22 Yoshiyyah was eight when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for thirty-one years. (His mother was Adayah’s daughter Yedidah from Batskat.)[ref] 2 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour, following all the customs of his ancestor King David, and obeying Yahweh’s instructions.

3 In the eighth month of the eighteenth year of King Yoshiyyah’s reign, he sent the scribe Shafan (the son of Atsalyah the son of Meshullam) to the temple, saying 4 “Go to the high priest Hilkiyyah and get him to count the silver that was brought into Yahweh’s temple, which the door-keepers collected from the people. 5 Then have it given to the supervisors of the temple repairs, and then they can pay the workers who are repairing the damage—6 the craftsmen, builders, and masons, as well as buying wood and quarried stones for the repairs.” 7 They won’t need to submit detailed accounts for it because they’re trustworthy people.[ref]

8 During the repairs, the hight priest Hilkiyyah told the scribe Shafan, “I found a scroll in the temple with Yahweh’s instructions written on it.” So Hilkiyyah gave the scroll to Shafan to read. 9 Then Shafan the scribe went to the king with this report, “Your servants handed over the money that had been collected in the temple, and they gave it to the supervisors of the workers doing the repairs.” 10 Then he added, “And the priest Hilkiyyah gave me a scroll.” Then he read it out loud to King Yoshiyyah.

11 When the king heard the contents of the scroll, he tore his clothes 12 and commanded the priest Hilkiyyah, Shafan’s son Ahikam, Mikayah’s son Akbor, the scribe Shafan, and the king’s servant Asayah, 13 “Go and inquire from Yahweh on my behalf and on behalf of the people and all Yehudah, concerning the words of this scroll that was found. Because it sounds like Yahweh must be very angry at us because our predecessors didn’t listen to what’s written on this scroll and didn’t do what was expected of us.”

14 So Hilkiyyah the priest and Ahikam, Akbor, Shafan, and Asayah went to the prophetess Huldah (the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the one in charge of looking after the priests’ uniforms who lived in the newer part of Yerushalem), and they spoke to her. 15 She told them that Yisrael’s God Yahweh had said, “Tell the man who sent you all to me 16 that Yahweh says this: I’m going to bring disaster to this place and its inhabitants, just like it’s written in the scroll that the king read 17 because they abandoned me. They offered sacrifices to other gods in order to make me angry at everything they do, so now my anger will be directed against this place and it’s not stoppable. 18 But to the king of Yehudah who sent you all to seek Yahweh, tell him that Yisrael’s God Yahweh says: The words that you heard from the scroll, 19 because you’re open to learn and because you humbled yourself in front of Yahweh when you heard my promise that this place and its inhabitants would become a horror and a curse, and because you’ve torn your clothes and wept in front of me, then Yahweh said that he’s taken notice of you. 20 Because of that, he’ll allow you to die and be buried peacefully, and you yourself won’t witness the destruction that will come to this place.”

So they relayed those messages back to King Yoshiyyah.

23 Then King Yoshiyyah summoned all the elders of Yerushalem and across Yehudah, 2 and he went to the temple, and all the inhabitants of Yerushalem and from all across Yehudah went with him, along with the priests and prophets, and all the people from the most to the least important. Then he read to them every word on the scroll of the agreement that had been found in Yahweh’s residence. 3 Then the king stood by the pillar and he made a commitment in front of Yahweh to follow Yahweh and to obey his commands and testimonies and statutes with all sincerity, and with every desire to respect the words of that agreement that had been written on that scroll. All the people were also included in that commitment.

4 Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkiyyah and the other priests, and the temple guards to bring out all the utensils that were made for Baal and Asherah and for all the constellations, and he burnt them outside Yerushalem in the Kidron countryside, and carried their ashes to Beyt-El. 5 He got rid of the pagan priests that the kings of Yehudah had appointed to burn incense in the hilltop shrines around Yerushalem and across the rest of Yehudah, and the ones who burnt incense to Baal, and to the sun and moon and to the planets and constellations. 6 He got the Asherah pole out from Yahweh’s temple and burnt it in the Kidron valley outside Yerushalem, then he pounded the ashes to dust and threw it over people’s graves. 7 He demolished the cubicles of the male temple prostitutes that were inside Yahweh’s temple where the women were weaving Asherah coverings.[fn] 8 He brought all the priests to Yerushalem from the cities of Yehudah, and he desecrated the hilltop shrines where the priests had burnt incense, from Geba to Beer-Sheva. He demolished the hilltop shrines that Yehoshua (a city official) had built near the city gate (on the left of the gate as you entered the city). 9 However those priests from those hilltop shrines weren’t allowed to serve at the altar in Yerushalem, but they were allowed to eat unleavened bread like the other priests.

