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ULT 2KI Chapter 23

23 And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 And the king went up to the house of Yahweh and every man of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him and the priests and the prophets and all the people, from the small and to the great. And he read in their ears all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the house of Yahweh. 3 And the king stood by the pillar, and he cut the covenant to the face of Yahweh to walk after Yahweh and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his spirit to cause the words of this covenant that were written on that scroll to stand. And all the people stood in the covenant.

4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the great priest and the priests of the second rank and the guards of the threshold to bring out from the temple of Yahweh all the vessels that were made for the Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of the heavens. And he burned them from outside of Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and he lifted their ashes to Bethel. 5 And he put away the pagan priests, whom the kings of Judah gave so that he burned incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and the surrounding areas of Jerusalem, and the ones who burned incense to the Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of the heavens. 6 And he brought out the Asherah pole from the house of Yahweh to outside of Jerusalem, to the valley of Kidron, and he burned it in the valley of Kidron. And he crushed it to a dust, and he threw its dust over the graves of the sons of the people. 7 And he broke down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of Yahweh, where the women were weaving there houses for the Asherah. 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and he defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense there, 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 official of the city that were on the left of a man at the gate of the city. 9 However, the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem. Rather, they ate unleavened bread in the midst of their brothers. 10 And he defiled the Topheth, which was in the Valley of the son of Hinnom, so that a person could not make his son or his daughter pass through in the fire to the Molech. 11 And he made the horses that the kings of Judah gave to the sun cease from coming to the house of Yahweh, to the hall of Nathan-Melech the eunich that was in the courtyards. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 And the king broke down the altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, that the kings of Judah made and the altars that Manasseh made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh. And he ran from there, and he threw their dust to the valley of Kidron. 13 And the king defiled the high places that were on the face of Jerusalem, that were from the right of the Mount of Destruction that Solomon the king of Israel built for Ashtaroth the abhorrence of the Sidonians and for Chemosh the abhorrence of Moab and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon. 14 And he smashed the pillars, and he cut down the Asherah poles, and he filled their place with human bones.

15 And also the altar that was in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam the son of Nebat made, who caused Israel to sin—both that altar and the high place he broke down, and he burned the high place. He crushed them to dust, and he burned the Asherah pole. 16 And Josiah turned, and he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent, and he took the bones from the graves, and he burned them on the altar, and he defiled it according to the word of Yahweh which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. 17 And he said, “What is this monument that I am seeing?” And the men of the city said to him, “The grave of the man of God who came from Judah, and he proclaimed these things that you did on the altar of Bethel.” 18 And he said, “Leave him untouched. Do not let a person shake up his bones.” And they saved his bones, the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. 19 And also Josiah removed all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria that the kings of Israel made, provoking anger. And he did to them like all the works that he did in Bethel. 20 And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars, and he burned human bones on them. And he returned to Jerusalem.

21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, “Do Passover for Yahweh your God according to what is written on this scroll of the covenant.” 22 For it had not been done like this Passover since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor all the days of the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah, 23 except in the 18 th year of King Josiah. This Passover was done for Yahweh in Jerusalem.

24 And also Josiah removed the ritual pits and the soothsayers and the images and the idols and all the abhorrences that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, for the sake of causing the words of the Law that were written on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh to stand. 25 And a king was not like him to his face, who returned to Yahweh with all his heart and with all his spirit and with all his power according to all the Law of Moses. And after him, one like him has not arisen.

26 However, Yahweh did not turn from the great burning of his nose with which his nose burned against Judah on account of all the offenses by which Manasseh made him angry. 27 And Yahweh said, “I will also remove Judah away from my face, just as I removed Israel. And I will reject this city that I chose, Jerusalem and the house about which I said, ‘My name will be there.’ ”

28 But the rest of the words of Josiah, and all that he did—are they not written on the scroll of the words of the days of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days, Pharaoh Necho the king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria near the Euphrates River. And King Josiah went to meet him, but he killed him in Megiddo when he saw him. 30 And his servants made him ride dead from Megiddo, and they brought him to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his grave. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and they anointed him, and they made him king in place of his father.

31 Jehoahaz was a son of 23 years when he became king, and he was king three months in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, like everything that his fathers did. 33 And Pharaoh Necho bound him in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, from being king in Jerusalem. And he gave a fine against the land—100 rounds of silver and a round of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father, and he turned his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz, and he came to Egypt, and he died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh. However, he assessed the land to give the silver according to the mouth of Pharoah. Each man, according to his assessment, he forcibly collected the silver and the gold, the people of the land, to give to Pharoah Neco.

36 Jehoiakim was a son of 25 years when he became king, and he was king 11 years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah. 37 And he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, like everything that his fathers did.

◄ 2KI 23 ► ║ ©

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