2 Chronicles 34:1-21 ▼

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

2 He did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images.

4 They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the incense altars that were on high above them he cut down; and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

5 He burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.

6 He did this in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, around in their ruins.

7 He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

8 Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

9 They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into God's house, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

10 They delivered it into the hand of the workers who had the oversight of the house of the LORD; and the workmen who labored in the house of the LORD gave it to mend and repair the house;

11 even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy cut stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.

12 The men did the work faithfully: and their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and others of the Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music.

13 Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all who did the work in every kind of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and gatekeepers.

14 When they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the scroll of the law of the LORD given by Moses.

15 Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, |I have found the scroll of the law in the house of the LORD.| Hilkiah delivered the scroll to Shaphan.

16 Shaphan carried the scroll to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king, saying, |All that was committed to your servants, they are doing.

17 They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen.|

18 Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, |Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.| Shaphan read it before the king.

19 It happened, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he tore his clothes.

20 The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Acbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

21 |Go inquire of the LORD for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this scroll.|