10 Yoshiyyah also desecrated the Tofet, which was in the Ben-Hinnom valley, so that the people couldn’t sacrifice their children to Molek. 11 The horses that the kings of Yehudah had offered to the sun, he prevented from approaching the hall of the official Natan-Melek that was in the courtyards of Yahweh’s temple, and he set fire to the chariots of the sun. 12 Then the king tore down the altars that were on the roof in Ahaz’s upper chamber that the kings of Yehudah made, and the altars that Menashsheh made in the two courts of Yahweh’s temple and he threw the rubble into the Kidron valley. 13 The king desecrated the hilltop shrines that faced Yerushalem—they were south of the ‘Mount of Destruction’ (the Mount of Olives). King Shelomoh had built shrines for Ashtarot (the disgusting god of the Sidonians) and for Kemosh (the disgusting god of Moab) and for Molek (the disgusting god of the Ammonites). 14 He also smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah poles, then he desecrated those places by filling them with human bones.

15 He also demolished the altar that was in Beyt-El—the hilltop shrine that Nebat’s son Yarave’am had made when he’d caused Yisrael to sin. He demolished both that altar and the hilltop shrine, then he burnt the shrine. He crushed everything to dust, and he burnt the Asherah pole. 16 As Yoshiyyah turned around, he noticed some graves that were there on the hillside, so he had some bones removed from the graves, and he burnt them on the altar to desecrate it. This fulfilled what Yahweh had said through the man of God who’d proclaimed these things.[ref] 17 Yoshiyyah turned again and asked, “Whose tomb is that?”

“It’s the prophet’s tomb,” the people of Beyt-El replied, “The one who came from Yehudah and predicted that what you just did to that altar would happen.” 18 “Don’t disturb it then,” the king ordered. “Don’t let anyone remove his bones.”

So they left his bones alone, along with the bones of the other prophet who came from Shomron. 19 So King Yoshiyyah removed all the hilltop shrines that the Israeli kings had made in the cities of Shomron, provoking Yahweh’s anger. The king destroyed them just like he’d done to the ones in Beyt-El. 20 He executed all the priests from those hilltop shrines on the altars there, and then he burnt human bones on them to desecrate them. Then he returned to Yerushalem.

21 Then the king commanded all the people, “Celebrate ‘pass-over’ for your God Yahweh according to what’s written on this scroll with the agreement.” 22 Since the days of the leaders who judged Yisrael, or in all the days of the kings of Yisrael and Yehudah, a ‘pass-over’ had never been celebrated like that one 23 in the eighteenth year of King Yoshiyyah’s reign. That ‘pass-over’ celebration in Yerushalem was to honour Yahweh.

24 King Yoshiyyah also removed the ritual pits and the soothsayers, and the images and idols, and all the abhorrences that were seen in Yerushalem and in the Yehudah region, in his diligence to obey everything that was written on the scroll that the priest Hilkiyyah found in the temple. 25 No other king had been like Yoshiyyah who’d led the people back to obeying Yahweh—following Mosheh’s written instructions with all his heart and all his spirit and all his energy. What’s more, there’s never been a king like him since then either.

26 However, Yahweh’s anger against Yehudah hadn’t cooled down after everything that King Menashsheh had done[ref] to make him angry, 27 and Yahweh said, “I will also remove Yehudah out of my sight, just like I removed Yisrael. I’ll also reject this city of Yerushalem that I chose, as well as the house where I’d said that my name would be established.”

28 Everything else that Yoshiyyah said and did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 29 While he was still king, the Egyptian king Far-oh Nekoh attacked the Assyrian king near the Euphrates River. King Yoshiyyah went to meet him, but Nekoh killed him at Megiddo when he saw him. 30 His servants brought his body back to Yerushalem from Megiddo, and they buried him in his own tomb. Then the people got his son Yehoahaz, and they anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

34 Yoshiyah was eight when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for thirty-one years.[ref] 2 He did what Yahweh had said was right, and made similar decisions to his ancestor David—not deviating to the right or the left.

