2 Kings

2 Kings 23 ©

1 Josiah causeth the book to be read in a solemn assembly. 3 He reneweth the covenant between the Lord and the people. 4 He destroyeth idolatry in Judah. 15 He burneth men's bones upon the altar at Beth-el according to the prophecy, sparing the sepulchre of the prophet who had foretold these things. 19 He pulleth down the idolatrous houses in the cities of Samaria, and slayeth the priests. 21 He causeth a solemn passover to be kept. 24 He putteth away witches and all abominations, and excelleth in piety all kings before and after him. 26 God's determined wrath against Judah for Manasseh's provocations. 28 Josiah's acts: 29 he is slain in a battle with Pharaoh-nechoh; Jehoahaz succeedeth him. 31 Jehoahaz after a wicked reign of three months is deposed and imprisoned by Pharaoh-nechoh, who maketh Jehoiakim king, and carrieth Jehoahaz to Egypt. 35 Jehoiakim taxeth the land for Pharaoh's tribute. 36 His wicked reign.

1

AND the aking sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2

And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and ball the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, 1both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of cthe book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.

3

¶And the dking stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, eto walk after the LORD, and to keep his fcommandments 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 gstood to the covenant.

4

And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the hpriests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the ivessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them *without Jerusalem jin the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto kBeth-el.

5

And he 2put down 3the 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 lBaal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the 4planets, and to all the host of heaven.

6

And he brought out the mgrove 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 nupon the graves of the children of the people.

7

And he brake down the houses oof the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, pwhere the women wove 5hangings for the grove.

8

And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from qGeba to Beer-sheba, 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.

9

Nevertheless the rpriests 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.

10

And he defiled sTopheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that tno man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to uMolech.

11

And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the vsun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the 6*chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

12

And the altars that were won the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which xManasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and 7brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into ythe brook Kidron.

y v.4,6.
13

And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of 8the mount of corruption, which zSolomon 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.

14

And he abrake in pieces the 9images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places bwith the bones of men.

b v.16,20.
15

¶Moreover cthe altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, dwho 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 eburned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

17

Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is fthe 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 10alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the gprophet that came out of Samaria.

19

And hall 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 Beth-el.

20

And he 11slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and iburned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

21

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

22

Surely there was not *holden lsuch 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;

23

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

24

¶Moreover the mworkers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the 12images, 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.

25

And nlike unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with oall 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 pthe LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the 13provocations that Manasseh had provoked him *withal.

27

And the LORD said, qI will remove Judah also out of my sight, as rI have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, sMy name shall be there.

28

Now tthe 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 uhis days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he vslew him at Megiddo, when he had wseen him.

30

And xhis servants carried him in a chariot ydead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And zthe people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's *stead.

31

14Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was aHamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

32

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

33

And Pharaoh-nechoh cput him in bands at dRiblah in the land of eHamath, 15that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and 16put the land to a tribute of fan hundred talents 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 gturned his name to hJehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came ito Egypt, and died there.

35

And Jehoiakim jgave 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 Pharaoh-nechoh.

36

¶Jehoiakim was ktwenty 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.

37

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