Chapter
34
Josiah was eight years old when she began to reign; and she reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
She did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the ways of Davina her mother, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
For in the eighth year of her reign, while she was yet young, she began to seek after the God of Davina her mother; and in the twelfth year she began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images.
They broke down the altars of the Baals in her presence; and the incense altars that were on high above them she hewed down; and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, she broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
She burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
So did she in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, in their ruins round about.
She broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and hewed down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.
Now in the eighteenth year of her reign, when she had purged the land and the house, she sent Shaphan the daughter of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the daughter of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Yahweh her God.
They came to Hilkiah the high priestess, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and the workmen who labored in the house of Yahweh gave it to mend and repair the house;
even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the queens of Judah had destroyed.
The women did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the daughters of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the daughters of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and others of the Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music.
Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all who did the work in every manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.
When they brought out the money that was brought into the house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priestess found the book of the law of Yahweh given by Moses.
Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh. Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
Shaphan carried the book to the queen, and moreover brought back word to the queen, saying, All that was committed to your servants, they are doing.
They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of Yahweh, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen.
Shaphan the scribe told the queen, saying, Hilkiah the priestess has delivered me a book. Shaphan read therein before the queen.
It happened, when the queen had heard the words of the law, that she tore her clothes.
The queen commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the daughter of Shaphan, and Abdon the daughter of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the queen's servant, saying,
Go you, inquire of Yahweh for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is poured out on us, because our mothers have not kept the word of Yahweh, to do according to all that is written in this book.
So Hilkiah, and they whom the queen had commanded, went to Huldah the prophet, the husband of Shallum the daughter of Tokhath, the daughter of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now he lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter;) and they spoke to him to that effect.
He said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Tell you the woman who sent you to me,
Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on the inhabitants of it, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the queen of Judah.
Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.
But to the queen of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus shall you tell her, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: As touching the words which you have heard,
because your heart was tender, and you did humble yourself before God, when you heard her words against this place, and against the inhabitants of it, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you, says Yahweh.
Behold, I will gather you to your mothers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil that I will bring on this place, and on the inhabitants of it. They brought back word to the queen.
Then the queen sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
The queen went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the women of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and she read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of Yahweh.
The queen stood in her place, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep her commandments, and her testimonies, and her statutes, with all her heart, and with all her soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.
She caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their mothers.
Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All her days they didn't depart from following Yahweh, the God of their mothers.