THE SECOND BOOK OF
THE KINGS,

2 Kings 23 ©

Josiah causes the book of the law to be read, and renews the covenant with the Lord, v. 1, etc. Purges the temple, and destroys all idolatry, 4. Breaks down the altar at Bethel, and burns thereon the bones of men, 15. He keeps the passover, 21. An account of certain other evidences of his piety, 24. Although God’s wrath against the land ceased not, 26. He goes to battle against Pharaoh-nechoh, is wounded, and dies, 29. Jehoahaz his son becomes king, 31. Whom Pharaoh-nechoh deposes, and makes Eliakim king in his stead, whom he calls Jehoiakim, 33. His government, 35.

1

ANDa the king 1sent, and they gathered unto him all the 2elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2

And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and 3all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the 4prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant whichb was found in the house of the LORD.

3

¶And the king stood by a 5pillar, and made a covenant 6before the LORD, to walk after 7the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes 8with all their heart and all their soul, 9to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people 10stood to the covenant.

4

And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the 11second order, and the 12keepers 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 13Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto 14Beth-el.

5

And he put down the 15idolatrous 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.

6

And he brought out the 16grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto 17the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and 18cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the 19children of the people.

7

And he brake down the houses of the 20sodomites, that were by 21the house of the LORD, where the women wove 22hangings for the grove.

8

And he brought all the 23priests out of the cities of Judah, and 24defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from 25Geba to 26Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places 27of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate 28of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s 29left hand at the gate of the city.

9

Nevertheless the priests of the high places 30came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

10

And he 31defiled 32Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of 33Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to 34Molech.

11

And he took away the 35horses that the kings of Judah had 36given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the 37chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the 38suburbs, and burned the chariots of the 39sun with fire.

12

And the altars that were on the 40top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars whichc Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, 41and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

13

And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount 42of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for 43Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for 44Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for 45Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

14

And he brake in pieces the images,d and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the 46bones of men.

15

¶Moreover the altare that was at Beth-el, 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.

16

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 47the altar, and polluted it, accordingf to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who 48proclaimed these words.

17

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 Beth-el.

18

And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they 49let his bones alone, with the bones of the 50prophet that came out of 51Samaria.

19

And all the houses also of the high places thatgwere in the 52cities 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 Beth-el.

20

And he 53slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

21

¶And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keeph the passover unto the LORD your God, asiit is written in the 54book of this covenant.

22

55Surely there was not holden such a passover 56from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

23

But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.

24

¶Moreover the workers with 57familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the 58images, and the 59idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah putj 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.

25

And 60like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with 61all 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.

26

¶Notwithstanding the LORD 62turned 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 63withal.

27

And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also 64out of my sight, 65ask I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, 66My name shall be there.

28

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?

29

¶In 67his days Pharaoh-nechoh68 king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria 69to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah 70went against him; and he 71slew him at 72Megiddo, when he had seen 73him.

30

And his servants carried him in a chariot 74dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. Andl the people of the land took 75Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and 76anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.

31

¶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 77Jeremiah of Libnah.

32

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that 78his fathers had done.

33

And Pharaoh-nechoh 79put him in bands at 80Riblah in the land of Hamath, 81that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred 82talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

34

And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and 83turned his name to Jehoiakim,m and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died 84there.

35

And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he 85taxed the land to give the money according to the 86commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one 87according to his taxation,n to give it unto Pharaoh-nechoh.

36

¶Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he 88began to reign; and he reigned 89eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

37

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his 90fathers had done.