2 Chronicles 34

¹This is the word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah:

²The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah,

¹⁴Amon his son, and Josiah his son.

¹⁵The sons of Josiah: Johanan was the firstborn, Jehoiakim the second, Zedekiah the third, and Shallum the fourth.

¹Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba.

²⁵But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.

¹All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

²And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.

⁷Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

²And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.

¹⁴Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them.

³²So be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.

⁶Be very strong, then, so that you can keep and obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, not turning aside from it to the right or to the left.

²²And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon served and sacrificed to all the idols that his father Manasseh had made,

²So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

¹⁷I love those who love me, and those who seek me early shall find me.

¹⁷Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

⁴Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

¹Then King David said to the whole assembly, “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great because this palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.

²⁰Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.

³⁰I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.

⁴Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

⁵Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

⁹Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

¹¹And he removed from the entrance to the house of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the chamber of an official named Nathan-melech. And Josiah burned up the chariots of the sun.

¹²He pulled down the altars that the kings of Judah had set up on the roof near the upper chamber of Ahaz, and the altars that Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the house of the Lord. The king pulverized them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.

⁵He also removed the high places and incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and under him the kingdom was at peace.

²And he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, “O altar, O altar, this is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”

¹“At that time,” declares the Lord, “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves.

²They will be exposed to the sun and moon, and to all the host of heaven which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up or buried, but will become like dung lying on the ground.

¹⁶And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.

¹⁰Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord.

²⁴“Son of man, say to her, ‘In the day of indignation, you are a land that has not been cleansed, upon which no rain has fallen.’

²⁰On the altars he slaughtered all the priests of the high places, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

²⁵For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.

¹⁵He even pulled down the altar at Bethel, the high place set up by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin. Then he burned the high place, ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole.

¹⁶And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.

¹⁰And the couriers traveled from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned and mocked them.

¹¹Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

¹When all this had ended, the Israelites in attendance went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own property.

²⁰Instead, all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles.

²¹The charge was a pim for sharpening a plowshare or mattock, a third of a shekel for sharpening a pitchfork or an axe, and a third of a shekel for repointing an oxgoad.

¹⁸Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.

¹When all this had ended, the Israelites in attendance went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own property.

²¹And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.

¹Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.

¹⁶Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder;

³The letter was entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It stated:

²⁴Nevertheless, Ahikam son of Shaphan supported Jeremiah, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

²The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah,

³and through the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

¹¹When all the Jews in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and all the other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over them,

²⁴Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder;

¹⁸A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the Lord, who is good, provide atonement for everyone

¹⁰And the couriers traveled from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but the people scorned and mocked them.

⁸His officials also contributed willingly to the people and priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the chief officials of the house of God, gave the priests 2,600 Passover offerings and 300 bulls.

¹⁸Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things.

¹¹Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king’s overseers and they saw that there was a large amount of money, the royal scribe and the officer of the high priest would come and empty the chest and carry it back to its place. They did this daily and gathered the money in abundance.

¹²Then the king and Jehoiada would give the money to those who supervised the labor on the house of the Lord to hire stonecutters and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, as well as workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord.

¹¹Then they would put the counted money into the hands of those who supervised the work on the house of the Lord, who in turn would pay those doing the work—the carpenters, builders,

¹²masons, and stonecutters. They also purchased timber and dressed stone to repair the damage to the house of the Lord, and they paid the other expenses of the temple repairs.

⁷They gave money to the masons and carpenters, and food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to Joppa by sea, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.

⁵And let them deliver it into the hands of the supervisors of those doing the work on the house of the Lord, who in turn are to give it to the workmen repairing the damages to the house of the Lord—

⁶to the carpenters, builders, and masons—to buy timber and dressed stone to repair the temple.

¹⁴Instead, it was paid to those doing the work, and with it they repaired the house of the Lord.

⁴Manasseh also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”

⁵In both courtyards of the house of the Lord, he built altars to all the host of heaven.

²²And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon served and sacrificed to all the idols that his father Manasseh had made,

¹⁵No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay the workmen, because they acted with integrity.

⁵4,000 are to be gatekeepers, and 4,000 are to praise the Lord with the instruments I have made for giving praise.”

²Now it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

⁷But they need not account for the money put into their hands, since they work with integrity.”

⁴David appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to celebrate, to give thanks, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁵Asaph was the chief, Zechariah was second, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel. They were to play the harps and lyres, while Asaph sounded the cymbals

⁴¹With them were Heman, Jeduthun, and the rest of those chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the Lord, for “His loving devotion endures forever.”

¹⁰Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”

¹⁸Solomon made 70,000 of them porters, 80,000 stonecutters in the mountains, and 3,600 supervisors.

²⁹From the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons had the outside duties as officers and judges over Israel.

³⁰From the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his relatives, 1,700 capable men, had charge of the affairs of Israel west of the Jordan for all the work of the Lord and for the service of the king.

¹⁸and with them their brothers next in rank: Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, and the gatekeepers Obed-edom and Jeiel.

¹⁷These were the gatekeepers: Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, and their relatives. Shallum was their chief;

¹⁴In keeping with the ordinances of his father David, Solomon appointed the divisions of the priests over their service, and the Levites for their duties to offer praise and to minister before the priests according to the daily requirement. He also appointed gatekeepers by their divisions at each gate, for this had been the command of David, the man of God.

