2 Kings
Chapter 23
1 The king called and brought together all the senior leaders of Judah and Jerusalem.
2 The king went to God’s house, and with him went all the men from Judah, everyone from Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, young and old. He read aloud to them everything in the book of the agreement found in God’s house.
3 The king stood by a pillar and promised before God to follow God, to obey His commands, teachings, and laws with all their heart and soul, and to carry out the agreement written in this book. And all the people agreed to the promise.
4 The king told Hilkiah the high priest, the other priests, and the doorkeepers to take all the things made for Baal, the idol grove, and the star gods out of God’s temple. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel.
5 He removed the false priests, appointed by the kings of Judah to offer incense on the high places in Judah’s cities and near Jerusalem, including those who offered incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the heavenly bodies.
6 He took the idol from God’s house, outside Jerusalem, to Kidron Valley, burned it there, crushed it to dust, and scattered the dust on the common people’s graves.
7 He destroyed the houses of the immoral people near God’s house where women made tapestries for the shrine.
8 He brought all the priests from Judah’s towns and made the worship sites unclean. These sites were where they burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He also destroyed the worship sites at the city gates, including the one near Joshua the city governor’s gate, which was to the left as you entered the city gate.
9 However, the priests from the high places did not go to God’s altar in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.
10 He made Topheth unclean, located in the valley of Hinnom’s children, so no one could sacrifice their son or daughter in fire to Molech.
11 He removed the horses that Judah’s kings had dedicated to the sun, near the entrance of God’s house, by the room of Nathanmelech the official, which was in the outer area, and he burned the sun’s chariots with fire.
12 The king destroyed the altars on the upper room of Ahaz that the kings of Judah built, and the altars Manasseh built in both courtyards of God’s house. He tore them down and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.
13 The king made the worship places unclean. These places were near Jerusalem, to the right of the Corruption Hill. King Solomon of Israel had built them for Ashtoreth, the Zidonians’ hated god; for Chemosh, the Moabites’ hated god; and for Milcom, the Ammonites’ hated god.
14 He broke the idols, cut down the sacred trees, and filled those places with human bones.
15 Furthermore, the altar at Bethel, and the worship site built by Jeroboam, Nebat’s son, who led Israel into sin, were destroyed by him; he broke down the altar and worship site, burned the worship site, crushed it to dust, and set the grove on fire.
16 When Josiah looked around, he saw the graves on the hill. He had the bones removed from the graves, burned them on the altar, and made the altar unclean. This act fulfilled what the man of God had announced, as God had said.
17 He asked, “What is that monument I see?” The city people answered him, “It’s the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted what you did to Bethel’s altar.”
18 He said, “Leave him be; don’t touch his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed, along with the prophet’s bones from Samaria.
19 Josiah removed all the worship sites in the towns of Samaria that Israel’s kings had built to make God angry, and he did the same things to them that he had done in Bethel.
20 He killed all the priests at the high places who were there, burned human bones on the altars, and went back to Jerusalem.
21 The king told everyone, “Celebrate the Passover for God, as directed in the covenant book.”
22 Certainly, there hadn’t been a Passover like this since the time of the judges who led Israel, or during the reigns of the kings of Israel or Judah.
23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated for God in Jerusalem.
24 Josiah got rid of the mediums, wizards, idols, and all the bad things found in Judah and Jerusalem, to follow the law written in the book discovered by the priest Hilkiah in God’s house.
25 There was no king like him before, who followed God with all his heart, soul, and strength, just as Moses’ law said; nor did any like him rise after.
26 Despite this, God did not turn away from the intensity of His great anger, which He had against Judah because of all the wrongs that Manasseh had done to provoke Him.
27 God said, “I will take away Judah from my sight, just as I did with Israel. I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple where I said my name would be.”
28 The other things Josiah did, aren’t they written in the book of Judah’s kings’ history?
29 During his reign, the Egyptian king Pharaoh Necho fought the Assyrian king at the Euphrates River. King Josiah confronted him, but Pharaoh Necho killed Josiah at Megiddo after seeing him.
30 His servants took his dead body in a wagon from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb. The locals chose Jehoahaz, Josiah’s son, poured oil on his head to make him king after his father.
31 Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he ruled for three months in Jerusalem. His mother was Hamutal, Jeremiah of Libnah’s daughter.
32 He did evil things that God saw, just like his ancestors did.
33 Pharaoh Nechoh captured him at Riblah in the Hamath region so he couldn’t rule in Jerusalem; he made the land pay a hundred silver talents and one gold talent.
34 Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim, son of Josiah, king instead of his father Josiah, changed his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away to Egypt, where he died.
35 Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold to Pharaoh; he taxed the people to get the money as Pharaoh ordered. He collected the silver and gold from everyone, based on how much they had to pay, to give to Pharaoh Necho.
36 Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Zebudah, and she was the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah.
37 He did evil things that God did not like, just like his ancestors had done.