1The king sent for all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem and gathered them to him.
2The king went up to Yahweh’s temple, and all the men of Judah and all the residents of Jerusalem went with him, along with the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both young and old. He read aloud for them to hear all the words of the covenant book that had been found in Yahweh’s temple.
3The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before Yahweh: to follow Yahweh, keep his commands, testimonies, and decrees with all his heart and soul, and uphold the words of this covenant written in this book. And all the people confirmed the covenant.
4The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second rank, and the guards at the entrance to remove from Yahweh’s temple all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and carried their ashes to Bethel.
5He also removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in the cities of Judah and the areas around Jerusalem. This included those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and all the stars of the sky.
6He brought the Asherah pole out of Yahweh’s temple, outside Jerusalem, to the Kidron Valley. He burned it in the Kidron Valley, ground it to dust, and scattered its dust over the graves of the common people.
7He tore down the living quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in Yahweh’s temple, where the women wove tapestries for Asherah.
8The king removed all the priests from the cities of Judah and made the places unclean where these priests had burned incense, stretching from Geba to Beersheba. He also tore down the shrines at the entrance of the gate belonging to Joshua, the city governor, which were on the left side of the city gate.
9However, the priests of these shrines were not allowed to serve at Yahweh's altar in Jerusalem. Instead, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.
10He made Topheth, which is in the Valley of Hinnom, unclean so that no one could sacrifice their son or daughter by fire to Molech.
11He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun god, located at the entrance of Yahweh's temple, near the room of Nathan Melech, an official who worked in the court. He also burned the sun god's chariots.
12The king tore down the altars that were on the roof of Ahaz's upper room, which the kings of Judah had built. He also destroyed the altars Manasseh had built in the two courtyards of Yahweh's temple, breaking them into pieces and throwing their dust into the Kidron Valley.
13The king made unclean the shrines located east of Jerusalem, on the right side of the Mount of Corruption. King Solomon of Israel had built these for Ashtoreth, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and for Milcom, the detestable god of the Ammonites.
14He smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with human bones.
15Josiah also destroyed the altar and shrine at Bethel, which Jeroboam son of Nebat had built and used to lead Israel into sin. He burned the shrine, ground it to dust, and burned the Asherah pole.
16As Josiah looked around, he noticed the tombs on the mountain there. He sent men to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar, making it unclean. This was in fulfillment of the message Yahweh had spoken through the man of God.
17Then he asked, "What is that monument I see?" The people of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and announced the very things you have done to the altar at Bethel."
18Josiah said, "Leave him alone; let no one disturb his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.
19Josiah also removed all the shrines in the cities of Samaria that the kings of Israel had built to anger Yahweh. He did to them exactly what he had done in Bethel.
20He killed all the priests of those shrines on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
21The king commanded all the people, "Celebrate the Passover to Yahweh your God, just as it is written in this covenant scroll."
22No Passover like this had been celebrated since the days when judges ruled Israel, nor during the entire time of the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah.
23But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to Yahweh in Jerusalem.
24Josiah also got rid of all the mediums, sorcerers, household idols, other idols, and all the detestable things seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in Yahweh's temple.
25There had never been a king like him before or after, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart, soul, and strength, completely following all the Law of Moses.
26Despite all this, Yahweh did not turn away from his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all the ways Manasseh had angered him.
27Yahweh said, "I will also remove Judah from my sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the temple about which I said, 'My Name will be there.'"
28The rest of what Josiah did, aren’t these things written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?
29During Josiah’s reign, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went to fight the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to fight Neco, but Neco killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him.
30Josiah’s servants carried his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place.
31Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.
32He did what Yahweh considered evil, just like everything his ancestors had done.
33Pharaoh Neco arrested him in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, so that he could not rule in Jerusalem. Neco also demanded that the land pay a tax of 3,750 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold.
34Pharaoh Neco made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in place of his father Josiah, and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz away, and he went to Egypt and died there.
35Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh. To do this, he taxed the land to collect the money Pharaoh demanded. He took the silver and gold from the people of the land, requiring each person to pay an assessed amount to Pharaoh Neco.
36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah.
37He did what Yahweh considered evil, just like everything his ancestors had done.