2 Chronicles 34:1-13 ▼

1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 31 years in Jerusalem.

2 He practiced what the LORD considered to be right, following the example of his ancestor David, turning neither to the right nor to the left.

3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David. In the twelfth year of his reign, he began to remove the high places, Asherim, carved images, and cast images from Judah and Jerusalem.

4 They tore down the altars of Baals in his presence. He chopped down the incense altars that stood high above them. He broke into pieces the Asherim, the carved images, and the cast images, ground them to dust, and scattered the residue on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

5 He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, thus purging Judah and Jerusalem.

6 In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali and their surrounding ruins,

7 he also tore down altars, destroyed the Asherim and the carved images, grinding them into dust, and chopped down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purged the land and the Temple, he sent Azaliah's son Shaphan, Maaseiah, mayor of Jerusalem, and Joahaz's son Joah, the recorder, to repair the Temple of the LORD his God.

9 They approached Hilkiah the high priest and delivered to him the money that had been brought into God's Temple that the descendants of Levi and gatekeepers had collected from Manasseh, Ephraim, the surviving Israelis, Judah, Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

10 They paid it to the workmen who supervised the LORD's Temple, and the workmen who were employed in the LORD's Temple to supervise restoration and repair of the Temple.

11 They, in turn, paid the carpenters and builders to purchase quarried stone and timber for binders and beams for the buildings that previous kings of Judah had let deteriorate.

12 The workmen did their duties faithfully with these foremen supervising them: Jahath and Obadiah, descendants of Levi who were Merari's sons, Zechariah and Meshullam, descendants of Kohath, and various descendants of Levi, who were skilled musicians.

13 These men also supervised the heavy lift workers and supervised all the workmen from job to job, while some of the descendants of Levi served as scribes, officials, and gatekeepers.