3 In the eighth year of his reign while he was still a teenager, he began to learn more about the god of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year, he began to remove the hilltop shrines from Yerushalem and across Yehudah, as well as the Asherah poles, and the idols and metal images. 4 He watched while they tore down the altars for the Baals and cut down the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles and the idols and metal images, then crushed them to powder which he scattered over the graves of those who’d sacrificed to them.[ref] 5 He burnt the bones of those priests on their altars, and so he purified Yerushalem and all Yehudah,[ref] 6 as well as in the cities in the tribes of Menashsheh, Efrayim, Shimeon, and as far north as Naftali, including in the ruins around them. 7 He tore down the altars and the Asherah poles, ground the idols into pieces, and cut down the incense altars in all Yisrael before returning to Yerushalem.

8 In his eighteenth year as king, in order to purify the land and the temple, he sent Atsalyah’s son Shafan, Maaseyah the city official, and Yoahaz’s son Yoah the secretary, to repair the residence of his god Yahweh. 9 They went to Hilkiyah the high priest and handed over the funds that had been donated for God’s house, which had been collected by the Levites as doorkeepers—the money was from the tribes of Menashsheh, Efrayim, and other places in the northern kingdom of Yisrael, as well as from Yerushalem’s inhabitants and across all of Yehudah and Benyamin. 10 The priests then paid the workers who’d been assigned to work in Yahweh’s temple to repair and strengthen it. 11 They also paid the carpenters and builders to buy cut stone and timber for the beams and braces which Yehudah’s kings had allowed to deteriorate, 12 and the workers did their work faithfully. Their supervisors were Yahat and Ovadyah (Levites descended from Merari), as well as Zekaryah and Meshullam (descendants of Levi’s son Kohat), and all the Levites who were good on their musical instruments. 13 They also supervised the porters and those working on various other tasks. Some of the Levites were secretaries, officials, and guards.

14 When they were bringing the money out of the temple, Hilkiyah the high priest found a scroll containing Yahweh’s instructions that had been given via Mosheh (Moses). 15 Hilkiyah informed the scribe Shafan that he had found a Torah scroll in the temple, and he gave him the scroll. 16 Shafan took the scroll with him to the king and reported to him, “Your servants are doing everything they were assigned to do. 17 They’ve taken the cash that was in Yahweh’s residence, and passed it on to the supervisors of the workers.” 18 Then Shafan told the king, “I’ve brought a scroll that the priest Hilkiyah gave me,” and then he started reading it out to the king.

19 When the king heard the words with God’s instructions, he tore his clothes in grief. 20 Then he commanded Hilkiyah, Shafan’s son Ahikam, Mikah’s son Avdon, Shafan himself, and the king’s special advisor Asayah, 21 “Go and ask Yahweh on my behalf and on behalf of those in Yisrael and Yehudah, what he wants us to do with respect to the instructions on the scroll that has just been found, because it seems that Yahweh will be very angry at us because our ancestors haven’t followed all of Yahweh’s instructions as they’re written on that scroll.”

22 So Hilkiyah and the others went to Yerushalem’s Second District to the prophetess Huldah (wife of Shallum, son of Tokahat, son of Hasrah who took care of the temple robes). They passed on the king’s question 23 and she replied, “Yisrael’s god Yahweh says to tell the king: 24 Yahweh says, ‘Listen, I’m going to bring disaster on this place and its inhabitants as per all the curses written on that scroll that was read to Yehudah’s king 25 because they’ve abandoned me and offered incense to other gods. That’s made me angry and so my rage will be poured out on this place, and it can’t be prevented.’ 26 However, Yehudah’s king sent you all to ask for Yahweh’s direction, so tell him, ‘Yisrael’s god Yahweh says that after hearing the words of the scroll, 27 because you were sincere and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words about this place and its inhabitants. Yes, Yahweh declares that you’ve humbled yourself before me and torn your clothes, and wept in front of me, and I’ve personally heard you. 28 So listen, I will allow you to die and be buried in peace and so your eyes won’t see the disaster that I’ll send to this place and its inhabitants.’ ”

So they took that response back to the king.

29 Then the king summoned all the elders from Yerushalem and from across Yehudah 30 and they all walked up to the temple with the inhabitants of Yerushalem and all Yehudah, and the priests and the Levites, and all the people irrespective of their standing in the community. Then the king read everything out to them that was on the Torah scroll that had been found in the temple. 31 Then the king stood at his normal place and made an agreement with Yahweh: to obey Yahweh and follow his instructions and his regulations and statutes, sincerely and with all his energy—doing what was in the joint understanding that had been written on the scroll. 32 Then he had everyone from Yerushalem and Benyamin take a stand in agreement to it, and so Yerushalem’s inhabitants renewed their agreement with the god of their ancestors. 33 So King Yoshiyah removed all the disgusting idols from all the Yisraeli regions, and he made everyone in Yisrael serve their god Yahweh—during his lifetime they never turned away from Yahweh, the god of their ancestors.

