2 Kings 22–23

Josiah Reigns in Judah

22Josiah ^awas eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of ^bBozkath. ²And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he ^cdid not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

Hilkiah Finds the Book of the Law

^3dNow it came to pass, in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the Lord, saying: ⁴“Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been ^ebrought into the house of the Lord, which ^fthe doorkeepers have gathered from the people. ⁵And let them ^gdeliver it into the hand of those doing the work, who are the overseers in the house of the Lord; let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work, to repair the damages of the house—⁶to carpenters and builders and masons—and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. ⁷However ^hthere need be no accounting made with them of the money delivered into their hand, because they deal faithfully.”

⁸Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, ⁱ“I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, “Your servants have ¹gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who oversee the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. ¹²Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, ^jAhikam the son of Shaphan, ²Achbor the son of Michaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, ¹³“Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is ^kthe wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^lTikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke with her. ¹⁵Then she said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me, ¹⁶“Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, ^mI will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read—¹⁷ⁿbecause they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.’ ” ’ ¹⁸But as for ^othe king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Concerning the words which you have heard—¹⁹because your ^pheart was tender, and you ^qhumbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become ^ra desolation and ^sa curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord. ²⁰Surely, therefore, I will ³gather you to your fathers, and you ^tshall ⁴be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place.” ’ ” So they brought back word to the king.

Josiah Restores True Worship

23Now ^athe king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. ²The 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.

³Then 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. ⁴And 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. ⁵Then 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. ⁶And 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. ⁷Then 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. ⁸And 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. ^9pNevertheless 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.

¹⁰And 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. ¹¹Then 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. ¹²The 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. ¹³Then 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. ¹⁴And he ^ybroke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵Moreover 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. ¹⁶As 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. ¹⁷Then 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.”

¹⁸And 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.

¹⁹Now 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. ^20eHe ^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.

²¹Then 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.” ^22jSuch 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. ²³But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held before the Lord in Jerusalem. ²⁴Moreover 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. ^25mNow 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.

Impending Judgment on Judah

²⁶Nevertheless the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, ⁿbecause of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. ²⁷And the Lord said, “I will also remove Judah from My sight, as ^oI have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, ^p‘My name shall be there.’ ”

Josiah Dies in Battle

²⁸Now 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? ^29qIn his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went ⁸to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at ^rMegiddo when he ^sconfronted him. ^30…