2 Chronicles 34:1-9 ▼

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.