2 *Kings 23

₁The king sent messengers and he said all the leaders_of_Judah and Jerusalem must come to him. ₂He went to the temple and all the leaders_of_Judah were there, and also the people of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets and all the people, those who were important and those who were unimportant. He read the words to them that were written in the book_of_the_covenant that the high-priest had found in the temple. ₃Then the king went to the pillar. He promised that he would always serve God and that he would do everything that the laws of God said. He promised to do what God wanted and to listen to Him and keep the covenant that God talked about in the book. All the people also promised to listen to Him and to obey the covenant with the king.

₄The king told the high-priest Hilkiah, the other important priests and the guards at the doors of the temple to bring everything out of the temple that the people had made for Baal and Asherah and the idols for the sun, the moon and the stars. They burnt them all outside Jerusalem in the Kidron Valley and they took the ashes to the town of Bethel. ₅Long before this the kings_of_Judah had priests who served_idols. These priests had to burn incense-offerings on the places_of_sacrifice in the towns of Judah and outside of Jerusalem. They burnt them for Baal, for the sun, the moon and for all the stars. King Josiah said those priests could not be priests anymore. ₆He also took the idol of Asherah out of the temple and burnt it outside Jerusalem in the Kidron Valley. Then he told them to beat the burnt pieces to ash and he threw the ash onto the graves of the people. ₇He destroyed the rooms of the men who were prostitutes at the temple, where the women did weaving for Asherah.

₈King Josiah told all the priests who worked in the towns of Judah to come to Jerusalem. He broke down the places_of_sacrifice and he made the places impure where the priests had burnt incense-offerings, from the town of Geba to the town of Beersheba. He also broke down the places of sacrifice and the one in front of the gate of the house of Joshua, the chief of the city. It was on the left hand side of the city gate. ₉Josiah told the priests who came from the places_of_sacrifice that they could not work at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they could eat from the flat bread with the priests of the temple.

₁₀There was a place in the Ben-Hinnom Valley where some people had burnt their children. The king broke down that place and he made it impure so that no one could ever sacrifice a child there again to the idol Molek. ₁₁He also took away the images of the horses that the kings_of_Judah had made, because some people worshipped the sun at those images. The images were standing in the courtyard in front of the gate of the temple near the room of an official of the palace. His name was Nathan-Melek. The king also burnt the war-chariots that were with the images. ₁₂He broke down all the altars that the kings_of_Judah had built on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz and the altars that Manasseh had built in the 2 courtyards of the temple. He made them break them down and beat the altars until they were like dust and then he told them to throw the dust in the Kidron Valley. ₁₃He broke down the places_of_sacrifice that Solomon, king_of_Israel, had built east of Jerusalem and he made the place impure. The places of sacrifice were south of the Mount_of_Olives. Solomon had built those places of sacrifice for Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonian people, for Chemosh, the god of Moab, and for Molek, the god of the people of Ammon. ₁₄Josiah broke down the sacred_pillar and he cut off the Asherah poles. Then he took the bones of dead people and he threw them onto those places.

₁₅Josiah also broke down the altar that was in Bethel, the altar that Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had built. Jeroboam had seduced the Israelites to sin there. Josiah broke down that altar and the places_of_sacrifice. He burnt them and beat them until they were like dust and he also burnt the Asherah pole. ₁₆When Josiah turned_around, he saw some graves on the mountain. He told his men to take the bones of those dead people and to burn them on that altar to make it impure. This happened as the man of God had said to King Jeroboam when he stood at the altar.

₁₇Then Josiah saw a memorial stone and he asked who was buried there. The people of Bethel told him: ‘This is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah. Long ago this man of God said that these things that you have done to the altar of Bethel would happen.’ ₁₈Josiah said: ‘Leave him. No one must take away or move his bones.’ They did not move the bones of the man of God and the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. ₁₉Josiah also broke down the temples at the places_of_sacrifice. The kings_of_Israel had built those temples in the city of Samaria long before. They had done it to make the Lord angry. Josiah also broke down those temples as he had done in Bethel. ₂₀Josiah killed all the priests who had worked at the places_of_sacrifice. He killed them and burnt their bodies on those altars that they had built for the idols. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

₂₁The king told all the people: ‘You must celebrate the Passover for the Lord your God. You must celebrate it as it is written in this book_of_the_covenant.’ ₂₂There had never been a Passover like this one, from the time when the judges ruled over the Israelites, until that day. The people of Israel had never celebrated a Passover like this one, not even in the time of the kings_of_Israel and of Judah. ₂₃They celebrated this Passover for the Lord in Jerusalem in the 18th year after Josiah had become king.

₂₄Josiah also killed the mediums and spiritists. He destroyed all the gods and idols that were in people's houses and things that the Gentiles worshipped in Judah and Jerusalem. He did everything to obey the laws that were written in the book which Hilkiah had found in the temple. ₂₅There was no other king like Josiah who had changed his life like this, and turned his life to God and lived for Him with all his heart and his life and his power, not before him or after him. Josiah did what the Lord wanted, like the laws of Moses said.

₂₆But the Lord was still angry with the people of Judah. He was angry about what Manasseh had done. ₂₇The Lord said: ‘I will also take away the people of Judah as I took away the Israelites. I chose the city of Jerusalem and I said I would live in this temple Myself. But now I will turn my back on this city, and this temple, and I will leave it.’

₂₈All the other things that Josiah did are written in the book of the history of the kings_of_Judah.

₂₉In the time when Josiah was king, Necho, king of Egypt went to the king of Assyria to help him at the Euphrates River. Josiah went to Necho to fight but Necho, Pharaoh, killed Josiah at Megiddo. ₃₀Josiah's officers put his body in a war-chariot and they took it to Jerusalem and his people buried him in his grave. The people of the land took his son, Jehoahaz, and they anointed him and made him king in his father's place.

₃₁Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king and he was king in Jerusalem for only 3 months. His mother's name was Hamutal. She was the daughter of Jeremiah from the town of Libnah. ₃₂Jehoahaz did what the Lord said was wrong. He did the same as some of his forefathers. ₃₃Pharaoh Necho caught Jehoahaz. He made Jehoahaz a prisoner in the town of Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and Jehoahaz was not king in Jerusalem anymore. Pharaoh told the people of the land_of_Judah to pay him 100 talents of silver and one talent of gold.

₃₄Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim, son of Josiah, king after his father. He changed Eliakim's name. His new name was Jehoiakim. The Pharaoh took Jehoahaz to Egypt and Jehoahaz died there. ₃₅Jehoiakim had to pay the silver and gold to Pharaoh and he told every person in the land to give him money so that he could pay the Pharaoh.

₃₆Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king and he was king in Jerusalem for 11 years. His mother's name was Zebidah. She was the daughter of Pedaiah from the town of Rumah. ₃₇Jehoiakim did what the Lord said was wrong. He was like some of his forefathers.