Josias reads the law before all the people. They promise to observe it. He abolishes all idolatry, celebrates the phase: is slain in battle by the king of Egypt. The short reign of Joachaz, in whose place Joakim is made king.

¹ And they reported to the king what she had said. And he sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him.

² And the king ascended to the temple of the Lord. And with him were all the men of Judah and all who were living in Jerusalem: the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, from the small to the great. And in the hearing of everyone, he read all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord.

³ And the king stood upon the step. And he struck a covenant before the Lord, so that they would walk after the Lord, and keep his precepts and testimonies and ceremonies, with all their heart and with all their soul, and so that they would carry out the words of this covenant, which had been written in that book. And the people agreed to the covenant.¹

1. 23:3The king stood upon the step: That is, his tribune, or tribunal, a more eminent place, from whence he might be seen and heard by the people.(Challoner)

⁴ And the king instructed Hilkiah, the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, so that they would cast out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels which had been made for Baal, and for the sacred grove, and for the entire army of heaven. And he burned them outside of Jerusalem, in the steep valley of Kidron. And he carried their dust into Bethel.

⁵ And he destroyed the soothsayers, whom the kings of Judah had appointed to sacrifice in the high places throughout the cities of Judah, and all around Jerusalem, along with those who were burning incense to Baal, and to the Sun, and to the Moon, and to the twelve signs, and to the entire army of heaven.

⁶ And he caused the sacred grove to be carried away from the house of the Lord, outside of Jerusalem, to the steep valley of Kidron. And he burned it there, and reduced it to dust. And he cast the dust over the graves of the common people.

⁷ Also, he destroyed the small places of the effeminate, which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women were weaving something like little houses in the sacred grove.

⁸ And he gathered together all the priests from the cities of Judah. And he defiled the high places, where the priests were sacrificing, from Geba as far as Beersheba. And he tore down the altars of the gates at the entrance to the gate of Joshua, the leader of the city, which was to the left of the gate of the city.

⁹ Yet truly, the priests of the high places did not ascend to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem. For they would only eat from the unleavened bread in the midst of their brothers.

¹⁰ Also, he defiled Topheth, which is in the steep valley of the son of Hinnom, so that no one would consecrate his son or his daughter, through fire, to Molech.

¹¹ Also, he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the Sun, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, beside the hallway of Nathan-melech, the eunuch, who was in Pharurim. And he burned the chariots of the Sun with fire.

¹² Also, the altars which were upon the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the temple of the Lord, the king destroyed. And he hurried from there, and he scattered their ashes into the torrent Kidron.

¹³ Also, the high places which were in Jerusalem, to the right side of the Mount of Offense, which Solomon, the king of Israel, had built to Ashtoreth, the idol of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh, the offense of Moab, and to Milcom, the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.

¹⁴ And he crushed the statues, and he cut down the sacred groves. And he filled their places with the bones of the dead.

¹⁵ Then too, the altar which was in Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had made: both that altar and the high place he tore down, and burned, and reduced to dust. And then he also set fire to the sacred grove.

¹⁶ And in that place Josiah, turning, saw the sepulchers which were on the mount. And he sent and took the bones from the sepulchers. And he burned them upon the altar, and he defiled it in accord with the word of the Lord, which was spoken by the man of God, who had predicted these events.

¹⁷ And he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the citizens of that city responded to him: “It is the sepulcher of the man of God, who came from Judah, and who predicted these events, which you have carried out concerning the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸ And he said: “Permit him. Let no one move his bones.” And his bones have remained untouched, with the bones of the prophet who had arrived from Samaria.

¹⁹ Then too, all the shrines of the high places, which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord, Josiah took away. And he acted toward them according to all the works that he had done in Bethel.

²⁰ And all the priests of the high places, who were in that place, he killed upon the altars. And he burned the bones of the men upon them. And he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ And he instructed all the people, saying: “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, according to what has been written in the book of this covenant.”

²² Now no similar Passover was kept, from the days of the judges, who judged Israel, and from all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah,

²³ as this Passover, which was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem, in the eighteenth year of king Josiah.

²⁴ Then too, Josiah took away those who divined by spirits, and the soothsayers, and the images of the idols, and the defilements, and the abominations, which had been in the land of Judah and Jerusalem, so that he might establish the words of the law, which were written in the book, which Hilkiah, the priest, found in the temple of the Lord.

²⁵ There was no king before him similar to him, who returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, in accord with the entire law of Moses. And after him, there rose up no one similar to him.

²⁶ Yet truly, the Lord did not turn away from the wrath of his great fury, his fury which was enraged against Judah because of the provocations by which Manasseh had provoked him.

²⁷ And so the Lord said: “And now I will remove Judah from my face, just as I removed Israel. And I will cast aside this city, Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the house, about which I said: My name shall be there.”

²⁸ Now the rest of the words of Josiah, and all that he did, have these not been written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Judah?

²⁹ During his days, Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, ascended against the king of the Assyrians to the river Euphrates. And king Josiah went out to meet him. And when he had seen him, he was killed at Megiddo.

³⁰ And his servants carried him dead from Megiddo. And they took him to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah. And they anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.