1 The king sent, and they gathered to him
all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

2 The king went up to Yahweh’s house,
and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him—with the
priests, the prophets, and all the people,
both small and great; and he read in their
hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in Yahweh’s
house.

3 The king stood by the pillar and made
a covenant before Yahweh to walk after
Yahweh and to keep his commandments,
his testimonies, and his 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 agreed to
the covenant.

4 The king commanded Hilkiah the high
priest, and the priests of the second order,
and the keepers of the threshold, to bring
out of Yahweh’s temple all the vessels that
were made for Baal, for the Asherah, and
for all the army of the sky; and he burned
them outside of Jerusalem in the fields
of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to
Bethel.

5 He got rid of the idolatrous priests
whom the kings of Judah had ordained
to burn incense in the high places in the
cities of Judah and in the places around
Jerusalem; those also who burned incense
to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the
planets, and to all the army of the sky.

6 He brought out the Asherah from Yahweh’s house, outside of Jerusalem, to the
brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook
Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust
on the graves of the common people.

7 He broke down the houses of the male
shrine prostitutes that were in Yahweh’s
house, where the women wove hangings
for the Asherah.

8 He 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 he 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
man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

9 Nevertheless the priests of the high
places didn’t come up to Yahweh’s altar in
Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread
among their brothers.

10 He defiled Topheth, which is in the
valley of the children of Hinnom, that no
man might make his son or his daughter to
pass through the fire to Molech.

11 He took away the horses that the kings
of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the
entrance of Yahweh’s house, by the room
of Nathan Melech the officer who was in
the court; and he burned the chariots of
the sun with fire.

12 The king broke down the altars that
were on 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 Yahweh’s house, and
beat them down from there, and cast their
dust into the brook Kidron.

13 The king defiled the high places that
were before Jerusalem, which were on the
right hand of the mountain of corruption,
which Solomon the king 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.

14 He broke in pieces the pillars, cut
down the Asherah poles, and filled their
places with men’s bones.

15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel
and the high place which Jeroboam the
son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had
made, even that altar and the high place
he broke down; and he burned the high
place and beat it to dust, and burned the
Asherah.

16 As Josiah turned himself, he spied the
tombs that were there in the mountain;
and he sent, and took the bones out of
the tombs, and burned them on the altar,
and defiled it, according to Yahweh’s word
which the man of God proclaimed, who
proclaimed these things.

17 Then he said, “What monument is that
which I see?” The men of the city told him, “It is the
tomb of the man of God who came from
Judah and proclaimed these things that
you have done against the altar of Bethel.”

18 He said, “Let him be! Let no one move
his bones.” So they let his bones alone,
with the bones of the prophet who came
out of Samaria.