2 Kings 22–23

Hilkiah Finds the Scroll of the Law

22Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 31 years. His mother’s name was Jedidah. She was the daughter of Adaiah. She was from Bozkath.

²Josiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He lived the way King David had lived. He didn’t turn away from it to the right or the left.

³King Josiah sent his secretary Shaphan to the Lord’s temple. It was in the 18th year of Josiah’s rule. Shaphan was the son of Azaliah. Azaliah was the son of Meshullam. Josiah said, ⁴“Go up to the high priest Hilkiah. Have him add up the money that has been brought into the Lord’s temple. Those who guard the doors have collected it from the people.

⁵“Have them put all of the money in the care of the men who have been put in charge of the work on the Lord’s temple. Have them pay the workers who repair it. ⁶Have them pay the builders and those who work with wood. Have them pay those who lay the stones. Also have them buy lumber and blocks of stone to repair the temple.

⁷“But they don’t have to report how they use the money that is given to them. That’s because they are completely honest.”

⁸The high priest Hilkiah spoke to the secretary Shaphan. He said, “I’ve found the Scroll of the Law in the Lord’s temple.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it.

⁹Then Shaphan went to King Josiah. He told him, “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the Lord’s temple. They’ve put it in the care of the workers and directors there.” ¹⁰Shaphan continued, “The priest Hilkiah has given me a scroll.” Shaphan read some of it to the king.

¹¹The king heard the words of the Scroll of the Law. When he did, he tore his royal robes. ¹²He gave orders to the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam, Acbor, the secretary Shaphan and Asaiah. Ahikam was the son of Shaphan. Acbor was the son of Micaiah. And Asaiah was the king’s attendant.

Josiah commanded them, ¹³“Go. Ask the Lord for advice. Ask him about what is written in this scroll that has been found. Do it for me. Also do it for the people and the whole nation of Judah. The Lord’s anger is burning against us. That’s because our people before us didn’t obey the words of this scroll. They didn’t do everything that is written there about us.”

¹⁴The priest Hilkiah went to speak to the prophet Huldah. So did Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah. Huldah was the wife of Shallum. Shallum was the son of Tikvah. Tikvah was the son of Harhas. Shallum took care of the sacred robes. Huldah lived in the New Quarter of Jerusalem.

¹⁵She said to them, “The Lord is the God of Israel. He says, ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ¹⁶“The Lord says, ‘I am going to bring horrible trouble on this place and its people. Everything that is written in the scroll the king of Judah has read will take place.

¹⁷“ ‘ “ ‘That is because the people have deserted me. They have burned incense to other gods. They have made me very angry because of the statues of gods their hands have made. So my anger will burn against this place. The fire of my anger will not be put out.’ ” ’

¹⁸“The king of Judah sent you to ask the Lord for advice. Tell him, ‘The Lord is the God of Israel. He has a message for you about the things you heard. He says, ¹⁹“Your heart was tender. You made yourself low in my sight. You heard what I spoke against this place and its people. I said they would be under a curse. I told them they would be destroyed. You tore your royal robes and sobbed. And I have heard you,” announces the Lord.

²⁰“ ‘ “You will join the members of your family who have already died. Your body will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all of the trouble I am going to bring on this place.” ’ ”

Huldah’s answer was taken back to the king.

Josiah Promises to Follow the Covenant

23Then the king called together all of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ²He went up to the Lord’s temple. The people of Judah and Jerusalem went with him. So did the priests and prophets. All of them went, from the least important of them to the most important.

The king had all of the words of the Scroll of the Covenant read to them. The scroll had been found in the Lord’s temple.

³The king stood next to his pillar. He agreed to the terms of the covenant in front of the Lord. He promised to follow him and obey his commands, directions and rules. He promised to obey them with all his heart and with all his soul. So he agreed to the terms of the covenant that were written down in that scroll. Then all of the people committed themselves to the covenant.

⁴Certain articles that were in the Lord’s temple had been made to honor the god Baal and the goddess Asherah and all of the stars in the sky. The king ordered the high priest Hilkiah to remove those articles. He ordered the priests who were under him and the men who guarded the doors to help Hilkiah. Josiah burned the articles outside Jerusalem. He burned them in the fields in the Kidron Valley. And he took the ashes to Bethel.

