CHAPTER 34

¹Eight years old was Josiah when he became king, and thirty-one years he was king in Jerusalem. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and he went in the ways of David his father and did not swerve to the right or to the left. ³And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was still a lad, he began to seek out the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places and the cultic poles and the idols and the molten images. ⁴And they shattered the altars of the Baalim in his presence, and the incense stands above them he hacked down, and the cultic poles and the idols and the molten images he smashed and pulverized and threw them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵And the bones of the priests he burned on their altars, and he purged Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶And in the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and Samaria as far as Naphtali in their squares all around ⁷he shattered the altars, and the cultic poles he ground into dust, and all the incense stands he hacked down in all the land of Israel. And he returned to Jerusalem.

⁸And in the eighteenth year of his reign after purging the land and the house, he commissioned Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the governor of the city and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder to repair the house of the LORD his God. ⁹And they came to the high priest Hilkiah and gave him the silver brought to the house of God that the Levites, guardians of the threshold, had gathered from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin, and he returned to Jerusalem. ¹⁰And they gave it to those appointed over those doing the tasks in the house of the LORD, and they in turn gave it to those doing the tasks in the house of the LORD to repair the breaches of the house. ¹¹And they gave it to the carpenters and to the builders to buy quarried stone and wood for the couplings and for the roof-beams of the buildings that the kings of Judah had let fall into ruin. ¹²And the men were doing the tasks faithfully, and over them were appointed Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the Merarites, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the Kohathites, to direct them, and Levites expert in musical instruments ¹³were over the porters and directing all who did the tasks and every kind of labor, and from the Levites there were scribes and overseers and gatekeepers. ¹⁴And when they took out the silver brought to the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the teaching of the LORD by Moses. ¹⁵And Hilkiah spoke out and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found a book of teaching in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. ¹⁶And Shaphan brought the book to the king, and furthermore brought back word to the king, saying, “All that has been given into the hand of your servants they are doing: ¹⁷They have melted down the silver that is in the house of the LORD and given it over to those appointed and to those doing the tasks.” ¹⁸And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book,” and Shaphan read it to the king. ¹⁹And it happened when the king heard the words of the teaching, that he rent his garments. ²⁰And the king charged Hilkiah and Ahikan son of Shaphan and Abdon son of Micah and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, ²¹“Go, inquire of the LORD on my behalf and on behalf of those remaining in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that has been poured down on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD to do as all that is written in this book.” ²²And Hilkiah and those the king had charged went to Huldah the prophetess, wife of Shallum son of Tokhath son of Hasrah keeper of the wardobe, and she was living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh, and they spoke to her in this manner. ²³And she said to them, ²⁴“Thus said the LORD: ‘I am about to bring evil on this place and on its inhabitants, all the imprecations written in the book that they read out to the king of Judah ²⁵in return for their forsaking Me and burning incense to other gods so as to vex Me with all their handiwork, and My wrath will pour down on this place and will not be extinguished.’ ²⁶And to the king of Judah who has sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him: Thus said the LORD God of Israel—’The words that you have heard, ²⁷inasmuch as your heart has quailed and you humbled yourself before Me, and you rent your garments and wept before Me, I, too, have heard, said the LORD. ²⁸I am about to gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil that I am about to bring on this place and on its inhabitants.’” And they brought back word to the king. ²⁹And the king sent out and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰And the king went up to the house of the LORD, and every man of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and all the people from the greatest to the least with him, and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD. ³¹And the king stood on his platform and sealed the covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD and to keep His commands and His precepts and His statutes with all his heart and with all his being to do the words of the covenant written in this book. ³²And he made all who were in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand by it, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted according to the covenant of God, God of their fathers. ³³And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands that were the Israelites’, and he impressed all who were in Israel to serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not swerve from the LORD God of their fathers.