topheth, which lies in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so no man would pass his son or daughter through the fire to Molech.

11He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun from the entrance to the house of Yahweh by the chamber of Nathan-melech the eunuch, which was in the Parbarim, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

12The king demolished the altars on the roof of Ahaz's upper chamber, which the kings of Judah had built, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of Yahweh's house; he crushed them from there and hurled their dust into the Kidron brook.

13The king defiled the high places facing Jerusalem, to the right of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

14He shattered the pillars, cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with human bones.

15He also broke down the altar in Bethel and the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat—who had caused Israel to sin—had built, along with that altar and the high place; he burned the high place, ground it to dust, and burned the Asherah.

16As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount and sent and took the bones from the tombs, burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

17He said, "What marker is that I see?" The men of the city said to him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and declared these words that you performed against the altar at Bethel."

18He said, "Leave him alone; let no man disturb his bones." So they spared his bones along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

19Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke anger, and dealt with them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel.

20He slaughtered all the priests of the high places that were there on the altars, burned human bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

21The king commanded all the people, saying, "Observe the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant."

22Indeed, no such Passover was celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

23But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was observed to Yahweh in Jerusalem.

24Moreover, Josiah removed the mediums, the wizards, the household gods, the idols, and all the detestable things that had appeared throughout the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, to fulfill the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh.

25No king before him was 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 arose anyone like him.

26Nevertheless, Yahweh did not turn from the burning of his great anger, the anger that blazed against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.

27Yahweh said, "I will also remove Judah from my presence, as I removed Israel, and reject this city that I chose—Jerusalem—and the house where I declared, 'My name will be there.'"

28The rest of Josiah's deeds and all that he did—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

29In his days Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, advanced against the king of Assyria to the Euphrates River, and King Josiah went out to meet him, but he killed him at Megiddo upon seeing him.

30His servants carried him dead from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own grave. The people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.

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

32He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done.

33Pharaoh Necoh bound him at Riblah in the land of Hamath to keep him from reigning in Jerusalem, and imposed a fine on the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

34Pharaoh Neco installed Eliakim son of Josiah as king in place of his father Josiah and named him Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz away, and he went to Egypt and died there.

35Jehoiakim gave Pharaoh the silver and the gold, but he assessed the land to provide the silver according to Pharaoh's command; he exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, each man according to his valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Necoh.

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

37He did evil in Yahweh's sight, according to everything his fathers had done.