Josiah Restores True Worship

23 Now athe king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. 2 The king went up to the house of the Lord 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 bread in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant cwhich had been found in the house of the Lord.

3 Then the king dstood by a pillar and made a ecovenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord 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 fpriests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring gout of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for 1Asherah, and for all 2the 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 3constellations, and to hall the host of heaven. 6 And he brought out the iwooden 4image from the house of the Lord, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to jashes, and threw its ashes on kthe graves of the common people. 7 Then he tore down the ritual 5booths lof the 6perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, mwhere the nwomen 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 oGeba 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 pNevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, qbut they ate unleavened bread among their brethren.

10 And he defiled rTopheth, which is in sthe Valley of the 7Son of Hinnom, tthat no man might make his son or his daughter upass through the fire to Molech. 11 Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had 8dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, 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 von the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which wManasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. 13 Then the king defiled the 9high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the 1south of 2the Mount of Corruption, which xSolomon 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 ybroke 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 3high place zwhich 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 aword of the Lord which the man of God 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 bthe tomb of the man of God 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 cthe prophet who came from Samaria.

19 Now Josiah also took away all the 4shrines of the 5high places that were din the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke 6the Lord to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. 20 eHe fexecuted all the priests of the 7high places who were there, on the altars, and gburned men’s bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

21 Then the king commanded all the people, saying, h“Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, ias it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” 22 jSuch 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 the Lord in Jerusalem. 24 Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of kthe law which were written in the book lthat Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 25 mNow before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord 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.