⁵He got rid of the priests who served other gods. The kings of Judah had appointed them to burn incense. They burned the incense on the high places of the towns of Judah. And they burned it on the high places around Jerusalem. They burned incense to honor Baal and the sun and moon. They burned it to honor all of the stars.

⁶Josiah removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple. It had been used to worship Asherah. He took it to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. There he burned it. He ground it into powder. And he scattered it over the graves of the ordinary people.

⁷He also tore down the rooms where the male temple prostitutes stayed. Those rooms were in the Lord’s temple. The women had made cloth for Asherah in them.

⁸Josiah brought all of the priests from the towns of Judah and destroyed the high places. He destroyed them from Geba all the way to Beersheba. The priests had burned incense on them. Josiah broke down the high places at the gates. That included the high place at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua. It was on the left side of one of Jerusalem’s gates. Joshua was the city governor.

⁹The priests of the high places didn’t serve at the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem. In spite of that, they ate with the other priests. All of them ate bread that was made without yeast.

¹⁰Josiah destroyed the high places at Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He didn’t want anyone to use them to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to the god Molech.

¹¹He removed the statues of horses from the entrance to the Lord’s temple. The kings of Judah had set them apart to honor the sun. The statues were in the courtyard. They were near the room of an official named Nathan-Melech. Josiah burned the chariots that had been set apart to honor the sun.

¹²He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had set up. They had put them on the palace roof near the upstairs room of Ahaz. Josiah also pulled down the altars Manasseh had built. They were in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. Josiah removed the altars from there. He smashed them to pieces. Then he threw the broken pieces into the Kidron Valley.

¹³The king also destroyed the high places that were east of Jerusalem. They were at the southern end of the Mount of Olives. They were the ones Solomon, the king of Israel, had built. He had built a high place for worshiping Ashtoreth. She was the evil goddess of the people of Sidon. Solomon had also built one for worshiping Chemosh. He was the evil god of Moab. And Solomon had built one for worshiping Molech. He was the god of the people of Ammon. The Lord hated that god.

¹⁴Josiah smashed the sacred stones. He cut down the poles that were used to worship the goddess Asherah. Then he covered all of those places with human bones.

¹⁵There was an altar at Bethel. It was at the high place that had been made by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit sin. Even that altar and high place were destroyed by Josiah. He burned the high place. He ground it into powder. He also burned the Asherah pole.

¹⁶Then Josiah looked around. He saw the tombs that were on the side of the hill. He had the bones removed from them. And he burned them on the altar to make it “unclean.” That’s what the Lord had said would happen. He had spoken that message through a man of God. The man had announced those things long before they took place.

¹⁷The king asked, “What’s that stone on the grave over there?”

The men of the city said, “It marks the tomb where the body of a man of God is buried. He came from Judah. He spoke against the altar at Bethel. He announced the very things you have done to it.”

¹⁸“Leave it alone,” Josiah said. “Don’t let anyone touch his bones.”

So they spared his bones. They also spared the bones of the prophet who had come from the northern kingdom of Israel.

¹⁹Josiah did in the rest of the northern kingdom the same things he had done at Bethel. He removed all of the small temples at the high places. He made them “unclean.” The kings of Israel had built them in the towns of the northern kingdom. The people in those towns had made the Lord very angry.

²⁰Josiah killed all of the priests of those high places on the altars. He burned human bones on the altars. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

²¹The king gave an order to all of the people. He said, “Celebrate the Passover Feast to honor the Lord your God. Do what is written in this Scroll of the Covenant.”

²²A Passover Feast like that one had not been held for a long time. There hadn’t been any like it since the days of the judges who led Israel. And there hadn’t been any like it during the whole time the kings of Israel and Judah were ruling.

²³King Josiah celebrated the Passover in Jerusalem to honor the Lord. It was in the 18th year of his rule.

²⁴And that’s not all. Josiah got rid of those who got messages from people who had died. He got rid of those who talked to the spirits of the dead. He got rid of the statues of family gods and the statues of other gods. He got rid of everything else the Lord hates that was…