12:023:001 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders
of Judah and of Jerusalem.
12:023:002 And the king went up into 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 ears all the words of
the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the
LORD.
12:023:003 And the king stood by a 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 their heart and all
their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were
written in this book. And all the people stood to the
covenant.
12:023:004 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the
priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to
bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that
were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of
heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of
Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.
12:023:005 And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of
Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the
cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them
also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the
moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
12:023:006 And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD,
without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the
brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the
powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
12:023:007 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by
the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the
grove.
12:023:008 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and
defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense,
from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the
gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the
governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the
gate of the city.
12:023:009 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the
altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the
unleavened bread among their brethren.
12:023:010 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children
of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to
pass through the fire to Molech.
12:023:011 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given
to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by
the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the
suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12:023:012 And the altars that were on the top of 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,
did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and
cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
12:023:013 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on
the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the
king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of
the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the
Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of
Ammon, did the king defile.
12:023:014 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves,
and filled their places with the bones of men.
12:023:015 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place
which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had
made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and
burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and
burned the grove.
12:023:016 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that
were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of
the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted
it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God
proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
12:023:017 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of
the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God,
which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou
hast done against the altar of Bethel.
12:023:018 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they
let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came
out of Samaria.
12:023:019 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the
cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to
provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them
according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
12:023:020 And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there
upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and
returned to Jerusalem.
12:023:021 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the
passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book
of this covenant.
12:023:022 Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of
the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the
kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;
12:023:023 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this
passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.
12:023:024 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards,
and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that
were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah
put away, that he might perform the words of the law which
were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the
house of the LORD.
12:023:025 And like unto him was there no king before him, that 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; neither
after him arose there any like him.
12:023:026 Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his
great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah,
because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him
withal.
12:023:027 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight,
as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city
Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said,
My name shall be there.
12:023:028 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?
12:023:029 In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the
king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went
against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
12:023:030 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo,
and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own
sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of
Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's
stead.
12:023:031 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his
mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
12:023:032 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to all that his fathers had done.
12:023:033 And Pharaohnechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of
Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land
to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of
gold.
12:023:034 And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the
room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim,
and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.
12:023:035 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he
taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment
of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people
of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give
it unto Pharaohnechoh.
12:023:036 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to
reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his
mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
12:023:037 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to all that his fathers had done.