35 Then King Yoshiyah prepared a ‘pass-over’ celebration in Yerushalem, and they slaughtered the lambs at the end of March . 2 He assigned the priests to the various tasks that needed to be done, and encouraged them to do their work well. 3 He told the Levites (they had been separated from the other tribes in order to serve Yahweh) who were teaching all Yisrael, “Place the sacred box in the house that David’s son, Yisrael’s King Shelomoh (Solomon) had built—it won’t be a burden any more for your shoulders. Now serve your god Yahweh and his Israeli people 4 and prepare yourselves in your clan divisions as per the instructions written by Yisrael’s King David and his son Shelomoh.[ref] 5 Then stand in the temple area, grouped by your clans and ready to help the other tribes. 6 Consecrate yourselves and slaughter the ‘pass-over’ lambs for the people as per the instructions given through Mosheh (Moses) by Yahweh.

7 King Yoshiyah provided thirty thousand lambs and young goats for the ‘pass-over’ sacrifices from his own flocks and three thousand bulls from his own herds. 8 His officials also contributed to the people, priests and Levites. The chief temple officials Hilkiyah, Zekaryah, and Yehiel donated 2,600 lambs and three hundred cattle to the priests. 9 The Levite leaders Konanyah and his younger brothers Shemayah, Netanel, along with Hashavyah, Yeiel, and Yozavad together contributed five thousand lambs and three hundred bulls.

10 So everything was prepared as the king had commanded, and the priests stood at their places, and the Levites were there in their various divisions 11 and they slaughtered the ‘pass-over’ lambs, then the priests sprinkled the blood while the Levites skinned the animals. 12 They set aside the animals to be burnt on the altar, in order to give them to the various family groups to offer to Yahweh, following the instructions Mosheh had written down. They did the same thing with the cattle. 13 They roasted the ‘pass-over’ meal over the fire as per the instructions, and they boiled the meat of the sacred offerings in pots and kettles and pans, and served the meat immediately to all the people who were there.[ref] 14 Afterwards, the Levites prepared the meal for themselves and for the priests (Aharon’s descendants), because tge priests had been busy sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fat portions right through to the evening. 15 The singers (Asaf’s descendants) were at their posts as had been commanded by King David, Asaf, Heyman, and the king’s prophet Yedutun. The men guarding the gates didn’t have to leave their posts because their fellow Levites prepared food for them.[ref]

16 So on that day, everything that needed to done for worshipping Yahweh was done. They celebrated the ‘pass-over’ festival, and they sacrificed burnt offerings as King Yoshiyah had commanded. 17 The Israelis who were there celebrated the ‘pass-over’ that day, then they celebrated the ‘Festival of Flat Bread’ for seven days.[ref] 18 There hadn’t been a ‘pass-over’ celebration done like that is Yisrael since the time of the prophet Shemuel (Samuel), and all of Yisrael’s kings had never done it like Yoshiyah did, along with the priests and Levites and the inhabitants of Yerushalem and across all Yehudah and Yisrael. 19 They celebrated that festival in the eighteenth year of Yoshiyah’s reign.

20 After all of Yoshiyah’s work on temple restoration, Egypt’s King Neko went to attack Karkemish city on the Euphrates river, and Yoshiyah went out to confront him. 21 Neko sent messengers to tell Yoshiyah, “What’s this got to do with you, King of Judah? We’re not attacking you at present, because we’re in a different fight, and God told me to hurry. Don’t oppose God who’s with me, and don’t make him destroy you.” 22 However, Yoshiyah wouldn’t listen, but disguised himself before going into battle. He didn’t listen to Neko even though he was speaking for God, so he went to fight on the Megiddon plain.

23 King Yoshiyah was hit by the archers, and he told his servants, “Get me away from here because I’m badly wounded.” 24 So his servants lifted him off his chariot, and took him on his reserve chariot back to Yerushalem where he died. He was buried in his ancestors’ tombs, and all Yerushalem and Yehudah mourned over him.

25 The prophet Yermeyah (Jeremiah) wrote a funeral song for him, which the male and female singers still use at funerals to this day. That became a custom in Yisrael—the words of that song are written in a scroll of funeral songs.

26 The record of all the other things done by Yoshiyah while he was king and his loyal commitment to following Yahweh’s instructions, 27 including his actions from the beginning to the end of his reign, was written on the scroll ‘The kings of Yisrael and Yehudah’.