King Josiah
34
📚Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2 📚And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.Josiah’s reforms
3 📚For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young 📖, he began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places and the groves and the carved images and the cast metal images. 4 📚And they broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the images that were high over them, and he destroyed the groves and the carved images and the cast metal images, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 📚And he burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. 6 📚And he did this in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali 📖, and in the ruins around them. 7 📚And when he had destroyed the altars and the groves, and had crushed the carved images into powder, and demolished all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. 8 📚Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.
9 📚And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites who were the gatekeepers had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel 📖, and from all Judah and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 📚And they put it in the hands of the workers who had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workers who were working in the house of the LORD, to repair and restore the house. 11 📚They gave it to the artisans and builders to buy cut stone and timber for joists, and for beams for the buildings which the kings of Judah had let fall into ruin.
12 📚And the men did the work faithfully 📖. And their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to supervise the work; and of the Levites, all who were skillful with musical instruments. 13 📚They were also over the carriers of loads, and oversaw all the workers in any kind of work; and among the Levites there were scribes and officials, and gatekeepers.
The book of the law of God is found
14 📚And when they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given through Moses. 15 And Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD”. And Hilkiah handed the book over to Shaphan.
16 📚And Shaphan carried the book to the king, bringing word back to the king, saying, “Your servants are doing all that was committed to them. 17 And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hands of the overseers and into the hands of the workers”. 18 📚Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book”. And Shaphan read it in the king’s presence.
19 📚And it came about, when the king heard the words of the law, that he tore his clothes. 20 📚And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah 📖, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, a servant of the king, saying, 21 📚“Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found, for great is the wrath 📖 of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do all that is written in this book”.
22 📚And Hilkiah, and those who had been appointed by the king, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter), and they spoke to her about this.
23 📚And she answered them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man who sent you to me, 24 📚thus says the LORD, ‘See, I will bring disaster on this place, and on its inhabitants, all the curses 📖 that are written in the book which they have read in the presence of the king of Judah, 25 📚because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place, and will not be quenched. 26 📚And as for the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD, say this to him: Thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard, 27 📚because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and against its inhabitants, and humbled yourself 📖 before me and tore your clothes and wept before me, I have certainly heard you, says the LORD. 28 📚See, I will gather you to your fathers and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place and on its inhabitants.’ ” So they brought word back to the king.
29 📚Then the king sent men and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem together. 30 📚And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites and all the people, great and small, and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. 31 📚And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and with all his soul, to act in accordance with the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
32 📚And he caused all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand with him. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
33 📚And Josiah took away all the abominations 📖 from the countries, that belonged to the children of Israel 📖, and made all those who were present in Israel to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they did not turn away from following the LORD, the God of their fathers 📖.