the son of Harham, the keeper of the garments; and she dwelt at Jerusalem in the other part: and they spake unto her.

And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Say unto the man that sent you unto me:

Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, all the words of the law which the king of Judah hath read, 17. Because they have forsaken me, and burned incense unto other gods, and provoked me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore shall my wrath be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.

But unto the king of Judah, which sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel:

Because thine heart was moved at the words which thou hast heard, and hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place and the inhabitants thereof, that they should be a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me, I also have heard it, saith the LORD.

Therefore will I gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place. And they told the king again.
(2 Kings)
Chapter 23
Josiah purifies the service. Government of the kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim.

And the king sent, and there were gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

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 they read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.

And the king stood upon a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, that they should walk after the LORD, and keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all their heart, and with all their soul, to establish the words of this covenant, which were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, that they should take 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. They burned them outside Jerusalem in the Valley of Kidron, and their dust was carried to Bethel.

And he put away the camarim which the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places of the cities of Judah, and round about Jerusalem, and the incense of Baal, and of the sun, and of the moon, and of the planets, and of all the host of heaven.

And he brought the grove out of the house of the LORD from before Jerusalem unto the brook
Kidron, and burned it in the brook Kidron, and made it dust, and cast the dust upon the graves of the common people.

And he brake down the houses of the fornicators that were by the house of the LORD, wherein the women wrought houses for the grove.

And he sent for all the priests of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests burnt incense, from Geba even unto Beer-sheba; and brake down the high places that were in the gates of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which was on the left hand when they prayed at the gate of the city.

But the priests of the high places had never sacrificed upon the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but did eat unleavened bread among their brethren.

He defiled also the Thopheth in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man should let his son or his daughter pass through the fire unto Molech.

And he took away the horses which the kings of Judah had set for the sun in the entry of the house of the LORD by the chamber. Nethan-melech the chamberlain, which was in Parvarim: and he burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.

And the altars that were upon the housetop in the hall of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the LORD’S house, the king brake down; and he ran from thence, and cast the dust thereof into the brook Kidron.

And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of mount Mashith, which Solomon king of Israel had built, Asthoreth the abomination of Zidon, and Kamos the abomination of Moab, and Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

And he brake the pillars, and cut off the sharks, and filled their place with the bones of men.

And the altar that was at Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat made, who made Israel to sin, he brake down the same altar, and the high place; and burned the high place, and made it dust, and burned the grove.

And Josiah turned, and saw the graves that were in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the graves, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD, which the man of God had proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.

And he said, What is this sepulchre that I see? And the men of the city said unto 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.

And he said, Let him lie; let no man move his bones. So his bones were saved with the bones of the prophet that came from Samaria.

And he put away all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke to anger: and he did unto them all things, as he did unto Bethel.

And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burnt men’s bones upon them. And he returned to Jerusalem.

And the king commanded the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.

For there was no passover so kept as this, from the time of the judges that judged Israel, and in all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah, 23. But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah this passover was kept unto the LORD in Jerusalem.

And Josiah purged out all the diviners, and the interpreters of signs, and the graven images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah, and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book which Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

There was no king like him before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses: and after him his like arose not.

But the LORD turned not back from the fierceness of his great wrath, because he was wroth with Judah for all the provocations which Manasseh had provoked him to.

And the LORD said: I will also put Judah away out of my sight, as I have put Israel away; and I will cast away this city which I had chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of it, of which I said: My name shall be there.

And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

In his days Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria unto the river Phrath. And king Josiah went out to meet him, and died at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

And his servants carried him dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his 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.

Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

And did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done.

And Pharaoh-necho caught him at Riblath in the land of Hemath, that he should not reign in Jerusalem: and he laid up an assessment upon the land, an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

And Pharaoh-necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king instead of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Jehoahaz he took, and brought him into Egypt; and there he died.

And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold unto Pharaoh: but he appraised the land to give the silver according to Pharaoh’s commandment; and he appraised every man according to his ability of the silver and the gold of the people of the land, to give to Pharaoh’s necho.

Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebudah, daughter of Pedaiah of