¹⁰For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

³⁶So Aaron and his sons did everything the Lord had commanded through Moses.

³⁹When Jesus’ parents had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

⁴Moreover, he commanded the people living in Jerusalem to make a contribution for the priests and Levites so that they could devote themselves to the Law of the Lord.

¹After Rehoboam had established his sovereignty and royal power, he and all Israel with him forsook the Law of the Lord.

⁴⁶These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the Lord established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

⁹And Shaphan the scribe went to the king and reported, “Your servants have paid out the money that was found in the temple and have put it into the hands of the workers and supervisors of the house of the Lord.”

¹⁰Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

²⁰So the officials went to the king in the courtyard. And having stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, they reported everything to the king.

²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing beside him.

¹⁹It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by carefully observing all the words of this instruction and these statutes.

⁸This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

²⁰So the officials went to the king in the courtyard. And having stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, they reported everything to the king.

²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing beside him.

⁴⁶I will speak of Your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed.

⁹⁷Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation.

⁹⁸Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me.

⁶Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown before the ark of the Lord until evening, as did the elders of Israel; and they all sprinkled dust on their heads.

¹⁹because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the Lord.

⁷What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

⁸But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

¹³So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.

¹On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord.

¹⁹For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.

¹²and commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:

²²Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan son of Achbor along with some other men.

⁹Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore an oath to them and their men, assuring them, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.

²²Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over the people he had left behind in the land of Judah.

²⁴Nevertheless, Ahikam son of Shaphan supported Jeremiah, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

⁶So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.

⁶For in one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 valiant men in Judah. This happened because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.

¹Then some of the elders of Israel came and sat down before me.

²And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²“Please inquire of the Lord on our behalf, since Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is waging war against us. Perhaps the Lord will perform for us something like all His past wonders, so that Nebuchadnezzar will withdraw from us.”

²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz

³to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.

¹⁸Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,

¹⁹because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

¹⁸I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

²⁰Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.

³⁶There was also a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, who was well along in years. She had been married for seven years,

¹⁴So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went and spoke to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.

⁹He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.

⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

⁴²In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

⁴Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

³But Jeremiah answered, “You are to tell Zedekiah that

⁴this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.

¹⁵And Huldah said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Tell the man who sent you

¹⁶that this is what the Lord says: I am about to bring calamity on this place and on its people, according to all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read,

⁷“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says that you are to tell the king of Judah, who sent you to Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to help you, will go back to its own land of Egypt.

⁸Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down.

¹⁴Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the Lord, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

¹⁵Again and again the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.

¹⁵If, however, you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

¹⁶If you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from this good land He has given you.”

⁴What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?

⁵Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.

³¹I will punish him and his descendants and servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the calamity about which I warned them but they did not listen.”

²⁶Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the fury of His burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke Him to anger.

²⁷For the Lord had said, “I will remove Judah from My sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the temple of which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’”

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.

⁴³If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.

⁴⁴

⁶Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

⁴⁸Then all people will see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it will not be quenched.”

³For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he raised up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. And he worshiped and served all the host of heaven.

⁴Manasseh also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”

⁴He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

²³And Huldah said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Tell the man who sent you

²¹“Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for those remaining in Israel and Judah concerning the words in the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that has been poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord by doing all that is written in this book.”

²⁶Then Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart—he and the people of Jerusalem—so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.

¹⁸The Lord is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.

⁴“Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the Lord, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”

¹⁹When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes

²⁴Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

¹²And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.

⁸But Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “At least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

³⁷Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.

²⁴So his servants took him out of his chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. And Josiah was buried in the tomb of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.

¹Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go!

²⁹“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity during his days, but I will bring it upon his house in the days of his son.”

¹The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous are taken away from the presence of evil.

²Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest, lying down in death.

¹Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

²And he went up to the house of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.

²³As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.

²Now with all my ability I have made provision for the house of my God—gold for the gold articles, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron, and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones, and slabs of marble—all in abundance.

³Moreover, because of my delight in the house of my God, I now give for it my personal treasures of gold and silver, over and above all that I have provided for this holy temple:

⁸She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of My burial.

²For the king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem had decided to keep the Passover in the second month,

²And he went up to the house of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.

⁷Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

¹At that time all the people gathered together in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded for Israel.

²On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could listen and understand.

¹⁸Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

¹⁹When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes

³¹Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

³²It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

¹²Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul.

¹³And whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.

¹⁶Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and the king and the people that they would be the Lord’s people.

¹²Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul.

¹⁰Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger will turn away from us.

¹³Now Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high and had placed it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,

¹⁴And she looked out and saw the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom. The officers and trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason! Treason!”

³So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of the covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

¹⁶Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and he told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.

²⁹When the offerings were completed, the king and all those present with him bowed down and worshiped.

¹⁹For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, in order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.”

¹²Moreover, the power of God was on the people in Judah to give them one heart to obey the command of the king and his officials according to the word of the Lord.

¹⁰Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord.

⁴He commanded the people of Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandments.

³In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images.

⁴Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

³¹Israel had served the Lord throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced all the works that the Lord had done for Israel.

⁴Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

⁵Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem—those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

⁵Solomon followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

⁶So Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord; unlike his father David, he did not follow the Lord completely.

¹⁰Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord.

⁴What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.