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Josiah's
Covenant |
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| 2 Kings 23:1 |
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Then the king sent, and they gathered to him
all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. |
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| 2 Kings 23:2 |
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The king went up to the house of the LORD and
all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and 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 was found in the house
of the LORD. |
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| 2 Kings 23:3 |
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The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant
before the LORD, 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 carry out
the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people
entered into the covenant. |
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Reforms
under Josiah |
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| 2 Kings 23:4 |
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Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest
and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple
of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all
the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the
Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. |
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| 2 Kings 23:5 |
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He did away with the idolatrous priests whom
the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities
of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense
to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host
of heaven. |
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| 2 Kings 23:6 |
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He brought out the Asherah from the house of
the LORD outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron,
and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people. |
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| 2 Kings 23:7 |
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He also broke down the houses of the male cult
prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD, where the women were weaving
hangings for the Asherah. |
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| 2 Kings 23:8 |
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Then 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; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at
the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one's
left at the city gate. |
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| 2 Kings 23:9 |
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Nevertheless the priests of the high places
did not go up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread
among their brothers. |
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| 2 Kings 23:10 |
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He also 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 for Molech. |
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| 2 Kings 23:11 |
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He did away with the horses which the kings
of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the
chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned
the chariots of the sun with fire. |
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| 2 Kings 23:12 |
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The altars which 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 the LORD, the king broke down; and
he smashed them there and threw their dust into the brook Kidron. |
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| 2 Kings 23:13 |
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The high places which were before Jerusalem,
which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of
Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh
the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon,
the king defiled. |
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| 2 Kings 23:14 |
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He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut
down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones. |
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| 2 Kings 23:15 |
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Furthermore, the altar that was at Bethel and
the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made,
even that altar and the high place he broke down. Then he demolished its stones,
ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah. |
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| 2 Kings 23:16 |
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Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that
were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and
burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the LORD which
the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. |
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| 2 Kings 23:17 |
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Then he said, "What is this monument that I
see?" And the men of the city told him, "It is the grave of the man of God who
came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar
of Bethel." |
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| 2 Kings 23:18 |
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He said, "Let him alone; let no one disturb
his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who
came from Samaria. |
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| 2 Kings 23:19 |
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Josiah also removed all the houses of the high
places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made
provoking the LORD; and he did to them just as he had done in Bethel. |
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| 2 Kings 23:20 |
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All the priests of the high places who were
there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned
to Jerusalem. |
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Passover
Reinstituted |
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| 2 Kings 23:21 |
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Then the king commanded all the people saying,
"Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God as it is written in this book of
the covenant." |
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| 2 Kings 23:22 |
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Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated
from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings
of Israel and of the kings of Judah. |
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| 2 Kings 23:23 |
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But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this
Passover was observed to the LORD in Jerusalem. |
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| 2 Kings 23:24 |
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Moreover, Josiah removed the mediums and the
spiritists and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen
in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the
law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house
of the LORD. |
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| 2 Kings 23:25 |
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Before him there was no king like him who turned
to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according
to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. |
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| 2 Kings 23:26 |
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However, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness
of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the
provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. |
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| 2 Kings 23:27 |
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The LORD said, "I will remove Judah also from
My sight, as I have removed Israel. And I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which
I have chosen, and the temple of which I said, 'My name shall be there.'" |
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Jehoahaz
Succeeds Josiah |
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| 2 Kings 23:28 |
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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? |
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| 2 Kings 23:29 |
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In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went
up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet
him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he killed him at Megiddo. |
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| 2 Kings 23:30 |
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His servants drove his body in a chariot from
Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the
people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him
king in place of his father. |
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| 2 Kings 23:31 |
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Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he
became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was
Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. |
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| 2 Kings 23:32 |
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He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according
to all that his fathers had done. |
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| 2 Kings 23:33 |
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Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the
land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land
a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. |
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Jehoiakim
Made King by Pharaoh |
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| 2 Kings 23:34 |
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Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah
king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But
he took Jehoahaz away and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. |
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| 2 Kings 23:35 |
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So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh,
but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the command of Pharaoh. He
exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, each according to his
valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. |
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| 2 Kings 23:36 |
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Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he
became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was
Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. |
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| 2 Kings 23:37 |
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He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according
to all that his fathers had done. |
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