Josiah Does Away with Pagan Worship

¹King Josiah summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem,

²and together they went to the Temple, accompanied by the priests and the prophets and all the rest of the people, rich and poor alike. Before them all the king read aloud the whole book of the covenant which had been found in the Temple.

³He stood by the royal column and made a covenant with the Lord to obey him, to keep his laws and commands with all his heart and soul, and to put into practice the demands attached to the covenant, as written in the book. And all the people promised to keep the covenant.

⁴Then Josiah ordered the High Priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the guards on duty at the entrance to the Temple to bring out of the Temple all the objects used in the worship of Baal, of the goddess Asherah, and of the stars. The king burned all these objects outside the city near Kidron Valley and then had the ashes taken to Bethel.

⁵He removed from office the priests that the kings of Judah had ordained to offer sacrifices on the pagan altars in the cities of Judah and in places near Jerusalem—all the priests who offered sacrifices to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars.

⁶He removed from the Temple the symbol of the goddess Asherah, took it out of the city to Kidron Valley, burned it, pounded its ashes to dust, and scattered it over the public burying ground.

⁷He destroyed the living quarters in the Temple occupied by the temple prostitutes. (It was there that women wove robes used in the worship of Asherah.)

⁸He brought to Jerusalem the priests who were in the cities of Judah, and throughout the whole country he desecrated the altars where they had offered sacrifices. He also tore down the altars dedicated to the goat demons near the gate built by Joshua, the city governor, which was to the left of the main gate as one enters the city.

⁹Those priests were not allowed to serve in the Temple, but they could eat the unleavened bread provided for their fellow priests.

¹⁰King Josiah also desecrated Topheth, the pagan place of worship in Hinnom Valley, so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter as a burnt offering to the god Molech.

¹¹He also removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the worship of the sun, and he burned the chariots used in this worship. (These were kept in the temple courtyard, near the gate and not far from the living quarters of Nathan Melech, a high official.)

¹²The altars which the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above King Ahaz' quarters, King Josiah tore down, along with the altars put up by King Manasseh in the two courtyards of the Temple; he smashed the altars to bits and threw them into Kidron Valley.

¹³Josiah desecrated the altars that King Solomon had built east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Olives, for the worship of disgusting idols—Astarte the goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Molech the god of Ammon.

¹⁴King Josiah broke the stone pillars to pieces, cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and the ground where they had stood he covered with human bones.

¹⁵Josiah also tore down the place of worship in Bethel, which had been built by King Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin. Josiah pulled down the altar, broke its stones into pieces, and pounded them to dust; he also burned the image of Asherah.

¹⁶Then Josiah looked around and saw some tombs there on the hill; he had the bones taken out of them and burned on the altar. In this way he desecrated the altar, doing what the prophet had predicted long before during the festival as King Jeroboam was standing by the altar. King Josiah looked around and saw the tomb of the prophet who had made this prediction.

¹⁷“Whose tomb is that?” he asked. The people of Bethel answered, “It is the tomb of the prophet who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done to this altar.”

¹⁸“Leave it as it is,” Josiah ordered. “His bones are not to be moved.” So his bones were not moved, neither were those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

¹⁹In every city of Israel King Josiah tore down all the pagan places of worship which had been built by the kings of Israel, who thereby aroused the Lord's anger. He did to all those altars what he had done in Bethel.

²⁰He killed all the pagan priests on the altars where they served, and he burned human bones on every altar. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah Celebrates the Passover

²¹King Josiah ordered the people to celebrate the Passover in honor of the Lord their God, as written in the book of the covenant.

²²No Passover like this one had ever been celebrated by any of the kings of Israel or of Judah, since the time when judges ruled the nation.

²³Now at last, in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, the Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem.

Other Changes Made by Josiah

²⁴In order to enforce the laws written in the book that the High Priest Hilkiah had found in the Temple, King Josiah removed from Jerusalem and the rest of Judah all the mediums and fortunetellers, and all the household gods, idols, and all other pagan objects of worship.

²⁵There had never been a king like him before, who served the Lord with all his heart, mind, and strength, obeying all the Law of Moses; nor has there been a king like him since.

²⁶But the Lord's fierce anger had been aroused against Judah by what King Manasseh had done, and even now it did not die down.

²⁷The Lord said, “I will do to Judah what I have done to Israel: I will banish the people of Judah from my sight, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and the Temple, the place I said was where I should be worshiped.”

The End of Josiah's Reign

²⁸Everything else that King Josiah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

²⁹While Josiah was king, King Neco of Egypt led an army to the Euphrates River to help the emperor of Assyria. King Josiah tried to stop the Egyptian army at Megiddo and was killed in battle.

³⁰His officials placed his body in a chariot and took it back to Jerusalem, where he was buried in the royal tombs. The people of Judah chose Josiah's son Joahaz and anointed him king.

King Joahaz of Judah

³¹Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from the city of Libnah.

³²Following the example of his ancestors, he sinned against the Lord.

³³His reign ended when King Neco of Egypt took him prisoner in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and made Judah pay 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold as tribute.

³⁴King Neco made Josiah's son Eliakim king of Judah as successor to Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Joahaz was taken to Egypt by King Neco, and there he died.

King Jehoiakim of Judah

³⁵King Jehoiakim collected a tax from the people in proportion to their wealth, in order to raise the amount needed to pay the tribute demanded by the king of Egypt.

³⁶Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah from the town of Rumah.

³⁷Following the example of his ancestors, Jehoiakim sinned against the Lord.

King Josiah of Judah

¹Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for thirty-one years.

²He did what was pleasing to the Lord; he followed the example of his ancestor King David, strictly obeying all the laws of God.

