2 Chronicles 34:1-11 ▼

1 Josias was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.

3 And in the eighth year of his reign, and he being yet a youth, he began to seek the Lord God of his father David: and in the twelfth year of his reign he began to purge Juda and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the ornaments for the altars, and the molten images.

4 And he pulled down the altars of Baalim that were before his face, and the high places that were above them; and he cut down the groves, and the graven images, and broke in pieces the molten images, and reduced them to powder, and cast it upon the surface of the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them.

5 And he burnt the bones of the priests upon the altars, and purged Juda and Jerusalem.

6 And he did so in the cities of Manasse, and Ephraim, and Symeon, and Nephthali, and the places round about them.

7 And he pulled down the altars and the groves, and he cut the idols in small pieces, and cut off all the high places from all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

8 And in the eighteenth year of his reign, after having cleansed the land, and the house, he sent Saphan the son of Ezelias, and Maasa prefect of the city, and Juach son of Joachaz his recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.

9 And they came to Chelcias the high priest, and gave the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the gate collected of the hand of Manasse and Ephraim, and of the princes, and of every one that was left in Israel, and of the children of Juda and Benjamin, and of the dwellers in Jerusalem.

10 And they gave it into the hand of the workmen, who were appointed in the house of the Lord, and they gave it to the workmen who wrought in the house of the Lord, to repair and strengthen the house.

11 They gave it also to the carpenters and builders, to buy squared stones, and timber for beams to cover the houses which the kings of Juda had destroyed.