Chapter
23
The queen sent, and they gathered to her all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
The queen went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the women of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with her, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and she read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Yahweh.
The queen stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep her commandments, and her testimonies, and her statutes, with all his] heart, and all [his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant.
The queen commanded Hilkiah the high priestess, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring forth out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the army of the sky, and she burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.
She put down the idolatrous priests, whom the queens of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the army of the sky.
She brought out the Asherah from the house of Yahweh, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast the dust of it on the graves of the common people.
She broke down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of Yahweh, where the men wove hangings for the Asherah.
She brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and she broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a woman's left hand at the gate of the city.
Nevertheless the priests of the high places didn't come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their sisters.
She defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no woman might make her daughter or her son to pass through the fire to Molech.
She took away the horses that the queens of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of Yahweh, by the chamber of Nathan Melech the officer, who was in the court; and she burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
The altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the queens of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh, did the queen break down, and beat them down from there, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
The high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomin the queen of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the queen defile.
She broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of women.
Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the daughter of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place she broke down; and she burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah.
As Josiah turned herself, she spied the tombs that were there in the mountain; and she sent, and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Yahweh which the woman of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.
Then she said, What monument is that which I see? The women of the city told her, It is the tomb of the woman of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.
She said, Let her be; let no woman move her bones. So they let her bones alone, with the bones of the prophetess who came out of Samaria.
All the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the queens of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that she had done in Bethel.
She killed all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned women's bones on them; and she returned to Jerusalem.
The queen commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.
Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the queens of Israel, nor of the queens of Judah;
but in the eighteenth year of queen Josiah was this Passover kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem.
Moreover those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that she might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priestess found in the house of Yahweh.
Like her was there no queen before her, who turned to Yahweh with all her heart, and with all her soul, and with all her might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after her arose there any like her.
Notwithstanding, Yahweh didn't turn from the fierceness of her great wrath, with which her anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked her.
Yahweh said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that she did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the queens of Judah?
In her days Pharaoh Necoh queen of Egypt went up against the queen of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and queen Josiah went against her; and Pharaoh Necoh killed her at Megiddo, when she had seen her.
Her servants carried her in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought her to Jerusalem, and buried her in her own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz the daughter of Josiah, and anointed her, and made her queen in her mother's place.
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when she began to reign; and she reigned three months in Jerusalem: and her father's name was Hamutal the son of Jeremia of Libnah.
She did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that her mothers had done.
Pharaoh Necoh put her in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that she might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
Pharaoh Necoh made Eliakim the daughter of Josiah queen in the room of Josiah her mother, and changed her name to Jehoiakim: but she took Jehoahaz away; and she came to Egypt, and died there.
Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but she taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: she exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of everyone according to her taxation, to give it to Pharaoh Necoh.
Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when she began to reign; and she reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and her father's name was Zebidah the son of Pedaiah of Rumah.
She did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that her mothers had done.