Josiah Attacks Pagan Worship

³In the eighth year that Josiah was king, while he was still very young, he began to worship the God of his ancestor King David. Four years later he began to destroy the pagan places of worship, the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and all the other idols.

⁴Under his direction the altars where Baal was worshiped were smashed, and the incense altars near them were torn down. They ground to dust the images of Asherah and all the other idols and then scattered the dust on the graves of the people who had sacrificed to them.

⁵He burned the bones of the pagan priests on the altars where they had worshiped. By doing all this, he made Judah and Jerusalem ritually clean again.

⁶He did the same thing in the cities and the devastated areas of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far north as Naphtali.

⁷Throughout the territory of the Northern Kingdom he smashed the altars and the symbols of Asherah, ground the idols to dust, and broke into bits all the incense altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The Book of the Law Is Discovered

⁸In the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purified the land and the Temple by ending pagan worship, King Josiah sent three men to repair the Temple of the Lord God: Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah, the governor of Jerusalem, and Joah son of Joahaz, a high official.

⁹The money that the Levite guards had collected in the Temple was turned over to Hilkiah the High Priest. (It had been collected from the people of Ephraim and Manasseh and the rest of the Northern Kingdom, and from the people of Judah, Benjamin, and Jerusalem.)

¹⁰This money was then handed over to the three men in charge of the Temple repairs, and they gave it to

¹¹the carpenters and the builders to buy the stones and the timber used to repair the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to decay.

¹²The men who did the work were thoroughly honest. They were supervised by four Levites: Jahath and Obadiah of the clan of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam of the clan of Kohath. (The Levites were all skillful musicians.)

¹³Other Levites were in charge of transporting materials and supervising the workers on various jobs, and others kept records or served as guards.

¹⁴While the money was being taken out of the storeroom, Hilkiah found the book of the Law of the Lord, the Law that God had given to Moses.

¹⁵He said to Shaphan, “I have found the book of the Law here in the Temple.” He gave Shaphan the book,

¹⁶and Shaphan took it to the king. He reported, “We have done everything that you commanded.

¹⁷We have taken the money that was kept in the Temple and handed it over to the workers and their supervisors.”

¹⁸Then he added, “I have here a book that Hilkiah gave me.” And he read it aloud to the king.

¹⁹When the king heard the book being read, he tore his clothes in dismay

²⁰and gave the following order to Hilkiah, to Ahikam son of Shaphan, to Abdon son of Micaiah, to Shaphan, the court secretary, and to Asaiah, the king's attendant:

²¹“Go and consult the Lord for me and for the people who still remain in Israel and Judah. Find out about the teachings of this book. The Lord is angry with us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the Lord and have not done what this book says must be done.”

²²At the king's command, Hilkiah and the others went to consult a woman named Huldah, a prophet who lived in the newer part of Jerusalem. (Her husband Shallum, the son of Tikvah and grandson of Harhas, was in charge of the Temple robes.) They described to her what had happened,

²³and she told them to go back to the king and give him

²⁴the following message from the Lord: “I am going to punish Jerusalem and all its people with the curses written in the book that was read to the king.

²⁵They have rejected me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and so have stirred up my anger by all they have done. My anger is aroused against Jerusalem, and it will not die down.

²⁶As for the king himself, this is what I, the Lord God of Israel, say: You listened to what is written in the book,

²⁷and you repented and humbled yourself before me, tearing your clothes and weeping, when you heard how I threatened to punish Jerusalem and its people. I have heard your prayer,

²⁸and the punishment which I am going to bring on Jerusalem will not come until after your death. I will let you die in peace.” The men returned to King Josiah with this message.

Josiah Makes a Covenant to Obey the Lord

²⁹King Josiah summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem,

³⁰and together they went to the Temple, accompanied by the priests and the Levites and all the rest of the people, rich and poor alike. Before them all the king read aloud the whole book of the covenant, which had been found in the Temple.

³¹He stood by the royal column and made a covenant with the Lord to obey him, to keep his laws and commands with all his heart and soul, and to put into practice the demands attached to the covenant, as written in the book.

³²He made the people of Benjamin and everyone else present in Jerusalem promise to keep the covenant. And so the people of Jerusalem obeyed the requirements of the covenant they had made with the God of their ancestors.

³³King Josiah destroyed all the disgusting idols that were in the territory belonging to the people of Israel, and as long as he lived, he required the people to serve the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

In Praise of Wisdom

¹Listen! Wisdom is calling out. Reason is making herself heard.

²On the hilltops near the road and at the crossroads she stands.

³At the entrance to the city, beside the gates, she calls:

⁴“I appeal to all of you; I call to everyone on earth.

⁵Are you immature? Learn to be mature. Are you foolish? Learn to have sense.

⁶Listen to my excellent words; all I tell you is right.

⁷What I say is the truth; lies are hateful to me.

⁸Everything I say is true; nothing is false or misleading.

⁹To those with insight, it is all clear; to the well-informed, it is all plain.

¹⁰Choose my instruction instead of silver; choose knowledge rather than the finest gold.

¹¹“I am Wisdom, I am better than jewels; nothing you want can compare with me.

¹²I am Wisdom, and I have insight; I have knowledge and sound judgment.

¹³To honor the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil ways and false words.

¹⁴I make plans and carry them out. I have understanding, and I am strong.

¹⁵I help kings to govern and rulers to make good laws.

¹⁶Every ruler on earth governs with my help, officials and nobles alike.

¹⁷I love those who love me; whoever looks for me can find me.

¹⁸I have riches and honor to give, prosperity and success.

¹⁹What you get from me is better than the finest gold, better than the purest silver.

²⁰I walk the way of righteousness; I follow the paths of justice,

²¹giving wealth to those who love me, filling their houses with treasures.